Midge Costanza, a Top Assistant to Carter, Dies at 77
Midge Costanza, a top assistant to President Jimmy Carter whose habit of criticizing her boss and whose fractious relations with his inner circle of advisers led her to resign after less than two years on the job, died Tuesday in San Diego. She was 77.
The cause was complications of cancer, said Doreen Mattingly, a professor of women’s studies at San Diego State University, who is writing her biography.
Ms. Costanza, whose title was assistant to the president for public liaison, won a place in the Carter White House by being the first prominent Democrat in New York State to support Mr. Carter, then in the “Jimmy Who?” stage of his national political career, when he started campaigning for the presidency in 1975.
The vice mayor of Rochester at the time and a member of the Democratic National Committee, Ms. Costanza delivered peppery speeches on the campaign trail and gave Mr. Carter valuable access to women and ethnic working-class Democrats. After serving, with William vanden Heuvel, as chairman of Mr. Carter’s state campaign organization and seconding his nomination in a speech at the Democratic convention, she became the first woman to hold the title assistant to the president....
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The cause was complications of cancer, said Doreen Mattingly, a professor of women’s studies at San Diego State University, who is writing her biography.
Ms. Costanza, whose title was assistant to the president for public liaison, won a place in the Carter White House by being the first prominent Democrat in New York State to support Mr. Carter, then in the “Jimmy Who?” stage of his national political career, when he started campaigning for the presidency in 1975.
The vice mayor of Rochester at the time and a member of the Democratic National Committee, Ms. Costanza delivered peppery speeches on the campaign trail and gave Mr. Carter valuable access to women and ethnic working-class Democrats. After serving, with William vanden Heuvel, as chairman of Mr. Carter’s state campaign organization and seconding his nomination in a speech at the Democratic convention, she became the first woman to hold the title assistant to the president....