- published: 13 Aug 2012
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- author: cnjonline
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- Alabama
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Alabama
Alabama (
i/ˌæləˈbæmə/) is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama is the 30th-most extensive and the 23rd-most populous of the 50 United States. Alabama ranks second in the area of its inland waterways.
From the American Civil War until World War II, Alabama, like many Southern states, suffered economic hardship, in part because of continued dependence on agriculture. Despite the growth of major industries and urban centers, white rural interests dominated the state legislature until the 1960s, while urban interests and African Americans were under-represented. Following World War II, Alabama experienced growth as the economy of the state transitioned from agriculture to diversified interests in heavy manufacturing, mineral extraction, education, and technology. In addition, the establishment or expansion of multiple military installations, primarily those of the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force, added to state jobs.
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Alaska
Alaska (i/əˈlæskə/) is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait. Alaska is the 4th least populous and the least densely populated of the 50 United States. Approximately half of Alaska's 722,718 residents live within the Anchorage metropolitan area.
Alaska was purchased from Russia on March 30, 1867, for $7.2 million ($120 million in today's[when?] dollars) at approximately two cents per acre ($4.74/km²). The land went through several administrative changes before becoming an organized (or incorporated) territory on May 11, 1912, and the 49th state of the U.S. on January 3, 1959.
The name "Alaska" (Аляска) was already introduced in the Russian colonial period, when it was used only for the peninsula and is derived from the Aleut alaxsxaq, meaning "the mainland" or, more literally, "the object towards which the action of the sea is directed". It is also known as Alyeska, the "great land", an Aleut word derived from the same root.
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Arizona
Arizona (i/ɛrɪˈzoʊnə/; /ærɪˈzoʊnə/) (Navajo: Hoozdo Hahoodzo; O'odham: Alĭ ṣonak) is a state of the United States, located in the southwestern region of the country. Arizona is also part of the Western United States and of the Mountain West states. Arizona is the sixth most extensive and the 16th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. The second largest city is Tucson, followed in population by eight cities of the Phoenix metropolitan area: Mesa, Chandler, Glendale, Scottsdale, Gilbert, Tempe, Peoria, and Surprise.
Arizona is the 48th state and last of the contiguous states to be admitted to the Union, and it achieved statehood on February 14, 1912. Arizona is noted for its desert climate in its southern half, where there are very hot summers and quite mild winters. The northern half of Arizona also features forests of pine, Douglas fir, and spruce trees, a very large, high plateau (the Colorado Plateau) and some mountain ranges—such as the San Francisco Mountains—as well as large, deep canyons, where there is much more moderate weather for three seasons of the year, plus significant snowfalls. There are ski resorts in the areas of Flagstaff and Alpine.
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California
California (pronouncedi/kælɨˈfɔrnjə/) is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third most extensive (after Alaska and Texas). It is home to the nation's second- and sixth-largest census statistical areas (Los Angeles Metropolitan Area and San Francisco Bay Area), and eight of the nation's fifty most populated cities (Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento, Long Beach and Oakland). The capital city is Sacramento.
California's diverse geography ranges from the Pacific Coast in the west, to the Sierra Nevada mountains in the east – from the Redwood–Douglas-fir forests of the northwest, to the Mojave Desert areas in the southeast. The center of the state is dominated by Central Valley, a major agricultural area. California contains both the highest and lowest points in the contiguous United States (Mount Whitney and Death Valley), and has the third-longest coastline of all states (after Alaska and Florida). Earthquakes are a common occurrence due to the state's location along the Pacific Ring of Fire: about 37,000 are recorded annually.
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Connecticut
Connecticut (i/kəˈnɛtɨkət/) is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south (with which it shares a water boundary in Long Island Sound).
Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately bisects the state. Its capital city is Hartford. Much of southern and western Connecticut (along with the majority of the state's population) is part of the New York metropolitan area; three of Connecticut's eight counties are statistically included in the New York City combined statistical area, the same area is widely referred to as the Tri-State area. Connecticut's center of population is in Cheshire, New Haven County, which is also located within the Tri-State area.
Connecticut is the 3rd least extensive, the 29th most populous, and 4th most densely populated of the 50 United States. Called the Constitution State, Nutmeg State, and "The Land of Steady Habits", Connecticut was influential in the development of the federal government of the United States.
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Harvard University
Harvard University is an American private Ivy League research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation (officially The President and Fellows of Harvard College) chartered in the country. Harvard's history, influence, and wealth have made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
Harvard was named after its first benefactor, John Harvard. Although never formally affiliated with a church, the college primarily trained Congregationalist and Unitarian clergy. Harvard's curriculum and students became secular throughout the 18th century and by the 19th century had emerged as the central cultural establishment among Boston elites. Following the American Civil War, President Charles W. Eliot's forty year tenure (1869–1909) transformed the college and affiliated professional schools into a centralized research university, and Harvard became a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900.James Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war. The undergraduate college became coeducational after its 1977 merger with Radcliffe College. Drew Gilpin Faust was elected the 28th president in 2007 and is the first woman to lead the university. Harvard has the largest financial endowment of any academic institution in the world, standing at $32 billion as of September 2011.
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Hawaii
Coordinates: 21°18′41″N 157°47′47″W / 21.31139°N 157.79639°W / 21.31139; -157.79639
Hawaii (i/həˈwaɪ.iː/ or /həˈwaɪʔiː/; Hawaiian: Hawaiʻi Hawaiian pronunciation: [hɐˈvɐiʔi]) is the most recent of the 50 U.S. states (August 21, 1959), and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean.
Hawaii’s diverse natural scenery, warm tropical climate, abundance of public beaches and oceanic surrounding, and active volcanoes make it a popular destination for tourists, surfers, biologists, and volcanologists alike. Due to its mid-Pacific location, Hawaii has many North American and Asian influences along with its own vibrant native culture. Hawaii has over a million permanent residents along with many visitors and U.S. military personnel. Its capital is Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu.
The state encompasses nearly the entire volcanic Hawaiian Island chain, which comprises hundreds of islands spread over 1,500 miles (2,400 km). At the southeastern end of the archipelago, the eight "main islands" are (from the northwest to southeast) Niʻihau, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Maui, and the island of Hawaiʻi. The last is by far the largest and is often called "The Big Island" to avoid confusion with the state as a whole. The archipelago is physiographically and ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania.
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Indiana
Indiana (i/ɪndiˈænə/) is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the midwestern and Great Lakes regions of North America. Indiana is the 38th largest by area and the 15th most populous of the 50 United States. Indiana is the least extensive state in the continental US west of the Appalachian Mountains. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis, the second largest of any state capital and largest state capital east of the Mississippi River.
Before it became a territory, varying cultures of indigenous peoples and historic Native Americans inhabited Indiana for thousands of years. Angel Mounds State Historic Site, one of the best preserved ancient earthwork mound sites in the United States, can be found in Southwestern Indiana near Evansville. Residents of Indiana are known as Hoosiers. The etymology of the word is disputed, but the leading theory as advanced by the Indiana Historical Bureau and the Indiana Historical Society has "Hoosier" originating from the upland South region of the U.S. as a derogatory slang term for a rough countryman, a country bumpkin.
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Iowa
Iowa (i/ˈaɪ.əwə/) is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New France. After the Louisiana Purchase, settlers laid the foundation for an agriculture-based economy in the heart of the Corn Belt. Iowa is often known as the "Food Capital of the World".
In the latter half of the 20th century, Iowa's agricultural economy transitioned to a diversified economy of advanced manufacturing, processing, financial services, biotechnology, and green energy production. Iowa is the 26th most extensive and the 30th most populous of the 50 United States. Its capital and largest city is Des Moines. Iowa has been listed as one of the safest states to live in.
Iowa is bordered by the Mississippi River on the east; the Missouri River and the Big Sioux River on the west; the northern boundary is a line along 43 degrees, 30 minutes north latitude. The southern border is the Des Moines River and a not-quite-straight line along approximately 40 degrees 35 minutes north, as decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in Missouri v. Iowa after a standoff between Missouri and Iowa known as the Honey War.
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Kansas
Kansas (i/ˈkænzəs/) is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name (natively kką:ze) is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south wind," although this was probably not the term's original meaning. Residents of Kansas are called "Kansans."
For thousands of years what is now Kansas was home to numerous and diverse Native American tribes. Tribes in the Eastern part of the state generally lived in villages along the river valleys. Tribes in the Western part of the state were semi-nomadic and hunted large herds of bison. Kansas was first settled by European Americans in the 1830s, but the pace of settlement accelerated in the 1850s, in the midst of political wars over the slavery issue. When officially opened to settlement by the U.S. government in 1854, abolitionist Free-Staters from New England and pro-slavery settlers from neighboring Missouri rushed to the territory to determine if Kansas would become a free state or a slave state. Thus, the area was a hotbed of violence and chaos in its early days as these forces collided, and was known as Bleeding Kansas. The abolitionists eventually prevailed and on January 29, 1861, Kansas entered the Union as a free state. After the Civil War, the population of Kansas grew rapidly, when waves of immigrants turned the prairie into farmland. Today, Kansas is one of the most productive agricultural states, producing high yields of wheat, sorghum and sunflowers. Kansas is the 15th most extensive and the 33rd most populous of the 50 United States.
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Louisiana
Louisiana (i/luːˌiːziˈænə/ or i/ˌluːziˈænə/; French: État de Louisiane, [lwizjan] (
listen); Louisiana Creole: Léta de la Lwizyàn) is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Louisiana is the 31st most extensive and the 25th most populous of the 50 United States. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties. The largest parish by population is East Baton Rouge Parish, and the largest by land area is Cameron Parish.
Much of the state was formed from sediment washed down the Mississippi River, leaving enormous deltas and vast areas of coastal marsh and swamp. These contain a rich southern biota; typical examples include birds such as ibis and egrets. There are also many species of tree frogs, and fish such as sturgeon and paddlefish. In more elevated areas, fire is a natural process in the landscape, and has produced extensive areas of longleaf pine forest and wet savannas. These support an exceptionally large number of plant species including many species of orchids and carnivorus plants.
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Maine
Maine (i/ˈmeɪn/) is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost portion of New England. It is known for its scenery—its jagged, mostly rocky coastline, its low, rolling mountains, its heavily forested interior and picturesque waterways—as well as for its seafood cuisine, especially lobsters and clams.
For thousands of years, indigenous peoples were the only inhabitants of the territory that is now Maine. At the time of European encounter, several Algonquian-speaking peoples inhabited the area. The first European settlement in Maine was by the French in 1604 on Saint Croix Island, by Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons. The first English settlement in Maine, the short-lived Popham Colony, was established by the Plymouth Company in 1607. A number of English settlements were established along the coast of Maine in the 1620s, although the rugged climate, deprivations, and conflict with the local peoples caused many to fail over the years. As Maine entered the 18th century, only a half dozen European settlements survived. Patriot and British forces contended for Maine's territory during the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Maine was part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts until 1820, when it voted to secede from Massachusetts. On March 15, 1820, it was admitted to the Union as the 23rd state under the Missouri Compromise. Maine is the 39th most extensive and the 41st most populous of the 50 United States.
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Massachusetts
Massachusetts (i/ˌmæsəˈtʃuːsɨts/), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Massachusetts is the 7th least extensive, but the 14th most populous and the 3rd most densely populated of the 50 United States. The state features two separate metropolitan areas – the eastern Boston metropolitan area and the western Springfield metropolitan area. Approximately two thirds of the state's population lives in Greater Boston, most of which is either urban or suburban. Western Massachusetts features one urban area – the Knowledge Corridor along the Connecticut River – and a mix of college towns and rural areas. Massachusetts is the most populous of the six New England states and has the US's sixth highest GDP per capita.
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Michigan
Michigan (i/ˈmɪʃɨɡən/) is a state located in the Great Lakes region of the Midwestern United States. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake". Michigan is the 8th most populous of the 50 United States, with the 11th most extensive total area. Its capital is Lansing, and the largest city is Detroit. Michigan was admitted into the Union on January 26, 1837 as the 26th state.
Michigan has the longest freshwater coastline of any political subdivision in the world, being bounded by four of the five Great Lakes, plus Lake Saint Clair. Michigan is one of the leading U.S. states for recreational boating. The state has 64,980 inland lakes and ponds. A person in the state is never more than six miles (9.7 km) from a natural water source or more than 85 miles (137 km) from a Great Lakes shoreline. It is the largest state by total area east of the Mississippi River.
Michigan is the only state to consist of two peninsulas. The Lower Peninsula, to which the name Michigan was originally applied, is often noted to be shaped like a mitten. The Upper Peninsula (often referred to as "the U.P.") is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac, a five-mile (8 km) channel that joins Lake Huron to Lake Michigan. The two peninsulas are connected by the Mackinac Bridge. The Upper Peninsula is economically important due to its status as a tourist destination. There is also a variety of natural resources to be found there, including a sizable amount of iron ore.
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Mississippi
Mississippi (i/ˌmɪsɨˈsɪpi/) is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi ("Great River"). Mississippi is the 32nd most extensive and the 31st most populous of the 50 United States. The state is heavily forested outside of the Mississippi Delta area, which was cleared for cotton cultivation in the 19th century. Today, its catfish aquaculture farms produce the majority of farm-raised catfish consumed in the United States. The state symbol is the magnolia grandiflora tree.
Mississippi is bordered on the north by Tennessee, on the east by Alabama, on the south by Louisiana and a narrow coast on the Gulf of Mexico and on the west, across the Mississippi River, by Louisiana and Arkansas.
In addition to its namesake, major rivers in Mississippi include the Big Black River, the Pearl River, the Yazoo River, the Pascagoula River, and the Tombigbee River. Major lakes include Ross Barnett Reservoir, Arkabutla Lake, Sardis Lake and Grenada Lake. The largest lake in Mississippi is Grenada Lake.
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Montana
Montana (i/mɒnˈtænə/) is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges that are part of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name, derived from the Spanish word montaña (mountain). Montana has several nicknames, none official, including: "Big Sky Country" and "The Treasure State", and slogans that include "Land of the Shining Mountains" and more recently, "The Last Best Place". Montana is the 4th-most extensive, but the 7th-least populous and the 3rd-least densely populated of the 50 United States. The economy is primarily based on services, with ranching, wheat farming, oil and coal mining in the east, and lumber, tourism, and hard rock mining in the west. Millions of tourists annually visit Glacier National Park, the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, and three of the five entrances to Yellowstone National Park.
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New Mexico
New Mexico (i/nuː ˈmɛksɨkoʊ/) is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. New Mexico is the 5th most extensive, the 36th most populous, and the 6th least densely populated of the 50 United States.
Inhabited by Native American populations for many centuries, New Mexico has also been part of the Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S. territory. Among U.S. states, New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanics, including descendants of Spanish colonists and recent immigrants from Latin America. It also has the second-highest percentage of Native Americans, after Alaska, and the fourth-highest total number of Native Americans after California, Oklahoma, and Arizona. The tribes in the state consist of mostly Navajo and Pueblo peoples. As a result, the demographics and culture of the state are unique for their strong Hispanic and Native American influences. The flag of New Mexico is represented by the red and gold colors, which represent Spain, as well as the Zia symbol, an ancient Native American symbol for the sun.
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New York
New York (/njuː ˈjɔrk/; locally IPA: [nɪu ˈjɔək] or [nuː ˈjɔɹk] (
listen)) is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. New York is the 27th most extensive, the 3rd most populous, and the 7th most densely populated of the 50 United States. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east. The state has a maritime border with Rhode Island east of Long Island, as well as an international border with the Canadian provinces of Ontario to the west and north, and Quebec to the north. The state of New York is often referred to as New York State to distinguish it from New York City.
New York City, with a population of over 8.1 million, is the most populous city in the United States. Alone, it makes up over 40 percent of the population of New York state. It is known for its status as a center for finance and culture and for its status as the largest gateway for immigration to the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, New York City is also a destination of choice for many foreign visitors. Both the state and city were named for the 17th century Duke of York, James Stuart, future James II and VII of England and Scotland.
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North Carolina
North Carolina (i/ˌnɔrθ kærəˈlaɪnə/) is a state in the Southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina is the 28th most extensive and the 10th most populous of the 50 United States.
North Carolina is comprised of 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte. In the past five decades, North Carolina's economy has undergone a transition from heavy reliance upon tobacco and furniture making to a more diversified economy with engineering, biotechnology, and finance sectors.
North Carolina has a wide range of elevations, from sea level on the coast to 6,684 feet (2,037 m) at Mount Mitchell, the highest point in the Eastern US. The climate of the coastal plains is strongly influenced by the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the state falls in the humid subtropical climate zone. More than 300 miles (500 km) from the coast, the western, mountainous part of the state has a subtropical highland climate.
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North Dakota
North Dakota (i/ˌnɔrθ dəˈkoʊtə/) is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Manitoba and Saskatchewan to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th most extensive, but the 3rd least populous and the 4th least densely populated of the 50 United States. North Dakota was created from the northern portion of the Dakota Territory and admitted to the Union on November 2, 1889, simultaneously with South Dakota.
The state capital is Bismarck and the largest city is Fargo. The primary public universities are located in Grand Forks and Fargo. The U.S. Air Force operates air bases at Minot AFB and Grand Forks AFB.
For more than a decade, the state has had a strong economy, with unemployment lower than the national average, job and population growth, and low housing vacancies. Much of the growth has been based on development of the Bakken oil shale fields in the western part of the state, but it has also had growth in the technology and service sectors. Flooding in June 2011 has caused extensive damage to Minot and threatened Bismarck, the capital city.
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Oklahoma
Oklahoma (i/ˌoʊkləˈhoʊmə/) (Pawnee: Uukuhuúwa , Cayuga: Gahnawiyoˀgeh ) is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. Oklahoma is the 20th most extensive and the 28th most populous of the 50 United States. The state's name is derived from the Choctaw words okla and humma, meaning "red people", and it is known informally by its nickname, The Sooner State. Formed by the combination of Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory on November 16, 1907, Oklahoma was the 46th state to enter the union. Its residents are known as Oklahomans or, informally "Okies", and its capital and largest city is Oklahoma City.
A major producer of natural gas, oil, and agriculture, Oklahoma relies on an economic base of aviation, energy, telecommunications, and biotechnology. It has one of the fastest growing economies in the nation, ranking among the top states in per capita income growth and gross domestic product growth. Oklahoma City and Tulsa serve as Oklahoma's primary economic anchors, with nearly 60 percent of Oklahomans living in their metropolitan statistical areas.
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South Dakota
South Dakota (i/ˌsaʊθ dəˈkoʊtə/) is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. South Dakota is the 17th most extensive, but the 5th least populous and the 5th least densely populated of the 50 United States. Once the southern portion of the Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. Pierre is the state capital and Sioux Falls, with a population of nearly 160,000, is South Dakota's largest city.
South Dakota is bordered by the states of North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana. The state is bisected by the Missouri River, dividing South Dakota into two geographically and socially distinct halves, known to residents as "East River" and "West River". Eastern South Dakota is home to most of the state's population, and fertile soil in this area is used to grow a variety of crops. West of the Missouri, ranching is the predominant agricultural activity, and the economy is more dependent on tourism and defense spending.
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Stanford Law School
Stanford Law School (also known as Stanford Law or SLS) is a graduate school at Stanford University located in the area known as the Silicon Valley, near Palo Alto, California in the United States. The Law School was established in 1893 when former President Benjamin Harrison joined the faculty as the first professor of law. It employs more than 80 faculty and hosts over 500 students who are working towards their Juris Doctor (J.D.) or other graduate legal degrees such as the Master of Laws (LL.M.) and the Doctor of the Science of Law (J.S.D.), giving it the smallest student body of any law school in the top 15 of the U.S. News & World Report annual ranking.
Stanford Law School has a small average class size of just 170, and maintains the nation's first Supreme Court litigation clinic. Recently, together with Harvard and Yale, it enacted "grade reform", eliminating traditional letter grades for students.
Stanford Law graduates include several of the first women to occupy Chief Justice or Associate Justice posts on supreme courts: current Chief Justice of New Zealand Sian Elias, retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, and the late Chief Justice of Washington Barbara Durham. Other justices of supreme courts who graduated from Stanford Law include the late Chief Justice of the United States William Rehnquist, current Montana Supreme Court Justice Brian Morris, retired Chief Justice of California Ronald M. George, retired California Supreme Court Justice Carlos R. Moreno, and the late California Supreme Court Justice Frank K. Richardson.
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Tennessee
Tennessee (i/tɛnɨˈsiː/) (Cherokee: ᏔᎾᏏ) is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. Tennessee is the 36th most extensive and the 17th most populous of the 50 United States. Tennessee is bordered by Kentucky and Virginia to the north, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to the south, and Arkansas and Missouri to the west. The Appalachian Mountains dominate the eastern part of the state, and the Mississippi River forms the state's western border. Tennessee's capital and second largest city is Nashville, which has a population of 626,144.Memphis is the state's largest city, with a population of 670,902.
The state of Tennessee is rooted in the Watauga Association, a 1772 frontier pact generally regarded as the first constitutional government west of the Appalachians. What is now Tennessee was initially part of North Carolina, and later part of the Southwest Territory. Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the 16th state on June 1, 1796. Tennessee was the last state to leave the Union and join the Confederacy at the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War in 1861, and the first state to be readmitted to the Union at the end of the war.
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Texas
Texas (i/ˈtɛksəs/) (Alibamu: Teksi ) is the second most populous and the second most extensive of the 50 United States, and the most extensive state of the 48 contiguous United States. The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in East Texas. Located in the South Central United States, Texas shares an international border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south, and borders the US states of New Mexico to the west, Oklahoma to the north, Arkansas to the northeast, and Louisiana to the east. Texas has an area of 268,820 square miles (696,200 km2), and a growing population of 25.7 million residents.
During the Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas: La Provincia de Texas. Antonio Margil de Jesús was known to be the first person to use the name in a letter to the Viceroy of Mexico in July 20, 1716. The name was not popularly used in daily speech but often appeared in legal documents until the end of the 1800s.
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Utah
Utah (/ˈjuːtɔː/ ori/ˈjuːtɑː/) (Arapaho: Wo'tééneihí' ) is a state in the Western United States. It became the 45th state admitted to the Union on January 4, 1896. Utah is the 13th-most extensive, the 34th-most populous, and the 10th-least-densely populated of the 50 United States. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,817,222 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the sixth most urbanized in the U.S. The name "Utah" is derived from the name of the Ute tribe and means "people of the mountains" in the Ute language. Utah is bordered by Arizona on the south, Colorado on the east, Wyoming on the northeast, Idaho on the north and Nevada on the west. It also touches a corner of New Mexico.
Utah is the most religiously homogeneous state in the Union. It is home to the Salt Lake Temple, and approximately 60% of Utahns are reported to be members of LDS Church which greatly influences Utah culture and daily life.
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Vermont
Vermonti/vɜrˈmɒnt/ is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Vermont is the 6th least extensive and the 2nd least populous of the 50 United States. It is the only New England state not bordering the Atlantic Ocean. Lake Champlain forms half of Vermont's western border, which it shares with the state of New York. The Green Mountains are within the state. Vermont is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north.
Originally inhabited by two major Native American tribes (the Algonquian-speaking Abenaki and the Iroquois), much of the territory that is now Vermont was claimed by France during its early colonial period. France ceded the territory to the Kingdom of Great Britain after being defeated in 1763 in the Seven Years' War (also called the French and Indian War). For many years, the nearby colonies, especially New Hampshire and New York, disputed control of the area (then called the New Hampshire Grants). Settlers who held land titles granted by these colonies were opposed by the Green Mountain Boys militia, which eventually prevailed in creating an independent state, the Vermont Republic. Founded in 1777 during the Revolutionary War, the republic lasted for fourteen years. Vermont is one of seventeen U.S. states (along with Texas, Hawaii, the brief California Republic, and each of the original Thirteen Colonies) to have had a sovereign government in the past. In 1791, Vermont joined the United States as the 14th state, the first outside the original 13 Colonies. It abolished slavery while still independent, and upon joining the Union became the first state to have done so.
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West Virginia
West Virginia (i/ˌwɛst vərˈdʒɪnjə/) is a state in the Appalachian region of the Eastern United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east. West Virginia is the 41st most extensive and the 37th most populous of the 50 United States. The capital and largest city is Charleston.
West Virginia became a state following the Wheeling Conventions and broke away from Virginia during the American Civil War. The new state was admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863, and was a key Civil War border state. West Virginia was the only state to form by seceding from a Confederate state, and was one of two states formed during the American Civil War (the other one being Nevada, which separated from Utah Territory).
The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the South. The northern panhandle extends adjacent to Pennsylvania and Ohio, with the West Virginia cities of Wheeling and Weirton just across the border from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, while Bluefield is less than 70 miles (110 km) from North Carolina. Huntington in the southwest is close to the states of Ohio and Kentucky, while Martinsburg and Harpers Ferry in the Eastern Panhandle region are considered to be a part of the Washington metropolitan area, in between the states of Maryland and Virginia. The unique position of West Virginia means that it is often included in several geographical regions, including the Mid-Atlantic, the Upland South, and the Southeastern United States. Notably, it is the only state that is entirely within the area served by the Appalachian Regional Commission; the area is commonly defined as "Appalachia".
