Path to Power
Born in New York City, Whitehouse has lived a life afforded by privilege. His father, Charles Whitehouse, served as the ambassador to Loas and Thailand after working for the CIA, State Department and Defense Department. Whitehouse is also a descendant of Charles Crocker, one of California’s “Big Four” responsible for the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad.
Whitehouse attended the elite St Paul’s prep school in New Hampshire and Yale University, where he received a B.A. in 1978. Four years later, he earned his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, then won a clerkship from Judge Richard F. Neely of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.
In 1985 Whitehouse joined the Rhode Island Attorney General's office as a special assistant attorney general.
He remained in the attorney’s general’s office, where he defended the state against civil suits and argued cases before the Rhode Island Supreme Court, until 1990. When Democrat Bruce Sundlun was elected governor in 1990, Whitehouse became his legal counsel and policy director.
In 1994, with the support of family friend Sen. Claiborne Pell (D), Whitehouse was appointed U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island by President Bill Clinton. During his four-year tenure as a prosecutor, he used federal racketeering laws to prosecute the Latin Kings gang and secured more than $9 million in criminal penalties for the North Cape/Scandia oil spill in 1996.
Whitehouse made his first run for elected office in 1998 when he sought to become Rhode Island’s attorney general. His two opponents in the Democratic primary tried to portray him as an out-of-touch, fox-hunting elitist who was trying to buy the office (Whitehouse contributed more than $200,000 of his own money to his campaign). State Treasurer Nancy Mayer (R-R.I.), Whitehouse’s opponent in the general election, hit him harder, questioning his fortitude and forcing him to admit that he tried drugs as a student. The line of attack didn’t work, as Whitehouse won with 67 percent of the vote.
Whitehouse said he was only interested in the attorney general position when he ran for it, but four years later he took the first opportunity to run for governor of Rhode Island. He lost the Democratic primary by 926 votes to Myrth York (D), a wealthy former state senator who spent $2 million of her own money during the primary. Whitehouse did not take the loss well, telling a reporter, that the experience “combines elements of losing a loved one, getting dumped by your girl friend, having your house broken into, and losing the big game.”
With that ordeal over, Whitehouse went into private practice until April of 2005, when he announced that he would challenge incumbent U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.). Despite Chafee’s reputation as a moderate Republican, Whitehouse tied him to the GOP leadership, which in 2006 was a death sentence. "You know it's fine to vote what's right for Rhode Island sometimes, and then vote with the Republican Party and what Tom DeLay and other people are demanding the rest of the time. I'm not going to be like that. I'll be voting what's right for Rhode Island every time," Whitehouse said.
With both candidates supporting federal support of stem cell research, abortion rights and gun control, Rhode Island voters were essentially choosing between parties, a great advantage for Whitehouse in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans two-to-one. Whitehouse won, 54 percent to 46 percent.
In his two years in the Senate, Whitehouse made his biggest impact during the investigation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ firing of eight U.S. Attorneys; one Los Angeles Times columnist praised the Senator for taking Gonzales “to the woodshed.” Whitehouse then introduced a bill, still pending, to restore safeguards against political interference at the Department of Justice.
