Gordon Smith
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other people by this name see Gordon Smith (disambiguation)
| Gordon Smith | |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 7, 1997 Serving with Ron Wyden |
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| Preceded by | Mark Hatfield |
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| Succeeded by | Incumbent |
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| Born | May 25, 1952 (age 54) Pendleton, Oregon |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Sharon Smith |
| Religion | Mormon |
Gordon Harold Smith (born May 25, 1952) is Oregon's junior United States Senator. He is a member of the Republican Party.
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[edit] Background
Smith was born in Pendleton, Oregon to Jessica Udall and Milan Dale Smith.[1] His family moved to Bethesda, Maryland when he was a child because his father became an assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. After graduating high school he went on a two-year mission for his church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to New Zealand. He then went to college at Brigham Young University, attended law school at Southwestern University School of Law, in Los Angeles, and became an attorney in New Mexico and Arizona, but moved back to Oregon in the 1980s to become director of Smith Frozen Foods company in Weston, Oregon.[2]
In 1989, he adopted a son, Morgan. In addition, he and his wife Sharon adopted a daughter, Brittany, born in 1980.
On September 8, 2003, Smith experienced a personal tragedy when his 21-year-old adopted son, Garrett, a college culinary arts major, committed suicide. Smith went on to publish a book entitled “Remembering Garrett, One Family’s Battle with a Child’s Depression.”[3] In 2004, President George W. Bush signed the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act, authorizing $82 million for suicide-prevention and awareness programs at colleges.[4]
Smith is also a member of the Udall political family. His mother was a cousin of the late Congressmen Mo Udall (D-AZ) and Stewart Udall (D-AZ), and Smith is a second cousin of current Congressmen Mark Udall (D-CO) and Tom Udall (D-NM). They are double cousins, as their grandparents were a pair of brother and a pair of sisters who intermarried. Smith is the only Republican in the group.
[edit] Rise to the United States Senate
Smith entered politics with his election to the Oregon State Senate in 1992, and became president of that body in 1995. Later in 1995, he ran in a special election for a Senate seat vacated by the resignation of Bob Packwood, but was narrowly defeated in the January 1996 election by then-U.S. Representative Ron Wyden. He was able to run for the Senate again later that year, however, when Mark Hatfield announced his retirement, and Smith became the Republican candidate for the regular 1996 November election. This time he won, defeating Democrat Tom Bruggere, and was soon serving as a colleague with Wyden. These races made Smith the first person to run for the Senate twice in one year. He was reelected by a strong margin in 2002.
[edit] Social policy
Smith became a strong supporter of expanding hate crime laws to encompass crimes against homosexuals. On June 15, 2004, he successfully passed an amendment doing just that (65-33) with every Democrat in the Senate voting for his amendment. As a result, he was one of a few Republican senators supported by gay rights groups in the United States, including the Human Rights Campaign. Since then, he came out in support of the Federal Marriage Amendment that would define marriage as between a man and a woman. Leading up to the 2006 midterm elections, Smith joined Senate Democrats to introduce legislation that would guarantee gay employees of the federal government domestic partnership benefits.[5]
Smith has described himself as pro-life,[6] and in 2003 he voted along party lines to pass the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, legislation which prohibits the controversial intact dilation and extraction procedure. In 2006, he voted to pass another controversial bill, this time crossing party lines to vote for the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act. The measure, which would have expanded federal funding of stem cell research to cell lines extracted from embyros discarded during fertility treatment, became the first bill to be vetoed by President George W. Bush. Smith is one of nineteen Senate Republicans who voted for the measure.
[edit] Digital Rights Management
- See also: broadcast flag
In January 2006, Smith began circulating draft legislation entitled the Digital Content Protection Act of 2006.[7] The legislation would grant the Federal Communications Commission the authority to authorize a technology known as the "broadcast flag." This technology would enable the producers of television programming to ensure the programs cannot be recorded by viewers in their homes, for instance using a digital video recorder like TiVo or onto recordable DVDs.
[edit] Conservative or moderate?
Smith is a member of the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership, and a February 2006 National Journal congressional rating placed Smith in the exact ideological center of the Senate.[8] However, he is described as a rank-and-file Republican by GovTrack.us[9], and throughout 2006 Smith voted with Republican leader Bill Frist (TN) on 82% of contentious bills, in contrast to predecessor Mark Hatfield's 55% record of agreement with party leader Trent Lott (MS) in 1996.[10] Based on five senate votes in 2006, the abortion rights advocacy group NARAL gave Smith a score of 15% on abortion rights (100% being a complete pro-choice score.)[11]
Sen. Smith was also a key advocate for Sen. Lott's return to a leadership post within the Republican Party in 2006. Lott had resigned his position as Senate Republican Leader in 2002, following controversy surrounding his perceived support of conservative Sen. Strom Thurmond's (R-SC) segregationist politics. After the party lost control of the Senate in November 2006, Republicans elected Lott to the post of Minority Whip (the second-highest Republican position in the Senate.) During the closed-door election, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) nominated Lott for the position. Sen. Smith then seconded the nomination and delivered a supportive address before casting his vote.[12] Lott defeated Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) in a 25-24 vote.[13]
[edit] War in Iraq
Smith is one of several Republican Senators for whom political concerns have clashed with party loyalty, on the subject of the war in Iraq.[14]
In December 2006, Gordon Smith spoke out against the Iraq war for the first time, after having voted in support of it four years prior.[15] Smith said that to continue the current policy in Iraq "may even be criminal".[16]
Several weeks after stating his opposition to the occupation of Iraq, however, Smith declined to sign onto a bipartisan resolution to oppose the President's plan to escalate troop levels in Iraq by 21,500,[17] prompting questions about the sincerity of his opposition to the occupation.[18] Smith cited the controversial nature of the word "escalate" in defending his choice. The bill's sponsors have since changed the word to "increase." Smith expressed support for the bill, but subsequently voted to prevent it from being debated by the full Senate.