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Wisconsin
Wisconsin (i/wɨsˈkɒnsɨn/) is a US state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin is the 23rd most extensive and the 20th most populous of the 50 United States. Wisconsin's capital is Madison, and its largest city is Milwaukee. The state is divided into 72 counties.
The word Wisconsin originates from the name given to the Wisconsin River by one of the Algonquian speaking American Indian groups living in the region at the time of European contact. French explorer Jacques Marquette was the first European to reach the Wisconsin River and record its name, arriving in 1673 and calling the river Meskousing in his journal. This spelling was later corrupted to Ouisconsin by other French explorers, and over time this version became the French name for both the Wisconsin River and the surrounding lands. English speakers anglicized the spelling to its modern form when they began to arrive in greater numbers during the early 19th century. The current spelling was made official by the legislature of Wisconsin Territory in 1845.
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Wyoming
Wyoming (i/waɪˈoʊmɪŋ/) is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. Wyoming is the 10th most extensive, but the least populous and the 2nd least densely populated of the 50 States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High Plains. Cheyenne is the capital and the most populous city of Wyoming with a population of nearly 60,000 people within its city proper.
As specified in the designating legislation for the Territory of Wyoming, Wyoming's borders are lines of latitude, 41°N and 45°N, and longitude, 104°3'W and 111°3'W (27° W and 34° W of the Washington Meridian), making the shape of the state a latitude-longitude quadrangle. Wyoming is one of only three states (along with Colorado and Utah) to have borders along only straight latitudinal and longitudinal lines, rather than being defined by natural landmarks. Due to surveying inaccuracies during the 19th century, Wyoming's legal border deviates from the true latitude and longitude lines by up to half of a mile (.8 km) in some spots, especially in the mountainous region along the 45th parallel. Wyoming is bordered on the north by Montana, on the east by South Dakota and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado, on the southwest by Utah, and on the west by Idaho. It is the ninth largest state in the United States in total area, containing 97,818 square miles (253,350 km2) and is made up of 23 counties. From the north border to the south border it is 276 miles (444 km); and from the east to the west border is 365 miles (587 km) at its south end and 342 miles (550 km) at the north end.
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Al Franken
Alan Stuart "Al" Franken (born May 21, 1951) is the junior United States Senator from Minnesota. He is a member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, which affiliates with the national Democratic Party.
Franken achieved note as a writer and performer for the television show Saturday Night Live from its conception in 1975 before moving to writing and acting in films and television shows. He then became a political commentator, author of five books and host of a nationally syndicated radio show on the Air America Radio network.
In 2008, Franken narrowly defeated incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman, by 312 votes, after a mandatory statewide manual recount. Coleman contested the outcome in court, but the Minnesota Supreme Court unanimously upheld Franken's victory on June 30, 2009. Franken was sworn in to the Senate on July 7, 2009.
Franken was born in New York City. His mother, Phoebe G. (née Kunst), was a homemaker and real estate agent, and his father, Joseph P. Franken, was a printing salesman. The family later moved to St. Louis Park, a suburb near Minneapolis. Franken had a Jewish upbringing. His paternal grandparents were immigrants from Germany, and his mother's family was from Russia. His older brother Owen is a photojournalist; MSNBC's Bob Franken is his cousin. Franken graduated in 1969 from The Blake School, where he was on the wrestling team. He attended Harvard College and graduated with an A.B. cum laude in 1973 in political science.
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Amy Klobuchar
Amy Jean Klobuchar (
/ˈkloʊbəʃɑr/, born May 25, 1960) is the senior United States Senator from Minnesota. She is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, an affiliate of the Democratic Party. She is the first elected female senator from Minnesota and is one of seventeen female senators serving in the 112th United States Congress.
Klobuchar was county attorney of Hennepin County, the most populous county in Minnesota. She was a legal adviser to former U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale and partner in two prominent law firms. She has been named by the New York Times as one of the seventeen women most likely to become the first female President of the United States and by MSNBC as a possible nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Klobuchar served as Minnesota's only senator between January 3 and July 7, 2009, due to the contested results of Minnesota's senatorial election held the previous year.
Born in Plymouth, Minnesota, Klobuchar is the daughter of Rose Katherine (née Heuberger), who retired at age 70 from teaching second grade, and Jim Klobuchar, an author and retired sportswriter and columnist for the Star Tribune. Jim Klobuchar's grandparents were Slovene immigrants to the U.S. and his father was a miner on the Iron Range; Amy Klobuchar's maternal grandparents were from Switzerland. Her husband, John Bessler, is an attorney in private practice and a professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law. A native of Mankato, Bessler attended Loyola High School, and is a graduate of the University of Minnesota.
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Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II (
i/bəˈrɑːk huːˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/; born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. In January 2005, Obama was sworn in as a U.S. Senator in the state of Illinois. He would hold this office until November 2008, when he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004.
Following an unsuccessful bid against the Democratic incumbent for a seat in the United States House of Representatives in 2000, Obama ran for the United States Senate in 2004. Several events brought him to national attention during the campaign, including his victory in the March 2004 Illinois Democratic primary for the Senate election and his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. He won election to the U.S. Senate in Illinois in November 2004. His presidential campaign began in February 2007, and after a close campaign in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries against Hillary Rodham Clinton, he won his party's nomination. In the 2008 presidential election, he defeated Republican nominee John McCain, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months later, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In April 2011, he announced that he would be running for re-election in 2012.
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Barbara Boxer
Barbara Levy Boxer (born November 11, 1940) is the junior United States Senator from California (since 1993). A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1983–1993).
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Boxer graduated from Brooklyn College. She worked as a stockbroker for several years before moving to California with her husband. During the 1970s, she worked as a journalist for the Pacific Sun and as an aide to U.S. Representative John L. Burton. She served on the Marin County Board of Supervisors for six years and become the board's first female president. With the slogan "Barbara Boxer Gives a Damn", she was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1982, representing California District 6. She sat on the House Armed Services Committee, and was involved in government oversight, passing several procurement reforms.
Boxer won the 1992 election for the U.S. Senate. She holds the record for the most popular votes in any U.S. Senate election in history, having received 6.96 million votes in her 2004 re-election. Boxer is the chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee and the chair of the Select Committee on Ethics, making her the only senator to preside over two committees simultaneously. She is also the Democratic Chief Deputy Whip.
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Barbara Mikulski
Barbara Ann Mikulski (born July 20, 1936) is the senior United States Senator from Maryland and a member of the Democratic Party. Mikulski, a former United States Representative, is the longest-serving female senator and the longest-serving woman in the history of the U.S. Congress, having served since 1977.
Raised in the Highlandtown neighborhood of East Baltimore, Mikulski attended Mount Saint Agnes College and the University of Maryland School of Social Work. Originally a social worker and community organizer, she was elected to the Baltimore City Council in 1971 after delivering a highly publicized address on the "ethnic movement" in America. She was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976, and in 1986 she became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Maryland.
Mikulski is chairwoman of the Health Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging and Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, and is a member of the Select Committee on Intelligence. Mikulski is the longest-serving present Senator who has never been the chairperson of a full standing committee of the U.S. Senate. She is also the longest-serving/highest-ranking Democrat who is not a present chairperson of a full standing committee.
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Ben Cardin
Benjamin Louis "Ben" Cardin (born October 5, 1943) is the junior United States Senator from Maryland and a member of the Democratic Party. Before his election to the Senate, Cardin was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Maryland's 3rd congressional district from 1987 to 2007. National Journal rates him as the third most liberal Democrat in the Senate.
Cardin was elected to succeed Paul Sarbanes in the 2006 U.S. Senate election, defeating Republican challenger Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele by a margin of 54%–44%.
Cardin was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Dora (née Green) and Meyer M. Cardin (1907–2005). The family name was originally Kardonsky before it was changed to Cardin by Cardin's paternal grandparents, Russian Jewish immigrants. His grandfather operated a neighborhood grocery store that later turned into a wholesale food distribution company. His father, Meyer Cardin, served in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1935 to 1937, and later sat on the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City from 1961 to 1977.
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Ben Nelson
Earl Benjamin "Ben" Nelson (born May 17, 1941) is the senior United States Senator from Nebraska, serving since 2001. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
Nelson entered politics in 1990, when he was elected the 37th Governor of Nebraska. He was re-elected in 1994 with 74% of the vote. Nelson ran for an open seat in the U.S. Senate in 1996, losing to Republican Chuck Hagel, and left the Governor's office in January 1999 due to term limits, after serving two full terms. Nelson was elected to the U.S. Senate in the 2000 election after incumbent Bob Kerrey retired.
On December 27, 2011, Nelson announced that he would not seek a third Senate term in 2012.
Nelson was born in McCook, in southwestern Nebraska. He is the only child of Birdella Ruby (née Henderson) and Benjamin Earl Nelson. He earned a B.A. in 1963, a M.A. in 1965, and a J.D. in 1970 from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Nelson made his name and money in the insurance industry. After graduating from law school, Nelson landed a job as assistant general counsel for Central National Insurance Group of Omaha. In 1975, he became state insurance director before going back to work for Central National Insurance as an executive vice president and eventually president. He won his first elected office in 1990 when he became governor of Nebraska.
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Bernie Sanders
Bernard "Bernie" Sanders (born September 8, 1941) is the junior United States Senator from Vermont. He previously represented Vermont's at-large district in the United States House of Representatives. Sanders also served as mayor of Burlington, Vermont.
Sanders is a self-described democratic socialist, and has praised European social democracy (though he has also criticized its contemporary "Third Way" departure). He is the first person elected to the U.S. Senate to identify as a socialist. Sanders caucuses with the Democratic Party and is counted as a Democrat for the purposes of committee assignments, but because he does not belong to a formal political party, he appears as an independent on the ballot. He was also the only independent member of the House during much of his service there.
Sanders, the son of Jewish Polish immigrants to the United States, was born in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from James Madison High School in Brooklyn and later attended the University of Chicago, graduating with an B.A. in political science in 1964. After graduating from college, Sanders spent time on an Israeli kibbutz, an experience which shaped his political views. In 1964, Sanders moved to Vermont, where he worked as a carpenter, filmmaker, writer and researcher, among other jobs.
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Bill Nelson
Clarence William "Bill" Nelson (born September 29, 1942) is the senior United States Senator from the state of Florida and a member of the Democratic Party. He is a former United States Representative and former Treasurer and Insurance Commissioner of Florida. In 1986, he became the second sitting member of the United States Congress to fly in space.
In 1972, Nelson was elected to the Florida House of Representatives. He was re-elected in 1974 and 1976. Nelson was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978. He served in the U.S. House from 1979 to 1991. In January 1986, he flew as a Payload Specialist on the Space Shuttle Columbia. After a failed gubernatorial race in 1990, he successfully ran for the office of Treasurer and Insurance Commissioner of Florida in 1994 and served for six years. In 2000, Nelson ran for U.S. Senate seat vacated by retiring Republican Senator Connie Mack. In the Senate he is generally considered a social moderate and economic liberal. He was re-elected in 2006 with 60 percent of the vote and is seeking re-election in 2012.
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Bill Valentine
William Terry "Bill" Valentine, Jr. (born November 21, 1932 in Little Rock, Arkansas) is a former professional baseball umpire who worked in the American League from 1963 to 1968. Valentine was an umpire in the 1965 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. In his career, he umpired 947 Major League games.
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Bob Corker
Robert Phillips "Bob" Corker, Jr. (born August 24, 1952) is the junior United States Senator from Tennessee. Before his election to the Senate in 2006, he served as mayor of Chattanooga, Tennessee from 2001 to 2005. Corker was a businessman prior to holding public office.
Corker was born in Orangeburg, South Carolina, the son of Jean J. (née Hutto) and Robert Phillips "Phil" Corker. He moved to Tennessee at the age of 11. He graduated from Chattanooga High School in 1970. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Management from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 1974. Corker is a member of Sigma Chi fraternity. He and his wife Elizabeth, whom he married on May 18, 1987, have two daughters. The family's permanent residence is at the Anne Haven mansion built by Coca-Cola Bottling Company heirs Anne Lupton and Frank Harrison.
After working four years as a construction superintendent, he started his own construction company, Bencor, which he sold in 1990. In 1999, he purchased the two largest real estate companies in Chattanooga, Osborne Building Corporation and the Stone Fort Land Company, making him the largest private land owner in Hamilton County, Tennessee. He sold most of these holdings in 2006 to Henry Luken. His business successes have made Corker a multimillionaire.
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Bob Menendez
Robert "Bob" Menendez (born January 1, 1954) is the junior United States Senator from New Jersey and a member of the Democratic Party. In January 2006, he was appointed to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Jon Corzine, who resigned upon being elected Governor of New Jersey. Menendez was elected to his own full six-year term in the 2006 U.S. Senate election.
Prior to his appointment to the U.S. Senate, Menendez was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing New Jersey's 13th congressional district. He previously served as Mayor of Union City (1986–1992) and as a member of the New Jersey General Assembly and the New Jersey Senate.
Following the 2008 elections, Menendez was appointed to head the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Bob Menendez was born on New Year's Day in New York City to Cuban immigrants who left their homeland a few months earlier, in 1953, seeking economic and political freedom from the repressive government headed by Fulgencio Batista. His father, Mario Menendez, was a carpenter, and his mother, Evangelina, a seamstress. The family subsequently moved to neighboring New Jersey where, growing up in Union City, he graduated from Union Hill High School.
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Bruce King
Bruce King (April 6, 1924 – November 13, 2009) was an American politician who served three terms as the governor of the state of New Mexico. He was a Democrat.
King was born in 1924 in Stanley, New Mexico. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II. After the war, he attended the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
King's career in politics began when he was elected to the Santa Fe Board of County Commissioners in 1954. He was re-elected and served as the chairman of the board during his second term.
In 1959, he was elected to the New Mexico House of Representatives. He served five consecutive terms in the House and during three of his terms he was Speaker of the House.
From 1968 to 1969, King was chairman of the state Democratic Party. In 1969 he was also the president of the State Constitutional Convention.
In 1970, King was elected as governor, defeating Republican Pete Domenici. He served as the 23rd, 25th and 28th Governor of New Mexico from 1971 until 1975, 1979 until 1983 and from 1991 until 1995. His terms were non-consecutive because the New Mexico constitution did not allow a governor to succeed him or her self prior to 1991. King became the first governor who could succeed himself and ran for re-election in 1994, but was defeated for a fourth term by Republican Gary Johnson.
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Carl Hatch
Carl Atwood Hatch (November 27, 1889 – September 15, 1963) was a Democratic Party politician from New Mexico who represented New Mexico in the United States Senate from 1933 until 1949.
Hatch was born in Kirwin, Kansas, and attended public schools in Kansas and Oklahoma. In 1912 he graduated from Cumberland School of Law at Cumberland University and in that year he was also admitted to the bar, whereupon he began practice in Eldorado, Oklahoma. In 1916 he moved to Clovis, New Mexico, where he continued his practice; from 1917 to 1918 he served as the state's assistant attorney general. He was the state collector of internal revenue from 1919 to 1921. From 1923 to 1929 Hatch served as the district judge of the ninth judicial district of New Mexico; from 1930 to 1933 he was a member of the state board of bar examiners.
In 1933, he was appointed to fill out the U.S. Senate term of Sam G. Bratton, who had resigned to accept a judicial post; he was elected in his own right in 1934, and reelected in 1936 and 1942. He served until 1949, choosing not to be renominated in 1948. He is best remembered for authoring the Hatch Act of 1939 and 1940, which served to prevent federal employees from engaging in political activity. He also served as the chairman of the Committee on Privileges and Elections, and served on the Committee on Public Lands and Surveys. In 1949 Hatch was appointed United States district judge for the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico, in which capacity he served until retiring in 1963. He died in Albuquerque, and is interred in Fairview Park Cemetery.
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Carl Levin
Carl Milton Levin (born June 28, 1934) is the senior United States Senator from Michigan, serving since 1979. He is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
He has been Michigan's senior senator since 1995. He has served as a U.S. Senator longer than any Senator in Michigan history. He was elected to a sixth term in 2008, which will end in January 2015. He is the younger brother of U.S. Representative Sander M. Levin.
Levin was born in Detroit, the son of Jewish parents Bess (née Levinson) and Saul R. Levin. He attended Detroit public schools and graduated from Swarthmore College in 1956 and from Harvard Law School in 1959. Soon after earning his law degree, he was admitted to the Michigan bar and opened a practice in Detroit, where he still lives. He received honorary degrees from Michigan State University in 2004, Wayne State University in 2005, and Michigan Technological University in 2008.
He was state assistant police officer and general counsel for the Michigan civil rights commission from 1964 to 1967. He was special assistant attorney general for the state of Michigan and chief appellate defender for the city of Detroit from 1968 to 1969. He was a member of the Detroit City Council from 1969 to 1977, serving two four-year terms, the last four years as council president.
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Chris Coons
Christopher Andrew "Chris" Coons (born September 9, 1963) is the junior United States senator from Delaware and a member of the Democratic Party. He won a special election in 2010 to succeed Joe Biden, who had resigned to become Vice President. Previously, Coons was the county executive of New Castle County. Coons is the 1983 Truman Scholar from Delaware, and the first recipient of the award to serve in the United States Senate.
A native of Hockessin, Delaware, Coons graduated from Amherst College and received graduate degrees from Yale Divinity School and Yale Law School. He went to work as a volunteer relief worker in Kenya, where he had taken classes in the University of Nairobi, later returning to the U.S. to work for the Coalition for the Homeless in New York. He spent some time as a legal clerk in New York before returning to Delaware in 1996, where he spent eight years as in-house counsel for a materials manufacturing company. In the interim he worked for several nonprofit organizations.
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Chuck Grassley
Charles Ernest "Chuck" Grassley (born September 17, 1933) is the senior United States Senator from Iowa, serving since 1981. A member of Republican Party, he previously served in the served in the United States House of Representatives (1975–1981) and the Iowa state legislature (1959–1974). He was chairman of the Senate Finance Committee from January to June 2001 and from January 2003 to December 2006. He is currently the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee.
Grassley was born in New Hartford, Iowa, the son of Ruth (née Corwin) and Louis Arthur Grassley, and graduated from the town high school. At Iowa State Teachers College (now the University of Northern Iowa), he earned a B.A. in 1955 and an M.A. in 1956. Also during the 1950s, Grassley farmed and worked in factories, first as a sheet metal shearer and then as an assembly line worker. He studied toward a Ph.D. in political science at the University of Iowa. In 1967-1968 Grassley taught at the now-defunct Charles City College.
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Chuck Schumer
Charles Ellis "Chuck" Schumer (/ˈʃuːmər/; born November 23, 1950) is the senior United States Senator from New York and a member of the Democratic Party. First elected in 1998, he defeated three-term Republican incumbent Al D'Amato by a margin of 55%–44%. He was easily re-elected in 2004 by a margin of 71%–24% and in 2010 by a margin of 66%–33%.
Before his election to the U.S. Senate, Schumer served in the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 1999. He represented New York's 16th congressional district, which was later redistricted to the 10th congressional district in 1983 and to the 9th congressional district in 1993. A native of Brooklyn and graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, he was a three-term member of the New York State Assembly, serving from 1975 to 1980.
Schumer was chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 2005 to 2009, in which post he oversaw a total of 14 Democratic gains in the Senate in the 2006 and 2008 elections. Elected Vice Chairman of the Democratic Caucus in the Senate, in 2006, he is the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, behind Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin. In November 2010, he was also chosen to hold the additional role of chairman of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee starting at the opening of the 112th Congress.
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Claire McCaskill
Claire Conner McCaskill (pronounced /məˈkæskəl/; born July 24, 1953) is the senior United States Senator from Missouri and a member of the Democratic Party. She defeated Republican incumbent Jim Talent in the 2006 United States Senate election, by a margin of 49.6% to 47.3%. She is the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Missouri in her own right. She became the state's senior U.S. Senator upon the retirement of Kit Bond in 2011.
Before her election to the U.S. Senate, McCaskill was State Auditor of Missouri from 1999 to 2007. She previously served as Jackson County Prosecutor (1993–1998) and a member of the Missouri House of Representatives (1983–1988). She was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Missouri in the 2004 gubernatorial election. She is a native of Rolla and graduate of the University of Missouri.
In the U.S. Senate, McCaskill serves as a member of the Committee on Armed Services, Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and Special Committee on Aging. She is chairperson of the Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight.
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Dan Coats
Daniel Ray "Dan" Coats (born May 16, 1943) is the junior United States Senator from Indiana and member of the Republican Party. He was in the United States Senate from 1989 to 1999, retired, and then returned in 2011.
Born in Jackson, Michigan, Coats graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois and Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. He served in the U.S. Army from 1966 to 1968. Before serving in the U.S. Senate, Coats was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Indiana's 4th congressional district from 1981 to 1989. He was appointed to fill the seat vacated by Dan Quayle following Quayle's election as Vice President of the United States in 1988. Coats won the 1990 special election to serve the remainder of Quayle's unexpired term, as well as the 1992 election for a full six-year term. He did not seek reelection in 1998, and was succeeded by Evan Bayh.
After retiring from the Senate, Coats served as U.S. Ambassador to Germany from 2001 to 2005, and then worked as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. He was re-elected to the Senate by a large margin in 2010, succeeding Bayh, who announced his own retirement shortly after Coats declared his candidacy. Along with Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, he is one of two current Senators to have returned to the Senate after having retired from the Senate.
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Daniel Akaka
Daniel Kahikina Akaka (/əˈkɑːkə/; born September 11, 1924) is the junior United States Senator from Hawaii and a member of the Democratic Party. He is the first U.S. Senator of Native Hawaiian ancestry and is currently the only member of the Senate who has Chinese ancestry.
Born in Honolulu, he served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during World War II. He attended the University of Hawaii, where he received his bachelor's and master's degrees. Originally a high school teacher, he went on to serve as a principal for six years. In 1969, he was hired by the Department of Education as a chief program planner. In the 1970s he served in various governmental positions. He was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1976 to represent Hawaii's Second Congressional District, and he served for 13 years. In 1990 he was appointed to the U.S. Senate to succeed the deceased Spark Matsunaga. Akaka would later be re-elected to three full terms. In March 2011 he announced that he will not run for re-election in 2012.
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Daniel Inouye
Daniel Ken "Dan" Inouye (/ɨˈnoʊweɪ/; Japanese: 井上 建, Inoue Ken; born September 7, 1924) is the senior United States Senator from Hawaii, a member of the Democratic Party, and the President pro tempore of the United States Senate making him the highest-ranking Asian American politician in American history. Inouye is the chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations.
A senator since 1963, Inouye is the most senior senator. He is also the second longest serving U.S. Senator in history after Robert Byrd. Inouye has continuously represented Hawaii in the U.S. Congress since it achieved statehood in 1959, serving as Hawaii's first U.S. Representative and later a senator. Inouye was the first Japanese-American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives and later the first in the U.S. Senate. At age 87, Inouye is the second-oldest current senator, after 88 year-old Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey. He is also a recipient of the United States Medal of Honor, as well as other military awards.
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David Vitter
David Bruce Vitter (born May 3, 1961) is the junior United States Senator from Louisiana and a member of the Republican Party. Previously, he served in the United States House of Representatives, representing the suburban Louisiana's 1st congressional district. He served as a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives before entering the U.S. House.
In July 2007, Vitter was identified as a client of a prostitution service. He won a second Senate term in 2010, defeating a Democratic challenge from U.S. Representative Charlie Melancon of Napoleonville, the seat of Assumption Parish. In the Republican primary held on August 28, 2010, Vitter handily defeated former Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Chet D. Traylor of Monroe, formerly from Winnsboro.
Vitter was born in New Orleans, the son of Audrey Malvina (née St. Raymond) and Albert Leopold Vitter, and graduated in 1979 from De La Salle High School. He received an A.B. from Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1983; a B.A. from Oxford University in 1985, as a Rhodes Scholar; and a J.D. from the Tulane University Law School in New Orleans in 1988. He was a lawyer, and adjunct law professor at Tulane and Loyola University New Orleans.
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Dean Heller
Dean A. Heller (born May 10, 1960) is the junior United States Senator from Nevada and a member of the Republican Party. Heller was appointed by Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval to a vacant seat created by the resignation of John Ensign. He was previously a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Nevada's 2nd congressional district from 2007 to 2011. Prior to that he served as Secretary of State of Nevada (1994–2006) and a member of the Nevada Assembly (1990–1994). He announced that he will run in the 2012 election for the United States Senate seat to which he was appointed.
Heller is long time resident of Carson City—moving there from his birthplace of Castro Valley, California, at the age of 9 months—and a graduate of Carson High School. He earned a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration, specializing in finance and securities analysis, from the University of Southern California in 1985. Prior to entering politics, Heller worked as an institutional stockbroker and as a broker/trader on the Pacific Stock Exchange.
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Debbie Stabenow
Deborah Ann "Debbie" Greer Stabenow (born April 29, 1950) is the junior United States Senator from Michigan and a member of the Democratic Party. Before her election to the U.S. Senate, she was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Michigan's 8th congressional district from 1997 to 2001. She previously served as a member of the Ingham County Board of Commissioners, Michigan House of Representatives, and Michigan Senate.
