ABRAMSON, JERRY EDWIN

ABRAMSON, JERRY EDWIN (1946– ), U.S. politician. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Abramson graduated from Indiana University (1968). After having served in the U.S. Army between 1969 and 1971, for which he received a medal for meritorious service, he returned to law school and was graduated from Georgetown School of Law in 1973. He then entered private practice with Greenbaum, Doll, and McDonald, where he became a partner and immediately became active in Democratic politics, first as a member of the Board of Alderman and later as general counsel to Kentucky Governor John Y. Brown. He was elected mayor of Louisville in 1986, a position he held for 12 years. A national leader, he was president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in 1993–94 and vice chair of the Democratic Platform Committee when his fellow southerner Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992. He chaired the Clinton reelection efforts for Kentucky. After being barred for reelection by term limits, Abramson became mayor once again after the government of Louisville had been regionalized, serving from 2003 as Louisville metro mayor. (Michael Berenbaum (2nd ed.)