Noah Mamet

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Noah Mamet
File:Noahmamet.jpg
United States Ambassador to Argentina
Assumed office
January 16, 2015
President Barack Obama
Deputy Kevin K. Sullivan[1]
Preceded by Vilma Martínez
Personal details
Born April 1969 (age 55)
Manhattan Beach, California,
U.S.
Political party Democratic
Alma mater University of California, Los Angeles

Noah Bryson Mamet (born April 1969) (pronounced muh-MET) is the United States Ambassador to Argentina.

Early life and education

Mamet was born to a Jewish family[2] in Manhattan Beach, California. In 1992, he graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts degree.[3]

Professional career

At age 21, Mamet entered politics by working as a driver and a bodyguard during the 1992 U.S. Senate primary bid by onetime U.S. Rep. Mel Levine;[4] he also worked for the California Democratic Party helping with Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign in Santa Barbara County.[3] From 1995 until 2003, Mamet worked for onetime U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt while he was House Democratic leader as a senior advisor and national finance director.[4][5] Mamet also worked on Gephardt's 2004 presidential bid.[4]

In 2004, he founded Noah Mamet and Associates, a Los Angeles-based political consulting firm with offices in San Francisco and New York City.[4]

In 2007, Mamet served on the international delegation for the National Democratic Institute to monitor elections in Sierra Leone.[3][5] He also has served as an adviser to the Wasserman Family Foundation in Los Angeles.[3]

Mamet raised $3,200,000 for Obama's reelection campaign in 2012.[6] He is a member of the National Jewish Democratic Council.[7]

Ambassador service

On July 30, 2013, President Obama announced his intent to nominate Mamet to be the U.S. ambassador to Argentina[5] despite the fact that Mamet has never been to Argentina.[3] On July 31, 2013, Obama formally nominated Mamet to the post.[8] Mamet's nomination languished for months after his United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. He speaks conversational Spanish.[6][9]

On June 24, 2014, the Senate's foreign relations committee voted to forward Mamet's nomination to the full Senate.[10] On November 20, 2014, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed for cloture on Mamet's nomination.

On December 1, 2014, the U.S. Senate voted 50-36 for cloture on Mamet's nomination, thereby ending a Republican-led filibuster of his nomination.[11][12] On December 2, 2014, the Senate confirmed Mamet in a 50-43 vote and he was sworn in on December 10, 2014.[13] He arrived in Argentina on January 16, 2015 and presented his credentials that same day.[14]

Criticism

Since his appointment as U.S. ambassador to Argentina, Mamet has been criticized for being part of a group of nominated “ambassadors that raised six-figure sums” for President Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign.[15][16]

On December 2013, BuzzFeed reported that Mamet’s nomination as ambassador to Argentina was “met with surprise, and in some cases anger, by his peers in the donor class. Democratic Party donors complain privately that Mamet unfairly leveraged his clients’ work for his own political gain and benefited from a close personal relationship with President Obama’s campaign manager, Jim Messina."[17] A group of retired United States Foreign Service officers have since called for an end to the practice of appointing political contributors and supporters as ambassadors.[18] Mamet has also been criticized for lack of “major diplomatic experience” and not visiting Argentina prior to his nomination.[16][19]

In 2014, fifteen former presidents of the State Department Employees Union (AFSA) made an official request to reject Mamet’s nomination to ambassadorship, which also included George Tsunis (for Norway) and Colleen Bell (for Hungary), on account that “they showed limited knowledge of the countries to which they’d been nominated” at their Senate committee hearings.[20]

AFSA issued a letter to the U.S. State Department urging to “oppose granting of Senate consent to these three candidates.”[21] The letter was the first of its kind, which set a new historical precedent to ambassadorial designations in the U.S.[21]

As of April, 2016, over 1,100 people have signed a petition against Noah Mamet and the State Department. The signatories to the petition are protesting the loss of civil liberties in general and passport denials in particular.[22] The petition was started by author Daniel Bruno.[23]

Personal

Mamet has been a resident of Marina del Rey, California.[4] He is not married and has no children.[24]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Times of Israel: "Noah Mamet confirmed as US envoy to Argentina - Democratic Party fundraiser approved for post despite criticism he has never visited the country" December 4, 2014
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Haaretz: "Obama fundraiser Noah Mamet appointed U.S. envoy to Argentina - Mamet, a fundraiser for Democratic causes, has been confirmed to the Argentinian envoy post, despite having never visited the country" December 3, 2014
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 http://foia.state.gov/searchapp/DOCUMENTS/5-FY2014/F-2013-12853/DOC_0C05521180/C05521180.pdf
  7. ↑ Jewish Telegraph: "Dems fundraiser Noah Mamet confirmed as U.S. envoy to Argentina" December 3, 2014
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ntquery/z?nomis:113PN0113300:
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by United States Ambassador to Argentina
2015–present		 Incumbent
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