Spencer Bachus

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Spencer Bachus

United States Representative from Alabama's 6th district
In office 1993 - Present
Preceded by	Ben Erdreich
Succeeded by	Incumbent

Born	December 28, 1947 Vestavia Hills, Alabama
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Linda Bachus
Religion	Baptist

Spencer Thomas Bachus III (born December 28, 1947), American politician, has been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 1993, representing Alabama's 6th Congressional District. The district, Alabama's wealthiest district and one of the richest in the country, includes most of the suburbs of Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, along with some of the wealthier portions of those cities.

1 Life and Political Career
2 House Record
3 Committees and Subcommittees
4 Electoral History
5 Group Ratings (2004)
6 Quotes
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Life and Political Career

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He was born in Birmingham and currently lives in Vestavia Hills, a Birmingham suburb. He graduated from Auburn University in 1972 where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Tau social fraternity, and went on to earn a Juris Doctor degree from the rival University of Alabama. Prior to his political career, he owned a sawmill and practiced law until 1992, and also served in the Alabama National Guard from 1969 to 1971.^[1]

He was elected to the Alabama Senate in 1983, serving one term before moving to the Alabama House of Representatives for two terms. After running unsuccessfully for attorney general in 1990, he became chairman of the Alabama Republican Party in 1991, serving in that position until his campaign for election to Congress. He also served as the 6th District's representative on the state board of education from 1987 to 1991.

The 6th District had been based in Birmingham for over a century, but after the 1990 United States Census, the Justice Department required the state to have a black-majority district. The state legislature responded by reconfiguring the 7th District, adding predominantly black portions of Birmingham and Montgomery. The 7th and its various permutations had been based in Tuscaloosa for over a century.

In the process, however, they added most of Tuscaloosa's white residents to the 6th District, along with a large portion of Birmingham's suburbs. The new 6th was almost 97% white, and on paper was one of the most Republican districts in the nation. Bachus won the Republican nomination for the seat and faced five-term Democratic incumbent Ben Erdreich. Erdreich outspent Bachus by almost 2 to 1, but could not overcome the heavy Republican tilt of the new district and lost by seven percent of the vote. Since then, Bachus has been reelected six times without anything resembling serious opposition. He has not faced any Democratic opposition at all since 2000.

Bachus was challenged in the 2004 Republican primary by Phillip Jauregui, a member of former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore's legal team. Since no other party ran a candidate, victory in the Republican primary was tantamount to election in November. Jauregui claimed that Bachus wasn't doing enough to curb "judicial activism." However, Bachus won the primary easily, effectively clinching a seventh term.

Bachus is married to Linda and they are the parents of five children.

[edit] House Record

Spencer Bachus's political orientation based on voting record

Bachus has a mostly, but not totally, conservative voting record, and has been an aggressive lawmaker and investigator. During his tenure as Chairman of the Banking Oversight Committee, he uncovered the Community Development Financial Institute (CDFI) incident during the Clinton administration, which led to the resignation of the top two CDFI officials. Although less adversarial during the Bush administration, he has remained an active legislator, helping to amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to curtail identity theft and ease consumer access to their credit reports. He also has a reputation for good constituent service.

He has also distinguished himself on foreign policy, albeit with a reptuation as somewhat of a maverick. In the 1990s he became an advocate of international debt relief for the Third World, and joined a broad coalition of activists in a one day fast to demand action - which was ultimately successful. He criticized the Bush administration in 2002 over negotiations with the genocidal regime in Sudan, and has urged Bush to stop payment of oil revenues to the Sudanese government.

On May 23, 2005 he made the news for alleging that comedian Bill Maher made "treasonous comments" on his show when making a joke about the Army's inability to reach its quota on new recruits. [1] Congressman Bachus also has been active in advancing the search for Natalee Holloway, who went missing while on a senior trip to Aruba. Holloway attended high school in Mountain Brook, an affluent Birmingham suburb in the congressman's district.

[edit] Committees and Subcommittees

House Committee on Financial Services (5th of 37)
- Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance & Government Sponsored Enterprises
- Subcommittee on Financial Institutions & Consumer Credit (Chairman)
House Committee on the Judiciary (11th of 23)
- Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet & Interllectual Property
- Subcommittee on the Constitution
House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure (10th of 41)
- Subcommittee on Aviation
- Subcommittee on Highways, Transit & Pipelines
- Subcommittee on Railroads

[edit] Electoral History

Spencer Bachus as Chair of the Financial Institutions Committee

2004 General Election

Candidate		Votes	%
	Spencer Bachus (R)	264,819	99
	Other	3,224	1
	Spencer Bachus (R) re-elected for 7th term

2002 General Election

Candidate		Votes	%
	Spencer Bachus (R)	178,171	90
	J. Holden McAllister (Lib)	19,639	10
	Spencer Bachus (R) re-elected for 6th term

General Election 2000: Spencer Bachus (R) - 88%
General Election 1998: Spencer Bachus (R) - 72%
General Election 1996: Spencer Bachus (R) - 71%
General Election 1994: Spencer Bachus (R) - 79%
General Election 1992: Spencer Bachus (R) - 52%

[edit] Group Ratings (2004)

National Journal
- Economic: 17% Liberal, 80% Conservative
- Social: 20% Liberal, 77% Conservative
- Foreign: 25% Liberal, 68% Conservative
Americans for Democratic Action: 5
American Civil Liberties Union: 0
Chamber of Commerce of the United States: 100
Christian Coalition: 92
American Conservative Union: 96
National Taxpayers Union: 62
League of Conservation Voters: 0

[edit] Quotes

"There have been studies by Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Magill University in Canada, American Psychiatric Association -- all of these say the younger someone starts gambling, the more likelihood that they become a compulsive gambler. Addicted to gambling, just like addicted to drugs. So there is a correlation between drug dealers and gambling sites." - October 2006, CNN