Stabenow defeated first-term Republican incumbent Spencer Abraham in the 2000 U.S. Senate election, becoming the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Michigan. She and Maria Cantwell were the first women to defeat incumbent Senators in a general election. Stabenow was re-elected easily in 2006, receiving 57% of the vote.
Stabenow currently serves as Chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Her current Senate term ends in January 2013 and she is seeking re-election to the seat in November 2012.
Stabenow was born in Gladwin, Michigan, the daughter of Anna Merle (née Hallmark) and Robert Lee Greer. She grew up in Clare, Michigan, where her father and grandfather owned an auto dealership. She graduated from Clare High School. She received a B.A. from Michigan State University in 1972 and a M.S.W. magna cum laude from Michigan State University in 1975.
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Dennis Chavez
Dionisio "Dennis" Chavez (April 8, 1888 – November 18, 1962) was a Democratic politician from the U.S. State of New Mexico who served in the United States House of Representatives, and in the United States Senate from 1935 to 1962.
Chavez was born in Los Chaves, Valencia County, New Mexico. His parents, David and Paz Chavez, were members of families that had lived in Los Chaves for generations. In 1895, David Chavez moved his family to the Barelas section of Albuquerque where Dennis attended school until financial hardships necessitated that he work. His first job was delivering groceries at the Highland Grocery store. Later on, he studied engineering and surveying at night, and worked as an engineer for the City of Albuquerque for several years.
In 1911, Chavez married Imelda Espinosa, a member of a prominent New Mexico family. In 1914, they moved to Belen. He worked briefly as editor of a Belen weekly newspaper, as a court interpreter, and as a private contractor until 1916, when he obtained temporary employment as a Spanish interpreter for Senator Andrieus A. Jones' election campaign. In 1917, he was offered a position as assistant executive clerk of the Senate in Washington, D.C. by Senator Jones. He accepted this position, passed a special admission exam at Georgetown University Law Center and studied law at night. He graduated from Georgetown in 1920, and returned to Albuquerque to establish a law practice.
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Dianne Feinstein
Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein ( /ˈfaɪnstaɪn/; born June 22, 1933) is the senior United States Senator from California. A member of the Democratic Party, she has served in the Senate since 1992. She also served as 38th Mayor of San Francisco from 1978 to 1988.
Born in San Francisco, Feinstein graduated from Stanford University. In the 1960s she worked in city government, and in 1970 she was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. She served as the board's first female president in 1978, during which time the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk drew national attention to the city. Feinstein, who was the first to discover the shootings, succeeded Moscone as mayor. During her tenure as San Francisco's first female mayor she took a politically moderate stance, leading a revamp of the city's cable car system and overseeing the 1984 Democratic National Convention.
After a failed gubernatorial campaign in 1990, she won a 1992 special election to the U.S. Senate. Feinstein was first elected on the same ballot as her peer Barbara Boxer, and the two became California's first female U.S. Senators. Feinstein formerly chaired the Senate Rules Committee (2007–2009) and has chaired the Select Committee on Intelligence since 2009. She is also the first woman to have presided over a U.S. presidential inauguration.
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Dick Durbin
Richard Joseph "Dick" Durbin (born November 21, 1944) is the senior United States Senator from Illinois and the Senate Majority Whip, the second highest position in the Democratic Party leadership in the Senate.
Born in East St. Louis, Illinois, he graduated from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and Georgetown University Law Center. Working in state legal counsel throughout the 1970s, he made an unsuccessful run for Lieutenant Governor of Illinois in 1978. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, representing the Springfield-based 20th congressional district. In 1996 he won election to the U.S. Senate by an unexpected 15-point margin. He has served as Senate Democratic Whip since 2005, and assumed his current title when the Democratic Party obtained a majority in 2007.
Durbin was born in East St. Louis, Illinois to an Irish-American father, William Durbin, and a Lithuanian-born mother, Anna (née Kutkin; Lithuanian: Ona Kutkaitė). He graduated from Assumption High School in East St. Louis in 1962. During his high school years he worked at a meatpacking plant. He earned a B.S. from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1966. He was an intern in the office of Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois during his senior year in college. Durbin earned his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1969 and was admitted to the Illinois bar later that year.
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Frank Lautenberg
Frank Raleigh Lautenberg (/ˈlɔːtənbɜrɡ/; born January 23, 1924) is the senior United States Senator from New Jersey and a member of the Democratic Party. He first served in the United States Senate from 1982 to 2001; after a brief retirement, he was re-elected to the Senate and has served since 2003. At age 88, Lautenberg is the oldest current senator. Before entering politics, he was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Automatic Data Processing, Inc.
Lautenberg was born in Paterson, New Jersey, to Sam and Mollie Lautenberg, impoverished Jewish immigrants from Poland and Russia who had arrived in the United States as infants. When Lautenberg was 19, his father, Sam, who worked in silk mills, sold coal, farmed and once ran a tavern, died of cancer. Frank Lautenberg had no formal Jewish education as a child; the family could not afford to join a synagogue and did not live very long in any single place.
Lautenberg served overseas in the United States Army Signal Corps in World War II after graduating from Nutley High School. Then, financed by the GI Bill, he attended and graduated from Columbia Business School in 1949 with a degree in economics. He was the first salesman at successful Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) and was its chairman and CEO. He was the executive commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey from 1978 to 1982.
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Frank Murkowski
Frank Hughes Murkowski (/mərˈkaʊski/; born March 28, 1933) is an American politician and a member of the Republican Party. He was a United States Senator from Alaska from 1981 until 2002 and the eighth Governor of Alaska from 2002 until 2006.
Born in Seattle, Washington, the son of Frank and Helen (née Hughes), Murkowski attended Ketchikan High School in Alaska, graduating in 1951. Studying at Santa Clara University from 1951 to 1953, he gained a BS in economics from Seattle University in 1955. Thereafter, he served in the United States Coast Guard until 1957 - the same year his daughter Lisa was born. After a stint at Pacific National Bank and further study at Pacific Coast Banking School, Murkowski became Alaska's youngest commissioner at the time when he was appointed Commissioner of Economic Development, aged 33, and was elevated to the presidency of the Alaska National Bank of the North in 1971. He has also headed the Alaska Bankers Association and - in 1977 - the Alaska State Chamber of Commerce.
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Harrison Schmitt
Harrison Hagan "Jack" Schmitt (born July 3, 1935) is an American geologist, a retired NASA astronaut, university professor, and a former U.S. senator from New Mexico.
He was the twelfth and last of the Apollo astronauts to arrive and set foot on the Moon, as Apollo 17 crewmate Eugene Cernan exited the Apollo Lunar Module first. However, as Schmitt re-entered the module first, Cernan became the last astronaut to walk on and depart the moon. Schmitt is also the only geologist as well as the only person to have walked on the Moon who was never a member of the United States Armed Forces, although he is not the first civilian, since Neil Armstrong left military service prior to his landing in 1969.
Born in Santa Rita, New Mexico, Schmitt grew up in nearby Silver City. He received a B.S. degree in geology from the California Institute of Technology in 1957 and then spent a year for graduate studying geology at the University of Oslo in Norway. He received a Ph.D. in geology from Harvard University in 1964, based on his geological field studies in Norway. He is the most resent too!
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Harry Reid
Harry Mason Reid (born December 2, 1939) is the senior United States Senator from Nevada, serving since 1987. A member of the Democratic Party, he has been the Senate Majority Leader since January 2007, having previously served as Minority Leader and Minority and Majority Whip.
Previously, Reid was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Nevada's 1st congressional district, and served in Nevada local and state government as city attorney of Henderson, a state legislator, the 25th Lieutenant Governor, and chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission.
As Senate Majority Leader and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Harry Reid has achieved a more senior elected position in the United States government than any Mormon in history.
Reid was born in Searchlight, Nevada, the third of the four sons of Inez Orena (née Jaynes), a laundress, and Harry Vincent Reid, a miner. His paternal grandmother was an English immigrant from Darlston, Staffordshire. Reid's boyhood home had no indoor toilet, hot water or telephone. Searchlight had no high school, so Reid boarded with relatives 40 miles away in Henderson, Nevada to attend Basic High School where he played football, and was an amateur boxer. While at Basic High he met future Nevada governor Mike O'Callaghan, who was a teacher there. Reid attended Southern Utah University and graduated from Utah State University where he double majored in political science and history. Reid also minored in economics from the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business. He then went to George Washington University Law School earning a J.D. while working for the United States Capitol Police.
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Herb Kohl
Herbert H. "Herb" Kohl (born February 7, 1935) is the senior United States Senator from Wisconsin and a member of the Democratic Party. He is also a philanthropist and the owner of the Milwaukee Bucks National Basketball Association (NBA) team. He has announced he will not seek re-election in 2012.
Kohl was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and attended Washington High School. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1956 and a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School in 1958. While an undergraduate, he joined the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity. Between 1958 and 1964, Kohl was a member of the United States Army Reserve.
After finishing graduate school, Kohl worked as an investor in real estate and the stock market, eventually spinning off his own company, Kohl Investments, to manage these assets. He and his brother became heir to a family-owned chain that included 50 grocery stores and several department stores, pharmacies, and liquor stores. In 1970, Kohl was named President of Kohl's and he helped to oversee the merger of his corporation with BATUS Inc. in 1972. Kohl stayed on as an executive until 1979. Before his election to the Senate, Kohl helped build his family-owned business, Kohl's grocery and department stores. He served as president from 1970 until the sale of the corporation in 1979.
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Jay Rockefeller
John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV (born June 18, 1937) is the senior United States Senator from West Virginia. He was first elected to the Senate in 1984, while in office as Governor of West Virginia, a position he held from 1977 to 1985. Rockefeller moved to Emmons, West Virginia to serve as a VISTA worker in 1964, and was first elected to public office in the state, as a member of the House of Delegates, in 1966. Rockefeller was later elected Secretary of State in 1968 and was president of West Virginia Wesleyan College from 1973 to 1976.
As a great-grandson of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, he is the only currently-serving politician of the prominent six-generation Rockefeller family and the only Democrat in what has been a traditionally Republican dynasty.
John Davison Rockefeller IV was born at New York Hospital in New York City to John D. Rockefeller III and Blanchette Ferry Hooker just 26 days after the death of his great-grandfather John D. Rockefeller. Jay Rockefeller graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1955 and from Harvard College in 1961 with an A.B. in Far Eastern Languages and History, after having spent three years studying Japanese at the International Christian University in Tokyo.
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Jeanne Shaheen
Jeanne Shaheen (born Cynthia Jeanne Bowers; January 28, 1947) is an American politician, a member of the Democratic Party, and the senior United States Senator from New Hampshire. The first woman in U.S. history to be elected as both a Governor and U.S. Senator, she was the first woman to be elected Governor of New Hampshire, serving from 1997 to 2003. Shaheen ran for the United States Senate in 2002, but was narrowly defeated by Republican challenger John E. Sununu. She then served as Director of the Harvard Institute of Politics, before resigning to run again for the U.S. Senate in the 2008 election, defeating Sununu in a rematch. Shaheen is the first Democratic senator from New Hampshire since John A. Durkin, who was defeated in 1980, and is currently the most junior senior Senator.
Shaheen was born Cynthia Jeanne Bowers in Saint Charles, Missouri, the daughter of Belle E. and Ivan E. Bowers. She is the wife of Lebanese-American attorney and political operative Bill Shaheen. They have three children. She graduated from high school in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, and earned a bachelor's degree in English from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania and a master's degree from the University of Mississippi. She taught high school in Mississippi and moved to New Hampshire in 1973, where she taught school and owned a small business.
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Jeff Bingaman
Jesse Francis "Jeff" Bingaman, Jr. (born October 3, 1943) is the senior United States Senator from New Mexico and a member of the Democratic Party. He serves as Chairman of Committee Outreach for the Senate Democratic Caucus.
Previously, Bingaman was Attorney General of New Mexico.
On February 18, 2011, Bingaman announced that he would not seek re-election in 2012.
Bingaman was born in El Paso, Texas, the son of Frances Bethia (née Ball) and Jesse Francis Bingaman. He grew up in Silver City, New Mexico. His father taught at Western New Mexico University and his mother taught in the public schools system. At age 15, he earned the rank of Eagle Scout. The Boy Scouts of America later presented Bingaman with their Distinguished Eagle Scout Award.
After graduating from Silver High School, Bingaman went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in government from Harvard University in 1965. He then entered Stanford Law School, graduating in 1968. He met his wife Anne Kovacovich while attending law classes. They have one son.
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Jeff Merkley
Jeffrey Alan "Jeff" Merkley (born October 24, 1956) is the junior United States Senator from Oregon. A member of the Democratic Party, Merkley was a five-term member of the Oregon Legislative Assembly representing House District 47, located in eastern Multnomah County within the Portland city limits. He also served as Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives.
He defeated two-term Republican incumbent Gordon Smith in the 2008 U.S. Senate election.
Merkley was born in Myrtle Creek, Oregon, the son of Betty L. and Darrell Philip Merkley. His paternal grandmother was born in Caliope, Australia. He attended first grade in Roseburg before moving to Portland with his family. He graduated from David Douglas High School, obtained a bachelor of arts degree in International Relations from Stanford University in 1979, and earned a Master of Public Policy degree from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University in 1982.
After completing his master's in 1982, Merkley was selected as a Presidential Management Fellow, working at the Office of the Secretary of Defense on the security of American military technology. After his fellowship, he worked in the Congressional Budget Office, analyzing nuclear weapons policies and programs.
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Jeff Sessions
Jefferson Beauregard "Jeff" Sessions III (born December 24, 1946) is the junior United States Senator from Alabama. First elected in 1996, Sessions is a member of the Republican Party. He serves as the ranking minority member on the Senate Budget Committee.
Raised in the town of Hybart in Monroe County, Alabama, Sessions graduated from Huntingdon College in Montgomery and the University of Alabama School of Law. In the 1970s he worked in private practice and rose to the rank of captain in the U.S. Army Reserve. From 1981 to 1993 he served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama. President Ronald Reagan nominated him to a judgeship on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama in 1986, but the Senate confirmation failed after it was alleged that he had made racist remarks to a colleague. Sessions was elected to Attorney General of Alabama in 1994. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996 and easily re-elected in 2002 and 2008. He and his colleague Richard Shelby are the state's first two-term Republican Senators since Reconstruction.
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Jerry Moran
Gerald W. "Jerry" Moran (born May 29, 1954) is the junior United States Senator from Kansas and a member of the Republican Party. Previously, he served as a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Kansas's 1st congressional district.
Raised in Plainville, Kansas, Moran graduated from the University of Kansas and the University of Kansas School of Law. He worked in private law and served as the state special assistant attorney general (1982–85) and deputy attorney of Rooks County (1987–95). He served in the Kansas Senate (1989–1997), and was majority leader for his last two years. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1996 and served six terms with little electoral opposition. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in a landslide in 2010. He is the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government and has a strongly conservative voting record.
Moran was born in Great Bend, Kansas, the son of Madeline Eleanor (née Fletcher) and Raymond Edwin "Ray" Moran. He was raised in Plainville. He attended Fort Hays State University before enrolling at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in economics in 1976. While attending the University of Kansas, he worked as a summer intern for U.S. Representative Keith Sebelius in 1974, when impeachment proceedings were being prepared against President Richard Nixon.
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Jim DeMint
James Warren "Jim" DeMint (born September 2, 1951) is the junior United States Senator from South Carolina, serving since 2005. He is a member of the Republican Party and a leading member in the Tea Party movement. He previously served as the United States Representative for South Carolina's 4th congressional district from 1999 to 2005.
DeMint was born in Greenville, South Carolina, one of four children. His parents, Betty W. (née Rawlings) and Thomas Eugene DeMint, divorced when he was five years old. Following the divorce, Betty DeMint operated a dance studio out of the family's home.
DeMint was educated at Christ Church Episcopal School and Wade Hampton High School in Greenville. DeMint played drums for a cover band called Salt & Pepper. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee, where he was a part of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, and received a MBA from Clemson University.
DeMint worked in the field of market research. In 1983 he founded The Demint Group, a research firm based in Greenville, and ran the company until 1998 when he entered Congress.
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Jim Inhofe
James Mountain "Jim" Inhofe (/ˈɪnhɒf/; born November 17, 1934) is the senior United States Senator from Oklahoma and a member of the Republican Party. First elected to the Senate in 1994, he is the ranking member of the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and was its chairman from 2003 to 2007. Inhofe served eight years as the United States Representative for Oklahoma's 1st congressional district before his election to the Senate in 1994 and also previously served as both an Oklahoma State Representative and Senator.
Inhofe was born in Des Moines, Iowa and moved with his family to Tulsa, Oklahoma, when he was a child. He was a member of the Class of 1953 at Tulsa Central High School, and served in the United States Army from 1957 to 1958. Inhofe received a B.A. degree from the University of Tulsa in 1973.
Inhofe worked as a businessman for three decades before becoming a full-time politician. He worked in the field of aviation, as a real estate developer, and in insurance, eventually becoming the president of the Quaker Life Insurance Company. During the time he worked for Quaker Life, the company went into receivership; it was liquidated in 1986.
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Jim Risch
James Elroy "Jim" Risch (born May 3, 1943) is a Republican politician, rancher, and attorney from Ada County, currently serving as the junior United States Senator from Idaho. He previously served as the 39th and 41st Lieutenant Governor (2003–2006, 2007–2009) and the 31st Governor (2006–2007) of Idaho.
Risch was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Helen B. (née Levi) and Elroy A. Risch. His father was of German descent and his mother was of Irish, Scottish, and English ancestry. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee from 1961 to 1963, then transferred to the University of Idaho where he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He obtained his B.S. in Forestry in 1965 and continued his education at the university's College of Law, serving on Law Review, and receiving his J.D. in 1968.
Risch entered politics in 1970, at age 27, winning election as Ada County Prosecuting Attorney. While serving in this capacity, he taught undergraduate classes in criminal justice at Boise State University and served as the President of the Idaho Prosecuting Attorneys Association.
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Jim Webb
James Henry "Jim" Webb, Jr. (born February 9, 1946) is the senior United States Senator from Virginia. He is also an author and a former Secretary of the Navy. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
A 1968 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Webb served as a Marine Corps infantry officer until 1972, and is a highly decorated Vietnam War combat veteran. During his four years with the Reagan administration, Webb served as the first Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, then as Secretary of the Navy.
Webb won the Democratic nomination for the 2006 Virginia Senate race by defeating Harris Miller in the primary, then won the general election by defeating the Republican incumbent George Allen. Webb's thin margin in the general election (less than 0.5%) kept the outcome uncertain for nearly two days after polls closed on November 7, 2006, and provided the final seat that tilted the Senate to Democratic control. On his sixty-fifth birthday, he announced that he will not seek re-election in 2012, saying that he does not want to spend his whole life in politics, and that he wants to return to the private sector.
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Joe Lieberman
Joseph Isadore "Joe" Lieberman (born February 24, 1942) is the senior United States Senator from Connecticut. A former member of the Democratic Party, he was the party's nominee for Vice President in the 2000 election. Currently an independent, he remains closely affiliated with the party.
Born in Stamford, Connecticut, Lieberman is a graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School. He was elected as a "reform Democrat" in 1970 to the Connecticut Senate, where he served three terms as Majority Leader. After an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1980, he served as state Attorney General from 1983 to 1989. Lieberman defeated moderate Republican Lowell Weicker in 1988 to win election to the United States Senate and was re-elected in 1994 and 2000. In the 2000 United States presidential election, Lieberman was the Democratic nominee for Vice President, running with presidential nominee Al Gore, becoming the first Jewish candidate on a major American political party presidential ticket. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2004 presidential election.
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Joe Manchin
Joseph "Joe" Manchin III (born August 24, 1947) is the junior United States Senator representing West Virginia. Manchin, a Democrat, was Governor of West Virginia from 2005 to 2010. He won the special election in November 2010 to fill the seat of Robert Byrd, who had died in office; the term ends January 3, 2013.
Manchin was born in Farmington, West Virginia, in 1947, the second of five children of Mary (née Gouzd) and John Manchin. His grandparents were Italian and Czechoslovakian immigrants. His father owned a carpet and furniture store. His grandfather, Joe Manchin I, owned a grocery store. Both his father and his grandfather were elected as Mayor of Farmington, West Virginia. His uncle James Manchin was a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates and was elected statewide as West Virginia Secretary of State and West Virginia State Treasurer. Manchin graduated from Farmington High School in 1965.
Manchin entered West Virginia University on a football scholarship in 1965; however, an injury during practice ended his football career. He graduated in 1970 with a degree in information management and later became involved in several family-owned businesses.
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John Barrasso
John Anthony Barrasso III (pronounced /bəˈrɑːsoʊ/; born July 21, 1952) is the junior United States Senator from Wyoming and a member of the Republican Party. He was appointed to the Senate following Craig L. Thomas's death and won a special election in 2008 to fill the remaining four years of Thomas's term.
Barrasso was born in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1952, the son of Louise M. (née DeCisco) and John Anthony Barrasso, Jr. He is of Italian descent. He is a 1970 graduate of Central Catholic High School in Reading, PA. Barrasso began his college career at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (where he became a member of Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity) and transferred to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., graduating with a bachelor of science degree in 1974. He also received his M.D. degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1978. He conducted his residency at Yale Medical School in New Haven, Connecticut.
In addition to his private orthopedic practice, Barrasso was Chief of Staff of the Wyoming Medical Center, State President of the Wyoming Medical Society, President of the National Association of Physician Broadcasters, and a member of the American Medical Association Council of Ethics and Judicial Affairs.
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John Boozman
John Nichols Boozman (pronounced /ˈboʊzmən/ BOHZ-mən; born December 10, 1950) is the junior United States Senator for Arkansas (since 2011). A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the United States Representative for Arkansas's 3rd congressional district (2001–2011).
Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, he was the brother of state Senator Fay Boozman. He attended the University of Arkansas, where he played football for the Arkansas Razorbacks, and graduated from the Southern College of Optometry. He co-founded a private optometry clinic in 1977 and worked as a volunteer optometrist for low-income families. He won a special election in 2002 to the United States House of Representatives, where he served as assistant majority whip and sat on the Republican Policy Committee. He was an advocate for drug policy issues and chaired the Veteran Affairs Economic Opportunity Subcommittee, where he led the passage of bills expanding services for unemployed veterans.
Boozman was elected to the United States Senate in 2010, defeating Democratic incumbent Blanche Lincoln by a 21 point margin, and took office in January 2011. He is the ranking Republican on the Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Forestry and Natural Resources, the Commerce Subcommittee on Science and Space, and the Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Green Jobs and the New Economy.
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John Cornyn
John Cornyn III (born February 2, 1952) is the junior United States Senator for Texas, serving since 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party. He was elected Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee for the 111th U.S. Congress.
John Cornyn was voted one of the "most conservative congressman" by the National Journal in 2010.
Cornyn was born in Houston, the son of Atholene Gale Cornyn (née Danley) and John Cornyn II, a colonel in the U.S.A.F. He graduated from Trinity University in 1973, where he majored in journalism and was a member of Chi Delta Tau. He earned a J.D. from St. Mary's University School of Law in 1977 and an LL.M. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1995.
He served in San Antonio for six years as a district judge before being elected as a Republican in 1990 to the Texas Supreme Court, on which he served for seven years.
In 1998, Cornyn decided to run to become Texas Attorney General. In the March primary, Barry Williamson, Railroad Commissioner, placed first with 38% of the vote but failed to get the 50% threshold necessary to win the Republican nomination. Cornyn, then-State Supreme Court Justice, got second place with 32% and Tom Pauken, former Chairman of the Texas Republican party, got third place with 30%. In the April run-off election, Cornyn defeated Williamson 58% to 42%. In the general election, Cornyn defeated Jim Mattox, former U.S. Congressman and Attorney General (1983–1991), with 54% of the vote. Cornyn became only the second Republican to have held the position.
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John Hoeven
John Henry Hoeven III (born March 13, 1957) is the junior United States Senator from North Dakota. A member of the North Dakota Republican Party, he previously served as the 31st Governor of North Dakota from December 2000 to December 2010.
Prior to his election to the Governor's office, Hoeven served as the President of the nation's only state-owned bank, the Bank of North Dakota, from 1993 to 2000. Hoeven was elected to the U.S. Senate in the November 2, 2010 general election. He replaced junior Senator Byron L. Dorgan, who chose not to seek re-election. He was the longest-serving sitting Governor in the United States at the time of his resignation.
Immediately upon Hoeven's resignation as governor on December 7, 2010, Jack Dalrymple, who was the sitting lieutenant governor of North Dakota, automatically succeeded Hoeven as governor in accordance with the gubernatorial succession provisions of the Constitution of North Dakota.
Hoeven was born in Bismarck, North Dakota, the son of Patricia "Trish" (née Chapman) and John Henry "Jack" Hoeven, Jr. His ancestry includes Dutch, Swedish, and English. He attended Dartmouth College, where he belonged to the Alpha Chi Alpha Fraternity and graduated with honors. He then earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and was a banker in Minot, North Dakota prior to pursuing a political career. From 1993 to 2000, he was the president and CEO of the state-owned Bank of North Dakota.
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John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior United States Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to then President George W. Bush.
