Alfonse D'Amato

Alfonse Martello D'Amato (born August 1, 1937) is a former New York politician. He was a Republican United States Senator from New York from 1981 until 1999 when he lost to Democratic Representative Charles Schumer.

He was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised on Long Island. His political career started with the Nassau County Republican Party, where he was public administrator in 1970 and town supervisor for Hempstead, New York in 1977. As a rather obscure candidate, he then defeated popular Senator Jacob Javits in 1980 in the Republican primary. He went on to win the U.S. Senate seat with 45 percent of the vote, defeating Democrat Elizabeth Holtzman and Javits, who ran on the Liberal Party ticket.

D'Amato is also known by the nickname Senator Pothole for his delivery of "constituent services", helping citizens with their individual cases.

While he was in office, he was chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, and was a member of the Senate Finance Committee. As a member of the latter, he championed the cause of Holocaust survivors, trying to recover relatives' funds from accounts in Swiss banks.

Controversies

He is also known for his public controversies and brash style. After a series of investigations, in 1991, the Senate Ethics Committee reprimanded D'Amato for allowing his brother Armand, a lobbyist, to use office stationery to help solicit million-dollar Navy contracts for Unisys. The senator was fined and reprimanded, while his brother served time in jail. The committee stated: "The activities of Sen. D'Amato's brother on behalf of Unisys constituted a misuse. Sen. D'Amato conducted the business of his office in an improper and innappropriate manner."

During the Don Imus radio program on April 4, 1995, he used a mock Japanese accent to impersonate Lance Ito, a Japanese American judge overseeing the ongoing O. J. Simpson trial. He later apologized on the Senate floor for his comments.

In 1994, he insulted Betsy McCaughey Ross the Republican candidate for New York Lieutenant Governor. He joked that in order to get an endorsement for her running mate, George Pataki, she should have sex with New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani.

He is divorced and has four children.

He has dated several well-known personalities, including Claudia Cohen, entertainment television reporter.