Hamilton Fish V

The elder Fish (1888–1991), himself a staunch Republican, served in Congress from the Hudson Valley from 1920–1945.

Famously memorialized in Franklin D. Roosevelt's enduring refrain, "Martin, Barton, and Fish", a phrase used by FDR to deride his most persistent adversaries, the elder Fish was still active in conservative circles well into his late nineties.

Hamilton Fish V (born September 5, 1951), also known as "Ham", is a U.S. publisher, social entrepreneur, environmental advocate, and film producer in New York City.

He is currently the publisher and editor of the monthly independent political periodical The Washington Spectator.

Fish was born in Washington, D.C., to Julia (MacKenzie) and Hamilton Fish IV, a Republican politician and member of the influential Fish family.

While at Harvard College in 1971, Fish co-founded the National Movement for the Student Vote with Morris Abram Jr. Conceived in response to the passage of the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution granting eighteen year-olds the right to vote, the organization assisted college-age voters whose efforts to register to vote on or near their campuses were resisted by local authorities.

Following graduation, Fish worked as chief fundraiser for the Ramsey Clark for Senate campaign in New York.

Ramsey Clark, a Democrat and former Attorney General of the United States in the Johnson Administration, ran as an anti-war candidate and reinforced his opposition to the influence of money in electoral politics by imposing a per person limit of $100 on contributions to his campaign.

Victor Navasky, with whom Fish later joined forces at The Nation, was Clark's campaign manager, and Mark Green, whose many subsequent campaigns Fish worked on, was director of policy and issues research.

Fish is perhaps best known for his work revitalizing The Nation magazine, and its sister foundation, The Nation Institute.

He attended schools in New York City and Massachusetts, where he graduated from Harvard University in 1973.

In 1977, Fish teamed up with Victor Navasky and began the work of recruiting investors to acquire the magazine, then in receivership.

Together with the help of a group of limited partners that included E. L. Doctorow, Norman Lear, Alan Sagner, and Dorothy Schiff, Fish and Navasky began a decade-long partnership as Publisher and Editor of the country's oldest political weekly.

During their stewardship, The Nation experienced steady growth, modernized its publishing operation, prospered in many respects during the Ronald Reagan years, and caused a measure of mayhem worthy of an independent political journal.

The magazine waged an honorable if lonely battle over the history of the Cold War, lost a landmark lawsuit over the protection of copyright in the Supreme Court of the United States, and convened large scale conferences including the 1981 Writers' Congress, which examined the status of writers and their representation (and spawned the National Writers Union); as well as the Dialogo de Todas Las Americas, to establish a cultural and political discourse between north and south as a counter to the interventionist doctrine of the Reagan years.

In 1987, Fish transferred his interest in the magazine to Arthur Carter, a New York investor who had started the Litchfield County Times and who succeeded Fish as The Nation's publisher.

After leaving The Nation magazine in 1987, Fish entered a three-way race for the Democratic nomination for the United States Congress in a Westchester County district held by Republican Representative Joseph DioGuardi.

The national media took note of the race when his 100-year-old grandfather, Hamilton Fish III, described his grandson as a "communist" and contributed $100 to the Republican in the race.

In 1988, the younger Fish lost in the closely contested primary to Nita Lowey, who went on to defeat the incumbent.

In 1994, his father, Hamilton Fish IV, announced his retirement from the United States Congress for health reasons.

Fish again entered into a Democratic congressional primary, in the largely Republican mid-Hudson Valley district that his father had represented for 26 years.

Fish won the Democratic primary, and although his father crossed party lines to endorse his son, he lost in the general election to Republican Sue Kelly.

From 1995 to 2009 Fish served as president of The Nation Institute, the foundation associated with The Nation magazine.

With support from donors including the Lannan Foundation and Paul Newman, he developed a journalism fellowship program to provide support for progressive writers, a roster that would eventually include Eric Alterman, Max Blumenthal, Tom Engelhardt, Chris Hedges, Scott Horton, Naomi Klein, Katha Pollitt, Jeremy Scahill, and Jonathan Schell.

He also created the Alfred Knobler Fellowships, named for a benefactor and longtime friend of The Nation, specifically to support journalists of color.

Recipients have included Pamela Newkirk, New York University Journalism Professor and author; Gary Younge, the US-based columnist for The Guardian and The Nation; and Ta-Nehisi Coates, author, blogger, and senior editor for The Atlantic.

With the help of the Lear Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, and the Puffin Foundation, Fish created an investigative journalism division, directed by Esther Kaplan and Joe Conason, to fund and oversee long-form investigative projects; with Tom Engelhardt he developed tomdispatch.com, an important source of progressive commentary on the web; with Randy Fertel he developed the Ridenhour Prizes, which annually recognize whistleblowers, investigative reporters, and others who persevere in courageous acts of truth-telling; and with Victor Navasky he helped found Nation Books, which under Editor Carl Bromley and in association first with Avalon and then Perseus Books, grew into a leading independent non-fiction imprint.

During these years, Fish also worked as a political advisor to George Soros, and with Jeffrey Kusama-Hinte he helped to develop a lobbying effort on behalf of U.S. support for the International Criminal Court, an initiative which President Bill Clinton endorsed on the last day of December, 2000.

In 2009 and 2010, Fish assisted Lewis H. Lapham with development of the literary magazine Lapham's Quarterly.

At the invitation of The Nation's editor Katrina vanden Heuvel, Fish worked on the design and implementation of the year-long celebration of The Nation's 150th anniversary in 2015.

Fish currently manages a strategic consulting practice for clients engaged in socially active businesses, including the Baffler Magazine and Audience Engine, the new open source platform that offers audience development and fundraising tools to independent and public media organizations.

In February 2016, Fish was appointed publisher and editorial director of The New Republic after the magazine was purchased by Win McCormack.

On October 29, 2017, Fish began a leave of absence pending an independent investigation into complaints by female employees, according to a letter from McCormack sent to the magazine's staff.

McCormack said he had asked Fish to "remain on a leave of absence," effective immediately.

"I have been made aware that a number of employees have come forward in the last few days to express concern about certain workplace interactions that have created an uncomfortable environment for them," McCormack wrote.

"As I understand them, these concerns relate specifically to interactions between Ham Fish and a number of women employees."

On October 30, 2017, the Huffington Post published allegations that, in front of several witnesses, Fish had choked a senior staff member at The Nation Institute hard enough to leave red marks on her throat.

On November 3, 2017, he resigned from his positions.

In a New York Times article from November 3, 2017, Fish was cited as writing in response, "As I understand it, some employees, to my deep dismay, complained this week that my presence had led them to feel uncomfortable at The New Republic.” The article notes he added later, “It’s my sense that our office culture has been harmed, and the best way for me to help the organization move past this is by withdrawing."

In the letter Fish also stated, "Women have longstanding and profound concerns with respect to their treatment in the workplace. Many men have a lot to learn in this regard. I know I do.”