Sam Graves

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Sam Graves

United States Representative from Missouri's 6th district
In office 2001 - present
Preceded by	Pat Danner
Succeeded by	Incumbent

Born	November 7, 1963 Tarkio, Missouri
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Lesley Hickok
Religion	Baptist

Samuel "Sam" Graves (born November 7, 1963) is a politician from the U.S. state of Missouri, currently representing the state's 6th Congressional district (map) in the United States House of Representatives.

Graves was born in Tarkio, Missouri and he graduated from the University of Missouri. Graves was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 1992 as a Republican and he was then elected to the Missouri State Senate in 1994.

In 2000, Congresswoman Pat Danner suddenly retired due to breast cancer. Graves filed within the short period of time left for filing. Graves faced Congresswoman Danner's son, Steve Danner, a former Missouri state senator, in the general election. Graves referred to Danner as a "tax and spend Liberal" and won the race with 51% of the vote [1]. Graves easily won re-election in 2002 [2] and 2004 [3].

Because Missouri's 6th District has changed between Democratic and Republican control several times, elections in the district tend to be closely contested. As a result, candidates in the district often receive large conributions from their national parties and party leaders. Graves received a total of $35,000 from former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's ARMPAC [4]. Grave's Democratic opponents have criticized him for this connection [5]. Republicans say that the charges against DeLay are politically motivated. [6] [7]

Congressman Graves is the brother of Todd Graves, former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.

[edit] Criticism

According to the Associated Press^[8], Rep. Graves wasted nearly half of a $273,000 US Grant for spending on urban youth programs in his district on curbing gothic subculture in Blue Springs, Missouri in 2002. Graves sought to spend $118,000 of that money for therapy, assement and case management, as well as a series of town meetings to discuss the issue. But because there was not enough interest, Graves' project shifted from Goths to counterculture and negative influences.