Jack E. Robinson III
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| Jack E. Robinson III | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 12, 1960 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Brown University Harvard University |
| Political party | Republican (Before 2013) Independent (2013–present) |
Jack E. Robinson III (born May 12, 1960) is a former Republican politician from Massachusetts. He ran for the United States Senate in 2000 against Ted Kennedy (Democratic) and Carla Howell (Libertarian), losing to Kennedy. He ran for Secretary of the Commonwealth in 2002, losing to William F. Galvin, and for US House of Representatives in Massachusetts's 9th district in 2006, losing to Stephen Lynch. In 2009, he ran against Scott Brown in the Republican primaries for the special election to fill Ted Kennedy's Senate seat, but lost to Brown in the primary.
Contents
Early life
Robinson grew up in the Roxbury section of Boston, in a family that was involved with the Republican party going back six generations.[1]
In 1975, he appeared as an extra in the film Jaws.
He attended Brown University as an undergrad, and received law and business degrees from Harvard. After graduating he worked as an executive for Eastern Airlines and left to start his own cell phone company.[2]
Business career
Robinson has worked in a variety of executive positions in the airline industry with Continental Airlines and Eastern Airlines, and became the president of Eastern Express. He also worked in the financial services industry with MasterCard International.
Robinson wrote two books on the failure of the major air carriers Eastern and Pan Am. The latter book was found to be substantially infringing on Robert Daley's book "An American Saga." In attempting to seek a declaratory judgement asserting he had not infringed, the court decided that not only was the book infringing, but Robinson had acted in bad faith in the litigation. 877 F.Supp 830 (S.D.N.Y 1995).
Later he entered the wireless telecom industry, where he founded a digital cellular company in the Caribbean—Oceanic Digital Communications (later sold to Mexican businessman Carlos Slim), and traveled to many developing countries, including Pakistan and Afghanistan, seeking to build cellular networks in those countries.
Today he is general counsel of Benistar, a third-party administrator of employer health and welfare benefit plans.
Political philosophy
Robinson supports free trade and lower personal and capital gains taxes on the wealthy as well as gay rights (including same-sex marriage)[3] and alternative energy initiatives (including the Cape Wind Energy Project). He positions himself as an entrepreneur, attorney, and business leader combining a rags to riches personal story with experience solving business problems and creating jobs. He promises to create jobs, cut wasteful government spending, prevent job-killing tax increases, eliminate the multiple-trillion dollars of U.S. debt, and fix the U.S. economy. Although he has not provided very many details to explain how he would simultaneously reduce revenue and pay down the debt.
Candidate for office
United States Senate, 2000
It was during this election that Robinson got a level of notoriety when he got into an automobile accident while conducting an interview on his cell phone. The NPR Car Talk show featuring this incident pointed out that Ted Kennedy wasn't the best driver either.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Edward M. Kennedy | 1,889,494 | 72.69 | +14.62 | |
| Republican | Jack E. Robinson III | 334,341 | 12.86 | -28.15 | |
| Libertarian | Carla Howell | 308,860 | 11.88 | +11.22 | |
| Constitution | Philip F. Lawler | 42,113 | 1.62 | +1.62 | |
| Independent | Dale E. Friedgen | 13,687 | 0.53 | +0.53 | |
| Timesizing Not Downsizing | Philip Hyde III | 8,452 | 0.33 | +0.33 | |
| All others | 2,473 | 0.10 | +0.07 | ||
| Total votes | 2,599,420 | 64.84 | |||
Secretary of the Commonwealth, 2002
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | William F. Galvin | 1,472,562 | 73.97 | ||
| Republican | Jack E. Robinson III | 516,260 | 25.93 | ||
| Write-in | 1,832 | 0.09 | |||
| Turnout | 1,990,654 | ||||
| Democratic hold | Swing | ||||
United States Congress, 2006 (9th District)
Robinson received 25.71% of the vote against incumbent Congressman Stephen Lynch.
U.S. Senate, 2013
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Robinson announced that he was running as an Independent in the special election to finish John Kerry's term.[4] However, he did not make the ballot.
Published works
- Freefall: The Needless Destruction of Eastern Air Lines and the Valiant Struggle to Save It (Harpercollins, 1992) ISBN 0-88730-556-3
- American Icarus: The Majestic Rise and Tragic Fall of Pan Am (American Literary Press, 1994) ISBN 978-1561671540.
