Michael John Sullivan (born September 22, 1939) is an American lawyer, diplomat, and politician who served as the 29th governor of Wyoming from 1987 to 1995, and United States ambassador to Ireland from 1998 to 2001, as a member of the Democratic Party. Prior to his gubernatorial tenure, he was active in local politics in Natrona County, Wyoming.
Sullivan was born in Omaha, Nebraska, as a member of a family active in the Wyoming Legislature and grew up in Douglas, Wyoming. He was educated at the University of Wyoming. He practiced law and became involved in local politics with his service on the Natrona County Memorial Hospital board. Sullivan won in the 1986 and 1990 gubernatorial elections despite being outspent both times by Pete Simpson and Mary Mead.
During Sullivan's gubernatorial tenure he became the first governor in Wyoming's history to have his veto overturned, appointed three people to the Wyoming Supreme Court, oversaw Wyoming's only criminal execution after Furman v. Georgia, led the passage of a holiday in Martin Luther King Jr.'s honor, and chaired the Western Governors Association. He unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1994 before being appointed as the ambassador to Ireland by President Bill Clinton. He was the first governor to endorse Clinton during the 1992 Democratic presidential primaries and co-chaired his campaign in Wyoming during both presidential campaigns.
Early life
Michael John Sullivan was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on September 22, 1939, to Margaret Elizabeth Sullivan and Joseph Sullivan Jr., who was elected as Converse County attorney as a member of the Democratic Party and served as the president of the Wyoming State Bar. His brother, Dan Sullivan, served in the Wyoming Senate as a member of the Republican Party. His uncle, John Sullivan, and grandfather, Joseph Sullivan, served in the Wyoming House of Representatives. Sullivan was raised in Douglas, Wyoming, as a member of the Catholic Church.
Sullivan graduated from Converse County High School, where he served as class president and was the salutatorian of the class of 1957. In 1961, he graduated from the University of Wyoming with a bachelor of science in petroleum engineering and later with a Juris Doctor in 1964. In college, he was a member of the student senate. In 1961, he married Jane Metzler, with whom he had three children. From 1968 to 1986, he worked as an attorney for Brown, Drew, Massey & Sullivan. He became a member of Delta Theta Phi in 1986.
Career Local politics
In 1974, Sullivan was speculated as a possible nominee for Wyoming's Attorney General by Governor-elect Edgar Herschler. During the 1970s, he served as president of the Natrona County Bar Association.
On January 27, 1976, Natrona County commissioners appointed Sullivan to the Building Appeal Board of Casper, Wyoming and the Natrona County Memorial Hospital board to fill the vacancy created by Bill Barton's death. On February 17, the board unanimously approved a resolution giving Sullivan another term. During his tenure on the hospital board, he served as its treasurer and president. On December 11, 1986, he resigned from the hospital board following his election as governor.
Governor 1986 election
On January 16, 1986, Sullivan said that he was considering running for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. Former state Senator Bill Rector stated, "I think Mike [Sullivan] would be a good candidate," after he dropped out of the Democratic gubernatorial primary. On March 20, Sullivan announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination at a press conference inside his house in Casper.
Teno Roncalio, who served in the United States House of Representatives, supported Sullivan and was selected as an honorary chairman of his campaign. Charles Brown, the director of KTWO-TV News, was selected as Sullivan's campaign manager. On June 6, Sullivan filed to run for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. In the primary, Sullivan defeated Pat McGuire, Keith Goodenough, and Al Hamburg after spending $102,219.
On September 3, Bryan Sharratt, a former candidate in the 1982 Senate election, was selected as Sullivan's campaign manager after Brown was assigned as the campaign's media coordinator. In the general election, Sullivan defeated Republican nominee Pete Simpson after spending $192,917. Sullivan did not expect to win the election, according to Joseph Meyer. He was the first person from Casper to win Wyoming's gubernatorial election since Bryant Butler Brooks in 1906.
1990 election
Citizens for Sullivan was registered on December 7, 1989, by Marilyn Lyle and Mark Gifford, who met with Sullivan to allow campaign donations to be sent to him, although he stated that it was not a campaign announcement. He waited until after the passage of the 1991–1992 budget as he stated that doing so before its passage would politicize the budget. He announced his reelection campaign on May 1, 1990. He defeated Ron Clingman in the Democratic primary after raising $142,559 and spending $115,966. Richard Lindsey was his campaign manager.
Mark Hughes, chair of the Wyoming Republican Party, blamed their defeat in the 1986 election on the primary which had seven candidates that divided the loyalty of the party. The Republican's central committee held a meeting in 1989 to reduce the size of the primary field of candidates. Mary Mead won the Republican nomination after every candidate except for Nyla Murphy dropped out and endorsed her. Sullivan participated in five debates against Mead. He defeated Mead and Sullivan's margin of victory was the largest for any governor in Wyoming's history at the time. Mead spent $702,105 during the campaign while Sullivan spent $310,030.
