Mitch McConnell

Mitch McConnell
Senior Senator from Kentucky
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 3, 1985 Serving with Jim Bunning
Preceded by	Walter Huddleston
22nd United States Senate Minority Leader
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 3, 2007
Deputy	Trent Lott (2007) Jon Kyl (2007–)
Preceded by	Harry Reid
28th United States Senate Majority Whip
In office January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2007
Leader	Bill Frist
Preceded by	Harry Reid
Succeeded by	Richard Durbin
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration
In office January 6, 1999 – January 3, 2001
Preceded by	John Warner
Succeeded by	Christopher Dodd
In office January 20 – June 6, 2001
Preceded by	Christopher Dodd
Succeeded by	Christopher Dodd
Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics
In office January 4, 1995 – January 7, 1997
Preceded by	Richard Bryan
Succeeded by	Robert C. Smith
Born	February 20, 1942 (1942-02-20) (age 67) Tuscumbia, Alabama
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Sherrill Redmon Elaine Chao
Residence	Louisville, Kentucky
Alma mater	University of Louisville, University of Kentucky
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Baptist
Military service
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1967
Unit	Reserves

Addison Mitchell "Mitch" McConnell, Jr. (born February 20, 1942) is the senior United States Senator from Kentucky. He was chosen by his Republican colleagues as the Minority Leader in November 2006, making him the top-ranking Republican in the 110th Congress, which convened January 3, 2007. McConnell is a staunch advocate of conservative principles, receiving a perfect score from the American Conservative Union in 2006.^[1] McConnell won re-election in 2008 against challenger Bruce Lunsford.

Early life and education

Born in Tuscumbia, Alabama to Julia Shockley and Addison Mitchell McConnell,^[2] he was challenged early in life when he was stricken with polio at age 2:

"When I was two years old, I came down with an infection that felt a lot like the flu. But after the fever passed, my left leg had gone lame. For two years my mother put me through a physical therapy regimen taught to her by the doctors at the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation, founded by President Roosevelt in Warm Springs, Georgia. From age two to four, I was not allowed to walk or run. But after two years of my mother's care, I was able to have a normal life. A lot of kids at that time, in the 1940s, weren't so lucky. Some were paralyzed for life. Some were sentenced to the iron lung. Many died."

McConnell was raised in south Louisville, Kentucky, he attended duPont Manual High School and in 1964 graduated with honors from the University of Louisville College of Arts and Sciences, where he was student body president and member of Phi Kappa Tau. 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 Training Unit, United States Army Reserve, Louisville, Kentucky, during his final semester of law school, and reported for his six months of active service, primarily for training, in July 1967. After induction at Fort Knox, Kentucky, McConnell was released from the military in August^[3] with an honorable discharge due to a diagnosis of optic neuritis.

McConnell is a member of the Baptist Church. His first wife was Sherrill Redmon,^[4], who is now director of the Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History Archives at Smith College;[1] later divorced, they have three daughters, Elly, Claire, and Porter.[2] His second wife, whom he married in 1993, is Elaine Chao, the current Secretary of Labor.

In 1992, McConnell teamed with the University of Louisville to create the McConnell Center.

Career prior to the Senate

In March 1967, during his final semester of law school, McConnell gained experience on Capitol Hill as an intern under Senator John Sherman Cooper, later as an assistant to Senator Marlow Cook, and was a Deputy Assistant Attorney General under President Gerald R. Ford. From 1978 until his election to the Senate, he was the Jefferson County Judge/Executive, the top political office in Jefferson County, which includes Louisville.

U.S. Senate

Initial election and subsequent re-elections

In 1984, McConnell ran against two-term Democratic Senator Dee Huddleston. The race wasn't decided until the last returns came in, and McConnell won by a razor-thin margin — less than half a percentage point. McConnell was the only Republican Senate challenger to win that year, despite the perception that 1984 was a disaster for Democrats. Part of McConnell's success came from a series of television campaign spots called "Where's Dee", which featured a group of bloodhounds trying to find Huddleston, implying that Huddleston's attendance record in the Senate was less than stellar. It is also likely that he was helped by Ronald Reagan's 21-point win in Kentucky that year. His campaign bumper stickers and television ads asked voters to "Switch to Mitch".

In 1990, McConnell faced a tough reelection contest against former Louisville mayor Harvey I. Sloane, winning by 4.5 points. He soundly defeated Steve Beshear in 1996, even as Bill Clinton narrowly carried the state. In keeping with a tradition of humorous and effective television ads in his campaigns, McConnell's campaign ran television ads in 1996 that warned voters to not "Get Besheared" and included images of sheep being sheared. In 2002, he was reelected with the largest majority by a Republican candidate in Kentucky history.

2008 turned out to be the opposite. Sen. McConnell faced the most difficult campaign of his career. Bruce Lunsford provided a serious challenge but lost to McConnell. McConnell beat his Democratic opponent by 5.8%, 100,000 votes.

Republican leadership

McConnell was chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the 1998 and 2000 election cycles; Republicans maintained control of the Senate in both. McConnell was first elected as Majority Whip in the 108th Congress and unanimously re-elected by Republicans in the Senate on November 17, 2004. Sen. Bill Frist, the Majority Leader, did not seek re-election in the 2006 elections. After Republicans lost control of the Senate in November 2006, they elected McConnell to replace Frist as Republican Leader.

