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Noah Mamet

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Noah Mamet
United States Ambassador to Argentina
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 16, 2015
PresidentBarack Obama
DeputyThomas Cooney[1]
Preceded byVilma Martínez
Personal details
BornApril 1969 (age 55)
Manhattan Beach, California,
U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Alma materUniversity of California, Los Angeles

Noah Bryson Mamet (born April 1969) (pronounced muh-MET) is the United States Ambassador to Argentina.

Born in California, Mamet worked in Democratic Party politics for twelve years before founding his consulting firm, Noah Mamet and Associates. He was a major fundraiser for U.S. President Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign, and was nominated by Obama as Ambassador to Argentina in 2013. His nomination received criticism from state department employees and Democratic Party donors for his lack of foreign service experience and having never visited Argentina, but Senate Democrats overcame a Republican-led filibuster to confirm him as ambassador. During his term as ambassador, Mamet sought to promote scientific, technological, and student exchange between Argentina and the U.S.

Early life and education

Mamet was born to a Jewish father and a Catholic mother in Manhattan Beach, California. In 1992, he graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts degree.[2]

Professional career

At age 21, Mamet entered politics by working on the 1992 U.S. Senate primary bid by onetime U.S. Rep. Mel Levine;[3] he also worked for the California Democratic Party helping with Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign in Santa Barbara County.[2] From 1995 until 2003, Mamet worked for onetime U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt while he was House Democratic leader as a senior advisor and national finance director.[3][4] Mamet also worked on Gephardt's 2004 presidential bid.[3]

In 2004, he founded Noah Mamet and Associates, a business and political consulting firm with offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco.[3]

In 2007, Mamet served on the international delegation for the National Democratic Institute to monitor elections in Sierra Leone.[2][4] He also has served as an adviser to the Wasserman Family Foundation in Los Angeles.[2]

Mamet raised $3,200,000 for Obama's reelection campaign in 2012.[5] He is a member of the National Jewish Democratic Council.[6]

Nomination as U.S. Ambassador to Argentina

On July 30, 2013, President Obama announced his intent to nominate Mamet to be the U.S. ambassador to Argentina[4] despite the fact that Mamet had never been to Argentina.[2] On July 31, 2013, Obama formally nominated Mamet to the post.[7] Mamet's nomination languished for months after his United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. He speaks conversational Spanish.[5][8]

On June 24, 2014, the Senate's foreign relations committee voted to forward Mamet's nomination to the full Senate.[9] On November 20, 2014, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed for cloture on Mamet's nomination.

On December 1, 2014, the U.S. Senate voted 50-36 for cloture on Mamet's nomination, thereby ending a Republican-led filibuster of his nomination.[10][11] On December 2, 2014, the Senate confirmed Mamet in a 50-43 vote and he was sworn in on December 10, 2014.[12] He arrived in Argentina on January 16, 2015 and presented his credentials that same day.[13]

Ambassador Mamet in Argentina

As Ambassador, Mamet stated his desire to build connections between the US and Argentina through science, technology, energy and student exchange.[14]

In December 2015, the US Embassy in Argentina inaugurated its system of 72 solar panels, the first such installation at a U.S. Embassy worldwide.[15] Also in 2015, the Fulbright Commission created the “Friends of Fulbright” scholarship program. The program gives Argentine undergraduate students a short-term opportunity to attend classes at an accredited U.S. university, and is designed for students who cannot afford the costs of an exchange program.[16]

Criticism

Since his appointment as U.S. ambassador to Argentina, Mamet has been criticized for being part of a group of nominated “ambassadors that raised six-figure sums” for President Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign.[17][18]

In December 2013, BuzzFeed reported that Mamet’s nomination as ambassador to Argentina was “met with surprise, and in some cases anger, by his peers in the donor class. Democratic Party donors complain privately that Mamet unfairly leveraged his clients’ work for his own political gain and benefited from a close personal relationship with President Obama’s campaign manager, Jim Messina."[19] A group of retired United States Foreign Service officers have since called for an end to the practice of appointing political contributors and supporters as ambassadors.[20] Mamet has also been criticized for lack of “major diplomatic experience” and not visiting Argentina prior to his nomination.[18][21]