Tenure In 1991, Sullivan vetoed legislation allowing tax exemptions for wildcat oil drilling, which was overridden due to the Republicans gaining support from two Democratic members in the state senate and Eli Bebout in the state house. This was the first time in Wyoming's statehood that a governor's veto was overridden by the Wyoming Legislature. He criticized the leadership of the Republicans in the state house in 1988 for denying committee chair positions to Representatives Murphy and Mary Odde due to them not supporting an attempt to override one of Sullivan's vetoes. The Republicans gained a veto-proof majority in the state legislature following the 1992 elections. Sullivan vetoed multiple pieces of legislation altering the appointment to fill vacancies in partisan offices as to require the governor to choose from three people selected by the central committee of the party that held the office. However, the Republicans successfully overrode his veto in 1993.
Sullivan's first judicial appointment was his appointment of Nicholas Kalokathis to the First Judicial District in 1987. He made three appointments to the Wyoming Supreme Court, appointing Michael Golden to replace Charles Stuart Brown in 1988, William A. Taylor to replace Steve Urbigkit in 1992, and Larry Lehman to replace G. Joseph Cardine in 1994. He attempted to reappoint Carrol Orrison to the Wyoming Board of Equalization, but the state senate rejected his nomination. He appointed Joseph Meyer as Attorney General in 1987. He appealed to President Bill Clinton to appoint a Wyomingite to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in 1993.
Sullivan was selected to replace Dave Freudenthal as the chairman of the Economic Development and Stabilization Board on January 21, 1987. He led an eighteen-member delegation to Australia and Taiwan for sixteen days in 1987 with the goal of increasing agricultural, business, and tourism investments with Wyoming, and he established a trade office in the Taipei World Trade Center in 1989. He was elected to the National Governors Association Executive Committee in 1988. He was the vice-chair of the Western Governors Association and succeeded South Dakota Governor George S. Mickelson as chair in 1991. He was offered the presidency of the Council of State Governments for 1992, but declined, stating, "I have enough outside activities".
Sullivan remained neutral during the 1988 Democratic presidential primaries until he endorsed Michael Dukakis on May 6, 1988. He endorsed Clinton during the 1992 Democratic presidential primaries, the first governor to do so, and co-chaired Clinton's campaign in Wyoming with Secretary of State Kathy Karpan. He served as a superdelegate to the 1988 and 1992 Democratic National Conventions and chair of the Wyoming delegation to both conventions. Sullivan endorsed Sharratt in the 1988 election for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from Wyoming's at-large congressional district and John Vinich in the 1989 special election. Sullivan supported Dick Cheney's appointment as United States Secretary of Defense. A Wyoming chapter of the Democratic Leadership Council was organized in 1991, with Sullivan and Karpan as co-chairs.
When mobile phone service was provided to Wyoming, Sullivan performed some of the first mobile phone calls in the state when he called Mayor of Casper Judi Laird and received a call from Gerald Ford.
United States Senate campaign
On April 11, 1994, Sullivan announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for the Senate election to succeed Republican Senator Malcolm Wallop. He filed to run on June 1. During the election, the campaign of Republican nominee Craig L. Thomas said in a fundraising letter that President Clinton had pledged $1 million to aid Sullivan's campaign. Sullivan and White House spokesman Joshua Silverman stated that no pledge was made.
On July 20, Sullivan returned a $1,350 contribution from U.S. Representative Lawrence J. Smith, made at a June 17 fundraiser in Florida held by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, after Thomas's campaign sent copies of the donation and news reports of Smith's misuse of campaign funds to Sullivan. Sullivan faced no opposition in the Democratic primary and was defeated by Thomas in the general election.
Ambassador During the 1992 presidential election, Sullivan and Karpan published a letter calling for Wyoming voters to support Clinton and criticizing President George H. W. Bush for his negative campaign tactics, such as the Willie Horton ad during the 1988 presidential election. He supported Clinton's reelection campaign in the 1996 election and served as the co-chair of Clinton's Wyoming committee alongside Bob Schuster. He was considered for ambassadorships by the Clinton administration. He was considered as a candidate for Ambassador to the Holy See to replace Raymond Flynn, but that position was given to Lindy Boggs instead.
On June 10, 1998, The Washington Post reported that Sullivan was the leading candidate for Ambassador to Ireland, and Sullivan stated that he had been contacted by White House officials. On August 28, President Clinton announced his nomination of Sullivan for the ambassadorship. He was the tenth resident of Wyoming to receive a high-level diplomatic position. His nomination was approved by the United States Senate on October 21 and he was sworn in at a ceremony in the Indian Treaty Room on December 8. On January 21, 1999, Sullivan presented his credentials to President of Ireland Mary McAleese. Members of the Wyoming Legislature sent him a legislative resolution honoring his appointment. He served until June 20, 2001.
Later life