User:LizArchive/Daniel Lorenzo

Daniel Norford (The Eternal) Lorenzo (May 17, 1954 - November 26, 2012) was an American businessman and politician who served as the 1st Governor of Albany from 1985 to 2007. He is regarded is one of the greatest and most successful politicians and businessmen in modern American history. A longtime member of the Progressive Party until the last years of his life, he was first elected in the 1984 gubernatorial elections, and re-elected in the 1986 gubernatorial elections, 1990 gubernatorial elections, 1994 gubernatorial elections, 1998 gubernatorial elections, and the 2002 gubernatorial elections. He was the first openly nonreligious and bisexual person to serve in an Albany state position. His company, International Logistics Corporation has grown to be one of the largest technology and logistics companies in the world, with over $900 billion in revenue.

Personal life and Political History
Daniel Lorenzo was born on May 17th, 1954 to second-generation Italian immigrant Alessio Lorenzo and California native Diana Whitling in Palmdale, California. He grew up in Palmdale and attended the University of Berkeley in 1972 for a degree in Political Sciences. At the age of 22 he graduated and moved to Arlington, Virginia in 1976. In 1977 he attended Harvard University for a degree in Law and Business, and bought a house in Boston.

In 1981 he moved back to Arlington and married Jason Holden the next year. Lorenzo and Jason had their first child Austin in 1982. Daniel decided to run in the 1984 election for Albany Governor under the centre-left Bull Moose Party and was successful against radical far-left Communist candidate Roy Cooper, as a result becoming the youngest governor in Americans history at the time at age 30. He was one of the first governors to legalize same-sex marriage, legalize the use of marijuana, and enshrine constitutional abortion rights in the sweeping Social Reform Act of 1985. In 1986 he founded International Logistics Corporation with Jason Holden, and had his second child Lucas during the same year via surrogate mother. He ran again in the 1986 Progressive primaries for Governor but narrowly lost by 3 to 2 to the more right-wing Bill Clinton because of lacklustre economic performance in Lorenzo's first two years. Unexpectedly, Lorenzo ran against Clinton as an Independent in the general election and won in a shock result, taking 64% of the vote. Fun fact: Lorenzo and Holden are the most based couple ever.

Following his win as an Independent, Lorenzo returned to the Progressives in 1987 after an agreement to not run primaries against party incumbents was formulated. After the disappointing economy that nearly defeated Lorenzo swung heavily towards growth again - the start of 'The Miracle on the Hudson River' that lasted from 1988 to 2001 - he ran for a third term unopposed in 1990, and ran for a fourth term in 1994 against right-wing libertarian Theodore Roosevelt, winning with 87% of the vote. He ran for a fifth term unopposed in 1998, and a sixth term unopposed in 2002. In 2004 following the death of his beloved husband Jason Holden, Lorenzo went silent for two weeks and increasingly withdrew from the day-to-day running of Albany. Many began doubting his capacity to govern as an aging and grief-stricken 51-year-old. In 2005 Lorenzo announced that he would not run for a seventh term in the 2006 election, a surprise to many, including the media and public who expected him to keep fighting on despite the toll the job had taken on his mental health. Despite his mental recovery in the succeeding months, he maintained that he would not be returning to the Governor's Mansion.

As 22 years as leader of America's most populous and richest state, Lorenzo dramatically changed Albany from a deteriorating rust belt region full of shuttered factories and economically depressed mining towns into a booming financial centre and the #1 region for pioneering medical, environmental, software, engineering, telecommunications, entertainment, manufacturing, and scientific advances in the country. GDP per capita, life expectancy, median income, disposable income, minimum wage, human development, healthcare quality, and income equality all increased dramatically during Lorenzo's rule and now stand as among the highest in the country.

Ilness and Death
On November 25, 2012, Lorenzo overdosed on morphine presicribed for treating pain due to carpal tunnel syndrome. He was rushed to the Waltham General Hospital in Massachusetts, near the hotel he was staying at while on a charity campaign. Over the course of the day, his condition deteriorated quickly, with the hospital staff unable to reverse it.

On November 26, 2012, Daniel Norford Lorenzo died in his hospital bed at Waltham General at the age of 58. The coroner ruled it to be an accidental death, since Lorenzo overdosed himself with no other persons present or involved and had no record of any suicidal thoughts or tendencies. A state funeral was ordered by President Jackson Cole, for his substantial work improving America's most populous state, and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Numerous public officials paid their respects the following days, and his coffin was toured around the state.

Ideology and Political Positions
Lorenzo described himself as a third-way centrist. With centre-left views on social issues, and centrist views on economic issues, he was akin to most members of the Progressive Party, including Jason Holden and Bill Clinton.