Bill Nelson

For other people named Bill Nelson, see Bill Nelson (disambiguation).

Bill Nelson
United States Senator from Florida
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2001 Serving with Marco Rubio
Preceded by	Connie Mack III
Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner and Fire Marshal of Florida
In office January 3, 1995 – January 1, 2000
Governor	Lawton Chiles (1995-1998) Buddy MacKay (1998-1999) Jeb Bush (1999-2000)
Preceded by	Tom Gallagher
Succeeded by	Tom Gallagher
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 11th district
In office January 3, 1983 – January 3, 1991
Preceded by	Daniel A. Mica
Succeeded by	Jim Bacchus
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 9th district
In office January 3, 1979 – January 3, 1983
Preceded by	Louis Frey
Succeeded by	Michael Bilirakis
Member of the Florida House of Representatives
In office 1972–1979
Personal details
Born	Clarence William Nelson September 29, 1942 (1942-09-29) Miami, Florida
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Grace Cavert Nelson
Children	Bill Nelson, Jr. Nan Ellen Nelson
Residence	Orlando, Florida
Alma mater	Yale University (B.A.) University of Virginia (J.D.)
Religion	Christian
Website	Senator Bill Nelson
Military service
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1965-1968, 1970-1971 (Reserve) 1968-1970 (Active Duty)
Rank	Captain

Clarence William "Bill" Nelson (born September 29, 1942) is the senior United States Senator from the state of Florida and a member of the Democratic Party. He is a former United States Representative and former Treasurer and Insurance Commissioner of Florida. In 1986, he became the second sitting member of the United States Congress to fly in space.

In 1972, Nelson was elected to the Florida House of Representatives. He was re-elected in 1974 and 1976. Nelson was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978. He served in the U.S. House from 1979 to 1991. In January 1986, he flew as a Payload Specialist on the Space Shuttle Columbia. After a failed gubernatorial race in 1990, he successfully ran for the office of Treasurer and Insurance Commissioner of Florida in 1994 and served for six years. In 2000, Nelson ran for U.S. Senate seat vacated by retiring Republican Senator Connie Mack. In the Senate he is generally considered a social moderate and economic liberal. He was re-elected in 2006 with 60 percent of the vote.

Personal life

Nelson was born in Miami, the only child of Nannie Merle (née Nelson) and Clarence William Nelson. He spent his youth in Melbourne, Florida, where he attended Melbourne High School.

Nelson attended the University of Florida before transferring to Yale University. He subsequently received a law degree from the University of Virginia. In 1965, he joined the U.S. Army Reserve; he served on active duty from 1968 to 1970, attaining the rank of captain, and he remained in the Army until 1971. Nelson was admitted to the Florida bar in 1968, and began practicing law in Melbourne in 1970. In 1971, he worked as legislative assistant to Governor Reubin Askew.

In 1972, Nelson married Grace Cavert. The couple has two adult children: Bill Nelson, Jr., and Nan Ellen Nelson.

He was baptized as a Baptist, and grew up attending Baptist and Episcopal churches. In 2005, he joined the First Presbyterian Church in Orlando.

Spaceflight

Clarence William "Bill" Nelson
NASA Payload Specialist
Nationality	American
Born	September 29, 1942 Miami, Florida
Current occupation	U.S. Senator
Previous occupation	Representative, U.S. House
Time in space	6d 02h 03m
Missions	STS-61-C
Mission insignia

In 1986, Nelson became the second sitting member of Congress (and the first member of the House) to travel into space. He went through NASA training with Senator Jake Garn of Utah. He was a Payload Specialist on Space Shuttle Columbia's STS-61-C mission from January 12 to 18, 1986.

The primary objective of the mission was to deploy the Ku-1 communications satellite, second in a planned series of geosynchronous satellites owned and operated by RCA Americom. The deployment was successful. The flight also carried a large number of small experiments, including 13 GAS canisters devoted to investigations involving the effect of microgravity on materials processing, seed germination, chemical reactions, egg hatching, astronomy and atmospheric physics.

