BOSTON (AP) - The first woman to run for U.S. vice president on a major party ticket has died. Geraldine Ferraro was 75.
Walter Mondale is remembering his running mate as "a remarkable woman and a dear human being." He says she "broke a lot of molds" and the country is better because of what she did.
Ferraro was an obscure New York City congresswoman when she was catapulted to national prominence at the 1984 Democratic convention. when Mondale chose her to run with him against incumbents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. Reagan won 49 of the 50 states, the largest landslide in nearly half a century.
Some observers said legal troubles involving her husband and son were a drag on Ferraro's later political ambitions, which included her unsuccessful bids for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in New York in 1992 and 1998.
A family friend says Ferraro died this morning at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was being treated for blood cancer.