In March 2007, Smith was one of only two Republican to vote for a resolution aimed at withdrawing most American combat troops from Iraq in 2008, the other being Chuck Hagel. The vote was 50 for to 48 against. [19]
[edit] 2008 Election
Smith's Senate seat is up for election in 2008, and Smith has indicated that he intends to run again. As of January 2006, Smith has been identified as one of the six most vulnerable Republican Senators in the 2008 election.[20] Democrat Ty Pettit is the only opponent who has officially announced his candidacy.[21]
[edit] Committee assignments
Smith was the Chair of the Special Committee on Aging. With the Democrat's return to the majority in the last election, Smith is now the Ranking Minority Member. (Oregon’s senior Senator, Ron Wyden, sits on this committee as well.)
Smith also serves on the following Senate committees: Commerce, Science and Transportation, Energy and Natural Resources, Finance, and Indian Affairs.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~battle/senators/smith.htm
- ^ http://bluebook.state.or.us/national/senators/senators01.htm
- ^ http://www.opb.org/programs/oregonterritory/episodes/2006/0421/
- ^ http://www.theorator.com/bills108/s2634.html
- ^ http://www.planetout.com/news/article.html?2006/09/27/5
- ^ CNN Crossfire transcript July 19, 2001. CNN.com (2001-07-19). Retrieved on February 13, 2007.
- ^ http://eff.org/broadcastflag/dcp_act_2006.pdf
- ^ The Centrists (PDF). The Oregonian (February 25, 2006). Retrieved on February 9, 2007.
- ^ GovTrack: Gordon Smith. GovTrack.us. Retrieved on February 12, 2007.
- ^ Kosseff, Jeff. "Oregonians in Congress: not so independent", The Oregonian, January 9, 2007. Retrieved on February 11, 2007.
- ^ Congressional Record on Choice by State: Oregon. NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation. Retrieved on February 13, 2007.
- ^ Eve Fairbanks. "Whip it Good", The New Republic, December 18, 2006. Retrieved on January 18, 2007.
- ^ Kosseff, Jeff (November 17, 2006). Smith supported Lott's leadership bid. The Oregonian. Retrieved on February 9, 2007.
- ^ Shailagh Murray and Jonathan Weisman. "Resolution will test GOP senators' mettle", The Concord Monitor, February 5, 2007. Retrieved on February 8, 2007.
- ^ Editorial. "Gordon Smith changes his mind", The Oregonian, December 9, 2006. Retrieved on January 15, 2007.
- ^ Judd (December 9, 2006). Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR): Bush’s Iraq Policy ‘May Even Be Criminal’. thinkprogress.org. Retrieved on January 15, 2007.
- ^ http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/18/iraq.congress/
- ^ http://www.blueoregon.com/2007/01/smith_senate_re.html
- ^ Toner, Robin (March 15, 2007). Senate Rejects Measure for Iraq Pullout. The New York Times. Retrieved on March 15, 2007.
- ^ http://www.cqpolitics.com/2007/01/ratings_chart_2008_senate_race.html
- ^ http://www.blueoregon.com/2006/03/gordon_smith_dr.html
- The Congress and Scouting. Fact sheet. Boy Scouts of America. Retrieved on September 6, 2006.
[edit] External links
- United States Senator Gordon Smith official Senate site
- Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Federal Election Commission - Gordon H Smith campaign finance reports and data
- New York Times - Gordon Smith News collected news and commentary
- On the Issues - Gordon Smith issue positions and quotes
- OpenSecrets.org - Gordon H. Smith campaign contributions
- Project Vote Smart - Senator Gordon Smith (OR) profile
- SourceWatch Congresspedia - Gordon Smith profile
- Washington Post - Congress Votes Database: Gordon Smith voting record
Articles
- Political Graveyard - Udall Family of Arizona
- Gordon Smith: key supporter of Trent Lott
- The Oregonian on Garrett Smith's suicide
- IMNO Interviews Gordon Smith
- Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR): Bush’s Iraq Policy ‘May Even Be Criminal’
- Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR) Calls Bush’s Iraq Policy a ‘Dereliction’ and ‘Deeply Immoral’
- Snow Dismisses Gordon Smith’s Criticisms Of Iraq Policy, Says Senator Is Just Being ‘Emotional’
- Chart from The Oregonian showing that Gordon Smith votes with the Republican leader 82% of the time
- discussion of Smith's classification as a moderate Daily Kos, November 8, 2006
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Mark Hatfield |
United States Senator (Class 2) from Oregon 1997- Served alongside: Ron Wyden |
Incumbent |
| Oregon's current delegation to the United States Congress |
|---|
| Senators: Ron Wyden (D), Gordon Smith (R)
Representative(s): David Wu (D), Greg Walden (R), Earl Blumenauer (D), Peter DeFazio (D), Darlene Hooley (D) All delegations: Alabama • Alaska • Arizona • Arkansas • California • Colorado • Connecticut • Delaware • Florida • Georgia • Hawaii • Idaho • Illinois • Indiana • Iowa • Kansas • Kentucky • Louisiana • Maine • Maryland • Massachusetts • Michigan • Minnesota • Mississippi • Missouri • Montana • Nebraska • Nevada • New Hampshire • New Jersey • New Mexico • New York • North Carolina • North Dakota • Ohio • Oklahoma • Oregon • Pennsylvania • Rhode Island • South Carolina • South Dakota • Tennessee • Texas • Utah • Vermont • Virginia • Washington • West Virginia • Wisconsin • Wyoming — American Samoa • District of Columbia • Guam • Puerto Rico • U.S. Virgin Islands |