The son of an Army Air Corps serviceman, Kerry was born in Aurora, Colorado. He attended boarding school in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and went on to graduate from Yale University class of 1966, where he majored in political science. He enlisted in the Naval Reserve in 1966 and, during 1968-1969, served a four-month tour of duty in South Vietnam as officer-in-charge (OIC) of a Swift Boat. For that service he was awarded several combat medals that include the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts. After returning to the United States, Kerry joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War in which he served as a nationally recognized spokesperson and as an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam war. During that period, he appeared before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs where he deemed United States war policy in Vietnam to be the cause of "war crimes".
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John McCain
John Sidney McCain III (born August 29, 1936) is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican presidential nominee in the 2008 United States election.
McCain followed his father and grandfather, both four-star admirals, into the United States Navy, graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1958. He became a naval aviator, flying ground-attack aircraft from aircraft carriers. During the Vietnam War, he was almost killed in the 1967 USS Forrestal fire. In October 1967, while on a bombing mission over Hanoi, he was shot down, seriously injured, and captured by the North Vietnamese. He was a prisoner of war until 1973. McCain experienced episodes of torture, and refused an out-of-sequence early repatriation offer. His war wounds left him with lifelong physical limitations.
He retired from the Navy as a captain in 1981 and moved to Arizona, where he entered politics. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, he served two terms, and was then elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986, winning re-election easily four times, most recently in 2010. While generally adhering to conservative principles, McCain at times has had a media reputation as a "maverick" for his willingness to disagree with his party on certain issues. After being investigated and largely exonerated in a political influence scandal of the 1980s as a member of the Keating Five, he made campaign finance reform one of his signature concerns, which eventually led to the passage of the McCain-Feingold Act in 2002. He is also known for his work towards restoring diplomatic relations with Vietnam in the 1990s, and for his belief that the war in Iraq should be fought to a successful conclusion. McCain has chaired the Senate Commerce Committee, opposed spending that he considered to be pork barrel, and played a key role in alleviating a crisis over judicial nominations.
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John Thune
John Randolph Thune (born January 7, 1961) is the junior United States Senator from South Dakota and a member of the Republican Party. He previously served as a United States Representative for South Dakota's At-large congressional district.
Thune was born in the small town of Murdo, South Dakota, the son of Yvonne Patricia (née Bodine) and Harold Richard Thune. Thune's paternal grandfather was an immigrant from Norway who partnered with his brother to start Thune Hardware stores in Mitchell and Murdo, South Dakota. His maternal grandfather was from Ontario in Canada. Thune was a star athlete in high school, taking his basketball team near a state championship, and also played college basketball at Biola University.
Thune, who identifies as an evangelical Christian, graduated from Biola University, California in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business. Thune received the degree of Master of Public Administration from the University of South Dakota in 1984.
Thune worked as a legislative aide for U.S. Senator James Abdnor from 1985 to 1987. In 1980, Abdnor defeated U.S. Senator George McGovern, succeeding him. When Abdnor was defeated in 1986 by Tom Daschle, Thune followed Abdnor to the Small Business Administration under the Reagan Administration. In 1989, he returned to South Dakota, where he served as executive director of the Republican Party for two years.
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Johnny Isakson
John Hardy "Johnny" Isakson (born December 28, 1944) is the junior United States Senator from Georgia and a member of the Republican Party. Previously, he represented Georgia's 6th Congressional district in the House.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Isakson served in the Georgia Air National Guard (1966–1972) and graduated from the University of Georgia. He opened a real estate branch for Northside Realty and later served 22 years as the company's president. After a failed bid for the Georgia House of Representatives in 1974, he was elected in 1976. He served five terms, including two as minority leader. Isakson was the Republican candidate for governor of Georgia in 1990, but lost. Two years later, he was elected to the Georgia Senate and served one term. He unsuccessfully ran in the Republican primary in the 1996 U.S. Senate elections.
After 6th District Congressman and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich resigned, Isakson ran in the February 1999 special election to succeed him, winning by a 40-point margin. He ran for the U.S. Senate in November 2004 after conservative Democratic incumbent Zell Miller opted not to run for re-election. With the backing of much of Georgia's Republican establishment, he won both the primary and general elections by large margins. He is serving his second term after re-election to the Senate in 2010.
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Jon Kyl
Jon Llewellyn Kyl (/ˈkaɪl/; born April 25, 1942) is the junior United States Senator from Arizona and the Senate Minority Whip, the second-highest position in the Republican Senate leadership. In 2010 he was recognized by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world for his persuasive role in the Senate.
The son of U.S. Representative John Henry Kyl, he was born and raised in Nebraska and lived for some time in Iowa. He received his bachelor's degree and law degree from the University of Arizona. He worked in Phoenix, Arizona as a lawyer and lobbyist before winning election to the United States House of Representatives, where he served from 1987 to 1995. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1994 and has been re-elected by large margins since.
Kyl was ranked by National Journal in 2007 as the fourth-most conservative U.S. Senator. He has been a fixture of Republican policy leadership posts, chairing the Republican Policy Committee (2003–2007) and the Republican Conference (2007). In December 2007 he became Senate Minority Whip. In February 2011, Kyl announced that he would not seek re-election to the Senate in 2012 and would retire at the end of his third term, which concludes on January 3, 2013. He expressly ruled out running for further office except, if offered, the Vice Presidency.
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Jon Tester
Jon Tester (born August 21, 1956) is the junior United States Senator for Montana, serving since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He previously served as President of the Montana Senate.
Tester was born in Havre, Montana, one of three sons of Helen Marie (née Pearson) and David O. Tester. His mother was of Swedish descent. Tester grew up in Chouteau County, near the town of Big Sandy, Montana, on the land that his grandfather homesteaded in 1912. At the age of 9, he lost the middle three fingers of his left hand in a meat-grinder accident. In 1978, he graduated from the University of Great Falls with a B.S. in music.
He then worked for two years as a music teacher in the Big Sandy School District before returning to his family's farm and custom butcher shop. He and his wife continue to operate the farm; in the 1980s, they changed over from conventional to organic farming, raising wheat, barley, lentils, peas, millet, buckwheat, and alfalfa. Tester served five years as chairman of the Big Sandy School Board of Trustees and served on the Big Sandy Soil Conservation Service (SCS) Committee and the Chouteau County Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS) Committee.
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Joseph Montoya
Joseph Manuel Montoya (September 24, 1915 – June 8, 1978) was a Democratic U.S. Senator for the State of New Mexico from 1964 until 1977.
Montoya was born in Peña Blanca, New Mexico. His parents, Thomas and Frances Montoya, were Roman Catholic descendants of eighteenth-century Spanish settlers to New Mexico. He received his early education in public schools in Sandoval County and graduated from Bernalillo High School in 1931. He continued his education at Regis College in Denver, Colorado. In 1934 he began law school at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C..
In 1936 at age 21, while Montoya was still at Georgetown, he became the youngest representative in the history of the state to be elected to the New Mexico State House of Representatives. In 1938 Montoya graduated from law school and was reelected. The following year he was elected the Democratic majority floor leader
Montoya continued his political ascent with his election to the New Mexico State Senate in 1940, once again becoming the youngest member of that body ever elected. By the time he left the Senate in 1946, Montoya had been twice reelected to the State Senate and held the positions of majority whip and Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. From 1947 to 1957 he was elected Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico three times and also served two additional terms in the State Senate.
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Kay Bailey Hutchison
Kay Bailey Hutchison (born Kathryn Ann Bailey; July 22, 1943) is the senior United States Senator from Texas. She is a member of the Republican Party. In 2001, she was named one of the thirty most powerful women in America by Ladies Home Journal. The first woman to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate, Hutchison also became the first Texas U.S. senator to receive more than four million votes in a single election.
Hutchison is the most senior female Republican senator, and fifth most senior female senator, having assumed office in June 1993 behind Senators Barbara Mikulski (D-MD, 1987), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA, 1992), Barbara Boxer (D-CA, Jan. 1993), and Patty Murray (D-WA, Jan. 1993).
Hutchison was born Kathryn Ann Bailey in Galveston, the daughter of Kathryn Ella (née Sharp) and Allan Abner Bailey, Jr., an insurance agent. She has two brothers, Allan and Frank. Hutchison grew up in La Marque, Texas.
She married her first husband, John Pierce Parks, a medical student, on April 8, 1967; they divorced in 1969. She married her present (second) husband, Ray Hutchison, in Dallas on March 16, 1978. They have two adopted children: Kathryn Bailey and Houston Taylor, both adopted in 2001. She also has two stepdaughters, Brenda and Julie, from her husband's previous marriage. Ray Hutchison is a former member of the Texas Legislature, a former state Republican chairman, and ran an unsuccessful bid for the Texas governorship, having lost the Republican nomination in 1978 to Bill Clements, a senior partner with the law firm of Vinson & Elkins, of Dallas.
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Kay Hagan
Kay Ruthven Hagan ( /ˈheɪɡən/; born May 26, 1953) is the junior United States Senator from North Carolina and a member of the Democratic Party. Previously, she was in the North Carolina Senate.
When Hagan defeated Republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole in the 2008 United States Senate election, she became the first woman to defeat a female incumbent in a Senate election.
Hagan was born Janet Kay Ruthven in Shelby, North Carolina, the daughter of Jeanette (née Chiles), a homemaker, and Josie Perry "Joe" Ruthven, a tire salesman. Both her father and her older brother served in the Navy. She spent most of her childhood in Lakeland, Florida, of which her father later became mayor. She also spent summers on her grams' farm in Chesterfield, South Carolina, where she helped string tobacco and harvest watermelons. As a child, Hagan engaged in her earliest political activity: placing bumper stickers on cars for her uncle, Florida Governor and U.S. Senator Lawton Chiles. In the 1970s, she was an intern at the Capitol, operating an elevator that carried senators, including her uncle, to and from the Chamber.
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Kelly Ayotte
Kelly A. Ayotte (born June 27, 1968) is the junior United States Senator from New Hampshire and a member of the Republican Party. She earlier served as the Attorney General of New Hampshire.
Ayotte was born in Nashua, New Hampshire on June 27, 1968, the daughter of Kathleen M. (née Sullivan) and Marc Frederick Ayotte. Her father's family is French-Canadian. She attended Nashua High School. She received a B.A. from Pennsylvania State University majoring in political science. In 1993, Ayotte graduated from Villanova University School of Law, where she had served as Editor of the Environmental Law Journal.
Ayotte clerked for Sherman D. Horton Associate Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court, for one year. From 1994 to 1998, she was an associate at the Manchester law firm of McLane, Graf, Raulerson & Middleton. In 1998, she joined the office of the New Hampshire Attorney General as a prosecutor. In 2003, Ayotte became legal counsel to Governor Craig Benson. She returned to the Attorney General's office three months later, becoming Deputy Attorney General. In June 2004, Ayotte was appointed Attorney General of the State of New Hampshire by Governor Craig Benson following Peter Heed's resignation as Attorney General amid allegations that he had sexually harassed a female state employee.
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Kent Conrad
Gaylord Kent Conrad (born March 12, 1948) is the senior United States Senator from North Dakota. He is a member of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party, the North Dakota affiliate of the Democratic Party. First elected to the Senate in 1986, he is currently chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.
On January 18, 2011, Conrad announced that he would not run for re-election in 2012, but will instead retire. Conrad said in a statement that it was more important that "I spend my time and energy trying to focus on solving the nation's budget woes than be distracted by another campaign."
Conrad was born in Bismarck, North Dakota, the son of Abigail and Gaylord E. Conrad. He lived much of his early life in Bismarck. Orphaned at a young age, he was raised by his grandparents.[citation needed] He attended Roosevelt Elementary and Hughes Junior High, and several years of high school in Tripoli, Libya. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy before attending college at Stanford, and received an M.B.A. from the George Washington University.
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Kirsten Gillibrand
Kirsten Elizabeth Rutnik Gillibrand (/ˈkɪərstən ˈdʒɪlɨbrænd/ KEER-stən JIL-ə-brand; born December 9, 1966) is an attorney and the junior United States Senator from the state of New York and a member of the Democratic Party. Prior to being appointed to the Senate by New York Governor David Paterson in 2009, she was twice elected to the United States House of Representatives, from New York's 20th congressional district.
Gillibrand was born and raised in the Albany area. She is a 1988 graduate of Dartmouth College, where she majored in Asian studies. She received her Juris Doctor from UCLA Law School in 1991 and passed the bar the same year. She was an associate in the law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell in Manhattan before becoming a partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner in Albany.
Gillibrand won an upset congressional election in November 2006, beating four-term incumbent John E. Sweeney 53% to 47%. Her reelection campaign in 2008 against Sandy Treadwell was significantly easier, winning 62% to 38%. In December 2008, then President-elect Barack Obama nominated Hillary Rodham Clinton as Secretary of State, leaving an empty seat in the New York senate delegation. After two months and many potential names considered, Governor David Paterson appointed Gillibrand to fill the seat. Gillibrand was required to run in a special election in 2010, which she easily won with 63% of the vote. Her term ends in 2013 and she is currently running for reelection in 2012.
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Lamar Alexander
Andrew Lamar Alexander, Jr. (born July 3, 1940) is the senior United States Senator from Tennessee. He was previously the Conference Chair of the Republican Party from 2007 to 2012, the 45th Governor of Tennessee from 1979 to 1987, United States Secretary of Education from 1991 to 1993 under President George H. W. Bush and candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination in 1996 and 2000.
Alexander was born in Maryville, Tennessee, where he was raised, to Genevra Floreine (née Rankin) and Andrew Lamar Alexander, a high school principal. In high school he was elected Governor of Tennessee Boys State. Alexander graduated with a B.A. from Vanderbilt University where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Chi Fraternity in 1962 and from the New York University School of Law in 1965. After graduating from law school, Alexander clerked for United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit judge John Minor Wisdom in New Orleans from 1965 to 1966.
In 1969 Alexander married Honey Buhler, who grew up in Victoria, Texas, and graduated from Smith College of Massachusetts. They had met during a softball game for Senate staff members; he was then a staffer for Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee while she worked for Senator John Tower of Texas. Together they have four children: Drew, Leslee, Kathryn, and Will.
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Lindsey Graham
Lindsey Olin Graham (born July 9, 1955) is the senior United States Senator from South Carolina and a member of the Republican Party. Previously he served as the United States Representative for South Carolina's 3rd congressional district.
Graham was born in Central, South Carolina, where his parents, Millie and Florence James Graham, ran a liquor store, the Sanitary Cafe. After graduating from D. W. Daniel High School, Graham became the first member of his family to attend college and joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. When he was 21 his mother died, and his father died 15 months later. Because his sister was left orphaned, the service allowed Graham to attend University of South Carolina in Columbia so he could be near home and care for his sister, whom he adopted. During his studies, he became a member of the fraternity Pi Kappa Phi.
Graham graduated from the University of South Carolina with a B.A. in Psychology in 1977 and from the University of South Carolina School of Law with a J.D. in 1981. Upon graduating, Graham was commissioned as an officer and judge advocate in the United States Air Force, placed on active duty and sent to Europe as a military prosecutor. He eventually entered private practice as a lawyer.
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Lisa Murkowski
Lisa Ann Murkowski (born May 22, 1957) is the senior United States Senator from the State of Alaska and a member of the Republican Party. She was appointed to the Senate in 2002 by her father, Governor Frank Murkowski. After losing a Republican primary in 2010, she became the second person ever to win a U.S. Senate election through write-in votes.
Born in Ketchikan, Alaska, she is the daughter of former U.S. Senator and Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski. She graduated from Georgetown University and received her law degree from Willamette University College of Law. After working as an attorney in the 1980s and 1990s, she was elected to the Alaska House of Representatives in 1998. Shortly after being elected House Majority Leader in 2002, she was appointed to the United States Senate by her father.
Murkowski was elected to a full term in 2004. Her 2010 re-election grew turbulent when former magistrate judge Joe Miller defeated her in the Republican primary. Murkowski mounted a write-in campaign, winning the general election. The long-shot campaign made national headlines: the only other Senate candidate to win a write-in vote was Strom Thurmond in 1954. Murkowski is the only current Republican Senator from any West Coast state. Since winning re-election, her voting record has become more moderate when compared to her previous years in the Senate.
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Marco Rubio
Marco Antonio Rubio (born May 28, 1971) is the junior United States Senator from Florida, serving since January 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives (2007–2009).
Born to Cuban immigrants, Rubio was raised in Miami, Florida, and Las Vegas, Nevada. He attended Tarkio College and Santa Fe Community College before graduating from the University of Florida. He earned his J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law in 1996 while interning for U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. In the late 1990s he served as a City Commissioner for West Miami. Rubio was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2000, representing the 111th House district. He was elected Speaker in November 2006.
Rubio announced a run for U.S. Senate in May 2009 after incumbent Republican Mel Martinez resigned. Initially trailing by double-digits against the incumbent Republican Governor Charlie Crist, Rubio eventually surpassed him in polling for the Republican nomination. Rubio won the Republican nomination after Crist opted instead for an independent run. In a three-way split against Crist and Democratic candidate Kendrick Meek, Rubio won the general election in November 2010 by a 19-point margin.
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Maria Cantwell
Maria E. Cantwell (born October 13, 1958) is the junior United States Senator from the state of Washington and a member of the Democratic Party.
She previously served in the Washington House of Representatives, and then in the United States House of Representatives from Washington's 1st congressional district from 1993 to 1995, after which she worked as an executive for RealNetworks. She is Washington's second female senator, after Patty Murray.
Cantwell was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. She was raised in a predominantly Irish-American neighborhood on the south side of Indianapolis. Her father, Paul F. Cantwell, served as county commissioner, city councilman, state legislator, and Chief of Staff for U.S. Representative Andrew Jacobs, Jr. Her mother, Rose M., was an administrative assistant. Her ancestry includes Irish and German.
She attended Emmerich Manual High School and was inducted into the Indianapolis Public School Hall of Fame in 2006. After high school, Cantwell went to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Administration. She moved to Seattle, Washington in 1983 to campaign for Alan Cranston in his unsuccessful bid for the 1984 Democratic Presidential nomination. She then moved to the Seattle suburb of Mountlake Terrace because it reminded her of Indianapolis, and led a successful campaign to build a new library there.
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Mark Begich
Mark Peter Begich ( /ˈbɛɡɪtʃ/; born March 30, 1962) is the junior United States Senator from Alaska and a member of the Democratic Party. A former mayor of Anchorage, he served on the Anchorage Assembly for almost ten years prior to being elected mayor in 2003. In the highly competitive 2008 Alaska Senate election, Begich defeated incumbent Ted Stevens, the longest serving Republican member of the Senate of all time.
Born in Anchorage, he is the son of U.S. Representative Nick Begich, who disappeared and was presumed dead following a 1972 plane crash. He graduated from high school and has taken continuing education classes at University of Alaska Anchorage, but does not have a college degree. At age 26 he was elected to the Anchorage Assembly. After serving as chairman for three years, he left the Assembly in 1998. Begich ran two unsuccessful campaigns for mayor in 1994 and 2000. He was finally elected in 2003, winning a narrow three-way race by 11 votes.
Begich handily won the Democratic nomination in the state's 2008 U.S. Senate election. He faced longtime incumbent Republican Ted Stevens, who was facing ethics and corruption charges during his re-election campaign. Stevens was convicted of felony violations a week before the election, (all charges were later dismissed, and conviction was set aside by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, due to prosecutorial misconduct). The controversy before the election was enough to cause doubt and Begich won by a narrow margin.
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Mark Kirk
Mark Steven Kirk (born September 15, 1959) is the junior United States Senator from Illinois and a member of the Republican Party. Previously, Kirk was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Illinois's 10th congressional district.
Born in Champaign, Illinois, he graduated from Cornell University, London School of Economics, and Georgetown University Law Center. He practiced law throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He joined the United States Navy Reserve in 1989 and was recalled to active duty for the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. He participated in Operation Northern Watch in Iraq the following year. He remains a member of the Navy Reserve, now holding the rank of Commander.
Kirk was elected to the House in 2000. During his fifth term in November 2010 he won two concurrent elections: to finish the final months of former Senator Barack Obama's term and to serve the next six-year term. He was sworn in on November 29, 2010, and then began a six-year Senate term in January 2011.
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Mark Pryor
Mark Lunsford Pryor (born January 10, 1963) is the senior United States Senator from Arkansas, serving since 2003. He is a member of the Democratic Party and former Attorney General of Arkansas.
Born in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Pryor is the son of former Arkansas Governor and U.S. Senator David Hampton Pryor. He received his bachelor's degree and law degree from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He worked in private practice for several years until being elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives in 1990. He was elected the state Attorney General in 1998. Pryor announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate in 2001, running for the same Senate seat his father had held from 1979 to 1997. He was elected with 54 percent of the vote.
Pryor was a member of the bipartisan Gang of 14 formed in 2005 to forge a compromise on the use of the Senate filibuster. He was re-elected with no Republican opposition in 2008. In January 2009 he briefly became the youngest member of the Senate, the oldest "youngest member" of the Senate ever to serve. In the 112th Congress he is the chairman of the Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance.
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Mark Udall
Mark Emery Udall (born July 18, 1950) is the senior United States Senator from Colorado and a member of the Democratic Party. From 1999 to 2009, Udall served in the United States House of Representatives, representing Colorado's 2nd congressional district. He also served a term in the Colorado House of Representatives.
Born in Tucson, Arizona, he is the son of former U.S. Representative Morris "Mo" Udall. The Udall family is one of America's more prolific political families. Mark Udall graduated from Williams College in 1972 and moved to Colorado. He worked at the Colorado Outward Bound School for 20 years, including ten years as the school's executive director. He was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives in 1996. After one term he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served five terms and worked on energy and national resources.
Udall won a competitive election for the U.S. Senate in 2008, defeating Republican challenger Bob Schaffer. He chairs the Senate Energy Subcommittee on National Parks. Udall is a prolific mountaineer and was featured in Men's Journal magazine for his athletic abilities.
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Mark Warner
Mark Robert Warner (born December 15, 1954) is an American politician and businessman, currently serving as the junior United States Senator from the Commonwealth of Virginia. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Warner was the 69th governor of Virginia from 2002 to 2006 and is the honorary chairman of the Forward Together PAC. Warner delivered the keynote address before the nation at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Mark Warner's experience as a congressional staffer and Democratic Party fundraiser in the 1980s prompted his involvement in telecommunications venture capital; he founded the firm Columbia Capital.
In 2006 he was widely expected to pursue the Democratic nomination in the 2008 U.S. presidential elections; however, he announced in October 2006 that he would not run, citing a desire not to disrupt his family life. Warner was considered to be a potential vice presidential candidate, but upon receiving the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate, he announced that he "will not accept any other opportunity." He is expected to become the state's senior senator when Jim Webb retires from the Senate in January 2013.
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Martin Heinrich
Martin T. Heinrich (born October 17, 1971) is the U.S. Representative for New Mexico's 1st congressional district, serving since 2009. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes the central area of the state, in and around Albuquerque.
Heinrich was born in Fallon, Nevada, the son of Shirley A. (née Bybee) and Pete C. Heinrich. Heinrich graduated from the University of Missouri in 1995 with a Bachelor's degree in Science and Engineering, and later took graduate courses at the University of New Mexico. He served as Executive Director of the Cottonwood Gulch Foundation, a New Mexico non-profit organization dedicated to educating young people on natural science and the environment, and founded his own public affairs consulting firm.
Heinrich served on the Albuquerque City Council from 2003 to 2007, which included one term as City Council President in 2006. As a city councilman, he stated that his goals were to reduce crime, raise the minimum wage and create new jobs. He also advocated the use of wind and solar power. In February 2006, he was appointed by Governor Bill Richardson to be the state's Natural Resources Trustee.
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Mary Landrieu
Mary Loretta Landrieu ( /ˈlændruː/ LAN-drew; born November 23, 1955) is the senior United States Senator from the State of Louisiana and a member of the Democratic Party.
Born in Arlington, Virginia, Landrieu was raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. She is the daughter of former New Orleans mayor and Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, Moon Landrieu, and the sister of the current Mayor of New Orleans and former Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana Mitch Landrieu. She received her baccalaureate degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. After working as a real estate agent for several years, she was elected as a state representative (1980–1988) and state treasurer (1988–1996). She won a close race for the U.S. Senate in 1996; she was re-elected by increasing margins in competitive races in 2002 and 2008.
Landrieu is one of the most conservative Democrats in the Senate, often opposing her party's positions. Her opposition to the public option played a major role in the crafting of the health insurance reform bills of 2010. She became a spokeswoman for federal emergency relief in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which devastated her state. She chairs the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. In 2005, she sponsored an unprecedented Senate resolution by which the US Senate apologized for its failure to enact anti-lynching legislation during the early 20th century, when it was very much needed.
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Max Baucus
Max Sieben Baucus (born December 11, 1941) is the senior United States Senator from Montana and a member of the Democratic Party. First elected to the Senate in 1978, he is the longest-serving Senator from Montana, and the fifth longest-serving U.S. Senator in office.
