| Jeff Flake | |
|---|---|
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona's 6th district |
|
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2001 |
|
| Preceded by | Matt Salmon |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Jeffry Lane Flake December 31, 1962 Snowflake, Arizona |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Cheryl Flake |
| Residence | Mesa, Arizona |
| Alma mater | Brigham Young University |
| Occupation | Public affairs director |
| Religion | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) |
Jeffrey Lane "Jeff" Flake (born December 31, 1962) is the U.S. Representative for Arizona's 6th congressional district, serving since 2001. He is a member of the Republican Party. He was featured in the documentary series How Democracy Works Now: Twelve Stories.
Flake is running for a seat in the United States Senate in 2012.[1]
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Flake was born in Snowflake, Arizona, the son of Nerita (née Hock) and Dean Maeser Flake.[2] His birth town was named in part for his great-great-grandfather, Mormon pioneer William J. Flake.[3] Flake was educated at Brigham Young University and was a Mormon missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to South Africa in the early 1980s. He worked in the public affairs sector after college and served as Executive Director of the Foundation for Democracy in Namibia and Executive Director of the Goldwater Institute before entering the House of Representatives.
Flake was first elected to what was then Arizona's 1st congressional district in 2000, after Republican incumbent Matt Salmon stepped down in honor of a self-imposed term limit. The district was then renumbered to the 6th district as Arizona gained two Congressional seats due to the results of the 2000 census.
In his campaign in 2000, Flake had pledged to serve no more than three terms in Congress, leaving no later than January 2007, but in early 2005, shortly after being elected for a third time, Flake announced that he had changed his mind and would in fact run for re-election in 2006. "It was a mistake to limit my own terms," Flake said.[4]
Flake's departures from the Republican party-line on certain issues earned him a closely watched primary challenge in 2004. He easily defeated the challenger.[5] In that same election, three out of five mayors in his home district opposed his re-election as he did not "bring pork barrel spending" to the mayors' cities.[3] In 2006, several Democrats had announced their intention to run for the seat; however, only one met the June filing deadline and that particular filing was rejected due to an insufficient amount of nominating signatures. "I did expect to have a primary opponent. I deserve one," Flake said, referring to the term-limit pledge which he had broken. "By all rights, I ought to have an opponent. I just got lucky, I guess."[6]
In the 2006 mid-term elections, Flake had no Democratic Party opponent and easily defeated the Libertarian Party candidate, Jason Blair, with 74% of the vote.[7]
Flake is often among a handful of Republicans casting 'no' votes on bills most of his party supports.[8]
Flake is a "fiscal conservative."[9] He is a critic of government waste and advocates reducing federal spending.[10] He was described by columnist Robert Novak as an "insistent reformer."[11] He is a signer of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge[12] and one of eight House members to receive a 100% approval rating from the American Conservative Union.[13] Flake voted against the Troubled Asset Relief Program ("TARP").[14]
A "scourge of pork-barrel spending,"[15] Flake was ruled the least profligate spender in Congress by Citizens Against Government Waste in July 2007 and designated a "taxpayer superhero."[10] In September 2010, Flake introduced a series of press releases under the title "So Just How Broke Are We?", whereby he explains the size of the national debt ($13 trillion) in terms of recent events, followed by a pun. As an example, noting that the cheapest 2010 World Series ticket on StubHub.com at AT&T Park was $425, it would take 30.6 billion tickets sold to pay down the debt, whereupon he remarked, "Looks like the voters are about to bring in some (debt) relievers."[16]
Flake is "known for his ardent opposition to earmarks."[17] He has been called an "anti-earmark crusader,"[18] and frequently challenges earmarks proposed by other members of Congress. Since May 2006, he has become prominent with the "Flake Hour," a tradition at the end of spending bill debates in which he asks earmark sponsors to come to the house floor and justify why taxpayers should pay for their "pet projects."[19] He is credited with prompting House rule changes to require earmark sponsors to identify themselves.[20]
Until September 2010, Flake issued a press release listing an "egregious earmark of the week" every Friday.[10] Usually the earmark will be followed by Flake making a humorous comment; as an example, Rep. Flake once said of Congressman Jose Serrano's $150,000 earmark to fix plumbing in Italian restaurants, "I would argue this is one cannoli the taxpayer doesn’t want to take a bite of."[3] The "earmark of the week" releases were ended and replaced with the "So Just How Broke Are We?" series of releases.
In 2007, Flake was removed from the House Judiciary Committee for "bad behavior." According to one source, the group that made this decision was dominated by Appropriations members resentful of Flake's opposition to earmarks.[21]
In March, 2010, the House Appropriations Committee implemented rules to ban earmarks to for-profit corporations, a change Flake supported. “This is the best day we’ve had in a while,” he said to the New York Times, which reported that approximately 1,000 such earmarks were authorized in the previous year, worth $1.7 billion.[22]
Flake has sponsored bills to increase legal immigration and establish a guest worker program.[23] Some episodes of Flake's work toward immigration reform in the mid-2000s were documented in the series How Democracy Works Now: Twelve Stories.
