If
DuVal’s career in politics and government seemed preordained, his party
affiliation wasn’t. When DuVal left Tucson for Occidental College after high
school, the future Democratic nominee was a Republican.
DuVal
said he was influenced by his father, a Republican who served as President
Richard Nixon’s assistant secretary for health and scientific affairs. But
while he was in college, a couple of things pushed him toward a change in party
registration. The first was interning for Arizona’s iconic Democratic
Congressman Mo Udall, whom DuVal referred to as a “world-class talent.” The
second was spending the summer of 1974 observing the Watergate hearings in
Washington, D.C.
Despite switching parties, DuVal said his views and philosophy didn’t change all that much.“I am a pro-business, pro-equal opportunity guy. So my view of the world dips a little bit into both traditional ideologies. Another way of putting it is I’m a Kennedy Democrat. Kennedy makes the famous argument that a rising tide lifts all ships. I believe that. I believe a rising economy helps create equal opportunity,” he said.
It was
that same year, when he was just two years out of high school, that DuVal met
the man who would change his career forever – Bruce Babbitt.
The
Turning Point
Babbitt
and DuVal’s family had a mutual friend in Marvin Cohen, a prominent Tucson
attorney. After Babbitt mentioned to Cohen that he was looking for young,
inexpensive, politically motivated people to help him with his 1974 campaign
for attorney general, he passed along word to the DuVals.
Babbitt
invited DuVal to meet him in Flagstaff and hike the Grand Canyon. Afterward,
DuVal worked on Babbitt’s successful campaign. He went back to Occidental
College after the campaign.
For
nearly 20 years afterward, Babbitt would play a major role in DuVal’s career.
He worked in Babbitt’s gubernatorial administration, ran Babbitt’s short-lived
run for president in 1988, and briefly served as his chief of staff after
President Clinton appointed secretary of the Interior.
“That
was a transformative relationship in my life. He was, next to my dad, probably
the most influential man who’s ever entered my life,” DuVal said.
At
Babbitt’s urging, DuVal went to law school at Arizona State University, though
he never pursued a career in law because he failed the Bar exam. After Babbitt
succeeded to the Governor’s Office upon the death of Wesley Bolin, DuVal took
time off from school in the summer of 1978 to help run Babbitt’s election
campaign.
DuVal
joined Babbitt’s staff full-time in 1980, just after getting his law degree. It
was there that he had the experiences that he describes as the most valuable of
his life.
DuVal
said he considers that five or six years to be the most productive time in
Arizona history. The state passed major, transformative policies on a
regular basis – the passage of the Groundwater Management Act of 1980, the
creation of the State Land Department and state trust land reform in 1981, the
creation of Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System in 1982, and the
creation of the Phoenix freeway system in 1985.
Perhaps
more than anything, DuVal’s time in the Babbitt administration taught him
lessons about governing, negotiating and compromise that he hopes to take with
him to the Governor’s Office in January.
DuVal
lauds that era as a time when people could reach across the aisle, when people
could fight tooth and nail about some things and collaborate on others. He
would go every Sunday morning with Babbitt to the home of Burton Barr, the
legendary Republican House majority leader, to talk things out.
They
didn’t always agree, DuVal said. And the relationship has now been a bit
romanticized. But it was a time when a Democratic governor and a Republican
leader like Barr could work together, DuVal said, noting that Babbitt had a
similar relationship with then-Senate President Leo Corbet, a Republican who is
now endorsing DuVal in the governor’s race.
“There
were times he (Barr) wouldn’t open the door. There were times he’d scream at
us. And there were times that we’d have three-hour meetings. But we forged a
great relationship,” DuVal said of the relationship between Babbitt and Barr.
“It was a different time that I’d like to recreate.”
DuVal
said people often ask him how he’ll manage to deal with a Legislature controlled
by conservative Republicans. He tells them that he’s been there before.
From
the Ninth Floor to the Beltway
DuVal
struck out on his own after Babbitt left office. In the late 1980s, he joined a
lobbying firm with a cast of characters still known today as heavyweights in
the political arena – Chuck Coughlin, Kevin DeMenna, Jason Rose, Robert Robb
and others.
But
once the Clinton administration began, DuVal found himself back in public
service and back in the nation’s capital. After a brief stint back with
Babbitt, DuVal joined the Department of State as deputy chief of protocol.
DuVal describes the job as “a bit of a frolic, overseeing diplomatic events.”
In
Clinton’s second term, DuVal moved up to a meatier policy job running the White
House’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, where he served as the
administration’s chief liaison to the 50 states. The bipartisan negotiation
style he learned in the Babbitt administration served him well in a job where
he had to work with governors of both parties on major policy initiatives such
as the national tobacco settlement, children’s health insurance and welfare
reform.
“I’ve
got an unusual history of collaborative behavior,” DuVal said.
And
once he left the Clinton administration, DuVal said that style again served him
well as a lobbyist. While DuVal’s Republican opponents have used the “lobbyist”
tag as an epithet, running more than $1.5 million in television ads panning him
as “lobbyist Fred DuVal,” he describes himself as a problem solver.
For
example, DuVal often touts his experiences working with T. Boone Pickens on the
Texas oilman’s company Clean Energy Fuels. Pickens wanted to spark a national
movement to clean energy, and wanted a Democrat who could work well with
Republicans. Pickens could have chosen anybody in the country for the job,
DuVal said. The oilman chose him.
“People
hire me because I’m good at getting big things done,” he said.
DuVal’s
resume reads more like that of a chief of staff type than a candidate. Despite
his decades in politics, his only run for office prior to the governor’s race
was an ill-fated bid for Arizona’s 1st Congressional District in 2002, where he
finished fourth in a seven-way race for the Democratic nomination.
It’s
not that DuVal actively shunned a life in elected politics. But the
opportunities he had in life, from Babbitt’s Ninth Floor to the Clinton White
House, took him in other directions.
“My
desire to be in public service kept being presented with compelling
opportunities that were different from running for office,” he said.
After
his 2002 campaign, DuVal worked as a lobbyist but continued in public service.
Former Gov. Janet Napolitano appointed him to her Commerce and Economic
Development Commission, and then in 2007 to the Arizona Board of Regents.
Fred DuVal
Age: 60
Education: Occidental College, B.A., 1976; Arizona State University, J.D., 1980
Wife: Jennifer
Children: William, 21; Monte, 6
Age: 60
Education: Occidental College, B.A., 1976; Arizona State University, J.D., 1980
Wife: Jennifer
Children: William, 21; Monte, 6