As the current chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Baucus has played an influential role in the debate over health care reform in the United States. He is also chairman of the Joint Committee on Taxation, and a member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and is chairman of the Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Before his election to the Senate, Baucus was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 1978, representing Montana's (now defunct) 1st congressional district. He previously served in the Montana House of Representatives from 1973 to 1974.
On August 9, 2011, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid appointed Baucus to the United States Congress Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction.
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Michael Bennet
Michael Farrand Bennet (born November 28, 1964) is an American businessman, lawyer, and politician. He is currently the junior United States Senator from Colorado, and a member of the Democratic Party. He previously worked as managing director for the Anschutz Investment Company, chief of staff to Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, and the superintendent of Denver Public Schools.
Born in New Delhi, he is the son of Douglas J. Bennet, a former State Department official and college president. In high school Bennet worked as a Senate page on Capitol Hill. After graduating from Wesleyan University he worked for Ohio Governor Richard Celeste. He went on to receive his law degree from Yale Law School, where he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Law Journal. He worked as a law clerk and later as Counsel to the U.S. Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton administration.
Bennet worked for six years with the Anschutz Investment Company in Denver. As Managing Director he led the reorganizations of four distressed companies, requiring the restructuring of over $3 billion in debt. As chief of staff to Mayor Hickenlooper, he worked on balancing budgets and negotiating collective-bargaining agreements. He became superintendent of the Denver public school system in July 2005, where he revised a merit pay proposal with the support of local teachers. Acknowledging his work in Denver, Time magazine listed him among the nation's eleven leading educational activists in 2011.
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Mike Crapo
Michael Dean "Mike" Crapo ( /ˈkreɪpoʊ/ KRAY-poh; born May 20, 1951) is the senior United States Senator from the state of Idaho and a member of the Republican Party.
Born in the city of Idaho Falls, Crapo is a graduate of Brigham Young University and Harvard Law School. He practiced law in his home city throughout the 1980s, while maintaining an active role in local Republican politics. His brother Terry Crapo was majority leader in the Idaho House of Representatives and a growing political figure until his death from leukemia in 1982. Mike Crapo, prompted by his brother's death, successfully ran for the Idaho Senate in 1984. He became Senate President pro tempore from 1988 to 1992, in which position he served as Acting Governor of Idaho for 12 hours in January 1989.
Crapo was elected to Congress in 1992, representing Idaho's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. After three terms in the House he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1998. He was re-elected with no Democratic opposition in the 2004 election, a rarity in the Senate. He was again re-elected in 2010.
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Mike Enzi
Michael Bradley "Mike" Enzi (/ˈɛnzi/; born February 1, 1944) is the senior United States Senator from Wyoming (serving since 1997) and a member of the Republican Party.
Raised in Thermopolis, Wyoming, Enzi attended George Washington University and the University of Denver. He expanded his father's shoe store business in Gillette before being elected mayor of Gillette in 1974. In the late 1970s he worked in the United States Department of the Interior. He served as a state legislator in the Wyoming House of Representatives (1987–1991) and the Wyoming Senate (1991–1996). During the 1980s and 1990s he worked as an accountant and executive director in the energy industry.
Enzi won a tight primary for election to the U.S. Senate in 1996 and was re-elected by comfortable margins in 2002 and 2008. He has been ranked as one of the most conservative members of the Senate. He is the ranking Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, which he chaired from 2005 to 2007. He was a member of the 2009 Gang of Six which attempted to negotiate a health care reform program.
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Mike Johanns
Michael Owen "Mike" Johanns (born June 18, 1950) is an Republican American politician who has been the junior United States Senator from Nebraska since 2009. Previously he was the 38th Governor of Nebraska from 1999 to 2005 and was United States Secretary of Agriculture from 2005 to 2007, becoming the fourth Nebraskan to hold the position. On November 4, 2008, Johanns was elected to the United States Senate for the state of Nebraska, becoming one of only two new Republican senators (with Jim Risch of Idaho) heading into the 111th United States Congress. In 2002 Johanns served as a Chair of the Midwestern Governors Association. He is expected to become Nebraska's senior senator upon the conclusion of retiring Senator Ben Nelson's term in January of 2013.
Johanns was born in Osage, Iowa, the son of Adeline Lucy (née Royek) and John Robert Johanns. His father was of German ancestry, and his maternal grandparents immigrated from Poland. He grew up living and working on his family's farm. After graduating from high school, Johanns went on to study at Saint Mary's University of Minnesota in Winona. He earned a law degree from Creighton University. After his graduation, Johanns began practicing law in O'Neill and Lincoln, Nebraska.
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Mitch McConnell
Addison Mitchell "Mitch" McConnell, Jr. (born February 20, 1942), a Republican American, is the senior United States Senator from Kentucky and the Minority Leader. He is the longest serving U.S. Senator in Kentucky history.
McConnell was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama to Julia (née Shockley) and Addison Mitchell McConnell.
McConnell was raised in southern Louisville, Kentucky, where he attended the duPont Manual High School, and in 1964 he graduated with honors from the University of Louisville with a B.A. in political science. He was student body president and a member of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity. McConnell has maintained strong ties to his alma mater, and "remains a rabid fan of its sports teams." He graduated in 1967 from the University of Kentucky College of Law, where he was elected president of the Student Bar Association.
McConnell became a member of the 100th Division (Training), U.S. Army Reserve, in Louisville, Kentucky, during his final semester of law school; and he reported for his six months of active service, primarily for training, in July 1967. After induction at Fort Knox, Kentucky, McConnell was released early from his active-duty military service in August 1967. McConnell received a medical discharge for optic neuritis, which is a common manifestation of multiple sclerosis.
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Olympia Snowe
Olympia Jean Snowe (née Bouchles; born February 21, 1947) is the senior United States Senator from Maine and a member of the Republican Party. Snowe has become widely known for her ability to influence the outcome of close votes, including whether to end filibusters. She and her fellow Senator from Maine, Susan Collins, are regarded as leading moderates within their party. In 2006, she was named one of America's Best Senators by Time Magazine. On February 28, 2012, Snowe announced that she will not seek reelection in November 2012, and will retire when her third term ends on January 3, 2013.
Snowe was born Olympia Jean Bouchles in Augusta, Maine, the daughter of Georgia (née Goranites) and George John Bouchles. Her father immigrated to the United States from Sparta in Greece, and her maternal grandparents were also Greek. She is a member of the Greek Orthodox Church.
Snowe's early life had its share of tragedies; when she was nine, her mother died of breast cancer, and her father died of heart disease barely a year later. Orphaned, she was moved to Auburn, Maine, to be raised by her aunt and uncle, a textile mill worker and a barber, respectively, along with their five other children. Her brother John was raised separately, by other family members. Within a few years, disease would also claim her uncle's life.
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Orrin Hatch
Orrin Grant Hatch (born March 22, 1934) is the senior United States Senator for Utah and is a member of the Republican Party. Hatch served as the chairman or ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee (depending on whether the Republicans controlled the Senate) from 1993 to 2005. He previously served as chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee from 1981 to 1987. He currently serves as ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee. Hatch also serves on the Board of Directors for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
If re-elected, Hatch will be the most senior Republican Senator, and would be elected President pro tempore of the United States Senate if the Republicans take control of the Senate.
Orrin Grant Hatch was born to Jesse Hatch (1904, Vernal, Utah - 1992, Salt Lake City, Utah) and his wife Helen Frances Hatch (née Kamm; 1906, Pekin, Illinois - 1995, Murray, Utah). Both of English descent. His great-grandfather Jeremiah Hatch (1823, Lincoln, Vermont - 1903, Vernal, Utah) was the founder of Vernal, Utah.
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Pat Roberts
Charles Patrick "Pat" Roberts (born April 20, 1936) is the senior United States Senator from Kansas. A member of the Republican Party, he has served since 1997. He is the ranking member of the United States Senate Committee on Agriculture and previously served as the Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Born in Topeka, Kansas, Roberts is a graduate of Kansas State University. He served as a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps and worked as a newspaper reporter before entering politics in the late 1960s. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1980 to succeed 1st District Congressman Keith Sebelius, for whom he had worked. He served eight terms in the House, including one as chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.
Roberts was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996, and is currently serving his third term. He has a conservative voting record. On the Intelligence Committee he was responsible for an investigation into the intelligence failures prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He led the creation of the Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program in 2004.
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Pat Toomey
Patrick Joseph "Pat" Toomey, Sr. (born November 17, 1961) is an American businessman and politician. He is currently the junior United States Senator for Pennsylvania, and a member of the Republican Party. Previously, Toomey served as a United States Representative for three terms, but he did not seek a fourth in compliance with a pledge he had made while running for office in 1998. He also served as president of the Club for Growth.
Toomey attended school at La Salle Academy in Providence, Rhode Island before earning an A.B. in government from Harvard College. He was employed first by Chemical Bank and subsequently Morgan, Grenfell & Co. beginning in 1984 and 1986, respectively, until resigning from the latter in 1991.
Prior to being elected to the U.S. Senate, Toomey served as the U.S. Representative for Pennsylvania's 15th congressional district from 1999 to 2005. He narrowly lost the Republican primary for United States Senate in 2004. From 2005 to 2009, he served as president of the Club for Growth. After becoming the Republican nominee for the 2010 U.S. Senate election in Pennsylvania, Toomey was elected to the seat on November 2, 2010, defeating his Democratic opponent, retired Admiral and Congressman Joe Sestak.
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Patrick Leahy
Patrick Joseph Leahy (/ˈleɪhiː/; born March 31, 1940) is the senior United States Senator from Vermont and member of the Democratic Party. He is the first and only elected Democratic Senator in Vermont's history. He is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Leahy is the second most senior U.S. Senator, and second longest-serving Democrat in the U.S. Senate having served since 1975.
Leahy was born in Montpelier, Vermont, the son of Alba (née Zambon) and Howard Francis Leahy, a printer. His grandparents came to Vermont from Ireland and Italy during the 19th century to work at quarries.
Leahy graduated from Saint Michael's College in 1961 and received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1964. He practiced as a lawyer until he was elected as State's Attorney of Chittenden County in 1966 and re-elected in 1970. Leahy was elected to the United States Senate for the first time in 1974 (at 34, he was the youngest U.S. Senator ever to be elected by Vermont). Leahy was the first and remains the only Democrat elected to the Senate from Vermont. He was also the first non-Republican Senator from Vermont since 1856.
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Patty Murray
Patricia Lynn "Patty" Murray (née Johns; born October 11, 1950) is the senior United States Senator from Washington and a member of the Democratic Party. Murray was first elected to the Senate in 1992, becoming Washington's first female senator. She was re-elected in 1998, 2004 and 2010.
Murray has served as the Senate Majority Conference Secretary since 2007, making her the fourth-highest-ranking Democrat and the highest-ranking woman in the Senate.
Chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 2001 to 2003, Murray assumed the role again in early 2011, for a term ending in 2013. She is also the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
On August 9, 2011, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid appointed Murray to co-chair the United States Congress Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction.
One of seven children, Murray was born in Bothell, Washington, to Beverly A. (née McLaughlin) and David L. Johns. Her mother was an accountant. Her father fought in World War II and was awarded a Purple Heart.[citation needed] She attended Saint Brendan Catholic School as a young child.
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Paul Bardacke
Paul Gregory Bardacke (born December 16, 1944) is the former Attorney General of New Mexico, having served from 1983-1986.
Mr. Bardacke attended the University of California at Santa Barbara (B.A., cum laude, 1966) and University of California at Berkeley (J.D. 1969).
Paul Bardacke is an attorney who has practiced law in the public and private sectors for over 40 years.
His current practice focuses on mediation and arbitration, and Paul has mediated over 1000 cases in the past 18 years and has tried over 25 jury trials as first chair, primarily in the areas of commercial, natural resources and environmental law.
He is a founding member of the bipartisan think tank Think New Mexico.
Paul also served as Chairman of Governor Bill Richardson’s successful gubernatorial campaigns in 2002.
In 2005, he served as a member of a small US delegation to North Korea to negotiate civil rights issues.
In 2010 he was appointed by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to the National Park Service Advisory Board for a three year term.
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Pete Domenici
Pietro Vichi "Pete" Domenici (born May 7, 1932) is an American Republican politician, who served six terms as a United States Senator from New Mexico, from 1973 to 2009, the longest tenure in the state's history.
During Domenici's tenure in the Senate, he advocated waterway usage fees, nuclear power, and related causes. Domenici announced on October 4, 2007, his decision not to seek re-election to the Senate in 2008 for health reasons, in particular frontotemporal lobar degeneration.
Domenici serves as a Senior Fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, where he focuses on budget and nuclear energy issues.
Domenici was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, to Italian-American parents Alda Vichi, an illegal immigrant, and Cherubino Domenici, who were born in Sorbarro, Italy. Growing up, he worked in his father's grocery business after school. He graduated in 1950 from St. Mary's High School in Albuquerque. After earning a degree in education at the University of New Mexico in 1954, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, he pitched for one season for the Albuquerque Dukes, a farm club for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He taught mathematics at Garfield Junior High in Albuquerque. He earned his law degree at the University of Denver law school in 1958 and returned to practice law in Albuquerque.
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Rand Paul
Randal Howard "Rand" Paul (born January 7, 1963) is the junior United States Senator for Kentucky. He is a member of the Republican Party. A member of the Tea Party movement, he describes himself as a "constitutional conservative" and a libertarian. He is the son of Republican Congressman and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul of Texas and had never previously held political office. Paul first received national attention in 2008 when making political speeches on behalf of his father. Rand Paul is the first United States Senator in history to serve alongside a parent in the United States House of Representatives.
A graduate of the Duke University School of Medicine, Paul has been a practicing ophthalmologist in Bowling Green, Kentucky, since 1993, and established his own clinic in December 2007. In 1994, he founded Kentucky Taxpayers United, of which he is still the chairman.
In 2010, Paul ran as the Republican candidate for the United States Senate seat being vacated by retiring Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky and defeated Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway. As a supporter of the Tea Party movement, Paul has been vocal in advocating for term limits, a balanced budget amendment, and the Read the Bills Act, in addition to the widespread reduction of federal spending and taxation. He has gained prominence for his independent positions on many political issues, often clashing with both Republicans and Democrats.
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Richard Blumenthal
Richard Blumenthal (born February 13, 1946) is the junior United States Senator from Connecticut and a member of the Democratic Party. Previously, he served as Attorney General of Connecticut.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Blumenthal is a graduate of Harvard College, where he was editorial chairman of The Harvard Crimson. He studied for a year at Cambridge University in England before attending Yale Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal. While at Yale, he was a classmate of future President Bill Clinton and future Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. From 1970 to 1976 Blumenthal served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, where he earned the rank of sergeant.
After college Blumenthal served as administrative assistant and law clerk for several Washington figures. From 1977 to 1981 he was United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut. In the early 1980s he worked in private law, including volunteer counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. He served in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1984 to 1987, when he was elected to the Connecticut Senate. He was elected state Attorney General in 1990, and served for twenty years. During this period he was frequently speculated as a contender for Governor of Connecticut, but he never pursued the office.
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Richard Burr
Richard Mauze Burr (born November 30, 1955) is an American politician who has served as a United States Senator from North Carolina since 2005. A member of the Republican Party, Burr previously represented North Carolina's 5th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 2005.
As Senator, Burr has had a non-controversial tenure so far, espousing most of the Republican Party's expected positions, from general support for President George W. Bush's actions in Iraq to abortion opposition. Strikingly, however, he voted to repeal the military's employment discrimination policy against gays. In October he announced his intention to seek the post of minority whip, the number two Republican position in the Senate.
Burr is the son of a minister. He has children with Brooke, his wife of 27 years. He is distant kin of former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr.
Burr was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, the son of Martha (née Gillum) and Rev. David Horace White Burr, a minister. He graduated from Richard J. Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem, N.C. in 1974 and earned a B.A. from Wake Forest University in 1978. Burr was on the football team at both Reynolds High School and Wake Forest. Burr lettered for the Demon Deacons during the 1974 and 1975 seasons; however, the team went winless in ACC play during his tenure. He is a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity.
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Richard Lugar
Richard Green "Dick" Lugar (born April 4, 1932) is the senior United States Senator from Indiana and a member of the Republican Party. First elected to the Senate in 1976, he is the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and was its chairman from 1985 to 1987 and 2003 to 2007. Much of Lugar's work in the Senate is toward the dismantling of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons around the world. Before his election to the United States Senate, Lugar served as mayor of Indianapolis, Indiana.
Lugar is currently the third most senior senator, behind only Daniel Inouye and Patrick Leahy. He is also the longest-serving Senator in Indiana's history, and is the most senior Republican member of the Senate. In 2012, however, he lost the Republican primary for a seventh term and his service in the Senate will end in January 2013.
Lugar was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, the son of Bertha (née Green) and Marvin Lugar. He attended the public schools of Indianapolis. During this time he attained the Boy Scouts' highest rank: Eagle Scout. Later, he became a recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America. He graduated first in his class at Shortridge High School in 1950 and from Denison University in 1954 where he was a member of Beta Theta Pi. He went on to attend Pembroke College, Oxford, England, as a Rhodes Scholar, and received a second Bachelors and an MA degree in 1956. He served in the United States Navy from 1956 to 1960; one of his assignments was as an intelligence briefer for Admiral Arleigh Burke. He achieved the rank of Lieutenant, Junior Grade.
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Richard Shelby
Richard Craig Shelby (born May 6, 1934) is the senior United States Senator from Alabama. First elected to the Senate in 1986, he is the ranking member of the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and was its chairman from 2003 to 2007.
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Shelby received his law degree from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, where he went on to serve as city prosecutor (1963–1971). During this period he worked as a U.S. Magistrate for the Northern District of Alabama (1966–1970) and Special Assistant Attorney General of Alabama (1969–1971). He won a seat in the Alabama Senate in 1970. In 1978 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives from the 7th District, where he was among a group of conservative Democrats known as the boll weevils. Shelby won a tight race in 1986 for the U.S. Senate. Originally elected as a Democrat, Shelby switched to the Republican Party in 1994 when Republicans gained the majority in Congress midway through President Bill Clinton's first term. He was re-elected by a large margin in 1998 and has faced no significant electoral opposition since.
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Rob Portman
Robert Jones "Rob" Portman (born December 19, 1955) is a lawyer and the junior United States Senator from Ohio. He is a member of the Republican Party. He succeeded retiring Senator George Voinovich.
From 1993 to 2005, Portman served in the United States House of Representatives, representing Ohio's 2nd congressional district, which stretches along the Ohio River from the Hamilton County suburbs of Cincinnati east to Scioto County and Pike County. Portman won seven consecutive congressional elections with over 70 percent of the vote.
Portman served in two federal cabinet positions under the administration of President George W. Bush. From May 2005 to May 2006, he was the U.S. Trade Representative. From May 2006 to June 2007, he was Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). He is considered a possible pick for Vice President on the Republican presidential ticket in 2012.
Portman was born in 1955 in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of Joan (née Jones) and entrepreneur William C. "Bill" Portman II. His patrilineal great-grandfather, surnamed "Portmann", immigrated from Switzerland; Portman also has Scottish, Northern Irish, English, and German ancestry. When he was young, his father borrowed money to start the Portman Equipment Company, a forklift dealership where he and his siblings all worked growing up. The company grew from a small business with five employees and Joan Portman as bookkeeper to one that employed over 300 people. According to a 2010 Weekly Standard profile, Portman "developed a political philosophy grounded in entrepreneurship," having grown up "[hearing] talk about regulations, and taxes, and government getting in the way of small business" because of his early experiences with his family business.
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Roger Wicker
Roger Frederick Wicker (born July 5, 1951) is the junior United States Senator from Mississippi and a member of the Republican Party. In December 2007 he was appointed by Governor Haley Barbour to fill the seat vacated by Trent Lott. He subsequently won the 2008 special election for the remainder of the term. Wicker served in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Mississippi's 1st congressional district from 1995 to 2007.
Wicker was born in Pontotoc, Mississippi on July 5, 1951, the son of Wordna Glen (née Threadgill) and Frederick T. "Fred" Wicker. He served as a page in the U.S. House of Representatives when he was 16.[citation needed] He earned a bachelor's degree in journalism and political science and a law degree from the University of Mississippi where he was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity.[citation needed]
After graduation, Wicker served as an officer in the United States Air Force from 1976 to 1980. Starting in 1980, he was a member of the Air Force Reserve; he retired from the Reserve in 2003 as a lieutenant colonel. Wicker served as a judge advocate.
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Ron Wyden
Ronald Lee "Ron" Wyden (born May 3, 1949) is the senior United States Senator for Oregon, serving since 1996, and a member of the Democratic Party. He previously served in the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 1996.
Wyden was born Ronald Lee Wyden in Wichita, Kansas, the son of Edith (née Rosenow) and Peter H. Wyden (originally Weidenreich, 1923–1998), both of whom were Jewish and had fled Nazi Germany a few years earlier. Wyden grew up in Palo Alto, California, where he was a basketball star for Palo Alto High School. He attended the University of California, Santa Barbara on a basketball scholarship, and later transferred to Stanford University, where he received his B.A. in 1971. He received a J.D. degree from the University of Oregon School of Law in 1974.
While teaching gerontology at several Oregon universities, Wyden founded the Oregon chapter of the Gray Panthers; he led that organization from 1974 to 1980. Wyden is also the former director of the Oregon Legal Services Center for Elderly, a nonprofit law service.
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Roy Blunt
Roy D. Blunt (born January 10, 1950) is the junior United States Senator from Missouri. He is a member of the Republican Party. His Senate seat was previously held by Republican Kit Bond, until his retirement.
Blunt served as the United States Representative from Missouri's 7th congressional district from 1997 to 2011. The district contains most of Southwest Missouri, the most conservative part of the state, anchored in the city of Springfield, as well as cities such as Joplin, Carthage, and Neosho. The popular tourist destination of Branson also lies in the district. In January 2011, Blunt was succeeded in the House by Billy Long.
Blunt was the House Minority Whip during the 110th Congress but after the 2008 general elections announced that he would step down from the position. After House Majority Leader Tom DeLay stepped down upon criminal indictment in Texas, Blunt served as interim House Majority Leader from September 29, 2005, to February 2, 2006, when John Boehner of Ohio was elected as DeLay's permanent replacement. In 2011, Blunt was elected Vice-Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.
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Saxby Chambliss
Clarence Saxby Chambliss, Jr. (born November 10, 1943) is the senior United States Senator from Georgia. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a U.S. Representative (1995–2003).
During his four terms in the House, Chambliss served on the United States House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and chaired the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security, which oversaw investigations of the intelligence community after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
During his 2002 bid for the U.S. Senate, Chambliss focused on the issue of national defense and homeland security. He won with 53% of the vote. For several years he was the ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, and chaired the committee during the 109th Congress (2005–2007). In the 112th Congress (2011–2012) he is the ranking Republican on the Select Committee on Intelligence. Chambliss has a conservative voting record in the Senate, but he has participated in some bipartisan legislation. In December 2011, the Washington Post named Saxby and the "Gang of Six" as one of the Best Leaders of 2011 for attempts to craft a bipartisan deficit reduction package.
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Scott Brown
Scott Philip Brown (born September 12, 1959) is an American politician and the junior United States Senator from Massachusetts. Brown previously served as a member of the Massachusetts General Court, first in the State House of Representatives (1998–2004) and then in the State Senate (2004–2010).
Brown is a member of the Republican Party, and faced the Democratic candidate, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, in the 2010 special election to succeed U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy for the remainder of the term ending January 3, 2013. While initially trailing Coakley in polling by a large margin, Brown won the election and in January 2010 became the first Republican elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts since Edward Brooke in 1972.
Prior to entering the state legislature, he had experience as a town selectman and assessor. He is a practicing attorney, concentrating in real estate law and serving as defense counsel in the Judge Advocate General's Corps of the Massachusetts Army National Guard. Brown is a graduate of Wakefield High School (1977), Tufts University (1981), and Boston College Law School (1985).
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Sheldon Whitehouse
Sheldon Whitehouse (born October 20, 1955) is the junior United States Senator from Rhode Island, serving since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He previously served as United States Attorney (1994–1998) and State Attorney General for Rhode Island.
Whitehouse was born in New York City, New York, the son of Mary Celine (née Rand) and career diplomat Charles S. Whitehouse, and grandson of diplomat Sheldon Whitehouse. He graduated from St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and from Yale University in 1978. He received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1982.
Whitehouse worked as a clerk for Judge Richard F. Neely of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia from 1982 to 1983. He also worked in the Rhode Island Attorney General's office as a special assistant attorney general from 1985 to 1990, chief of the Regulatory Unit (which oversaw utilities) from 1988 to 1990, and also an assistant attorney general from 1989 to 1990.
Whitehouse worked as Rhode Island Governor Bruce Sundlun's Executive Counsel beginning in 1991, and was later tapped to serve as Director of Policy. He oversaw the state's response to the RISDIC banking crisis, which took place right after Sundlun took office. Whitehouse was appointed by Sundlun to be the state's Director of Business Regulation in 1992, where he oversaw a drastic reform in the state's workers' compensation insurance system.
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Sherrod Brown
Sherrod Campbell Brown (born November 9, 1952) is the senior United States Senator from Ohio and a member of the Democratic Party. Before his election to the U.S. Senate, he was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Ohio's 13th congressional district from 1993 to 2007. He previously served as the Ohio Secretary of State (1983–1991) and a member of the Ohio House of Representatives (1974–1982).
