James Rosapepe

James Carew Rosapepe (born May 20, 1951) is an American politician who has served as a member of the Maryland Senate representing District 21 in since 2007.

Rosapepe was born in Rome on May 20, 1951, where his parents were working as American journalists.

His grandparents migrated to the United States from Russia in the early 20th century.

Rosapepe grew up in New York before moving to Arlington County, Virginia in the late 1960s, and attended Yale University as an undergraduate, but did not graduate, and Georgetown University.

Rosapepe has been involved in politics since he was 17 years old.

While living in Arlington, he served as the president of the Arlington Youth Council.

Rosapepe took a year off from attending Yale to work as an intern to the President's Council on Youth Opportunity within the Nixon administration.

During his internship, he was the subject of multiple White House memos that questioned whether he should have a voice in the Youth Conference, citing his activism and anti-Nixon views.

Despite these memos, White House aide Steve Hess, who hired Rosapepe, said that he would not consider discharging him as the council also included members of the right-wing Young Americans for Freedom organization, and that having "some radical liberals" in the Youth Conference gave it credibility.

Afterwards, Rosapepe worked as a policy assistant to various congressmembers, for whom he worked on macroeconomic and competition issues.

From 1979 to 1981, he served as a member of the National Petroleum Council.

Rosapepe worked for the Maryland Committee on Federal Income Tax Conformity in 1982, and afterwards chaired the Economic Development Committee for the city of College Park, Maryland, until 1986.

He also became involved with foreign policy issues during his tenure, attending an exchange trip to China in 1982 and extensively traveled to parts of the former Soviet Union.

Rosapepe served as the president of the Maryland Main Street Development Association from 1984 to 1985.

He also served as a member of the Maryland Democratic State Central Committee from 1985 to 1992, and later as the treasurer of the Maryland Democratic Party from 1985 to 1989 and as its deputy chair 1989 to 1992.

A member of the Democratic Party, he previously represented the district in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1987 to 1997, and served as the United States Ambassador to Romania from 1998 to 2001.

Rosapepe was sworn into the Maryland House of Delegates on January 3, 1987.

Rosapepe worked as a national treasurer for U.S. Senator Paul Simon's 1988 presidential campaign.

Afterwards, he served on the boards of directors for the Center for National Policy and National Small Business United until 1992.

He worked on the 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns of Bill Clinton, in which he helped organize Italian Americans behind Clinton and got to know Clinton, Al Gore, and many of their close advisors, including Sandy Berger and John Podesta.

In 1995, Rosapepe was appointed to the Albanian-American Enterprise Fund.

During his tenure, he was a member of the Spending Affordability Committee from 1987 to 1993, afterwards serving as its vice chair from 1995 until his resignation on December 31, 1997.

The Baltimore Sun described Rosapepe as a suburban liberal—supporting organized labor, environmental advocacy, and increased education spending—and as an ally of Governor Parris Glendening.

On September 25, 1997, President Bill Clinton nominated Rosapepe to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to Romania.

He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on November 6, 1997, and was officially sworn in on January 20, 1998.

In this capacity, Rosapepe helped integrate Romania into NATO and helped secure the country's support in the Kosovo War, and supported the country's transition to a democratic free market system by promoting U.S.-Romanian trade.

He also criticized Cluj-Napoca mayor Gheorghe Funar for campaigning against a law granting rights to Romania's ethnic Hungarian minority.

Rosapepe was the subject of an internal State Department report in which officials claimed that morale within the embassy plunged during his tenure and that the embassy often provided "inadequate" information on Romanian affairs, with communications often "tilted towards the Romanian perspective".

Since 2001, Rosapepe has served as the chief executive officer of Patuxent Capital Group.

He has also worked as a federal lobbyist for the Multistate Tax Commission.

Following his ambassadorship, Rosapepe was appointed by Governor Parris Glendening to serve on the University System Board of Regents from 2001 to 2006.

In this capacity, he voted against tuition increases and criticized Governor Bob Ehrlich for vetoing the Higher Education Affordability and Access Act, a bill to cap tuition increases for three years and restore budget cuts to higher education.

He also founded the Marylanders for Access to Quality Higher Education to lobby for the legislature to override the governor's veto on the bill.

In 2006, after Governor Bob Ehrlich did not reappoint Rosapepe to the University System Board of Regents, Rosapepe launched a primary challenge against state Senator John A. Giannetti Jr., who was perceived by other Democratic lawmakers as being too conservative after siding with Republicans and Governor Bob Ehrlich on key votes, including a bill to ban assault weapons in Maryland.

During the Democratic primary, Giannetti gained national attention after performing the Heimlich maneuver on Rosapepe, who was choking on a piece of lobster at an Italian restaurant they were both eating at.

Rosapepe defeated Giannetti in the Democratic primary with 58 percent of the vote, after which Giannetti switched his party affiliation to Republican to run against Rosapepe in the general election.

Rosapepe again defeated Giannetti in the general election.

Rosapepe was sworn in on January 10, 2007.

He was a member of the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee from 2007 to 2016, afterwards serving on the Finance Committee.

Rosapepe has served as a member of the Budget and Taxation Committee since 2019, and as the committee's vice chair since 2020.