CHEVY CHASE, Md. (AP) – Longtime lobbyist and Washington insider Thomas Hale Boggs Jr., who for years helped lead the powerful Patton Boggs law firm, has died. He was 73.
His brother-in-law, journalist Steve Roberts, said Boggs died Monday morning at his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The cause of death has not been determined, but the family suspected a heart attack.
Boggs was the son of the late House Majority Leader Rep. Hale Boggs, a Louisiana Democrat, and the sister of journalist Cokie Roberts.
At Patton Boggs, Thomas Boggs was responsible for helping shepherd the $1.5 billion federal bailout of Chrysler through Congress in 1979, and his firm played a major role in crafting the North American Free Trade Agreement and countless other pieces of legislation.
Boggs ran for Congress once, losing to Republican Gilbert Gude in 1970 in Maryland.