The Hill News

Former Democratic National Committee chairman Charles T. Manatt died Friday, according to the Associated Press. He was 75.

Manatt’s influence in the Democratic party extended from the 1970s, when he was chair of the California Democratic Party, through the end of his life.

Manatt was chair of the DNC from 1981-85 during the Reagan administration and a U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic from 1999-2001 in the Clinton administration.

He is credited with modernizing the DNC and rebuilding the party’s finances during the Reagan era. He also served as co-chairman of Bill Clinton's presidential campaign in 1992.

Manatt was born on June 9, 1936 in Chicago. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University in 1958 and a law degree from George Washington University in 1962. He founded the influential law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLC. in Los Angeles in 1965.

The Los Angeles Times reports Manatt ! died at Kindred Hospital in Richmond, Va., of complications from a stroke suffered after surgery in November.
He is survived by his wife Kathleen and three children Michele, Timothy and Daniel.