Committees

• Member, Senate Committee on Appropriations
  • Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on Defense
  • Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development
  • Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans' Affairs, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
• Member, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
  • Subcommittee on Domestic and Foreign Marketing, Inspection, and Plant and Animal Health
  • Subcommittee on Nutrition and Food Assistance, Sustainable and Organic Agriculture, and General Legislation
  • Subcommittee on Rural Revitalization, Conservation, Forestry, and Credit
• Member, Senate Committee on Rules and Administration
• Ex Officio, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence

^[5]

Political actions and positions

McConnell is a staunch conservative and a shrewd parliamentary tactician.^[6] He is widely considered a "kingmaker" in Kentucky Republican politics.^[7]

Although he is an ardent conservative, he has distanced himself from the majority in his party by opposing the Flag Desecration Amendment, arguing against modifying the United States Constitution to address "every political and social ill" the nation faces. He has, however, sponsored legislation that would criminalize flag burning but without a constitutional amendment.^[8]

McConnell has expressed strong support for the First Amendment. For example, McConnell has expressed strong opposition to the Fairness Doctrine, which he believes would squelch freedom of speech on talk radio.^[9]

McConnell is also well known for his opposition to campaign finance regulation on First Amendment grounds. He argues that regulations reduce participation in political campaigns and protect incumbents from competition.^[10] He spearheaded the movement against the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (known since 1995 as the "McCain–Feingold bill" and from 1989–1994 as the "Boren–Mitchell bill"), calling it "neither fair, nor balanced, nor constitutional."^[11] His opposition to the bill culminated in the 2003 Supreme Court case McConnell v. Federal Election Commission.

In August 2007 McConnell introduced the Protect America Act of 2007, which allowed the National Security Agency to monitor telephone and electronic communications of individuals inside and outside the United States without obtaining a warrant.

McConnell remains one of the strongest supporters of the American invasion of Iraq, which he considers a central part of the War on Terrorism. He holds the view that the violence in Iraq is perpetrated primarily by al-Qaeda and other international jihadists who would otherwise be engaged in terrorist actions within the United States. In an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper on January 10, 2007 (after President Bush's announcement of an escalation in troop levels in Iraq), McConnell claimed that the war in Iraq was a success because it had prevented terrorist attacks in the U.S. since the September 11 attacks. He warned that if the United States withdrew from Iraq, "the terrorists would come after us where we live."

In 1996, Senator McConnell demanded that President Clinton allow White House aides to testify under oath. On April 1, 2007, Chris Wallace claimed that McConnell's stance on Karl Rove and Harriet Miers testifying under oath in relation to the Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy was contradictory. Wallace asked, "In 1996, you were saying those White House aides should testify in open hearing. These were White House aides of Bill Clinton, in open hearing under oath. Why shouldn't the same rules apply for the Bush White House and people like Karl Rove?" McConnell replied, "And what I’m telling you is the president's going to make that decision."

Senator McConnell was the writer of the Gas Price Reduction Act. The GPRA calls for more offshore and domestic oil exploration, to try to curb rising gas prices.

War in Iraq

McConnell has been an advocate of the War in Iraq and an ardent supporter of President George W. Bush and his policies.

However, regarding the failure of the Iraqi government to make reforms, McConnell said the following on Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer: "The Iraqi government is a huge disappointment. Republicans overwhelmingly feel disappointed about the Iraqi government. I read just this week that a significant number of the Iraqi parliament want to vote to ask us to leave. I want to assure you, Wolf, if they vote to ask us to leave, we'll be glad to comply with their request."^[12]

On the June 17, 2007, edition of CBS News' Face the Nation, McConnell said, "Most members of my conference in the Senate believe [that September will be] the critical point to evaluate where we are ... I think everybody anticipates that there's going to be a new strategy in the fall. I find growing support in the Senate among Republicans, and for that matter, some Democrats as well, for the recommendations of the [Baker-Hamilton] Iraq Study Group"^[13][14]

On July 9, 2007, in Hopkinsville, Kentucky at Fort Campbell, speaking to a contingent of troops about to ship out for a 15-month deployment to Iraq, McConnell said, "The majority of the public has decided the Iraq effort is not worth it," he said. "That puts a lot of pressure on Congress to act because public opinion in a democracy is not irrelevant."^[15][16]

2008 Re-election campaign

Main article: United States Senate election in Kentucky, 2008

On 2 November 2008 the website of The New Republic reported that flyers questioning McConnell's sexuality as well as the reasons for his 1967 discharge were being distributed in Kentucky.^[17]

As of October 2008^[update], McConnell and Democratic nominee Bruce Lunsford were tied in the polls.^[18] McConnell won re-election in 2008 against Lunsford.

Electoral history

Elections are shown with a map depicting county-by-county information. McConnell is always shown in red.

Year	% McConnell	Opponent	Party affiliation	% of vote	Map color	County-by-county map
2008	52.9%	Bruce Lunsford	Democrat	47.1%
2002	64.7%	Lois Combs Weinberg	Democrat	35.3%
1996	55.5%	Steve Beshear	Democrat	42.8%
		Dennis L Lacy	Libertarian	0.7%	n/a
		Patricia Jo Metten	Natural Law	0.6%	n/a
		Mac McElroy	U.S. Taxpayers	0.4%	n/a
1990	52.2%	Harvey I. Sloane	Democrat	47.8%
1984	49.9%	Walter Huddleston (incumbent)	Democrat	49.5%
		Dave Welters	Socialist Workers	0.6%	n/a

References

External links

• United States Senator Mitch McConnell, U.S. Senate site
• Mitch McConnell For U.S. Senate, Campaign site

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• Staff salaries, trips and personal finance at LegiStorm.com
• Current Bills Sponsored at StateSurge.com
• Congressional profile at GovTrack.us
• Profile at SourceWatch Congresspedia
• Collected news and commentary from The New York Times
• Candidate information from Our Campaigns

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