Patrick Anthony Sweeney (September 2, 1939 – September 7, 2020) was an American politician serving as a
Democratic member of the
Ohio Senate
The Ohio Senate is the upper house of the Ohio General Assembly. The State Senate, which meets in the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, first convened in 1803. Senators are elected for four year terms, staggered every two years such that half of the se ...
from 1997 to 1998, and a member of the
Ohio House of Representatives
The Ohio House of Representatives is the lower house of the Ohio General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio; the other house of the bicameral legislature being the Ohio Senate.
The House of Representatives first met in ...
from 1967 to 1997. He was appointed in January 1997 to fill the vacancy caused by
Dennis Kucinich
Dennis John Kucinich (; born October 8, 1946) is an American politician. A U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1997 to 2013, he was also a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in 2004 and 2008. He ran for ...
, who was elected to Congress. However, in 1998 he opted to not run for election to his Senate seat, and he was succeeded by
Dan Brady in 1999.
Sweeney held a
master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. from the
John F. Kennedy School of Government
The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
and worked at
Cleveland State University
Cleveland State University (CSU) is a public research university in Cleveland, Ohio. It was established in 1964 and opened for classes in 1965 after acquiring the entirety of Fenn College, a private school that had been in operation since 1923. ...
's Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs as Assistant to the Vice President of Governmental Relations. Sweeney was also president of public policy advocacy firm PASCo Consultants.
Sweeney ran unsuccessfully in the
1981 Cleveland mayoral election.
Sweeney's wife, Emily Margaret Sweeney ( Mirsky), was formerly (1993-2003) the
United States Attorney
United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal c ...
for The Northern District of Ohio. They have one daughter, Margaret Anne.
Sweeney was born in Cleveland, Ohio and served in the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
. He died on September 7, 2020.
Longtime state representative Patrick Sweeney dies at 81
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References
1939 births
2020 deaths
Harvard Kennedy School alumni
Cleveland State University staff
Democratic Party Ohio state senators
Politicians from Cleveland
Democratic Party members of the Ohio House of Representatives
Military personnel from Cleveland
20th-century American politicians
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