In 2014, fifteen former presidents of the State Department Employees Union (AFSA) made an official request to reject Mamet’s nomination to ambassadorship, which also included George Tsunis (for Norway) and Colleen Bell (for Hungary), because “they showed limited knowledge of the countries to which they’d been nominated” at their Senate committee hearings.[22]

AFSA issued a letter to the U.S. State Department urging it to “oppose granting of Senate consent to these three candidates.”[23] The letter was the first of its kind, which set a new historical precedent to ambassadorial designations in the U.S.[23]

As of April, 2016, over 1,100 people have signed a petition against Noah Mamet and the State Department. The signatories to the petition are protesting the loss of civil liberties in general and passport denials in particular.[24] The petition was started by author Daniel Bruno.[25]

Personal

Mamet has been a resident of Marina del Rey, California.[3] He is not married and has no children.[26]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Deputy Chief of Mission". U.S. Department of State. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d e Haaretz: "Obama fundraiser Noah Mamet appointed U.S. envoy to Argentina - Mamet, a fundraiser for Democratic causes, has been confirmed to the Argentinian envoy post, despite having never visited the country" December 3, 2014
  3. ^ a b c d e "Noah Mamet nominated as US ambassador". buenosairesherald.com.
  4. ^ a b c "President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts". whitehouse.gov.
  5. ^ a b http://foia.state.gov/searchapp/DOCUMENTS/5-FY2014/F-2013-12853/DOC_0C05521180/C05521180.pdf
  6. ^ Jewish Telegraph: "Dems fundraiser Noah Mamet confirmed as U.S. envoy to Argentina" December 3, 2014
  7. ^ "Presidential Nominations Sent to the Senate". whitehouse.gov.
  8. ^ ABC News. "5 Most Cringe-Worthy Blunders From Obama's Ambassador Nominees". ABC News.
  9. ^ http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ntquery/z?nomis:113PN0113300:
  10. ^ "Senate advances nominations of Obama bundlers". TheHill.
  11. ^ "U.S. Senate: Roll Call Vote". senate.gov. 27 January 2015.
  12. ^ "Ambassador Mamet Sworn in by VP Biden". US Embassy.
  13. ^ "Timerman recibió al nuevo embajador de Estados Unidos" (in Spanish). Télam. January 21, 2015. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  14. ^ "Noah Mamet: "Necesitamos que la Argentina triunfe". Loreley Gaffoglio" (in Spanish). La Nación Revista. August 21, 2016. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
  15. ^ "Embassy's commitment with the environment". US Embassy.
  16. ^ "Friends of Fulbright Scholarship". US Embassy.
  17. ^ Susan Crabtree (March 14, 2014). "Obama under fire for big-money ambassador nominees". The Washington Examiner. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  18. ^ a b Lachman, Samantha (February 7, 2014). "Obama Nominee For Ambassador To Argentina Has Never Actually Been There". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  19. ^ Cramer, Ruby (December 18, 2013). "Ambassador Appointment Draws Ire Inside Democratic Donor Class". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  20. ^ "Retired U.S. diplomats call for end to political ambassador appointees". United Press International. February 14, 2014. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  21. ^ "So-called Ambassador Noah B Mamet is Unfit to Represent the United States". Huffington Post Club.
  22. ^ Al Kamen (March 10, 2014). "Foreign Service leaders ask Senate to reject Obama nominees". The Washington Post . Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  23. ^ a b Santiago del Carril; Tomás Brockenshire (March 8, 2014). "Former US diplomats challenge Mamet pick". Buenos Aires Herald. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  24. ^ Khorana, Smitha (January 27, 2016). "Harrowing Treatment of Yemeni-Americans Demands Government Probe, Groups Say". The Intercept. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  25. ^ Herman, Carl (March 6, 2016). "Obama Goes to Havana; Bag Man Noah B. Mamet Pretends to Be a Diplomat". Washington´s Blog. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  26. ^ "Congressional Record, Volume 160 Issue 99 (Tuesday, June 24, 2014)". gpo.gov.
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Diplomatic posts
Preceded by United States Ambassador to Argentina
2015–present 		Incumbent
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