Philadelphia City Councilman David Cohen

[bluestateguy]

I was just reading about him, and what an amazing man and an amazing career. This guy's career goes all the way back to the New Deal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Cohen

David Cohen (born November 13, 1914) is an American politician, noted for his service in the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933 to 1945), who currently serves as Philadelphia City Councilman at Large. He is one of the oldest elected leaders in office today, at age 90, and represents 1.5 million Americans.

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Cohen first became active in politics as a campaign worker for Democratic mayoral nominee John Kelly in 1935. He was appointed an attorney for the Rural Electrification Administration in Washington, DC in 1938 after graduating first in his class from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1937 and winning a graduate fellowship. In this position, Cohen drafted state laws for several states and became president of the agency union. Cohen resigned his position with the federal government in 1943 to prepare to enter the US Army.

Cohen came to Philadelphia in 1952 and developed a diverse law practice representing unions, individuals, and businesses. With law partner Morton C. Jacobs, he handled an early legal case holding that computer software was patentable.When Cohen moved to the Broad and Olney area of Philadelphia, he saw a newspaper ad seeking volunteers for the Presidential campaign of Adlai Stevenson. He quickly volunteered and was appointed an assistant committeeman in Philadelphia's 49th Ward, 27th Division.

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Sworn in as a member of City Council in 1968, Cohen became a leader of the "Young Turk" faction of the City Council, and worked to focus the City Council on previously slighted problems dealing with zoning, public health care, air pollution, governmental ethics, delivery of city services, and race relations. Elected a delegate to the 1968 Democratic National Convention, Cohen supported the Presidential campaigns of Robert Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy, and frequently spoke at rallies opposing the War in Vietnam.

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Cohen had always demonstrated a strong work ethic, telling a nephew in the early 1950's that he intended never to retire. When the youngest Pennsylvania governor, George M. Leader, was succeeded by the oldest Pennsylvania governor, David Lawrence, in 1958, he repeatedly commented on that fact. Celebrating his 90th birthday as a member of City Council on November 13, 2004, Cohen told the Philadelphia Inquirer he would not retire from City Council and would run for re-election in 2007