First Annual Dreier Roundtable Civility Award and a Bipartisan Conversation on the Future of American Political Parties
Born in Missoula, Montana, and raised in Helena blocks away from the State Capitol, Steve Bullock ’88 P’24 is a product of public schools, graduating from Helena High. He received his undergraduate degree from Claremont McKenna College and law degree from Columbia University School of Law.
Bullock served as Montana’s attorney general from 2009-2013. As attorney general, Bullock defended Montana’s hundred-year ban on corporate campaign spending, gaining national prominence for leading the challenge to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.
Bullock was elected Montana’s 24th Governor, serving from 2013-2021. He worked with a Republican-majority legislature to improve access to health care, kick dark money out of state elections, make record investments in education, protect access to public lands, invest in infrastructure, and strengthen Montana’s economy. Bullock brought diverse interests together to address challenging issues, from sage grouse and forest management to the Main Street Montana Project. By executive action, he led the nation in preserving net neutrality and combating dark money. Nationally, Bullock was elected Chair of the National Governors Association, Western Governors Association and Democratic Governors Association.
Since leaving public office, he served as an Institute of Politics Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, is serving as the court-appointed Independent Monitor over Purdue Pharma, and is serving on various corporate, political and nonprofit boards and committees.
Prior to serving in elected office, Bullock’s jobs included Montana Assistant Attorney General, attorney in private practice, adjunct instructor at George Washington University Law School, and Tour Boat Captain on the Missouri River.
David Dreier ’75 was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1980, where he served until January 2013. In Congress, he served as the youngest—and the first from California—chairman of the Rules Committee, playing a pivotal role in fashioning all legislation for debate in the House.
Serving 32 years in Congress and as longtime Chairman of the House Rules Committee, Dreier was a co-sponsor of the first Bipartisan Retreat Planning Committee in 1997, noting that “I believe greater civility in the House is a cause certainly worth pursuing”; widely known for his belief in reaching across the aisle, NBC news noted when he retired from Congress in 2013 that “Dreier Departure Bad News for Congressional Civility.”
Dreier received his B.A. from Claremont McKenna College in 1975 and his M.A. in American government from Claremont Graduate University the following year. He serves as a trustee at CMC.
This inaugural Civility Award and subsequent discussion is sponsored by the Dreier Roundtable at CMC.