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Bernie Sanders

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File:BSanders.jpg
Bernie Sanders at a press conference on the rising cost of fuel.

Bernard ("Bernie") Sanders (born September 8, 1941) has been a member of the United States House of Representatives since 1991 as the at-large congressman from Vermont (map). He is an independent, but caucuses with the Democrats and is counted as a Democrat for the purposes of committee assignments. He is the only independent member of the House, and is one of very few self-described democratic socialists elected to federal office in the United States in recent times. He is currently serving his eighth two-year term, and is giving up his House seat to pursue the Senate seat currently occupied by Jim Jeffords, who is retiring at the end of his current term in 2007.

Biography

The son of a Polish immigrant, Sanders was born in Brooklyn and educated at Brooklyn College and the University of Chicago. He has lived in Vermont since 1964. He was a member of the anti-Vietnam War Liberty Union Party, and in the 1970s ran for governor and senator four times. Sanders is married to the former Dr. Jane O'Meara, president of Burlington College. Sanders has one son, Levi Sanders, from a previous marriage. [1]

Early political career

Sanders' career began in 1971, when he joined the Liberty Union Party in Vermont. He ran for U.S. Senate as a candidate for that party, and lost, recieving only 2 percent of the vote. Subsequent statewide races for Senate and Governor were slightly more successful, with Sanders highest vote tally being 6 percent. In 1977, Sanders resigned from the Liberty Union party and worked as a writer and the director of the non-profit American People's Historical Society.

In 1981, at the suggestion of his friend Richard Sugarman, a philosophy professor at the University of Vermont, Sanders ran for mayor of Burlington and defeated six-term Democratic incumbent Gordon Paquette by 12 votes, in a three-way contest. An independent candidate, Richard Bove, split the Democratic vote after losing the primary to then Mayor Paquette.

Increasingly popular because of his successful revitalization of the downtown area, he won three more terms, defeating Democratic and Republican candidates. In his last run for mayor, in 1987, he defeated a candidate endorsed by both major parties.

During his first term, supporters of Sanders formed the Progressive Coalition, forerunner of the Vermont Progressive Party. The Progressives never held more than six seats on the 13-member city council, but it was enough to keep the council from overriding Sanders' vetoes. Under Sanders, Burlington became the first city in the country to fund community-trust housing. His administration also sued the local cable provider and won considerably reduced rates and a substantial cash settlement.

Sanders ran for governor in 1986. He finished third with 14.5% of the vote, which was enough to deny incumbent Democrat Madeleine Kunin a majority; she was elected by the state legislature. In 1988 when six-term incumbent Representative Jim Jeffords made a successful run for the Senate, Sanders ran for the open seat and narrowly lost to Peter Smith, the former lieutenant governor and the Republican candidate for governor two years earlier. He sought a rematch against Smith in 1990. In one of the biggest upsets in recent political history, he took 56 percent of the vote and defeated Smith by 16 points, becoming the first independent member of the House since 1950.

House of Representative election record

Sanders has been reelected six times and is the longest-serving independent member of the House. Despite his independent status, he has faced only one difficult contest. That came in 1994, in the midst of a huge Republican wave that saw that party take control of the House. In a year where marginal seats fell to Republicans left and right, Sanders managed a narrow 3-point victory. In every other election, he has never failed to win less than 55 percent of the vote. Most recently, in 2004, Sanders took 69% to Republican Greg Parke's 24% and Democrat Larry Drown's 7%.

Relations with rest of House

Although relations between Sanders and House Democratic leadership have not always been smooth, the Democrats have not actively campaigned against Sanders since his first run for Congress. While Democratic candidates have run against him in every election except 1994 (when Sanders managed to win the Democrats' endorsement), they have received scant financial support. He has endorsed every Democratic candidate for president of the United States since 1992.

Sanders is a co-founder of the House Progressive Caucus and chaired the grouping of mostly left-leaning Democratic representatives for its first eight years.

Sanders voted against the resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq in the fall of 2002 and opposed the subsequent invasion. He later joined almost all of his colleagues in voting for a non-binding resolution expressing support for U.S. troops at the outset of the invasion, although he gave a floor speech blasting the partisan nature of the resolution and the Bush administration's actions in the run-up to the war.

On the domestic front, Sanders supports universal health care and opposes foreign trade agreements which, he says, deprive American workers of their jobs while exploiting foreign workers in sweat-shop factories.

An amendment he offered in June 2005 to limit provisions giving the government power to obtain individuals' library and book-buying records passed the House by a bi-partisan majority, but was removed on November 4th of that year by House-Senate negotiators, and never became law [[2]]. Sanders followed this vote on November 5th, 2005 by voting against The Online Freedom of Speech Act, which would have exempted the Internet from McCain-Feingold Act BCRA bans on political communication.

