Ben Quayle

Ben Quayle
Quayle in the 112th Congress
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona's 3rd district
In office January 3, 2011 – January 3, 2013
Preceded by	John Shadegg
Succeeded by	Raul Grijalva
Personal details
Born	Benjamin Eugene Quayle (1976-11-05) November 5, 1976 Fort Wayne, Indiana
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Tiffany Crane
Relations	Dan Quayle (father) Marilyn Quayle (mother)
Children	Everett Quayle
Residence	Phoenix, Arizona
Alma mater	Duke University (B.A.) Vanderbilt University (J.D.)
Occupation	Attorney, Businessman, Lobbyist
Religion	Christian

Benjamin Eugene "Ben" Quayle (born November 5, 1976)^[1] is an American politician, and the former U.S. Representative for Arizona's 3rd congressional district. A member of the Republican Party, he is the son of former Republican Vice President of the United States Dan Quayle. He is a member of the Tea Party movement, which many of its members were swept into office during the 2010 elections.^[2]

Prior to serving in Congress he worked as an associate lawyer and eventually founded his own security company as well as writing for the Scottsdale gossip blog, The Dirty. In the 2010 Republican primary he defeated 10 other candidates and went on to win a majority in the general election. In his first bid for re-election, due to redistricting, he faced off against fellow Republican Congressman David Schweikert in a primary and narrowly lost. He currently works for the lobbying firm Clark Hill.^[3]

Early life, education, and career

Quayle was born on November 5, 1976, three days after his father was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1976.^[4] As a child, Quayle frequently visited the White House with his family during the Reagan administration.^[5]

Quayle moved to the Phoenix area with his family in 1996, and has lived there ever since. Quayle graduated from Duke University in 1998 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and earned his Juris Doctor from Vanderbilt University Law School in 2002.^[1] Quayle was admitted to the Arizona, New York, and California bar.

Quayle worked as an associate lawyer at Schulte Roth & Zabel from 2004–2005, and Snell & Wilmer from 2006–2007. In 2007 Quayle founded Tynwald Capital, a firm specializing in the acquisition and nurturing of small businesses.^[6] Quayle was a founding member of APG-Southwest, a full-service provider of security services for businesses, for which he served as the Managing Partner of its Arizona branch.

Quayle currently works for the Washington lobbying firm Clark Hill.^[7]

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

2010

After Republican Congressman John Shadegg decided to retire, Quayle launched his campaign following his father's announcement on America Live with Megyn Kelly that Ben was a candidate for Arizona's 3rd congressional district.^[8] On August 11, 2010 Quayle released an advertisement, in which he called Barack Obama the "worst President in history."^{[9][10][11][12][13]}

Quayle's prior involvement with the controversial rumor and gossip website "DirtyScottsdale.com" complicated his run for office. According to the site's founder, Quayle was "one of the original contributors" to the site, which covered Scottsdale nightlife with features including sexy photos of women, and was the predecessor to the gossip website TheDirty.com.^[14] Quayle initially denied the rumors,^[15] before admitting several weeks later that he did, in fact, write material for the site using the pseudonym “Brock Landers”.^{[16][17][18][19]}

Quayle won the 10-candidate Republican primary on August 24, 2010 with a plurality of 23% of the vote.^[20] In the general election in November, Quayle defeated Democratic candidate Jon Hulburd 52%-41%.^[21]

2012

After redistricting, Quayle's district was renumbered as Arizona's 6th congressional district while his home in Phoenix was drawn into Arizona's 9th congressional district. However, Quayle's home was just outside the border of the 6th, leading a source close to Quayle to tell National Journal that Quayle would run in his original district.^[22] On February 6, 2012; Quayle confirmed that he would indeed run in the 6th. Quayle faced fellow freshman Republican Congressman David Schweikert in the Republican primary. In an unusual twist, Schweikert's home in Fountain Hills had been drawn into the 6th, while as mentioned above Quayle's home had been drawn into the 9th, the geographic successor to Schweikert's 5th.^[23][24] Although the 6th contained almost two-thirds of Quayle's former district, Schweikert defeated Quayle 51%-49%.^[25]

Tenure

After being elected to Congress, Quayle announced that he would opt out of the taxpayer funded Congressional health care and pension plan.^[26]

In 2012, Quayle was named "The Most Conservative Member of the House of Representatives" by the National Journal.^[27] He was awarded the 2011 "National Taxpayers’ Friend Award"^[28] by the National Taxpayers Union, the "Spirit of Enterprise Award"^[29] by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and was given a 98% scorecard ^[30] by the Club for Growth.

Controversy arose after a bill to increase combat pay for military personnel was rejected, and Quayle and David Schweikert high-fived, happy about the bills failure. After the incident Maria Meacham, the mother of an active-duty soldier upset about the vote, began shouting from the gallery, and was eventually removed by security.^[31]

Quayle introduced legislation related to border security, guns, small business, government transparency, and health care^[32] and successfully sponsored H.R. 3862, the Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act "to impose certain limitations on consent decrees and settlement agreements by agencies that require the agencies to take regulatory action in accordance with the terms thereof, and for other purposes."^[33] According to the Congressional Budget Office, "Under the bill, complaints against federal agencies, the terms of the consent decrees or settlement agreements, and the award of attorneys’ fees would need to be published in an accessible manner, including electronically. The legislation would require that any proposed consent decree or settlement agreement be published in the Federal Register for 60 days of public comment prior to filing with the court."^[34]

Committee assignments

Quayle served on the following committees during his tenure.^[35]

• Committee on Homeland Security
  • Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security (Vice Chair)
  • Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence
• Committee on the Judiciary
  • Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial and Administrative Law
  • Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet (Vice Chair)
• Committee on Science, Space and Technology
  • Subcommittee on Research and Science Education
  • Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation (Chairman)

References

External links

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission