Cliff Arnebeck

Who is Cliff Arnebeck?

Cliff Arnebeck is the chair of the Legal Affairs Committee of Common Cause Ohio and a national co-chair and attorney for the Alliance of Democracy.

The son of an officer in the Bureau of Finance, Post Office Department, he graduated B.A. Wesleyan University in 1967 and received a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1970. He first worked for Ohio Bell in Cleveland, Ohio and later in the legal department for the American Electric Power Company before joining the Jones, Day law firm in Columbus, Ohio.

He opened a private practice in Columbus, Ohio. In 1990, he unsuccessfully contested the Republican Party primary election in Ohio's 15th District against 12-term congressman Chalmers Wylie.

Arnebeck was a leader in the Ohio campaign for Ross Perot's failed 1992 presidential bid. Questioning the micromanagement of the campaigh by Perot's staff in Houston, Arnebeck eventually challenged its legitimacy in a Washington press conference before the election In 1996 Arnebeck decided to challenge the political establishment by running for Congress as a Democrat against Wylie's successor, GOP Congresswoman Deborah Pryce. and once again lost by a large margin.