Thomas R. Jolly is a longtime Washington lawyer and lobbyist. He first became involved in politics during his senior year at the University of Michigan as a volunteer in the short-lived presidential campaign of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. He worked in his home state, Michigan, as well as in the Democratic presidential primary campaign in his neighboring state of Indiana. After graduating from Michigan, Tom migrated to Washington DC to attend Georgetown Law Center. While attending law school he worked as a legislative assistant to the late Congressman William D. Ford (D-MI). After graduating from Georgetown Tom was appointed as Counsel and Staff Director to the House Subcommittee on Agricultural Labor and subsequently to the House Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education, both of which Congressman Ford chaired.
In 1978 he left the Hill to become a partner in the O’Connor & Hannan law firm. Upon entering private practice Tom was recruited to join the Wednesday Group, a small contingent of Democratic advisors who met every Wednesday morning in the White House Roosevelt Room during the last two years of Jimmy Carter’s presidency. The Group was presided over by the late Anne Wexler, then Assistant to the President for Public Liaison. Tom was honored to become the most junior member of this elite group which included more senior members such as LBJ’s former White House Counsel, Harry McPherson; former LBJ speech writer, Robert Hardesty; and Sheldon Cohen, who served as LBJ’s Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. One of the young White House speechwriters to President Carter who regularly attended the meetings as an observer was Chris Matthews, who years later would become the infamous host of Hardball and author of several books on politics.
During this same period Tom became the founding co-chairman of the Washington Caucus, a bipartisan group of corporate lobbyists and lawyers, which continues to this day to host informal “off-the-record” dinners with members of both the House and the Senate. While in private practice, and, prior to founding his own government and public relations firm, Tom had the great pleasure of having some well-known political figures as his law partners, including the late Senator Edward Brooke (R-MA), Tom Evans (R-DE) and the late Representative Geraldine Ferraro (D-NY) who is best known for becoming the first female nominated by a major political party for the office of Vice President, when she ran as a running mate to Walter Mondale in 1984.
During his lengthy career Tom worked, for several decades, with the House and Senate Democratic Campaign Committees and did volunteer work in several presidential campaigns including a stint as an advance man for Vice Presidential Candidate Sargent Shriver in 1972. He was a contributor to Crossing the River—The Coming Age of the Internet in Politics and Advocacy (2005) in which he wrote about how the then emerging use of the Internet would effect the art of politics and lobbying.
Tom is a veteran of the US Air Force. Prior to receiving his undergraduate degree he served as a Russian linguist in the Air Force Intelligence Service in Germany and Turkey.
Tom is now semi-retired and lives in a renovated 19th century home in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia with his wife, Judie and their golden doodle puppy, Bailey. He is the proud father of three wonderful grown children, Bethany, Ryan and Tommy, and the grandfather of Mary Ellis Swift.
He presently serves on the board of directors of Securitas Critical Infrastructure Services, Inc., one of the country’s largest providers of specialized security, fire and emergency response services in the aerospace/defense, energy, and petrochemical industries, and previously served on the board of St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas.
During his retirement years Tom has been working on a book, tentatively entitled, The Party of Lincoln, No More!