His lifetime legislative score from the AFL-CIO is 100%. In contrast, as of 2004, he has a grade of "F" from the National Rifle Association, despite the fact that he voted against the Brady Bill and in October 2005 Sanders voted in favor of an NRA-sponsored bill to restrict lawsuits against gun manufacturers.[3]. On other issues Sanders has occasionally supported Republican led bills: he voted to abolish the marriage penalty and also for a bill that sought to ban human cloning.

In March 2006 Sanders stated it would be impractical, given the "reality that the Republicans control the House and the Senate", to impeach George W. Bush after a series of resolutions in various towns in Vermont passed calling for him to bring articles of impeachment against the president. [4]

Relations with the Bush Administration

Relations between Sanders and the current White House Administration of George W. Bush have been similarlly strained, due in part to the Congressman's confrontational style with both the President and other Adminsitration Officials. In April of 2005, Sanders called Bush "Orwellian" [5].

In 2004, the Congressman accused President Bush of attempting to "dismantle the Section 8 rental assistance program one piece at a time" [6], despite approval of a budget for that program of $1.8 billion over what the administration had requested that year.[7]

Further, in a piece written for TPM Cafe.com [8], Sanders accused the Bush Administration of "actively trying to cut veterans benefits", when in fact, Federal Government benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs increased from 2001 to 2006 by 57%.[9]

Recently, in Feburary of 2006, Sanders laid out the allegation that Bush will be trying to "completely eliminate the Commodity Supplemental Food Program][10], which serves primarily seniors and low-income mothers. The program is eliminated by the proposed FY2007 budget, however, Sanders did not mention the Administration's intention to migrate clients of CSF program to the Food Stamp Program, with a budget increase from 3.4 billion to 3.6 billion from FY2006 to FY2007.[11] One may conclude Sanders intends to create the belief that Bush has little regard for the welfare of seniors and the poor. In fact, Sanders says so in that "I cannot comprehend what goes on in the mind of anyone...who gives millions opon millions of dollars in tax breaks to the wealthiest 1% of Americans, the millionares and billionares, while telling 400,000 seniors across this country, we do not have money to maintain a program which gives them basic nutrients. That set of priorities is literally beyond my comprehension"[12]

In relation to the leak investigation involving Valerie Plame, on April 7, 2006 Rep. Sanders said, “The revelation that the president authorized the release of classified information in order to discredit an Iraq war critic should tell every member of Congress that the time is now for a serious investigation of how we got into the war in Iraq, and why Congress can no longer act as a rubber stamp for the president.” [13] However, it should be noted that the suggestion of Bush's involvment comes from indicted former Vice-Presidental aide, Scooter Libby.

Sanders has also criticized Alan Greenspan. In June of 2003, during a question and answer discussion with then Federal Reserve Chairman, Sanders told Mr. Greenspan that he "was way out of touch" and "represents the wealthy and large corporations". [[14]]

Campaign for Senate

Main article: Vermont U.S. Senate election, 2006

Sanders had mentioned on several occasions that he would run for the Senate if Jeffords, a longtime friend, ever retired. When Jeffords announced on April 21, 2005 that he would not seek a fourth term in 2006, Sanders wasted little time in formally jumping into the race.

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, immediately endorsed Sanders. Schumer's backing was critical, as it likely means that any Democrat running against Sanders cannot expect to receive any significant financial backing from the national Democratic party. Sanders was also endorsed by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean (a former governor of Vermont and presidential candidate in 2004) and other leading Democrats. Dean said in May 2005 that he considered Sanders an ally who voted with House Democrats.

Sanders is heavily favored to win, especially after Republican governor Jim Douglas, widely believed to be the only Republican who could possibly defeat him, decided against a Senate run. Lieutenant Governor Brian Dubie, who had previously planned to challenge Sanders, withdrew from the race October 26, 2005. [15]

According to the leftist magazine In These Times, "Judging from his popularity, Sanders' election is all but assured. If he takes office, he will become the Senate's most progressive member."[16] In addition, Sanders would also become the Senate's only self-identifying socialist.

The Burlington, Vermont based newspaper Vermont Guardian has said of the Sanders' Campaign, "The Sanders campaign has been issuing a steady drumbeat of fear and loathing of (opponent) Tarrant's wealth, using it to paint him as out of touch with the average Vermonter and trying to buy an election." [[17]]


See also

Official Sites

Interviews

Articles by Rep. Bernie Sanders

Articles About Sanders

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