Richard George Renzi (born June 11, 1958) is an American politician who was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives representing from 2003 until 2009.
In 2013, he was convicted on federal criminal charges against him for his involvement in a land-swap deal.Wilke, John, "Renzi Won't Seek Re-Election as Federal Inquiry Broadens" Wall Street Journal, August 24, 2007, pg. A6. After submitting a formal Inspector General complaint of prosecutorial misconduct to the Justice Department, including allegations of fabricated evidence by the team led by federal prosecutor Jack Smith, Renzi was pardoned by President Donald Trump on January 20, 2021.
Early life, education Renzi is one of five siblings born into an Italian-American family in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. He attended high school in Annandale, Virginia, before moving to Sierra Vista, Arizona, in 1975, where his father, U.S. Army Major General Eugene Carmen Renzi (d. 2008), served at Fort Huachuca. Renzi graduated from Buena High School and attended Northern Arizona University (NAU), earning a B.S. in criminal justice in 1980. He played football for NAU and was a starting offensive lineman.
Family Renzi and his wife, Roberta S. Renzi, are the parents of 12 children. Like Renzi's siblings, his children all have forenames that begin with the letter "R".
Career prior to Congress
Where Renzi lived and what he did throughout the 1986–1997 period is unclear. In a letter to the Arizona Daily Sun in July 2002, Renzi said "The only time I have not lived in Arizona is when I served our nation overseas on a Defense Department program, or when I entered law school at age 39" [which would be 1997 or 1998].Letter from Rick Renzi, Arizona Daily Sun, July 7, 2002.
However, according to an August 2002 Associated Press article, Renzi said that between college, starting in the late 1970s, and his return some 20 years later, he had lived in Flagstaff for only a total of seven years. The AP article also said "Renzi made much of his money while living in Burke, Virginia, about 20 minutes from downtown Washington. He has owned a $765,000 two-story, six-bedroom home on five acres there since 1991, according to Fairfax County, Virginia, property records."Thomsen, Scott, "Kyl disputes Renzi's resume", Associated Press, August 17, 2002.
In 1989, Renzi started Renzi & Company (now called the Patriot Insurance Agency),Patriot Insurance Company – "Our Mission and Profile" . Retrieved October 23, 2006. a company that offers insurance to nonprofit organizations such as crisis pregnancy centers, pregnancy care clinics, maternity homes, PTAs, PTOs, and local service organizations.Patriot Insurance Company – "Products and Services" . Retrieved October 23, 2006. In 2006, Renzi said that he decided to enter politics because of his experiences as a member of National Association of Professional Insurance Agents. Renzi was a property/casualty agent and a member of PIA of Virginia & D.C. He said his first taste of the political process was attending a PIA Federal Legislative Summit. "I had a chance to interact with a lot of the congressmen and Senators, and I fell in love with it", Renzi said."Rep. Rick Renzi, Former PIA Member, Says He Wouldn't Be in Congress Without PIA" , National Association of Professional Insurance Agents website, dated April 12, 2006. Retrieved October 23, 2006.
In 1997 or 1998, Renzi began to take law courses at The Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. He finished his coursework in December 2001 and graduated with a J.D. in 2002. While he was studying law, he claimed he was an unpaid intern in Senator Jon Kyl's office for two months in 1999, and in 2001 he spent several months as an unpaid intern for Representative Jim Kolbe. Senator Kyl later questioned the accuracy of Renzi's description of his work in Kyl's office, saying he was never employed there.
U.S. House of Representatives
Move to Arizona Renzi moved his official residence from Virginia to Arizona in 1999, registering to vote in Santa Cruz County. In 2001, he bought a $216,000 home in Flagstaff, moving his voting registration there in December of that year.
In 2002, Renzi acknowledged that he returned to Arizona with the intention of running for Congress, but defended his state ties. He noted that between college and his return to Arizona, he lived in Flagstaff for a total of seven years. There is proof Renzi was living in Arizona after college because, Renzi and his wife did have several children who were born in Sierra Vista, AZ. Renzi also said he owned more than in northern Arizona through a real estate development and improvement business, in addition to a small vineyard and ranch in Sonoita, Arizona, west of Sierra Vista, in the 8th congressional district, and a home in Kingman. During the campaign, Renzi said "Let the chips fall where they may if I'm a carpetbagger.""Renzi's finances could be trouble" , TriValleyCentral.com, March 6, 2004."1st District candidates play up their local roots" , TriValleyCentral.com, June 17, 2002.
2002 election Primary election Renzi won a hotly contested Republican primary election against five other candidates; his closest opponents were Lewis Noble Tenney, a former Navajo County supervisor, and conservative radio personality Sydney Hay of Munds Park. Renzi outspent his primary opponents by a substantial sum of money. He invested $585,000 of his own money and raised another $100,000 to run radio and TV ads throughout the district.Candee, Adam, "Renzi Loans Campaign $585,000 to Outspend Rivals," Arizona Daily Sun, July 21, 2002. Renzi received 24.4 percent of the 46,585 votes cast in the Republican primary, with half of his votes coming from Yavapai County.Solop, Frederic I., and James I. Bowie, "The 2002 Arizona First Congressional District Race" (pdf), PSOnline e-Symposium, July 2003.