Brown defeated two-term Republican incumbent Mike DeWine in the 2006 U.S. Senate election. In the U.S. Senate, he is chairman of the Agriculture Subcommittee on Hunger, Nutrition and Family Farms and the Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy, and is also a member of the Committee on Appropriations, Committee on Veterans' Affairs, and Select Committee on Ethics.
Brown was born in Mansfield, Ohio, the son of Emily (née Campbell) and Charles Gailey Brown, M.D. He was named after his maternal grandfather. He became an Eagle Scout in 1967. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Russian studies from Yale University in 1974. At Yale, he was in Davenport College, the same residential college as U.S. Presidents George H. W. and George W. Bush. He went on to receive a Master of Public Administration degree and a Master of Arts degree in education from the Ohio State University in Columbus in 1979 and 1981, respectively. He taught at the Mansfield branch campus of The Ohio State University from 1979 to 1981.
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Susan Collins
Susan Margaret Collins (born December 7, 1952) is the junior United States Senator from Maine and a member of the Republican Party. First elected to the Senate in 1996, she is the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
One of six children, Susan Collins was born in Caribou, Maine, where her family has operated a lumber business since 1844. Her parents, Patricia R. (née McGuigan) and Donald F. Collins, each served as mayor of Caribou; her father also served in both houses of the Maine Legislature. Her mother was born in Barranca-Bermeja, Colombia, to American parents. Her uncle, Samuel W. Collins, Jr., sat on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court from 1988 to 1994. Collins attended Caribou High School, where she was president of the student council. During her senior year of high school in 1971, Collins was chosen to participate in the U.S. Senate Youth Program, through which she visited Washington, D.C. for the first time and engaged in a two-hour conversation with U.S. Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME). Collins is the first program delegate elected to the Senate and currently holds the seat once held by Smith.
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Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. Serving almost 47 years, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the fourth-longest-serving senator in United States history. For many years the most prominent living member of the Kennedy family, he was the last surviving son of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.; the youngest brother of President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, both victims of assassination, and Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., killed in action in World War II; and the father of Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy.
Kennedy entered the Senate in a November 1962 special election to fill the seat once held by his brother John. He was elected to a full six-year term in 1964 and was reelected seven more times before his death. The controversial Chappaquiddick incident on July 18, 1969, resulted in the death of his automobile passenger Mary Jo Kopechne; Kennedy pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident, and the incident significantly damaged his chances of ever becoming President of the United States. His one attempt, in the 1980 presidential election, resulted in a Democratic primary campaign loss to incumbent President Jimmy Carter.
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Thad Cochran
William Thad Cochran (born December 7, 1937) is the senior United States Senator from Mississippi and a member of the Republican Party. First elected to the Senate in 1978, he is the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations and was its chairman from 2005 to 2007.
Cochran was born in Pontotoc, Mississippi, the son of Emma Grace (née Berry) and William Holmes Cochran, a teacher and school principal, respectively. His family settled in Hinds County, Mississippi, home of the state capital, Jackson, in 1946 after a few moves around the northern part of the state. Cochran still lives in Jackson today. Cochran earned Eagle Scout as a youth and was awarded the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award as an adult. He graduated valedictorian from Byram High School near Jackson and received a B.A. degree from the University of Mississippi with a major in psychology and a minor in political science in 1959. There he joined the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity and was on the cheerleading squad (fellow senator Trent Lott was also an Ole Miss cheerleader). After a time in the United States Navy (1959–1961), he attended the University of Mississippi School of Law, was elected to the Phi Kappa Phi honor society and graduated in 1965. He then practiced law for seven years. He married Rose Clayton on June 6, 1964; the couple has two children, Clayton and Kate.
wn.com/Thad_Cochran -
Tom Carper
Thomas Richard "Tom" Carper (born January 23, 1947) is the senior United States Senator from Delaware and a member of the Democratic Party. He was previously the 71st Governor of Delaware and a member of the House of Representatives from Delaware.
A native of Danville, Virginia, Carper graduated from the Ohio State University. Serving as a Naval Flight Officer in the U.S. Navy from 1968 until 1973, he saw active duty in the Vietnam War. He remained in the U.S. Naval Reserve for another 18 years and retired with the rank of Captain. Upon receiving his MBA from the University of Delaware in 1975, Carper went to work for the State of Delaware in its economic development office. He was elected State Treasurer, serving from 1977 to 1983 and leading the development of Delaware's first cash management system.
Encouraged by local politicians, Carper successfully ran for Delaware's only seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982. He served five terms in the House, where he chaired the Subcommittee on Economic Stabilization. In 1992 he arranged a "swap" with term-limited Governor Michael Castle, and the two were easily elected to each other's seats. Carper governed for two terms as a moderate, business-oriented "New Democrat", following the lead of the two previous Republican governors. He successfully prevented the closing of a General Motors automobile plant and won a bid for the headquarters of pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. He led a tax-reduction campaign and helped improve the state's credit rating from among the worst in the nation to an excellent "AAA". He pushed for standards-based education, among other reforms.
wn.com/Tom_Carper -
Tom Coburn
Thomas Allen "Tom" Coburn, M.D. (born March 14, 1948), is a United States Senator, medical doctor, and Southern Baptist deacon. A member of the Republican Party, he is the junior senator from Oklahoma.
Coburn was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994 as part of the Republican Revolution. He upheld his campaign pledge to serve no more than three consecutive terms and did not run for re-election in 2000. In 2004, he returned to political office with a successful run for the U.S. Senate.
Coburn is a fiscal and social conservative, known for his opposition to deficit spending and pork barrel projects, and for his leadership in the pro-life movement. He supports term limits, gun rights, and the death penalty and opposes gay marriage. In the Senate, he is known as "Dr. No" for his tendency to place holds on and vote against bills he views as unconstitutional.
Coburn announced on February 12, 2010 that he was running for a second term in the Senate, but would not run for re-election to a third term in the Senate in 2016.
wn.com/Tom_Coburn -
Tom Harkin
Thomas Richard "Tom" Harkin (born November 19, 1939) is the current junior United States Senator from Iowa serving since 1985, and a member of the Democratic Party. He previously served in the United States House of Representatives (1975–1985).
Born in Cumming, Iowa, Harkin graduated from Iowa State University and the The Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law. He served in the United States Navy as an active-duty jet pilot from 1962 to 1967. After serving as a congressional aide for several years he made two runs for the U.S. House of Representatives, losing in 1972 but winning in 1974. He went on to serve five terms in the House.
Harkin won a race for U.S. Senate in 1984 by a wide margin. He was an early frontrunner for his party's presidential nomination in 1992, but dropped out in support of eventual winner Bill Clinton. Now serving his fifth term, Harkin is chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. He is ranked as the most senior junior senator.
wn.com/Tom_Harkin -
Tom Udall
Thomas Stewart "Tom" Udall (born May 18, 1948) is the junior United States Senator from New Mexico and a member of the Democratic Party. He had represented New Mexico's 3rd congressional district as a member of the United States House of Representatives since 1999. Udall was elected as the junior United States senator from New Mexico on November 4, 2008, defeating Congressman Steve Pearce. He is expected to become the state's senior senator when Jeff Bingaman retires from the Senate in January 2013.
Udall was born in Tucson, Arizona, the son of Ermalee Lenora (née Webb) and Stewart Udall, who was Secretary of the Interior from 1961 to 1969. He attended Prescott College, graduating with a pre-law degree in 1970. In 1975, he graduated from Cambridge University in England with a Bachelor of Law degree. That fall, he enrolled in the University of New Mexico School of Law and graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1977.
After graduating, Udall was Law Clerk to Chief Judge Oliver Seth of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. His legal career then included appointments as Assistant US Attorney in the criminal division and Chief Counsel to the Department of Health and Environment. A partnership followed in the Miller Law Firm.
wn.com/Tom_Udall -
Toney Anaya
Toney Anaya (born April 29, 1941) is a U.S. Democratic politician who was born in Moriarty, New Mexico. He went to undergraduate school at Georgetown University and graduated with a law degree from American University's Washington College of Law in 1967. After returning to New Mexico, Governor Anaya worked as a Santa Fe County attorney, was an assistant district attorney for the First Judicial District, and later established a private law practice in Santa Fe. From 1975 to 1978, he served as New Mexico Attorney General. In 1978, he ran for United States Senate, but was defeated by incumbent Pete Domenici. He served as the 26th Governor of New Mexico from 1983 to 1987.
As Governor, he focused on energy alternatives, water development and conservation, the environment, education, economic development, and provided leadership in investing of the state’s multi-billion dollar trust funds. Known as a visionary, he successfully steered the state through a national recession, transforming New Mexico into a more technology-based economy and laid the groundwork for future deployment of rapid rail transit, education and social reform. In 1986, after the election of his successor, Garrey Carruthers, Anaya is also remembered for commutation of death sentences of all five death row inmates in New Mexico in 1986, due to his opposition to capital punishment. Anaya had campaigned against the death penalty and in later interviews expressed no regret for the commutations.
wn.com/Toney_Anaya -
Wikipedia Persondata
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Bingaman, Jeff Filmography
Famous quotes by Jeff Bingaman:
"markedly reduce these imports."
"[The bill did not] markedly reduce these imports, ... We need to build a consensus around effective steps to use less oil in our transportation sector, which is the basic cause of our increasing reliance on oil imports."
"I am not opposed to the limited use of polygraphs in a case where a person is suspected of wrongdoing. But widespread use of the polygraph as a screening tool goes far beyond what is acceptable."
"I will seek to reverse the shift of benefits from Medicaid to Medicare and hold harmless our seniors and disabled."
"The diversion of Social Security revenues to private investment accounts would shift much of the risks of old-age back to low-income seniors, and pose very serious challenges to families who depend on social security's survivor and disability insurance benefits."
"The United States is the most innovative country in the world. But our leadership could slip away if we fail to properly fund primary, secondary and higher education."
"Social Security is not a retirement savings plan; it is a social insurance program. It's a contract that says, as a society, we will look out for you and your family when you can no longer work."
"Today, energy prices are at historic highs. Some analysts estimate that energy price shocks this year could cost American consumers more than $40 billion. Speaking very frankly, we cannot afford this kind of expense."
"I think the men and women serving in Iraq today deserve special recognition for that."
"I support concrete and progressive immigration reform based on three primary criteria: family reunification, economic contributions, and humanitarian concerns."
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Sen. Jeff Bingaman Q&A;
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:06
- Updated: 13 Aug 2012
Outgoing New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman visited the area on Aug. 6. He went to Eastern New Mexico University in the morning to talk about education reforms and later in the morning toured the Hotel Clovis. He stopped by the Clovis Media Inc. offices and answered a few questions.
http://wn.com/Sen_Jeff_Bingaman_Q&A;
Outgoing New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman visited the area on Aug. 6. He went to Eastern New Mexico University in the morning to talk about education reforms and later in the morning toured the Hotel Clovis. He stopped by the Clovis Media Inc. offices and answered a few questions.
Senator Jeff Bingaman's Farewell Speech
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 16:55
- Updated: 13 Jan 2013
US Senator Jeff Bingaman spoke on the floor today about his tenure in the Senate and thanked those who supported him throughout the years.
http://wn.com/Senator_Jeff_Bingaman's_Farewell_Speech
US Senator Jeff Bingaman spoke on the floor today about his tenure in the Senate and thanked those who supported him throughout the years.
- published: 13 Dec 2012
- views: 587
- author: SenJeffBingaman
Udall's Tribute to Jeff Bingaman
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:54
- Updated: 14 Dec 2012
US Senator Tom Udall pays tribute to outgoing US Senator Jeff Bingaman, thanking him for three decades of distinguished service to the people of New Mexico.
http://wn.com/Udall's_Tribute_to_Jeff_Bingaman
US Senator Tom Udall pays tribute to outgoing US Senator Jeff Bingaman, thanking him for three decades of distinguished service to the people of New Mexico.
- published: 14 Dec 2012
- views: 182
- author: SenatorTomUdall
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on Gas Prices and Domestic Oil and Gas Production
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 21:48
- Updated: 17 Jul 2012
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman speak about gas prices and their relationship with domestic oil and gas production in a speech delivered on the Senate floor March 7, 2012. Bingaman, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, outlines the facts and emphasizes that US oil and natural gas production is growing and is expected to continue growing and that oil prices are typically influenced by factors out of US control—not by lack of domestic production.
http://wn.com/US_Senator_Jeff_Bingaman_on_Gas_Prices_and_Domestic_Oil_and_Gas_Production
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman speak about gas prices and their relationship with domestic oil and gas production in a speech delivered on the Senate floor March 7, 2012. Bingaman, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, outlines the facts and emphasizes that US oil and natural gas production is growing and is expected to continue growing and that oil prices are typically influenced by factors out of US control—not by lack of domestic production.
- published: 07 Mar 2012
- views: 445
- author: SenJeffBingaman
Senator Jeff Bingaman on Tax Cuts for the Middle Class
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:06
- Updated: 06 Dec 2012
US Senator Jeff Bingaman spoke today on the floor of the Senate about the need to pass tax cuts which will benefit the middle class by the end of the year.
http://wn.com/Senator_Jeff_Bingaman_on_Tax_Cuts_for_the_Middle_Class
US Senator Jeff Bingaman spoke today on the floor of the Senate about the need to pass tax cuts which will benefit the middle class by the end of the year.
- published: 06 Dec 2012
- views: 33
- author: SenJeffBingaman
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on the Student Loan Rate Fix
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 11:11
- Updated: 16 May 2012
In his May 9 speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Bingaman affirms his support of the Stop the Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Act, which was blocked from debate by Senate Republicans. Bingaman supports closing the S-corporation payroll tax loophole to pay for the fix by July 1, which is when the interest rates on student loans would increase, and is disappointed that Republicans blocked any form of thoughtful debate on the matter. Approximately 39875 New Mexican students would see an increase in interest rates if the problem is not addressed; the Department of Education estimates that the average student would pay an additional $1000 per year for each new loan. Students from across New Mexico have urged Bingaman to ensure that student loan rates do not increase.
http://wn.com/US_Senator_Jeff_Bingaman_on_the_Student_Loan_Rate_Fix
In his May 9 speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Bingaman affirms his support of the Stop the Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Act, which was blocked from debate by Senate Republicans. Bingaman supports closing the S-corporation payroll tax loophole to pay for the fix by July 1, which is when the interest rates on student loans would increase, and is disappointed that Republicans blocked any form of thoughtful debate on the matter. Approximately 39875 New Mexican students would see an increase in interest rates if the problem is not addressed; the Department of Education estimates that the average student would pay an additional $1000 per year for each new loan. Students from across New Mexico have urged Bingaman to ensure that student loan rates do not increase.
- published: 09 May 2012
- views: 65
- author: SenJeffBingaman
Senator Jeff Bingaman at the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority Housing Conference 2012
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:26
- Updated: 21 Sep 2012
Senator Jeff Bingaman at the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority Housing Conference 2012
http://wn.com/Senator_Jeff_Bingaman_at_the_New_Mexico_Mortgage_Finance_Authority_Housing_Conference_2012
Senator Jeff Bingaman at the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority Housing Conference 2012
- published: 21 Sep 2012
- views: 6
- author: housingnm
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on the Fair Generics Amendment to the FDA Safety & Innovation Act
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 17:18
- Updated: 22 May 2012
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman outline his amendment to the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act currently being debated in the Senate. Bingaman's amendment would help consumers access generic drugs quicker and cheaper than they currently are able, and would save consumers and the government billions of dollars every year. The bipartisan amendment is co-sponsored by ten other senators.
http://wn.com/US_Senator_Jeff_Bingaman_on_the_Fair_Generics_Amendment_to_the_FDA_Safety_Innovation_Act
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman outline his amendment to the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act currently being debated in the Senate. Bingaman's amendment would help consumers access generic drugs quicker and cheaper than they currently are able, and would save consumers and the government billions of dollars every year. The bipartisan amendment is co-sponsored by ten other senators.
- published: 22 May 2012
- views: 82
- author: SenJeffBingaman
Taos Pueblo thanks NM Sen. Jeff Bingaman
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:20
- Updated: 05 Jun 2012
New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman visited Taos Pueblo Feb. 22, 2011, soon after announcing he will not seek a sixth term in office. Tribal members who worked for many years with dozens of others in Taos Valley to complete the landmark Abeyta Water Settlement were on-hand to thank the senator for his help in getting it passed in late 2010. Among them were now-Taos Pueblo Gov. Nelson Cordova and tribal elder Gilbert Suazo who have been working on the settlement for more than 10 years.
http://wn.com/Taos_Pueblo_thanks_NM_Sen_Jeff_Bingaman
New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman visited Taos Pueblo Feb. 22, 2011, soon after announcing he will not seek a sixth term in office. Tribal members who worked for many years with dozens of others in Taos Valley to complete the landmark Abeyta Water Settlement were on-hand to thank the senator for his help in getting it passed in late 2010. Among them were now-Taos Pueblo Gov. Nelson Cordova and tribal elder Gilbert Suazo who have been working on the settlement for more than 10 years.
- published: 23 Feb 2011
- views: 307
- author: taosnews
Senator Jeff Bingaman speaks to Deming, NM officials.
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:48
- Updated: 16 Aug 2012
(Deming) -- US Senator Jeff Bingaman was in Deming Tuesday August 14th to address the Deming-Luna County Economic Development Corporation. Bingaman spoke about the new rule expanding the zone in which pre-cleared Mexican nationals can travel into New Mexico to shop, conduct business and/or visit family.
http://wn.com/Senator_Jeff_Bingaman_speaks_to_Deming,_NM_officials
(Deming) -- US Senator Jeff Bingaman was in Deming Tuesday August 14th to address the Deming-Luna County Economic Development Corporation. Bingaman spoke about the new rule expanding the zone in which pre-cleared Mexican nationals can travel into New Mexico to shop, conduct business and/or visit family.
- published: 16 Aug 2012
- views: 21
- author: Demingradio
Episode 607 | Senator Jeff Bingaman
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 12:59
- Updated: 07 Sep 2012
In the second part of NMiF's interview with retiring Senator Jeff Bingaman, the Silver City native discusses the political climate in Washington, DC and the future of national laboratories in New Mexico.
http://wn.com/Episode_607_|_Senator_Jeff_Bingaman
In the second part of NMiF's interview with retiring Senator Jeff Bingaman, the Silver City native discusses the political climate in Washington, DC and the future of national laboratories in New Mexico.
- published: 17 Aug 2012
- views: 13
- author: nminfocus
Dem Sen On Fairness Doctrine
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:08
- Updated: 26 Jan 2012
Jeff Bingaman wants the Fairness Doctrine back
http://wn.com/Dem_Sen_On_Fairness_Doctrine
Jeff Bingaman wants the Fairness Doctrine back
- published: 22 Oct 2008
- views: 18967
- author: Dan Riehl
US Senator Jeff Bingaman introduced by NM Senator John A. Smith (part 1 of 2)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:11
- Updated: 15 Aug 2012
(part 1 of 2) (Deming) -- US Senator Jeff Bingaman was in Deming to address the Deming-Luna County Economic Development Corporation. Bingaman spoke about the new rule expanding the zone in which pre-cleared Mexican nationals can travel into New Mexico to shop, conduct business and/or visit family. The Deming-Luna County EDC luncheon took place at the Mimbres Valley Learning and Special Events Center, 2300 East Pine Street, Tuesday August 14, 2012.
http://wn.com/US_Senator_Jeff_Bingaman_introduced_by_NM_Senator_John_A_Smith_part_1_of_2
(part 1 of 2) (Deming) -- US Senator Jeff Bingaman was in Deming to address the Deming-Luna County Economic Development Corporation. Bingaman spoke about the new rule expanding the zone in which pre-cleared Mexican nationals can travel into New Mexico to shop, conduct business and/or visit family. The Deming-Luna County EDC luncheon took place at the Mimbres Valley Learning and Special Events Center, 2300 East Pine Street, Tuesday August 14, 2012.
- published: 15 Aug 2012
- views: 8
- author: Demingradio
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on the Clean Energy Standard Act
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:13
- Updated: 30 Mar 2012
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman deliver a floor speech on the Clean Energy Standard Act, a bill he introduced on March 1, 2012 that would create a market-based approach to increasing the nation's use of clean energy. The bill would create a flexible and gradually-increasing standard for clean energy usage that would double the amount of electricity generated from clean energy sources—including solar, wind, nuclear, and natural gas—by 2035.
http://wn.com/US_Senator_Jeff_Bingaman_on_the_Clean_Energy_Standard_Act
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman deliver a floor speech on the Clean Energy Standard Act, a bill he introduced on March 1, 2012 that would create a market-based approach to increasing the nation's use of clean energy. The bill would create a flexible and gradually-increasing standard for clean energy usage that would double the amount of electricity generated from clean energy sources—including solar, wind, nuclear, and natural gas—by 2035.
- published: 01 Mar 2012
- views: 92
- author: SenJeffBingaman
Jeff Bingaman ~ THE STRANGER! Parody of breakfast at Tiffa
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:41
- Updated: 20 Dec 2012
Absolutely hilarious! Good times with great friends! Jeff, Eric, jarrod, Craig, Braxton, Caleb, Jody, Vanessa, allyssa, Lana, Sheryl, and HOT IDA!
http://wn.com/Jeff_Bingaman_~_THE_STRANGER!_Parody_of_breakfast_at_Tiffa
Absolutely hilarious! Good times with great friends! Jeff, Eric, jarrod, Craig, Braxton, Caleb, Jody, Vanessa, allyssa, Lana, Sheryl, and HOT IDA!
- published: 29 Aug 2012
- views: 153
- author: Braxton Heim
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on Oil Production on Federal Lands
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 15:08
- Updated: 28 Mar 2012
Senator Bingaman delivers his second floor speech on the relationship between high gas prices and domestic drilling, highlighting the facts of oil production on federally-owned land. The US is the third-largest oil producer in the world, after Saudi Arabia and Russia.
http://wn.com/US_Senator_Jeff_Bingaman_on_Oil_Production_on_Federal_Lands
Senator Bingaman delivers his second floor speech on the relationship between high gas prices and domestic drilling, highlighting the facts of oil production on federally-owned land. The US is the third-largest oil producer in the world, after Saudi Arabia and Russia.
- published: 28 Mar 2012
- views: 79
- author: SenJeffBingaman
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on New Mexico House Speaker Ben Lujan's Retirement
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:59
- Updated: 16 Feb 2012
US Senator Jeff Bingaman delivered a floor speech commending New Mexico House Speaker Ben Lujan's on his retirement.
http://wn.com/US_Senator_Jeff_Bingaman_on_New_Mexico_House_Speaker_Ben_Lujan's_Retirement
US Senator Jeff Bingaman delivered a floor speech commending New Mexico House Speaker Ben Lujan's on his retirement.
- published: 16 Feb 2012
- views: 157
- author: SenJeffBingaman
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on Executive Nominations
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 17:06
- Updated: 14 Feb 2012
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman deliver a floor speech on the backlog of executive nominations being held up in Congress, and the impact that has on energy policy.
http://wn.com/US_Senator_Jeff_Bingaman_on_Executive_Nominations
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman deliver a floor speech on the backlog of executive nominations being held up in Congress, and the impact that has on energy policy.
- published: 14 Feb 2012
- views: 77
- author: SenJeffBingaman
Senator Jeff Bingaman honors Bun Ryan at Los Alamos "JFK" Banquet
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:31
- Updated: 03 Jun 2012
US Senator Jeff Bingaman spoke via video at the JFK Banquet were Bun Ryan was honored with the Los Alamos Democratic Achievement Award.
http://wn.com/Senator_Jeff_Bingaman_honors_Bun_Ryan_at_Los_Alamos_JFK_Banquet
US Senator Jeff Bingaman spoke via video at the JFK Banquet were Bun Ryan was honored with the Los Alamos Democratic Achievement Award.
- published: 03 Jun 2012
- views: 29
- author: LA DailyPost
Sen. Bingaman's conservation legacy
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:45
- Updated: 14 Dec 2012
New Mexico sportsmen thank US Sen. Jeff Bingaman for his years of hard work protecting public lands.
http://wn.com/Sen_Bingaman's_conservation_legacy
New Mexico sportsmen thank US Sen. Jeff Bingaman for his years of hard work protecting public lands.
- published: 26 Nov 2012
- views: 413
- author: NMwildlife
Senator Jeff Bingaman's Veterans Day Statement
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:29
- Updated: 15 Nov 2011
Listen to US Senator Jeff Bingaman's Veterans Day statement.
http://wn.com/Senator_Jeff_Bingaman's_Veterans_Day_Statement
Listen to US Senator Jeff Bingaman's Veterans Day statement.
