Sam Coppersmith

Sam Coppersmith
Chair of the Arizona Democratic Party
In office 1995–1997
Succeeded by	Mark Fleisher
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona's 1st district
In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 1995
Preceded by	John Jacob Rhodes III
Succeeded by	Matt Salmon
Personal details
Born	Samuel Georgeus Coppersmith (1955-05-22) May 22, 1955 (age 66) Johnstown, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Education	Harvard University (AB) Yale University (JD)
Website	liberaldesert.blogspot.com (personal blog)

Samuel George Coppersmith (born May 22, 1955) is an American attorney and former politician who served as the U.S. Representative for Arizona's 1st congressional district from 1993 to 1995. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

Early years[]

Coppersmith was born May 22, 1955 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.^[1] He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1976,^[2] and then worked as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. State Department, assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.^[1] He returned to the U.S. then earned a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1982.^[2] After law school, he clerked for Judge , of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and served as an assistant to the Mayor of Phoenix.^[2]

House of Representatives[]

In 1992, Coppersmith won the Democratic primary in Arizona's 1st District and faced three-term Republican Jay Rhodes in the general election. Coppersmith won the elections and became a U.S. Representative from the Democratic Party for Arizona's 1st Congressional District."^[3]

Senate race[]

In 1994, Coppersmith gave up his seat after only one term to run for the U.S. Senate when Dennis DeConcini retired. In the Democratic race to replace the retiring DeConcini, Rep. Sam Coppersmith won with a razor-thin margin of 32 votes (81,547 votes vs 81,515 for Richard Mahoney).^[4] He subsequently lost to fellow Congressman Jon Kyl by 14 points.

Private law practice[]

After leaving Congress, Coppersmith spent two years as the chairman of the Arizona Democratic Party.^[1] He is as of 2013 an attorney specializing in real estate law and a managing partner of the law firm of Coppersmith Schermer & Brockelman PLC.^[2] He has a blog called LiberalDesert. He is also a member of the ReFormers Caucus of Issue One.^[5]

In 2011, two hospitals, the Phoenix Children’s Hospital and the Mayo Clinic Arizona, sued Coppersmith, Gordon, Schermer, Owens & Nelson; and Coppersmith, Schermer & Brockelman; and four attorneys as well as all their spouses. Being a husband of Beth Schermer, the main defendant in the lawsuit, Sam Coppersmith was named as a nominal defendant in the lawsuit. According to Court House News, "both hospitals claimed in the lawsuit that "the law firms failed to advise them that participating in temporary nursing registries would violate antitrust laws, for which they subsequently suffered millions of dollars in damages, and then “engaged in a cover-up to conceal their mistakes and protect the millions of dollars they had charged and were charging the plaintiffs and other health-care clients."^[6] When the litigation started, Coppersmith was both a founding member and a managing partner of the law firm since its inception until 2011. The lawsuit was settled in 2011.^[7][8]

See also[]

• List of Jewish members of the United States Congress

References[]

External links[]

• United States Congress. "Sam Coppersmith (id: C000767)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

• Appearances on C-SPAN