Columbia landed at Edwards AFB at 5:59 a.m. PST, on January 18. Mission elapsed time was 6 days, 2 hours, 3 minutes, 51 seconds. It was the last successful Space Shuttle flight before the Challenger accident, as the disaster occurred only 10 days after Columbia's return.

Political career

Florida legislature

In 1972, Nelson was elected to the Florida House of Representatives. He won re-election in 1974 and 1976.

U.S. House of Representatives

Nelson was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978. He served in the U.S. House from 1979 to 1991.

Gubernatorial campaign

In 1990, Nelson ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Florida. He lost to former U.S. Senator Lawton Chiles, who went on to win the general election. During the primary campaign, Nelson tried to make an issue out of Chiles' health and age, a strategy that backfired on him in a state with a large population of retirees and senior citizens.

Treasurer and Insurance Commissioner

In 1994 Nelson announced his intention to seek the office of Treasurer and Insurance Commissioner of Florida. He won the election with 52% of the vote over State Rep. Tim Ireland's 48%. In 1998, he again defeated Ireland for his reelection to the office.

In 2000, Nelson resigned his post as Commissioner following his election to the U.S. Senate.

U.S. Senate

In 2000, Nelson ran as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by retiring Republican Senator Connie Mack. He won the election, defeating U.S. Representative Bill McCollum, who ran as the Republican candidate.

Political Positions

Nelson's votes have tended to be more liberal than conservative. He has received high ratings from left-of-center groups such as Americans for Democratic Action, and low ones from right-of-center groups such as the Eagle Forum and the Club for Growth. According to ratings by the National Journal, Nelson's votes have been liberal on economic matters, moderate on social issues, and liberal but close to the center on foreign policy.

Nelson has called for greater bipartisanship and civility between left and right. “The finger pointing and hyper-partisanship has to stop,” he has said. “Democrats need to see tea partiers as something other than debt-limit hostage-taking Republicans. And Republicans need to see President Barack Obama and Democrats as something other than big-spending socialists....We’ve got to stop this attack madness. We have to bring civility back to the public square.... It’s time to stop the shouting and bickering and political attacks. It’s time to show the world that America can take care of business.” In November 2011 he told a conference: “People are so rigid, they are in their ideological boxes, they won't move and it is my way or the highway. The people of our country are fed up with this nonsense. I tell you I am fed up with it. It is frustrating.”

Nelson has been especially vocal on the issue of minority voting rights and on funding for space exploration. A strong supporter of NASA, he flew on the space shuttle Columbia in 1986.

The Progressive Patriots website gave Nelson a “progressive” score of 25/100.

Central America Free Trade Agreement

In 2005, Nelson was one of ten Democrats who voted in favor of the Dominican Republic – Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) on its 55-45 passage in the Senate; Nelson's vote was cast despite opposition by special interests like the sugar lobby.

Estate tax

On several occasions, Nelson has voted against his party to reduce or eliminate the estate tax, notably in June 2006, when he was one of four Democrats voting for a failed (57-41) cloture motion on a bill to eliminate the tax.

Withholding funding from the CIA

In 2007, Nelson was the lone Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee to vote against an amendment to withhold funds for CIA use of harsh interrogation techniques on terrorism suspects. His vote, combined with those of all Republican members of the committee, killed the measure.

Healthcare

In March 2010, Nelson voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, which passed and were signed into law by President Obama. A Mason-Dixon Florida poll indicated that the measure was opposed by a majority of those surveyed, and by nearly two-thirds of Florida voters aged 65 or older. The same poll showed Nelson's negative rating rising to 34%, from 16% at the time of his 2006 re-election. However, a Gallup poll indicated that 79% of Democrats approved of the legislation, with only 40% of all adults opposing the legislation.