Flake initially supported the Iraq War, but later changed his position to one of cautious opposition,[24] including voting against appropriations. At a 2008 congressional hearing featuring General David Petraeus, Flake said: "I still have a hard time seeing the big picture and what constitutes success [in Iraq]. That's not just one side of the aisle with those kind of concerns. Many on this side of the aisle have that as well."[25] He also voted against President Barack Obama's proposed troop surge in Afghanistan.[26]
Flake supports ending the Cuba Trade Embargo[27] and otherwise normalizing relations with Cuba.[28] On February 8, 2011, Flake voted for renewal of the PATRIOT Act.[29]
In October 2008, Esquire named Congressman Flake one of the Ten Best Members of Congress saying in part, "A true conservative, Flake is as rare as the dodo. Republicans should learn from him, and liberals and libertarians will find in him a strong privacy-rights ally."[30]
In December 2010, Flake was one of fifteen Republican House members to vote in favor of repealing the United States military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on openly gay service members.[31][32] Flake had voted to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage with a Federal Marriage Amendment in 2004 and 2006.[33][34]
During the 2005 debate on renewal of the expiring provisions of the Patriot Act, Jeff Flake successfully submitted several amendments to the bill in the House of Representatives. One required the FBI director to personally sign off on any request for library and bookstore records before applying to the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court but it was altered in the United States Senate version of the bill.[35] Two of his amendments were signed into law and they subjected any National Security Letter and its gag order to a judicial challenge by the recipient, and narrowed the scope of "Sneak and Peek" warrants to have definite time limits on their duration and extensions before they need to notify the target of the investigation.[36] Before that "Sneak and Peek" warrants could be extended by the vague standard of not "unduly delaying trial" without any defined time limitation.[37] This amended bill was titled the U.S.A Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 and it was signed into law on March 9, 2006.[38] This bill also required three Inspector General investigations that lead to the discovery of exigent letters[39] and National Security Letter abuses.[40]
On February 8, 2011 Jeff Flake voted to renew key provisions of the USA PATRIOT ACT. The vote failed.[41] On February 10, 2011 Jeff Flake again voted to renew key provisions of the USA PATRIOT ACT. This vote succeeded.[42]
He also serves on the Liberty Committee (sometimes called the Liberty Caucus), a group of libertarian-leaning Republican congressmen.[43] He is also a member of the Republican Study Committee.
Flake was featured in the documentary film series How Democracy Works Now: Twelve Stories by filmmakers Shari Robertson and Michael Camerini. Films he appears in through the series include:
In February 2011, Flake announced that he is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl in 2012.[44]
Flake and his wife Cheryl have five children. They are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He spent time in Zimbabwe and South Africa as a Mormon missionary.[3][45] The Flakes have been married since ca. 1985.[10]
His uncle, Jake Flake, was an Arizona state senator.[46]
| Year | Democratic | Votes | Pct | Republican | Votes | Pct | 3rd Party | Party | Votes | Pct | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | David Mendoza | 97,455 | 42.38% | Jeff Flake | 123,289 | 53.61% | Jon Burroughs | Libertarian | 9,227 | 4.01% |
| Year | Democratic | Votes | Pct | Republican | Votes | Pct | 3rd Party | Party | Votes | Pct | 3rd Party | Party | Votes | Pct | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Deborah Thomas | 49,355 | 31.57% | Jeff Flake* | 103,094 | 65.94% | Andy Wagner | Libertarian | 3,888 | 2.49% | |||||||||
| 2004 | (no candidate) | Jeff Flake | 202,882 | 79.38% | Craig Stritar | Libertarian | 52,695 | 20.62% | |||||||||||
| 2006 | (no candidate) | Jeff Flake* | 152,201 | 74.80% | Jason M. Blair | Libertarian | 51,285 | 25.20% | |||||||||||
| 2008 | Rebecca Schneider | 115,457 | 34.55% | Jeff Flake* | 208,582 | 62.42% | Rick Biondi | Libertarian | 10,137 | 3.03% | |||||||||
| 2010 | Rebecca Schneider | 72,615 | 29.12% | Jeff Flake* | 165,649 | 66.42% | Darell Tapp | Libertarian | 7,712 | 3.09% | Richard Grayson | Green | 3,407 | 1.37% |
| United States House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Matt Salmon |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona's 1st congressional district 2001–2003 |
Succeeded by Rick Renzi |
| Preceded by J.D. Hayworth |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona's 6th congressional district 2003–present |
Incumbent |
| United States order of precedence | ||
| Preceded by Susan Davis D-California |
United States Representatives by seniority 172nd |
Succeeded by Sam Graves R-Missouri |
| 107th | Senate: J. McCain | J. Kyl | House: B. Stump | J. Kolbe | E. Pastor | J. D. Hayworth | J. Shadegg | J. Flake |
| 108th | Senate: J. McCain | J. Kyl | House: J. Kolbe | E. Pastor | J. D. Hayworth | J. Shadegg | J. Flake | T. Franks | R. Grijalva | R. Renzi |
| 109th | Senate: J. McCain | J. Kyl | House: J. Kolbe | E. Pastor | J. D. Hayworth | J. Shadegg | J. Flake | T. Franks | R. Grijalva | R. Renzi |
| 110th | Senate: J. McCain | J. Kyl | House: E. Pastor | J. Shadegg | J. Flake | T. Franks | R. Grijalva | R. Renzi | G. Giffords | H. Mitchell |
| 111th | Senate: J. McCain | J. Kyl | House: E. Pastor | J. Shadegg | J. Flake | T. Franks | R. Grijalva | G. Giffords | H. Mitchell | A. Kirkpatrick |
| 112th | Senate: J. McCain | J. Kyl | House: E. Pastor | J. Flake | T. Franks | R. Grijalva | G. Giffords | P. Gosar | B. Quayle | D. Schweikert |