Former Mass. Congressman Named Interim IOP Director

William D. “Bill” Delahunt, a former U.S. Representative for Massachusetts, will serve as the interim director of the Institute of Politics, filling in for Margaret A. “Maggie” Williams while she works for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary R. Clinton.

Williams will take an unpaid leave of absence to co-chair Clinton’s transition team, a move some University alumni have criticized. Williams will begin her leave on Oct. 1 and is expected to return to the IOP after the end of the current calendar year.

In the House of Representatives, Delahunt, a Democrat, represented the 10th Congressional district—which covered Cape Cod, portions of the South Shore, and the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket—from 1997 to 2011, after 21 years as Norfolk County’s district attorney. The 10th district ceased to exist after redistricting from the 2010 census went into effect for the 2012 midterm elections.

A veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard Reserves, Delahunt co-chaired the bipartisan Coast Guard Caucus. He also served on the House Judiciary Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

According to a press release from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Delahunt has “been a long-time member of the IOP Senior Advisory Committee."

Kathryn A. Bussey ’17, president of the IOP’s Student Advisory Committee, wrote in an email that the student leadership team will meet Delahunt when he begins in October and that they are “very excited to welcome him to the Institute of Politics.”

Williams was not the only IOP leader to step away this semester. Executive Director Cathy A. McLaughlin resigned last month to work on the presidential election.

–Staff writer Julia E. DeBenedictis can be reached at julia.debenedictis@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @Julia_DeBene.