The 2002 Democratic primary, also hotly contested, was narrowly won by George Cordova, a party outsider who ran against several better-known candidates, including Stephen Udall, Diane Prescott and Fred Duval. (There was no incumbent for the seat, in a new district created after the 2000 census gave the state two more Representatives.)Ducey wins crowded GOP gubernatorial primary, Capitol Media Services, Howard Fischer, August 26, 2014. Retrieved October 28, 2016., TriValleyCentral, August 14, 2002. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
General election Renzi received significant support from the national Republican party in the race: President Bush visited twice, including a fundraiser; Vice President Cheney appeared at a fund-raising luncheon;Shorey, Ananda, "Bush campaigns for Salmon, Renzi" , Associated Press, October 28, 2002. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton visited the district to support Renzi;Levine, Alan, "Interior secretary visits CG in support of Renzi campaign", Casa Grande Dispatch, September 17, 2006. and so did Mel Martinez, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development."Mel Martinez" , TriValleyCentral.com, October 1, 2002.
The campaign included the heavy use of negative advertising attacking Cordova, including accusing him of cheating investors out of $1 million in a failed business venture, failing to pay income and business taxes, and living in California. Cordova denied the charges but had no funds to buy many television ads to refute them.Ghioto, Gary, and Michael Marizco, "Renzi edges Cordova", Arizona Daily Sun, November 7, 2002. The Renzi campaign also made heavy use of automated telephone calls throughout the district with various claims and innuendos about Cordova.Kitching, Harold, "Sparks fly in race for 1st District seat" , TriValleyCentral.com, October 15, 2002. Renzi said of the $2 million spent on negative ads, that he "took no joy in any of that." Renzi said he had tried to tell the National Republican Congressional Committee that the negative ads were the wrong way to go.Ghioto, Gary, and Michael Marizco, "Renzi disowns attack ads", Arizona Daily Sun, November 7, 2002.
During the 2002 election campaign, Renzi proposed that Walnut Canyon National Monument in Northern Arizona be renamed the "National Park of the American Flag" with the addition an American flag theme to the park, including displays of U.S. flags throughout history. This was in response to proposals by local citizens that Walnut Canyon National Monument be expanded and given National Park status. Renzi's proposal was widely ridiculed, and he has not promoted it since.
On election day, Renzi defeated Cordova by 49 percent to 46 percent, a difference of about 6,000 votes.
Campaign finances Renzi spent $436,590 of his own money on the election. In addition to large donations from his father's defense company, Mantech International, Mantech executives were the largest single source of outside money for the campaign.
In 2004, the Federal Election Commission completed an audit of Renzi's campaign committee, "Rick Renzi for Congress." The audit found that Renzi's campaign overstated its cash on hand by about $64,000, and that employers or occupations for 200 contributors were not listed, though required by law. The FEC also concluded that the committee had illegally financed much of the campaign with $369,090 of loans that came from "impermissible" corporate funds. Most of those loans were part of the $436,000 that Renzi put into his own campaign.Fenske, Sarah, "Deal Breaker: Congressman Rick Renzi and the very strange coincidence", Phoenix New Times, October 12, 2006. Renzi was fined $1,000 in November 2005 by the FEC for underreported receipts stemming from what his campaign called a software glitch. During the summer before the 2006 election, the FEC dropped all charges related to the 2002 alleged use of impermissible corporate funds for his campaign.
2004 re-election In preparation for the 2004 campaign, the Democratic Party in Arizona tapped Paul Babbitt, Coconino County commissioner and the brother of Bruce Babbitt, to run for the seat and pressured all other candidates with the exception of political unknown Bob Donahue to bow out of the primary in order to clear the way for Babbitt to run against Renzi without a costly primary contest. Paul Babbitt's campaign was named a top national priority by most major Democratic fundraisers and liberal weblogs, because a plurality of Arizona 1st Congressional District voters are registered Democrats and because Renzi won so narrowly in 2002. Unlike the Cordova campaign in 2002, which received only token support from the national Democratic Party organizations, the Babbitt campaign received major support; nonetheless, it was unable to match Renzi's fundraising.
2006 re-election Renzi faced no opposition from his own party in the Republican primary. Five Democratic Party candidates, including Bob Donahue, Mike Caccioppoli, Susan Friedman, Ellen Simon, and Vic McKerlie, ran in the 2006 primary in September, which was won by Ellen Simon, an attorney and community activist. David Schlosser was also in the November general election on the Libertarian Party ticket.
Renzi won his re-election against Simon, 52% to 43%.
On August 23, 2007, Renzi announced he would not seek another term.
Issues and positions
In 2002, in response to a question about spiraling health care costs, Renzi said "In order to keep health insurance costs competitive, we must allow the self-employed to take annual tax deductions for their health-care costs. We must change the health insurance industry by allowing employees to purchase their own health-care policy. This would allow for personal ownership of health-care policies, which would provide portability, more choice and thus more competition, which leads to lower health-care premiums.""Congressional candidates offer more answers" , TriValleyCentral.com, August 14, 2002.