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Al D'amato
From 1981 to 1999 Republican Senator Al Damato ran the New York political machine. His incomparable number of contacts on both sides of the party line and his ability to ruffle feathers put his name out more than any other Senator at the time. Sure, other Senators found ways to make the headlines, but D’Amato was the king for nearly twenty years. People like looking for negativity in public officials, they like to dig up dirt and prove that no one is perfect. No one ever said Alphonse D’Amato was perfect or even that he tried to be. It can’t be argued that he performed more than a few good deeds in his tenure as a U.S. Senator.
He was elected Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. It was in this capacity that he led the attack to recoup the billions of dollars deposited by Holocaust victims into Swiss banks before World War II. Holocaust survivors and their relatives had been fighting for the return of their money for nearly six decades. D’Amato’s emergence on the scene signaled a triumph for the surviving victims and relatives of the deceased. Eventually the Swiss banks were forced to return over one billion dollars to survivor groups. This is just one minor instance of D’Amato’s dedication to the responsibility of his office. To find out more about Alphonso Damato’s impact on the Senate, please read more.
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