Biography of Romano L. Mazzoli
Romano L. Mazzoli, known as Ron to his family and friends, was born November 2, 1932, in Louisville Kentucky. He was the first of three children born to Romano and Mary Ioppolo Mazzoli. His father, born in Maniago, Italy, immigrated to the United States as a young man, while his mother’s family had come from Sicily. Mazzoli grew up, along with his sister and brother, in the Louisville neighborhood known as the Highlands, attending St. James Church and school and graduating from 8th grade in 1946. He then attended St. Xavier High School, receiving his diploma in 1950. He attended the University of Notre Dame (South Bend, Indiana) earning a B.S. (Magna Cum Laude) in 1954. From 1954 to1956 he served in the enlisted ranks of the United States Army and was stationed most of that time in Alaska; he was a Specialist Third Class upon his discharge. He followed his army service with three years of legal training, graduating first in his class from the University of Louisville School of Law (now the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville).
He began practicing law in Louisville in 1960, working for the Legal Department of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad for two years, followed by private practice until 1970. During the 1960s he also taught business law at Bellarmine College (now University) in Louisville.
Mazzoli became involved in politics when he ran for the Kentucky State Senate from the 35th District in 1967. With the incumbent (Michael Duffy) not seeking reelection, he entered the race and defeated his opponent, Richard Nash, in the May primary, winning over 60% of the vote. In the general election in November, he narrowly defeated the Republican candidate Charles E. Martin with a margin of 422 votes out of the 25,588 cast. Mazzoli served as a State Senator until he was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1970.
Mazzoli's one loss during his twenty-eight year political career was in the Democratic mayoral primary election of May 1968. He came in third in a field of three Democratic candidates for mayor of Louisville with 4,529 out of 15,928 votes or about 28.4%. During the primary campaign Mazzoli accused his opponents of spending too much time on political alliances, as both were heading a primary slate while he ran alone. After this loss, Mazzoli threw his support behind the Democratic Party and its candidate Frank Burke, who easily won the general election on November 5, 1968.
Mazzoli quickly made up for his 1968 loss by winning the 1970 Democratic primary for Third District Congressman with almost 60% of the vote, and then defeating the Republican incumbent, William Cowger, in the general election to the Ninety-Second Congress by just 211 votes. Romano L. Mazzoli was now the Representative of the Third District of Kentucky (Louisville), a position he would hold for the next twenty-four years (twelve terms.) He was sworn into the Congress of the United States in January 1971.
Mazzoli chaired the Immigration, International Law and Refugees Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee for twelve years. He also served on the House Small Business, Intelligence, Education, and District of Columbia Committees. He was one of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives in 1986 to conduct the impeachment proceedings against Harry E. Claiborne, judge of the United States District Court for Nevada. He is best remembered for being the primary architect, with Senator Alan Simpson, of major immigration reform legislation. Signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on November 6, 1986, the Simpson-Mazzoli Immigration Act -- also known as the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 -- remained the last major immigration legislation enacted into U.S. law well into the twenty-first century. During and after the Congressman’s twenty-four years in Washington, DC, he interacted with most of the major political figures of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. He served with four Speakers of the House (Carl Albert, Tip O’Neill, Jim Wright and Tom Foley -- all Democrats) and under six different presidents from Richard M. Nixon to William J. Clinton.
Congressman Mazzoli returned to his home in Louisville, Kentucky upon retiring from Congress at the end of his twelfth term in 1995. He has kept busy teaching classes at Bellarmine University and at the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville, where he served as visiting professor in 1995 and Distinguished Fellow in Law and Public Policy from 1998 to 2002. He has also been visiting lecturer at schools from California to Maine, and in Europe. Besides teaching, he returned to school, earning a Master's Degree in Public Administration from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2004, after serving as a Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School in 2002.
Mr. Mazzoli serves on the Board of Overseers of the University of Louisville, the Board of Trustees of Father Maloney’s Boys’ Haven and on the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission. He has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from the University of Notre Dame, Spalding University, Sullivan University, Centre College, and Bellarmine University.
He has been married to the former Helen Dillon of Louisville since 1959 and they have two children and four grandchildren.