- published: 10 Nov 2011
- views: 88
- author: SenJeffBingaman
The Colbert Report: 12/12/12 in :60 Seconds
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:13
- Updated: 08 Feb 2013
"America Again: Re-Becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't" climbs to the top, Senator Jeff Bingaman primes Stephen for Senate work, and Mandy Patinkin fancies fertilizer. Watch new episodes of The Colbert Report Monday - Thursday at 1130/1030c. Subscribe to Comedy Central's channel for more Colbert Report by clicking this: on.cc.com Visit the Colbert Nation - www.colbertnation.com Follow Stephen on Twitter - www.twitter.com Follow The Colbert Report - www.twitter.com "Like" the Colbert Report on facebook - www.facebook.com "Like" Comedy Central on facebook - www.facebook.com Don't forget to tell us what you thought in the comments, like the video and subscribe to our video for all of your Comedy Central favorites.
http://wn.com/The_Colbert_Report_12_12_12_in_60_Seconds
"America Again: Re-Becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't" climbs to the top, Senator Jeff Bingaman primes Stephen for Senate work, and Mandy Patinkin fancies fertilizer. Watch new episodes of The Colbert Report Monday - Thursday at 1130/1030c. Subscribe to Comedy Central's channel for more Colbert Report by clicking this: on.cc.com Visit the Colbert Nation - www.colbertnation.com Follow Stephen on Twitter - www.twitter.com Follow The Colbert Report - www.twitter.com "Like" the Colbert Report on facebook - www.facebook.com "Like" Comedy Central on facebook - www.facebook.com Don't forget to tell us what you thought in the comments, like the video and subscribe to our video for all of your Comedy Central favorites.
- published: 13 Dec 2012
- views: 16430
- author: comedycentral
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on the Rebuild America Jobs Act
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:10
- Updated: 02 Nov 2011
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman deliver a speech on the Senate floor on the importance of passing the Rebuild America Jobs Act, which would create jobs across the country and in New Mexico.
http://wn.com/US_Senator_Jeff_Bingaman_on_the_Rebuild_America_Jobs_Act
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman deliver a speech on the Senate floor on the importance of passing the Rebuild America Jobs Act, which would create jobs across the country and in New Mexico.
- published: 02 Nov 2011
- views: 78
- author: SenJeffBingaman
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Sen. Jeff Bingaman Q&A;
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:06
- Updated: 13 Aug 2012
Outgoing New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman visited the area on Aug. 6. He went to Eastern New Mexico University in the morning to talk about education reforms and later in the morning toured the Hotel Clovis. He stopped by the Clovis Media Inc. offices and answered a few questions.
http://wn.com/Sen_Jeff_Bingaman_Q&A;
Outgoing New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman visited the area on Aug. 6. He went to Eastern New Mexico University in the morning to talk about education reforms and later in the morning toured the Hotel Clovis. He stopped by the Clovis Media Inc. offices and answered a few questions.
- published: 13 Aug 2012
- views: 103
- author: cnjonline
Senator Jeff Bingaman's Farewell Speech
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 16:55
- Updated: 13 Jan 2013
US Senator Jeff Bingaman spoke on the floor today about his tenure in the Senate and thanked those who supported him throughout the years.
http://wn.com/Senator_Jeff_Bingaman's_Farewell_Speech
US Senator Jeff Bingaman spoke on the floor today about his tenure in the Senate and thanked those who supported him throughout the years.
- published: 13 Dec 2012
- views: 574
- author: SenJeffBingaman
Udall's Tribute to Jeff Bingaman
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:54
- Updated: 14 Dec 2012
US Senator Tom Udall pays tribute to outgoing US Senator Jeff Bingaman, thanking him for three decades of distinguished service to the people of New Mexico.
http://wn.com/Udall's_Tribute_to_Jeff_Bingaman
US Senator Tom Udall pays tribute to outgoing US Senator Jeff Bingaman, thanking him for three decades of distinguished service to the people of New Mexico.
- published: 14 Dec 2012
- views: 174
- author: SenatorTomUdall
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on Gas Prices and Domestic Oil and Gas Production
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 21:48
- Updated: 17 Jul 2012
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman speak about gas prices and their relationship with domestic oil and gas production in a speech delivered on the Senate floor March 7, 2012. Bingaman, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, outlines the facts and emphasizes that US oil and natural gas production is growing and is expected to continue growing and that oil prices are typically influenced by factors out of US control—not by lack of domestic production.
http://wn.com/US_Senator_Jeff_Bingaman_on_Gas_Prices_and_Domestic_Oil_and_Gas_Production
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman speak about gas prices and their relationship with domestic oil and gas production in a speech delivered on the Senate floor March 7, 2012. Bingaman, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, outlines the facts and emphasizes that US oil and natural gas production is growing and is expected to continue growing and that oil prices are typically influenced by factors out of US control—not by lack of domestic production.
- published: 07 Mar 2012
- views: 444
- author: SenJeffBingaman
Jeff Bingaman Interview Pt. 1 on Health Care Reform
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:28
- Updated: 08 Jul 2010
Lauren Reichelt of the Rio Arriba County (NM) Health Department interviewed Senator Jeff Bingaman on 9/18/09.
http://wn.com/Jeff_Bingaman_Interview_Pt_1_on_Health_Care_Reform
Lauren Reichelt of the Rio Arriba County (NM) Health Department interviewed Senator Jeff Bingaman on 9/18/09.
- published: 30 Sep 2009
- views: 185
- author: landenchantment
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on the Student Loan Rate Fix
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 11:11
- Updated: 16 May 2012
In his May 9 speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Bingaman affirms his support of the Stop the Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Act, which was blocked from debate by Senate Republicans. Bingaman supports closing the S-corporation payroll tax loophole to pay for the fix by July 1, which is when the interest rates on student loans would increase, and is disappointed that Republicans blocked any form of thoughtful debate on the matter. Approximately 39875 New Mexican students would see an increase in interest rates if the problem is not addressed; the Department of Education estimates that the average student would pay an additional $1000 per year for each new loan. Students from across New Mexico have urged Bingaman to ensure that student loan rates do not increase.
http://wn.com/US_Senator_Jeff_Bingaman_on_the_Student_Loan_Rate_Fix
In his May 9 speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Bingaman affirms his support of the Stop the Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Act, which was blocked from debate by Senate Republicans. Bingaman supports closing the S-corporation payroll tax loophole to pay for the fix by July 1, which is when the interest rates on student loans would increase, and is disappointed that Republicans blocked any form of thoughtful debate on the matter. Approximately 39875 New Mexican students would see an increase in interest rates if the problem is not addressed; the Department of Education estimates that the average student would pay an additional $1000 per year for each new loan. Students from across New Mexico have urged Bingaman to ensure that student loan rates do not increase.
- published: 09 May 2012
- views: 65
- author: SenJeffBingaman
Re: Interview with Sen. Jeff Bingaman part 1
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:34
- Updated: 16 Nov 2012
Video Cam Direct Upload - 1000You2b0001 Revolution Is Here! urges Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) to support the Articles of Impeachment introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich and other brave congressmen who want to rid our country of criminals in very high places.
http://wn.com/Re_Interview_with_Sen_Jeff_Bingaman_part_1
Video Cam Direct Upload - 1000You2b0001 Revolution Is Here! urges Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) to support the Articles of Impeachment introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich and other brave congressmen who want to rid our country of criminals in very high places.
- published: 15 Jun 2008
- views: 84
- author: 1000You2b0001
Jeff Bingaman exclusive interview
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:11
- Updated: 15 Jan 2013
Jeff Bingaman exclusive interview
http://wn.com/Jeff_Bingaman_exclusive_interview
Jeff Bingaman Interview Pt. 2 on Health Care Reform
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:19
- Updated: 02 Oct 2009
Sen. Jeff Bingaman interview on Health Care Reform, by Lauren Reichelt of Rio Arriba County (NM) Health Department. Part 2.
http://wn.com/Jeff_Bingaman_Interview_Pt_2_on_Health_Care_Reform
Sen. Jeff Bingaman interview on Health Care Reform, by Lauren Reichelt of Rio Arriba County (NM) Health Department. Part 2.
- published: 30 Sep 2009
- views: 65
- author: landenchantment
Interview with Sen. Jeff Bingaman part 1
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:17
- Updated: 11 May 2010
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D--NM) answers questions for Freedom Newspapers.
http://wn.com/Interview_with_Sen_Jeff_Bingaman_part_1
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D--NM) answers questions for Freedom Newspapers.
- published: 19 Aug 2007
- views: 213
- author: cnjonline
Jeff Bingaman interview tease
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:24
- Updated: 15 Jan 2013
Jeff Bingaman interview tease
http://wn.com/Jeff_Bingaman_interview_tease
Taos Pueblo thanks NM Sen. Jeff Bingaman
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:20
- Updated: 05 Jun 2012
New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman visited Taos Pueblo Feb. 22, 2011, soon after announcing he will not seek a sixth term in office. Tribal members who worked for many years with dozens of others in Taos Valley to complete the landmark Abeyta Water Settlement were on-hand to thank the senator for his help in getting it passed in late 2010. Among them were now-Taos Pueblo Gov. Nelson Cordova and tribal elder Gilbert Suazo who have been working on the settlement for more than 10 years.
http://wn.com/Taos_Pueblo_thanks_NM_Sen_Jeff_Bingaman
New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman visited Taos Pueblo Feb. 22, 2011, soon after announcing he will not seek a sixth term in office. Tribal members who worked for many years with dozens of others in Taos Valley to complete the landmark Abeyta Water Settlement were on-hand to thank the senator for his help in getting it passed in late 2010. Among them were now-Taos Pueblo Gov. Nelson Cordova and tribal elder Gilbert Suazo who have been working on the settlement for more than 10 years.
- published: 23 Feb 2011
- views: 303
- author: taosnews
Jeff Bingaman exclusive interview
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:24
- Updated: 15 Jan 2013
Jeff Bingaman exclusive interview
http://wn.com/Jeff_Bingaman_exclusive_interview
Interview with Sen. Jeff Bingaman part 2
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:12
- Updated: 01 Jun 2009
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D--NM) answers questions for Freedom Newspapers.
http://wn.com/Interview_with_Sen_Jeff_Bingaman_part_2
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D--NM) answers questions for Freedom Newspapers.
- published: 19 Aug 2007
- views: 72
- author: cnjonline
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on Extending Middle Class Tax Cuts
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 13:47
- Updated: 10 Mar 2011
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman deliver a floor speech on Friday, December 3, 2010, urging Congress to act to extend middle class tax cuts and allow the extra tax cut for the wealthy to expire.
http://wn.com/US_Senator_Jeff_Bingaman_on_Extending_Middle_Class_Tax_Cuts
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman deliver a floor speech on Friday, December 3, 2010, urging Congress to act to extend middle class tax cuts and allow the extra tax cut for the wealthy to expire.
- published: 03 Dec 2010
- views: 279
- author: SenJeffBingaman
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on High Gasoline and Oil Prices
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 17:18
- Updated: 04 Jan 2013
US Senator Jeff Bingaman's floor speech on high gasoline and oil price. Bingaman delivered the speech on March 17, 2011.
http://wn.com/US_Senator_Jeff_Bingaman_on_High_Gasoline_and_Oil_Prices
US Senator Jeff Bingaman's floor speech on high gasoline and oil price. Bingaman delivered the speech on March 17, 2011.
- published: 21 Mar 2011
- views: 224
- author: SenJeffBingaman
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on the Clean Energy Standard Act
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:13
- Updated: 30 Mar 2012
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman deliver a floor speech on the Clean Energy Standard Act, a bill he introduced on March 1, 2012 that would create a market-based approach to increasing the nation's use of clean energy. The bill would create a flexible and gradually-increasing standard for clean energy usage that would double the amount of electricity generated from clean energy sources—including solar, wind, nuclear, and natural gas—by 2035.
http://wn.com/US_Senator_Jeff_Bingaman_on_the_Clean_Energy_Standard_Act
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman deliver a floor speech on the Clean Energy Standard Act, a bill he introduced on March 1, 2012 that would create a market-based approach to increasing the nation's use of clean energy. The bill would create a flexible and gradually-increasing standard for clean energy usage that would double the amount of electricity generated from clean energy sources—including solar, wind, nuclear, and natural gas—by 2035.
- published: 01 Mar 2012
- views: 92
- author: SenJeffBingaman
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on the Fair Generics Amendment to the FDA Safety & Innovation Act
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 17:18
- Updated: 22 May 2012
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman outline his amendment to the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act currently being debated in the Senate. Bingaman's amendment would help consumers access generic drugs quicker and cheaper than they currently are able, and would save consumers and the government billions of dollars every year. The bipartisan amendment is co-sponsored by ten other senators.
http://wn.com/US_Senator_Jeff_Bingaman_on_the_Fair_Generics_Amendment_to_the_FDA_Safety_Innovation_Act
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman outline his amendment to the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act currently being debated in the Senate. Bingaman's amendment would help consumers access generic drugs quicker and cheaper than they currently are able, and would save consumers and the government billions of dollars every year. The bipartisan amendment is co-sponsored by ten other senators.
- published: 22 May 2012
- views: 79
- author: SenJeffBingaman
US Senator Jeff Bingaman's Speech on the Deficit
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 13:23
- Updated: 11 May 2011
US Senator Jeff Bingaman's May 4, 2011 floor speech on the deficit.
http://wn.com/US_Senator_Jeff_Bingaman's_Speech_on_the_Deficit
US Senator Jeff Bingaman's May 4, 2011 floor speech on the deficit.
- published: 04 May 2011
- views: 252
- author: SenJeffBingaman
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on Oil Production on Federal Lands
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 15:08
- Updated: 28 Mar 2012
Senator Bingaman delivers his second floor speech on the relationship between high gas prices and domestic drilling, highlighting the facts of oil production on federally-owned land. The US is the third-largest oil producer in the world, after Saudi Arabia and Russia.
http://wn.com/US_Senator_Jeff_Bingaman_on_Oil_Production_on_Federal_Lands
Senator Bingaman delivers his second floor speech on the relationship between high gas prices and domestic drilling, highlighting the facts of oil production on federally-owned land. The US is the third-largest oil producer in the world, after Saudi Arabia and Russia.
- published: 28 Mar 2012
- views: 78
- author: SenJeffBingaman
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on New Mexico House Speaker Ben Lujan's Retirement
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:59
- Updated: 16 Feb 2012
US Senator Jeff Bingaman delivered a floor speech commending New Mexico House Speaker Ben Lujan's on his retirement.
http://wn.com/US_Senator_Jeff_Bingaman_on_New_Mexico_House_Speaker_Ben_Lujan's_Retirement
US Senator Jeff Bingaman delivered a floor speech commending New Mexico House Speaker Ben Lujan's on his retirement.
- published: 16 Feb 2012
- views: 155
- author: SenJeffBingaman
Classic TYT Interview With Jeff Bingaman 8-22-06
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:54
- Updated: 12 Jan 2013
Jeff Bingaman Interview August 22, 2006
http://wn.com/Classic_TYT_Interview_With_Jeff_Bingaman_8-22-06
US Senator Jeff Bingaman's Speech on the Debt Ceiling
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:04
- Updated: 11 Apr 2012
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman deliver a floor speech outlining his support of raising the debt ceiling.
http://wn.com/US_Senator_Jeff_Bingaman's_Speech_on_the_Debt_Ceiling
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman deliver a floor speech outlining his support of raising the debt ceiling.
- published: 27 Jul 2011
- views: 133
- author: SenJeffBingaman
6:06
Sen. Jeff Bingaman Q&A;
Outgoing New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman visited the area on Aug. 6. He went to Eastern New ...
published: 13 Aug 2012
author: cnjonline
Sen. Jeff Bingaman Q&A;
Outgoing New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman visited the area on Aug. 6. He went to Eastern New Mexico University in the morning to talk about education reforms and later in the morning toured the Hotel Clovis. He stopped by the Clovis Media Inc. offices and answered a few questions.
- published: 13 Aug 2012
- views: 103
- author: cnjonline
16:55
Senator Jeff Bingaman's Farewell Speech
US Senator Jeff Bingaman spoke on the floor today about his tenure in the Senate and thank...
published: 13 Dec 2012
author: SenJeffBingaman
Senator Jeff Bingaman's Farewell Speech
US Senator Jeff Bingaman spoke on the floor today about his tenure in the Senate and thanked those who supported him throughout the years.
- published: 13 Dec 2012
- views: 574
- author: SenJeffBingaman
9:54
Udall's Tribute to Jeff Bingaman
US Senator Tom Udall pays tribute to outgoing US Senator Jeff Bingaman, thanking him for t...
published: 14 Dec 2012
author: SenatorTomUdall
Udall's Tribute to Jeff Bingaman
US Senator Tom Udall pays tribute to outgoing US Senator Jeff Bingaman, thanking him for three decades of distinguished service to the people of New Mexico.
- published: 14 Dec 2012
- views: 174
- author: SenatorTomUdall
21:48
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on Gas Prices and Domestic Oil and Gas Production
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman speak about gas prices and their relationship with domestic...
published: 07 Mar 2012
author: SenJeffBingaman
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on Gas Prices and Domestic Oil and Gas Production
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman speak about gas prices and their relationship with domestic oil and gas production in a speech delivered on the Senate floor March 7, 2012. Bingaman, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, outlines the facts and emphasizes that US oil and natural gas production is growing and is expected to continue growing and that oil prices are typically influenced by factors out of US control—not by lack of domestic production.
- published: 07 Mar 2012
- views: 444
- author: SenJeffBingaman
5:28
Jeff Bingaman Interview Pt. 1 on Health Care Reform
Lauren Reichelt of the Rio Arriba County (NM) Health Department interviewed Senator Jeff B...
published: 30 Sep 2009
author: landenchantment
Jeff Bingaman Interview Pt. 1 on Health Care Reform
Lauren Reichelt of the Rio Arriba County (NM) Health Department interviewed Senator Jeff Bingaman on 9/18/09.
- published: 30 Sep 2009
- views: 185
- author: landenchantment
11:11
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on the Student Loan Rate Fix
In his May 9 speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Bingaman affirms his support of the Stop the...
published: 09 May 2012
author: SenJeffBingaman
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on the Student Loan Rate Fix
In his May 9 speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Bingaman affirms his support of the Stop the Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Act, which was blocked from debate by Senate Republicans. Bingaman supports closing the S-corporation payroll tax loophole to pay for the fix by July 1, which is when the interest rates on student loans would increase, and is disappointed that Republicans blocked any form of thoughtful debate on the matter. Approximately 39875 New Mexican students would see an increase in interest rates if the problem is not addressed; the Department of Education estimates that the average student would pay an additional $1000 per year for each new loan. Students from across New Mexico have urged Bingaman to ensure that student loan rates do not increase.
- published: 09 May 2012
- views: 65
- author: SenJeffBingaman
0:34
Re: Interview with Sen. Jeff Bingaman part 1
Video Cam Direct Upload - 1000You2b0001 Revolution Is Here! urges Senator Jeff Bingaman (D...
published: 15 Jun 2008
author: 1000You2b0001
Re: Interview with Sen. Jeff Bingaman part 1
Video Cam Direct Upload - 1000You2b0001 Revolution Is Here! urges Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) to support the Articles of Impeachment introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich and other brave congressmen who want to rid our country of criminals in very high places.
- published: 15 Jun 2008
- views: 84
- author: 1000You2b0001
6:19
Jeff Bingaman Interview Pt. 2 on Health Care Reform
Sen. Jeff Bingaman interview on Health Care Reform, by Lauren Reichelt of Rio Arriba Count...
published: 30 Sep 2009
author: landenchantment
Jeff Bingaman Interview Pt. 2 on Health Care Reform
Sen. Jeff Bingaman interview on Health Care Reform, by Lauren Reichelt of Rio Arriba County (NM) Health Department. Part 2.
- published: 30 Sep 2009
- views: 65
- author: landenchantment
5:17
Interview with Sen. Jeff Bingaman part 1
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D--NM) answers questions for Freedom Newspapers....
published: 19 Aug 2007
author: cnjonline
Interview with Sen. Jeff Bingaman part 1
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D--NM) answers questions for Freedom Newspapers.
- published: 19 Aug 2007
- views: 213
- author: cnjonline
6:20
Taos Pueblo thanks NM Sen. Jeff Bingaman
New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman visited Taos Pueblo Feb. 22, 2011, soon after announcing he ...
published: 23 Feb 2011
author: taosnews
Taos Pueblo thanks NM Sen. Jeff Bingaman
New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman visited Taos Pueblo Feb. 22, 2011, soon after announcing he will not seek a sixth term in office. Tribal members who worked for many years with dozens of others in Taos Valley to complete the landmark Abeyta Water Settlement were on-hand to thank the senator for his help in getting it passed in late 2010. Among them were now-Taos Pueblo Gov. Nelson Cordova and tribal elder Gilbert Suazo who have been working on the settlement for more than 10 years.
- published: 23 Feb 2011
- views: 303
- author: taosnews
5:12
Interview with Sen. Jeff Bingaman part 2
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D--NM) answers questions for Freedom Newspapers....
published: 19 Aug 2007
author: cnjonline
Interview with Sen. Jeff Bingaman part 2
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D--NM) answers questions for Freedom Newspapers.
- published: 19 Aug 2007
- views: 72
- author: cnjonline
Vimeo results:
36:22
GRID Workshop | Jeff Bingaman
published: 16 Feb 2011
author: Cyperus Media.com
GRID Workshop | Jeff Bingaman
6:35
Comments: US Senator Jeff Bingaman
Senator Jeff Bingaman talks about his ideas on the Bond industry, Bank Qualified Bonds, ta...
published: 24 Feb 2011
author: Kevin McLaughlin
Comments: US Senator Jeff Bingaman
Senator Jeff Bingaman talks about his ideas on the Bond industry, Bank Qualified Bonds, tax reform and more.
3:01
W.S.V.T
http://www.typicalculture.com May Montage 2011
Filmed & Edit by Zack Dowdy
Featuring: Co...
published: 31 May 2011
author: TYPICAL CULTURE
W.S.V.T
http://www.typicalculture.com May Montage 2011
Filmed & Edit by Zack Dowdy
Featuring: Connor Getzlaff, Brandon Perelson, Marius Syvanen, Asa Crow IV, Jeff Ward, Anthony DiStefano, Chaz Pineda, Danny DiCola, Div Adams, Chris Cope, Jack Given, Taylor Bingaman.
1:06
Bingaman Outlines Clean Energy Proposals
During a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Senate Energy and Natural ...
published: 31 Jan 2011
author: Talk Radio News Service
Bingaman Outlines Clean Energy Proposals
During a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) discusses broad energy initiatives that he hopes Congress will pass this year. Distributed by Tubemogul.
Youtube results:
13:47
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on Extending Middle Class Tax Cuts
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman deliver a floor speech on Friday, December 3, 2010, urging ...
published: 03 Dec 2010
author: SenJeffBingaman
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on Extending Middle Class Tax Cuts
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman deliver a floor speech on Friday, December 3, 2010, urging Congress to act to extend middle class tax cuts and allow the extra tax cut for the wealthy to expire.
- published: 03 Dec 2010
- views: 279
- author: SenJeffBingaman
17:18
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on High Gasoline and Oil Prices
US Senator Jeff Bingaman's floor speech on high gasoline and oil price. Bingaman delivered...
published: 21 Mar 2011
author: SenJeffBingaman
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on High Gasoline and Oil Prices
US Senator Jeff Bingaman's floor speech on high gasoline and oil price. Bingaman delivered the speech on March 17, 2011.
- published: 21 Mar 2011
- views: 224
- author: SenJeffBingaman
9:13
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on the Clean Energy Standard Act
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman deliver a floor speech on the Clean Energy Standard Act, a ...
published: 01 Mar 2012
author: SenJeffBingaman
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on the Clean Energy Standard Act
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman deliver a floor speech on the Clean Energy Standard Act, a bill he introduced on March 1, 2012 that would create a market-based approach to increasing the nation's use of clean energy. The bill would create a flexible and gradually-increasing standard for clean energy usage that would double the amount of electricity generated from clean energy sources—including solar, wind, nuclear, and natural gas—by 2035.
- published: 01 Mar 2012
- views: 92
- author: SenJeffBingaman
17:18
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on the Fair Generics Amendment to the FDA Safety & Innovation Act
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman outline his amendment to the Food and Drug Administration S...
published: 22 May 2012
author: SenJeffBingaman
US Senator Jeff Bingaman on the Fair Generics Amendment to the FDA Safety & Innovation Act
Watch US Senator Jeff Bingaman outline his amendment to the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act currently being debated in the Senate. Bingaman's amendment would help consumers access generic drugs quicker and cheaper than they currently are able, and would save consumers and the government billions of dollars every year. The bipartisan amendment is co-sponsored by ten other senators.
