Background
Walter Paul Helmke, Junior was born in 1948.
Walter Paul Helmke, Junior was born in 1948.
Helmke is a graduate of Fort Wayne;s North Side High School, Indiana University, where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity and president of the student government in 1969-1970, and of the Yale Law School. While at Indiana University, where he majored in political science, he was elected president of the student body. Helmke attended Yale at the same time as former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and was an acquaintance of each.
Walter Paul Helmke, Junior held this position from July 2006 to July 10, 2011. He is a former mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana and a former president of The United States Conference of Mayors. Helmke defeated Democratic incumbent Mayor Winfield C. Moses, Junior. in 1987. He did not seek re-election in 1999.
In 1980, Helmke ran in the Republican primary for the then Fourth Congressional District open seat in Indiana to replace Dan Quayle who was running for United States. Senate. He was defeated by Dan Coats, who later went on to serve as United States. Senator from Indiana.
In 2002, Helmke unsuccessfully challenged incumbent United States. Representative Mark Souder in the Republican primary for the Third Congressional District in Indiana. As mayor, he was known for reaching out to minorities, appointing an openly gay woman to a human relations commission.
His father, Walter P. Helmke, had been elected as an Indiana state senator and county prosecutor.
The senior Helmke was the Republican nominee for United States. Congress in Indiana"s Fourth District in 1974. Mayor Helmke"s grandfather, Helmke, had also served as Allen County Prosecutor and had been the Allen County Republican County Chairman. Helmke also has the Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne main research facility building named after him.
Mayor Helmke"s brother, Mark, has served as Press Secretary to United States. Senator Richard Lugar, as a Washington lobbyist, and as a staff of the United States. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Mark Helmke is a former reporter for the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel. In May 2006 Helmke was named President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
Before accepting a position with the Brady Campaign, Helmke worked at his father"s law firm, Helmke Beams, Limited Liability Partnership. In the wake of the Virginia Technical Massacre in April 2007, Helmke made many network appearances on such programs as the Columbia Broadcasting System Evening News and American Broadcasting Company World News, discussing and arguing for more restrictive gun control. Helmke took the position that the second amendment to the constitution is a collective right of government and not an individual right of citizens.
In 2008, Helmke appeared on The Colbert Report as a part of that show"s "Better Know a Lobby" series.
In January 2013, he started at the Indiana University School of Public & Environmental Affairs, and is currently the director of the Civic Leaders Living-Learning Center which began in August 2013.
Walter East. Helmke was also one of the leading candidates for the Republican nomination for Governor of Indiana in 1948 but was defeated at his party"s state convention.