Sam Brownback
Samuel Dale Brownback (born
September 12,
1956) is a
Senator from
Kansas. He is a member of the
Republican Party and is considered by many
political pundits to be a likely candidate for
President in his party's
primaries in
2008.
Brownback was born on
September 12,
1956 in
Garnett, Kansas and grew up on his family's farm near
Parker, Kansas. He attended Prairie View High School in
Linn County, where he served as school president and as a national officer of the
Future Farmers of America. He later graduated from
Kansas State University in
1979 with a
Bachelor of Science degree with honors in Agricultural Economics. While at Kansas State, he was elected student body president and was a member of
Alpha Gamma Rho. He received his
law degree from the
University of Kansas in
1982.
He was a broadcaster, teacher and attorney before becoming the Kansas secretary of
agriculture in
1986. In
1990, he was called upon to be a
White House Fellow for the Class of '90-
91, detailed to the
Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. After serving in that capacity for one year at the
White House, Brownback returned to Kansas to resume his position as secretary of agriculture and remained in this position until
1993. He was elected to the
United States House of Representatives in
1994, but served there for only one term as he decided to enter into the special Senatorial election in November
1996 to replace
Bob Dole, who had resigned his Senate seat during his presidential campaign.
Brownback won the primary by defeating former
Lieutenant Governor Sheila Frahm, who had been appointed to temporarily fill the seat. He defeated
Democrat Jill Docking in the general election and was elected to a full term in the Senate in
1998. He won re-election in the
2004 Senate election with 69% of the vote, easily defeating his Democratic challenger, Lee Jones, a former
Washington, D.C. lobbyist who was considered less than viable, especially after losing the Democratic Primary.
Brownback has announced that he would not run for reelection in
2010, in accordance with his support of term limits for members of Congress. He is a member of the
Judiciary Committee, the Senate
Appropriations Committee (where he chairs the Subcommittee on
District of Columbia), the
Joint Economic Committee, and the Commission on Security and Cooperation in
Europe.
Brownback is married to the former Mary Stauffer, heiress to a
Topeka newspaper fortune. The couple are the parents of five children (two of them
adopted).
Brownback is an outspoken,
socially conservative politician, joining staunch senate conservatives such as
Rick Santorum,
Pat Roberts and
Tom Coburn on issues of social legislation. He favors
capital punishment and opposes
embryonic stem cell research. He is against
same-sex marriage,
pornography[
1], favors teaching
intelligent design alongside
evolution, and is
anti-abortion, having compared the procedure to "a holocaust" [
2], and believes there is no inherent
right to privacy in the Constitution despite expressing disapproval of President Bush's assertions on the legality of the
NSA wiretapping program.[
3]
During a debate over the most recent (July 2006) stem cell research bill, Sen. Brownback brought three small children to the senate floor and claimed that these children and others like them, conceived through
in vitro fertilization, may not exist today if as embryos they were used in embryonic stem cell research.[
4]
Despite the appeal of Brownback's socially conservative policies to conservative Protestant evangelicals, he converted to the
Roman Catholic church in
2002, with the assistance of fellow Republican Senator Rick Santorum. According to author
Thomas Frank in his book
What's the Matter with Kansas?, Brownback is a member of the conservative
Opus Dei prelature. Brownback has also advocated a more progressive foreign policy with respect to
Africa. He visited refugee camps in
Sudan in
2004 and returned to write a resolution labeling the
Darfur conflict as
genocide, and has been active on attempting to increase U.S. efforts to resolve the situation.
[ The Washington Post: Policy Adrift on Darfur, page A25, December 27, 2005.] He is also an endorser of the
Genocide Intervention Network [
5].
After the
September 11 terrorist attacks, he worked with Senator
Ted Kennedy on legislation that imposed stricter entry standards at the borders of the United States. Brownback worked with Congressman
John Lewis to help win placement of the
African American Museum on the
National Mall in
Washington, DC.
Brownback is also trying to introduce
price transparency to the US
health care industry [
6], as well as a bill which would require the disclosure of
Medicare payment rate information [
7].
In December 2005, Brownback advocated using
Washington, DC as a "laboratory" for a
flat tax. He stated, "that making D.C. a test case would, with limited potential for negative impact, provide valuable data about the effects of a flat tax that would prove helpful in determining whether it should be applied nationwide." [
8] Many residents of the District oppose forcing a system of taxation on them would seem to only further what many believe to be the District's
taxation without representation. Indeed, DC mayor
Anthony A. Williams said "Leaving aside the merits of this proposal, we continue to resist any efforts on the part of any member of Congress to impose rules and regulations on the people of the District." [
9]
Although Brownback has little name recognition outside of Washington, D.C. and his home state of Kansas, he has been working to garner public support since his re-election to the Senate in
2004. Having made visits to early primary and caucus states
New Hampshire and
Iowa, the senator is taking many of the steps common among future presidential candidates. With his strongly conservative cultural views, he is considered by some to be a front-runner of the socially-conservative wing of the Republican Party. In an appearance on
ABC's
This Week with George Stephanopoulos,
Christian Coalition founder and political activist
Pat Robertson voiced support of a Brownback presidential bid.
Brownback accepted $42,000 from
Jack Abramoff, an ex-lobbyist currently involved in a wide-reaching public corruption scandal. This prompted
Wyandotte Nation Chief Leaford Bearskin to state in a press release that he was "outraged and so very disappointed to learn that Senator Brownback reportedly received large sums of dirty money from Jack Abramoff, a Washington D.C. lobbyist who abused the political system for financial gain at the expense of the Native American community."[
10] Brownback's
Political Action Committee donated these funds to
Haskell Indian Nations University in
Lawrence, Kansas. [
11]
In an interview with
Rolling Stone, in which he was commenting on Swedish same-sex civil unions. "You'll know them by their fruits," Brownback said, quoting .
Rolling Stone writer Jeff Sharlet explained that "Brownback did not mean to make a joke, nor did he mean to use "fruits" as a slur. I didn't think he did, nor did I mean to imply that," [
12] and the Senator released a statement explaining that, "[he] was not [making a joke] and would never do so with such a personal and sensitive issue."[
13] Many, including prominent gay activists, interpreted the Senator's use of the term, fruits, to be derogatory towards homosexuals. After receiving national attention, Brownback and Sharlet later clarified the misunderstanding. Brad Luna, spokesperson from
Human Rights Campaign, acknowledged Brownback's explanation and said, "It's nice to know that Senator Brownback doesn't resort to name-calling from the 1970s, but unfortunately his anti-gay agenda continues to speak for itself." [
14]
*
Official website*
The Wilberforce Republican: Sam Brownback is redefining the Christian right,
The Economist, March 9, 2006
*
Sam Brownback on the Issues*
God's Senator: Who would Jesus vote for? Meet Sam Brownback,
Rolling Stone, January 25, 2006
*
Brownback questions the legality of warrantless domestic spying program*
record maintained by the Washington Post