- published: 22 May 2012
- views: 79
- author: SenJeffBingaman
photo: AP / Ugarit News via AP video
09 Feb 2013
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The video has gone viral in recent days. Syrian government soldiers, in camouflage gear, carrying rocket-propelled grenades and brandishing rifles, mugging for the camera while dancing in a circle to Usher’s hit song “Yeah!”. Enlarge This Image. Ugarit News, via Associated Press. In a video posted online, Syrian soldiers chant and dance to Usher’s hit song “Yeah!”. Related. U.N ... Twitter List ... Raw ... ....(size: 8.2Kb)
photo: WN / Ahmed Deeb
10 Feb 2013
A protester holds a banner reading "Be careful Mr President Hollande, Tunisia is not Mali" at a demonstration in Tunis on February 9. (AP). More Coverage. Late last year, largely unnoticed in the West, Tunisia's president, Moncef Marzouki, gave an interview to Chatham House's The World Today ... "We didn't realise how dangerous and violent these Salafists could be ... They are a tiny minority within a tiny minority ... Threats ... ....(size: 13.5Kb)
photo: AP / Elaine Thompson
10 Feb 2013
Boeing sent a 787 up on a test flight Saturday, the first since the new airliner was grounded three weeks ago because of a battery fire ... The plan was to spend two and a half hours in the air ... ....(size: 1.0Kb)
photo: WN / Imran Nissar
09 Feb 2013
NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian news channels are reporting that a Kashmiri man convicted in the 2001 attack on India's Parliament has been hanged ... World news. Last 24 hours....(size: 5.9Kb)
photo: AP / Marcio Jose Sanchez
10 Feb 2013
Top scorer Emenike fails to make final for Nigeria. Africa Cup of Nations 7 minutes ago. Burkina Faso v Nigeria - African Nations Cup final teams. Africa Cup of Nations 21 minutes ago. Blatter angry with UEFA over declaration on FIFA reforms. Rest of Europe 1 hours ago. Mali bank on Keita to deliver first World Cup place. Africa Cup of Nations 1 hours ago. Nigeria start favourites in African Nations Cup final ... Rest of Europe Yesterday, 22.28....(size: 6.8Kb)
Houston Chronicle
04 Feb 2013
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 1.20 pm by Jennifer A. Dlouhy in Politics and Policy. Comments(). .. E-mail. .. Print ... Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she hopes the framework provides the foundation for new, bipartisan energy legislation, after years of a “muddled” approach ... Murkowski also recommends ... Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and a similar collegial relationship appears to be developing between Wyden and Murkowski. Comments(). ... ... ....(size: 4.8Kb)
Baltimore Sun
23 Jan 2013
The group said that the majority of NIH-owned chimpanzees should be retired from research and transferred to a federal sanctuary system ... Pushed by New Mexico senators Tom Udall and the now-retired Jeff Bingaman, the NIH in December commissioned a study by the Institute of Medicine to assess the need to use chimpanzees in federally supported research ... ___. (c)2013 the Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, N.M.)....(size: 2.7Kb)
Houston Chronicle
17 Jan 2013
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 7.04 am by Bloomberg in Interior Department, Offshore, Oil. Comments(). .. E-mail. ... David Hayes, a deputy at the Interior Department, has been mentioned in published reports as a potential Salazar successor, as have former New Mexico Senator Jeff Bingaman, a Democrat who retired from Congress this year, former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter and Byron Dorgan, a former Democratic senator from North Dakota ... ... .....(size: 5.7Kb)
noodls
17 Jan 2013
(Source. The Center for Responsive Politics). FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. Contact. Viveca Novak, 202-354-0111, or press@crp.org. Ninety-four new senators and House members joined the 113th Congress. But if voters felt the last group of lawmakers was out of touch with "real America," the new class may not be better ... The most recent numbers available from the U.S ... There has been some change at the top, though ... Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), Sen....(size: 14.0Kb)
Houston Chronicle
16 Jan 2013
Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., has been skeptical of revenue sharing ... Gerard noted that Wyden and Murkowski may “have a different view on that issue” than Bingaman, in part because they both represent coastal states ... Tags.American Petroleum Institute, David Vitter, GOMESA, gulf of mexico, Jack Gerard, Jeff Bingaman, Jeff Landry, Lisa Murkowski, Mary Landrieu, offshore drilling, revenue sharing, Ron Wyden, royalty sharing....(size: 4.8Kb)
Reuters
16 Jan 2013
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is expected to announce he is stepping down, a White House official confirmed on Wednesday ... senator, who took on the job in 2009 ... Potential nominees include Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, who just retired from the U.S....(size: 1.3Kb)
Independent online (SA)
16 Jan 2013
Washington - U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who helped lead the government's response to the largest offshore oil spill in U.S ... The former U.S ... Energy Secretary Steven Chu is also widely tipped to leave ... Potential candidates for the Interior post include outgoing Washington Governor Christine Gregoire, former Senator Jeff Bingaman, who was chair of the Senate energy committee, and Bill Ritter, former governor of Colorado ... - Reuters....(size: 2.8Kb)
CNBC
16 Jan 2013
* Led the government's response to BP oil spill. * Would be second of Obama's energy team to depart. * Known for signature bolo tie and cowboy hat. WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - U.S ... The former U.S ... Potential candidates for the Interior post include outgoing Washington Governor Christine Gregoire, former Senator Jeff Bingaman, who was chair of the Senate energy committee, and Bill Ritter, former governor of Colorado ... ....(size: 2.7Kb)
Bloomberg
16 Jan 2013
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar plans to leave his cabinet post by the end of March, an administration official said on condition of anonymity in advance of a formal announcement ... He represented the state in the U.S ... 20 ... 12 ... David Hayes, a deputy at the Interior Department, has been mentioned as a potential successor, as has former New Mexico Senator Jeff Bingaman, a Democrat who retired from Congress this year ... ....(size: 3.3Kb)
CNBC
16 Jan 2013
* Led the government's response to BP oil spill. * Would be second of Obama's energy team to depart. * Known for signature bolo tie and cowboy hat. WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - U.S ... The former U.S ... Potential candidates for the Interior post include outgoing Washington Governor Christine Gregoire, former Senator Jeff Bingaman, who was chairman of the Senate energy committee, and Bill Ritter, former governor of Colorado ... FIGHTING INDUSTRY....(size: 4.5Kb)
CNBC
16 Jan 2013
* Led the government's response to BP oil spill. * Would be second of Obama's energy team to depart. * Known for signature bolo tie and cowboy hat. WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - U.S ... The former U.S ... Potential candidates for the Interior post include outgoing Washington Governor Christine Gregoire, former Senator Jeff Bingaman, who was chairman of the Senate energy committee, and Bill Ritter, former governor of Colorado ... BP OIL SPILL ... ....(size: 5.3Kb)
The Star
16 Jan 2013
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who helped lead the government's response to the largest offshore oil spill in U.S ... U.S ... REUTERS/Bob Strong. The former U.S ... Potential candidates for the Interior post include outgoing Washington Governor Christine Gregoire, former New Mexico Senator Jeff Bingaman, who was chairman of the Senate energy committee, and Bill Ritter, former governor of Colorado ... BP OIL SPILL ... ....(size: 6.5Kb)
Tulsa World
06 Jan 2013
WASHINGTON - Here is how Oklahoma's members of the House of Representatives and Senate voted on key bills and amendments last week. A "Y" means the member voted for the measure; an "N" means the member voted against the measure; a "?" means the member did not vote. HOUSE. Vote 1. Government pay freeze ... 6726), sponsored by Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick, R-Pa ... The vote, on Jan ... Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., to the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act (H.R ... ....(size: 7.0Kb)
| Jeff Bingaman | |
|---|---|
_2008.jpg) |
|
| United States Senator from New Mexico |
|
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 3, 1983 Serving with Tom Udall |
|
| Preceded by | Harrison Schmitt |
| Chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 4, 2007 |
|
| Preceded by | Pete Domenici |
| In office June 6, 2001 – January 3, 2003 |
|
| Preceded by | Frank Murkowski |
| Succeeded by | Pete Domenici |
| In office January 3 – January 20, 2001 |
|
| Preceded by | Frank Murkowski |
| Succeeded by | Frank Murkowski |
| Attorney General of New Mexico | |
| In office 1979–1983 |
|
| Governor | Bruce King |
| Preceded by | Toney Anaya |
| Succeeded by | Paul Bardacke |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Jesse Francis Bingaman, Jr. (1943-10-03) October 3, 1943 (age 68) El Paso, Texas |
| Spouse(s) | Anne Kovacovich Bingaman |
| Residence | Santa Fe, New Mexico |
| Alma mater | Harvard University (B.A.) Stanford University (J.D.) |
| Occupation | Attorney |
| Religion | Methodist |
| Website | www.bingaman.senate.gov |
| Military service | |
| Service/branch | United States Army |
| Years of service | 1968-1974 |
| Unit | Reserves |
Jesse Francis "Jeff" Bingaman, Jr. (born October 3, 1943) is the senior United States Senator from New Mexico and a member of the Democratic Party. He serves as Chairman of Committee Outreach for the Senate Democratic Caucus.
Previously, Bingaman was Attorney General of New Mexico.
On February 18, 2011, Bingaman announced that he would not seek re-election in 2012.[1][2]
Contents |
Early life[link]
Bingaman was born in El Paso, Texas, the son of Frances Bethia (née Ball) and Jesse Francis Bingaman.[3] He grew up in Silver City, New Mexico. His father taught at Western New Mexico University and his mother taught in the public schools system. At age 15, he earned the rank of Eagle Scout.[4] The Boy Scouts of America later presented Bingaman with their Distinguished Eagle Scout Award.[5]
After graduating from Silver High School, Bingaman went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in government from Harvard University in 1965. He then entered Stanford Law School, graduating in 1968. He met his wife Anne Kovacovich while attending law classes. They have one son.
After his admission to the bar, Bingaman commenced work as a private practice attorney alongside his wife. He also served as counsel to the New Mexico Constitutional Convention of 1969. From 1968 to 1974, Bingaman was a member of the U.S. Army Reserve.
State Attorney General[link]
Bingaman had worked briefly in the state attorney general's office. He ran for the leadership position of this office in 1978 and was elected. Environmental and antitrust issues were some of his biggest concerns while in this position.
U.S. Senate[link]
Committee assignments[link]
- Committee on Armed Services
- Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (Chairman)
- Committee on Finance
- Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
- Joint Economic Committee
Caucus memberships[link]
- Congressional Competitiveness Caucus (Co-Chair)
- International Conservation Caucus
- Senate Diabetes Caucus
Tenure[link]
In 1982, Bingaman unseated the one term incumbent, Harrison Schmitt to win his first term in the Senate. Bingaman is Chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and a member of the Finance Committee; Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee; and Joint Committee on the Economy.
Generally, Bingaman keeps a lower national profile than conventional wisdom would suggest for a five-term Senator. However, he is very popular in New Mexico; he has only faced substantive opposition once, in 1994.
Bingaman and his Senate colleague Pete Domenici were the longest serving duo among senators in the 110th United States Congress (2007–2009). In second place were Edward Kennedy and John Kerry of Massachusetts. Bingaman was the most senior junior senator in the 110th United States Congress. Currently, Bingaman is the senior senator from New Mexico. On April 28, 2008, Jeff Bingaman endorsed Senator Barack Obama for the 2008 Democratic Presidential Nomination.
On December 13, 2008, Bingaman was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from New Mexico State University at the university's Fall 2008 commencement ceremony.
Political positions[link]
Immigration[link]
Being from a border state with Mexico, Bingaman has been much involved in the debate over illegal immigration. He believes in increased enforcement of borders to stem the flow of illegal immigrants, including more patrol agents and the use of surveillance cameras. However, he also believes that the U.S. should enact a guest worker program so that immigrants looking for honest work can arrive legally.[6] Bingaman voted against the Secure Fence Act in 2006.[7] He voted against declaring English to be the official language of the US government and voted in favor of continuing federal funds to self-declared "sanctuary cities."[7]
Energy and the environment[link]
Throughout his political career, Bingaman has burnished a pro-environmental record. He has worked consistently to protect wildlife and public lands. He spoke publicly about the necessity of the Clean Energy Act of 2007, citing the importance of developing clean technology and green jobs. He stated his support for the bill's principle of eliminating tax breaks on gas and oil companies.[8]
Since 2006, Bingaman has been working on a bill that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions via a "cap and trade" system." He has stated that he would like to see his plan implemented so that emissions would be reduced to 1990 levels by 2030. His bill would also increase levels of federal funding for research and development of green technologies.[9]
Abortion, media and gay rights[link]
Bingaman has voted in line with the majority of his party on abortion, and he has received a 100% rating from the pro-choice NARAL. He has voiced his support to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine.[10] Although he voted in 1996 for the Defense of Marriage Act, he voted against a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, and has been ranked favorably by gay rights groups (89% from the HRC). He has also voted twice against a proposed amendment to ban flag desecration and has supported affirmative action.[11]
Iraq War[link]
On October 11, 2002, Jeff Bingaman was among the 23 Senators who did not vote for authorizing the Iraq War.[12]
Crime and torture[link]
Bingaman has a generally prorehabilitation stance on crime, supporting more programs to prevent youth crime, lower high school dropout rates, and stop drug use. Bingaman has been an outspoken critic of the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay. He cites the need for due process of law for detainees by saying:
-
- "The current practice of holding detainees or prisoners indefinitely, without affording them basic due process rights, has been widely criticized in this country and throughout the world. For a country such as ours that has consistently advocated for the rule of law, the policies of the current administration are nothing short of a major embarrassment... How we handle prisoners can have a dramatic impact on how our own men and women are treated in the event they are themselves taken prisoner."[3]
Health care reform[link]
Bingaman supported President Barack Obama's health reform legislation; he voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in December 2009,[13] and he voted for the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.[14]
Electoral history[link]
- United States Senate election in New Mexico, 2006
- Jeff Bingaman (D) (inc.), 70.6%
- Allen McCulloch (R), 29.3%
- Orlin G. Cole, 0.06%
- United States Senate election in New Mexico, 2000
- Jeff Bingaman (D) (inc.), 61.7%
- Bill Redmond (R), 38.25%
- Orlin G. Cole, 0.04%
- United States Senate election in New Mexico, 1994
- Jeff Bingaman (D) (inc.), 53.97%
- Colin R. McMillan (R), 45.99%
- United States Senate election in New Mexico, 1988
- Jeff Bingaman (D) (inc.), 63.2%
- Bill Valentine (R), 36.8%
- United States Senate election in New Mexico, 1982
- Jeff Bingaman (D), 53.8%
- Harrison Schmitt (R) (inc.), 46.2%
Footnotes[link]
- ^ McPike, Erin (2011-02-18). "Jeff Bingaman to Retire". Real Clear Politics. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/02/18/jeff_bingaman_to_retire_108948.html. Retrieved 2011-02-18. "New Mexico Democratic Senator Jeff Bingaman will announce his retirement today, Democratic sources confirmed. Bingaman, who is serving his fifth term, is among the most senior Democrats in the Senate. He also serves as chair of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources."
- ^ Cillizza, Chris (2011-02-18). "Jeff Bingaman to retire". Washington Post. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/senate/jeff-bingaman-to-retire.html. Retrieved 2011-02-18. "New Mexico Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman is expected to announce his retirement today, according to a source close to the decision, a move that further complicates his party's efforts to hold their Senate majority in 2012."
- ^ 1
- ^ "About Jeff Bingaman". Jeff Bingaman, US Senator from New Mexico. http://bingaman.senate.gov/about/. Retrieved 2006-11-07.
- ^ "Distinguished Eagle Scouts". Scouting.org. http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/02-529.pdf. Retrieved 2010-11-04.
- ^ "U.S. Senator Bingaman: Border Issues". Bingaman.senate.gov. 2009-02-13. http://bingaman.senate.gov/policy/issues/border.cfm. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
- ^ a b [1]
- ^ Andrews, Edmund L. (January 19, 2007). "House Votes to Rescind Oil Drillers' Tax Breaks". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/19/business/19royalty.html. Retrieved April 2, 2010.
- ^ http://www.cq.com/display.do?docid=2548853&sourcetype=6
- ^ "New Mexico Democrat Supports Revival of Fairness Doctrine". Breitbart.tv. 2008-10-22. http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=203333. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
- ^ "Jeff Bingaman on the Issues". Ontheissues.org. http://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/Jeff_Bingaman.htm. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
- ^ "U.S. Senate: Legislation & Records Home > Votes > Roll Call Vote". Senate.gov. http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=2&vote=00237. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
- ^ [2]
- ^ "U.S. Senate: Legislation & Records Home > Votes > Roll Call Vote". Senate.gov. http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=2&vote=00105. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
External links[link]
| Find more about Jeff Bingaman on Wikipedia's sister projects: | |
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Source texts from Wikisource |
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Textbooks from Wikibooks |
- United States Senator Jeff Bingaman official U.S. Senate site
- Biography at WhoRunsGov.com at The Washington Post
- Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
- Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
- Congressional profile at GovTrack
- Congressional profile at OpenCongress
- Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
- Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
- Staff salaries, trips and personal finance at LegiStorm.com
- Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
- Appearances on C-SPAN programs
- Collected news and commentary at The New York Times
- Profile at SourceWatch
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Toney Anaya |
Attorney General of New Mexico 1979–1983 |
Succeeded by Paul Bardacke |
| United States Senate | ||
| Preceded by Harrison Schmitt |
United States Senator (Class 1) from New Mexico 1983–present Served alongside: Pete Domenici, Tom Udall |
Incumbent |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Frank Murkowski |
Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee 2001–2003 |
Succeeded by Pete Domenici |
| Preceded by Pete Domenici |
Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee 2007 – present |
Incumbent |
| United States order of precedence | ||
| Preceded by Chuck Grassley R-Iowa |
United States Senators by seniority 9th |
Succeeded by John Kerry D-Massachusetts |
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Bingaman, Jeff |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | American politician |
| Date of birth | October 3, 1943 |
| Place of birth | El Paso, Texas |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is about the ancient Tiwa pueblo. For the census-designated place, see Taos Pueblo, New Mexico. For the book by Ansel Adams and Mary Hunter Austin, see Taos Pueblo (book).
| Taos Pueblo | |
|---|---|
 Taos Pueblo residential complex |
|
| Location | Near Taos, New Mexico, USA |
| Coordinates | 36°26′21″N 105°32′44″W / 36.43917°N 105.54559°W / 36.43917; -105.54559Coordinates: 36°26′21″N 105°32′44″W / 36.43917°N 105.54559°W / 36.43917; -105.54559 |
| Governing body | Native American tribal government |
| Official name Pueblo de Taos | |
| Type | Cultural |
| Criteria | iv |
| Designated | 1992 (16th session) |
| Reference # | 492 |
| State Party |  United States |
| Region | Europe and North America |
| Designated | October 15, 1966 |
| Reference # | 66000496 [1] |
| Designated | October 9, 1960[2] |
 Location within New Mexico
|
|
| Total population |
|---|
| 1,000 (1990 census) |
| Regions with significant populations |
| United States (New Mexico) |
| Languages |
|
Tiwa, English, Spanish |
| Religion |
|
Taos religion, Christianity |
| Related ethnic groups |
|
other Tanoan peoples |
Taos Pueblo (or Pueblo de Taos) is an ancient pueblo belonging to a Taos (Northern Tiwa) speaking Native American tribe of Pueblo people. It is approximately 1000 years old and lies about 1-mile (1.6 km) north of the modern city of Taos, New Mexico, USA. The Red Willow Creek, or Rio Pueblo de Taos (also called Rio Pueblo), is a small stream which flows through the middle of the pueblo from its source in the Sangre de Cristo Range. A reservation of 95,000 acres (380 km2) is attached to the pueblo, and about 1,900 people live in this area.[3]
Taos Pueblo is a member of the Eight Northern Pueblos. The Taos community is known for being one of the most secretive and conservative pueblos.
Taos Pueblo's most prominent architectural feature is a multi-storied residential complex of reddish-brown adobe divided into two parts by the Rio Pueblo. According to the Pueblo's Web site, it was probably built between 1000 and 1450 A.D. It was designated a National Historic Landmark on October 9, 1960, and in 1992 became a World Heritage Site. As of 2006, about 150 people live in it full-time.[3]
Contents |
Name[link]
In the Taos language, the pueblo is referred to as "the village" in either tə̂otho "in the village" (tə̂o- "village" + -tho "in") or tə̂obo "to/toward the village" (tə̂o- "village" + -bo "to, toward"). The proper name of the pueblo is ȉałopháymųp’ȍhə́othə̀olbo "at red willow canyon mouth" (or ȉałopháybo "at the red willows" for short); however, this name is more commonly used in ceremonial contexts and is less common in everyday speech.
The name Taos in English was borrowed from Spanish Taos. Spanish Taos is probably a borrowing of Taos tə̂o- "village" which was heard as tao to which the plural -s was added although in the modern language Taos is no longer a plural noun. The idea that Spanish Taos is from tao "cross of the order of San Juan de los Cabelleros" (from Greek tau) is unlikely.[4]
Prehistory and history[link]
Most archeologists believe that the Taos Indians along with other Pueblo Indians settled along the Rio Grande migrated from the Four Corners region. The dwellings of that region were inhabited by the Anasazi, and a long drought in the area in the late 13th century may have caused them to move to the Rio Grande where the water supply was more dependable.
The history of Taos Pueblo includes the plotting of the Pueblo Revolt in 1680, a siege by U.S. forces in 1847, and the return by President Nixon in 1970 of the Pueblo's 48,000 acres (190 km2) of mountain land taken by President Theodore Roosevelt and designated as the Carson National Forest early in the 20th century.[5] Blue Lake, which the people of the Pueblo traditionally consider sacred, was included in this return of Taos land. The Pueblo's web site names the acquisition of the sacred Blue Lake as the most important event in its history due to the spiritual belief that the Taos natives originated from the lake itself. An additional 764 acres (3.09 km2) south of the ridge between Simpson Peak and Old Mike Peak and west of Blue Lake were transferred back to the Pueblo in 1996.[6]
"The Padre of Isleta", Anton Docher first served as a priest in Taos before his long time spent in Isleta.[7]
Structure[link]
The North-Side Pueblo is said to be one of the most photographed and painted buildings in the Western Hemisphere. It is the largest multistoried Pueblo structure still existing. It is made of adobe walls that are often several feet thick. Its primary purpose was for defense. Up to as late as 1900, access to the rooms on lower floors was by ladders on the outside to the roof, and then down an inside ladder. In case of an attack, outside ladders could easily be pulled up.
The homes in this structure usually consist of two rooms, one of which is for general living and sleeping, and the second of which is for cooking, eating, and storage. Each home is self-contained; there are no passageways between the houses. Taos Indians made little use of furniture in the past, but today they have tables, chairs, and beds. In the Pueblo, electricity, running water, and indoor plumbing are prohibited.
The pueblo wall completely encloses the village except at the entrance as a symbol of the village boundaries. Now rather short, the wall used to be much taller for protection against surrounding tribes. The river running through the pueblo serves as the primary source for drinking and cooking water for the residents of the village. In the winter, the river never completely freezes although it does form a heavy layer of ice. Because the river moves so swiftly, the ice can be broken to obtain the fresh water beneath.
Spiritual community[link]
Three religions are represented in the Pueblo: Christianity, the aboriginal religion, and the Native American Church. Eighty percent of the Taos Pueblo community is baptized; however, only twenty percent are practicing Roman Catholics. The majority of Taos Indians practice their still-vital, ancient indigenous religion (Taos Pueblo Public Tour; 30 July 2010). Saint Jerome, or San Geronimo, is the patron saint of the pueblo.
The deep feeling of belonging to a community, summed up in their phrase, “we are in one nest,” has held the Taos people together. Both men and women are expected to offer their services or “community duties,” when needed. One should be cooperative and never allow their own desires to be destructive of the community’s interest. One of Taos’s strongest institutions is the family. Descent on both the father and the mother’s side of the family is equally recognized. Each primary family lives in a separate dwelling so when a couple gets married, they move to their own home. With relatives so near by, everyone is available to help care for the children. The elderly teach the young the values and traditions that have been handed down, which protects the integrity of the Taos culture.
See also[link]
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Taos County, New Mexico
- Taos language
- Taos Pueblo, New Mexico, a census-designated place
Notes[link]
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2006-03-15. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html.
- ^ "Taos Pueblo". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=353&ResourceType=District. Retrieved June 26, 2008.
- ^ a b Who lives in the Pueblo? (scroll down)
- ^ Jones, William. (1960). Origin of the place name Taos. Anthropological Linguistics, 2 (3), 2–4; Trager, George L. (1960). The name of Taos, New Mexico. Anthropological Linguistics, 2 (3), 5–6.
- ^ Julyan, B: New Mexico's Wilderness Areas: The Complete Guide, page 73. Big Earth Publishing, 1999
- ^ "Public Law 104-333" (PDF). http://bulk.resource.org/gpo.gov/laws/104/publ333.104.pdf. Retrieved July 19, 2008.
- ^ Leo Crane. Desert Drums: The Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, 1540–1928. Rio Grande Press, 1972.
References[link]
- Bodine, John J., Taos Pueblo: A Walk Through Time. Tucson: Rio Nuevo Publishers, 1996.
External links[link]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Taos Pueblo |
- Taos Pueblo (official site)
- Webcam of sacred Taos Mountain
- Taos Blue Lake Collection at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University
- Taos Pueblo on National Park Service Discover Our Shared Heritage website
- The SMU-in-Taos Research Publications digital collection contains nine anthropological and archaeological monographs and edited volumes representing the past several decades of research at the SMU-in-Taos (Fort Burgwin) campus near Taos, New Mexico, including Papers on Taos archaeology and Taos archeology
- More on Taos Blue Lake
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Related pages:
http://fr.wn.com/Pueblo de Taos
http://pt.wn.com/Pueblo de Taos
http://ru.wn.com/Таос-Пуэбло
http://de.wn.com/Taos (Volk)
http://it.wn.com/Pueblo di Taos
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This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taos_Pueblo
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