Space exploration

Nelson is seen as a major supporter of the space program. In 2010 he proposed creating as many as “five business enterprise zones as magnets for commercial space ventures.” “The move is expected to attract thousands of jobs to Florida’s 'Space Coast' area around NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Base.”

In March 2010 Nelson complained that Obama had made a mistake in canceling NASA's Constellation program. On July 7, 2011, Tom Parkinson reported that Nelson had said that Congress “starved” the space program of funding for several years, but suggested that the situation was turning around and called on the Obama Administration to push for NASA funding.

Don't Ask Don't Tell

On December 18, 2010, Nelson voted in favor of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010.

Congressional Term Limits

Nelson does not support Congressional Term Limits, and agrees with constitutional scholars who argue that term limits would limit the prerogative of the voters."

Debt ceiling

Nelson has a mixed record on budgetary and business issues. In July 2011, Marc Caputo and Erika Bolstad of the Miami Herald noted that “Bill Nelson was against raising the debt ceiling before he was for it. And he was for it before he was against it.”

2006 re-election campaign

Sen. Nelson works with government storm trackers during a hurricane-hunter flight into the center of Hurricane Charley in August 2004

Main article: United States Senate election in Florida, 2006

Following the 2004 election, in which Republican George W. Bush was re-elected and the Republican party increased its majority in both the House and the Senate, Nelson was seen as vulnerable. He was a Democrat in a state that Bush had won, though by a margin of only five percentage points.

Evangelical Christian activist James Dobson declared that such Democrats, including Nelson, would be "in the 'bull's-eye'" if they supported efforts to block Bush's judicial nominees; and Nelson's refusal to support efforts in Congress to intervene in the Terri Schiavo case was seen as "a great political issue" for a Republican opponent to use in mobilizing Christian conservatives against him. Florida governor Jeb Bush, precluded by term limits from seeking re-election in 2006, was suggested as an opponent who might secure Nelson's seat for the Republicans.

Bush chose not to run for the seat. Katherine Harris, the former Florida Secretary of State and two-term U.S. representative, defeated three other candidates in the September 5 Republican primary. Nelson was unopposed for the Democratic nomination.

Harris's role in the 2000 presidential election made her a polarizing figure. Many Florida Republicans were eager to reward her for her perceived party loyalty in the Bush-Gore election; many Florida Democrats were eager to vote against her for the same reason. Harris's campaign was beset by difficulties: poor fundraising, a series of gaffes, and a high turnover of staff, including the loss of three campaign managers and of chief advisor Ed Rollins. In February, it was learned that Harris had received $32,000 in illegal campaign contributions from defense contractor Mitchell J. Wade.

In April, a National Review editorial urged Harris to withdraw, arguing that she would unquestionably win the primary and lose the general election. In May, when the party found itself unable to recruit a candidate who could defeat Harris in the primary, many Republican activists admitted that the race was already lost.

Harris's campaign focused heavily on evangelical Christianity. In an August interview with Florida Baptist Witness, she declared: "[I]f you're not electing Christians then in essence you are going to legislate sin" Nelson, meanwhile, focused on safe issues, portraying himself as a bipartisan centrist problem-solver. He obtained the endorsement of all 22 of Florida's daily newspapers. Harris failed to secure the endorsement of Jeb Bush, who publicly stated that she could not win; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which had supported her in her congressional campaigns, did not endorse her in this race.

As the election approached, polls showed Harris trailing Nelson by 26 to 35 points. Nelson transferred about $16.5 million in campaign funds to other Democratic candidates, and won the election with 60.4% of the vote to Harris's 38.2%.

2012 re-election campaign

Main article: United States Senate election in Florida, 2012

In late May 2010 on the Talking Points blog, Brian Beutler reported that Nelson had “called on Obama...to shake up the arrangement of the cleanup and rescue operation by putting the military in charge.” In early June, CBS News reported that Nelson was “becoming increasingly frustrated with the chaos surrounding the cleanup.”

Biden has called Nelson crucial to President Obama's chances for winning Florida in 2012. Several possible 2012 challengers have emerged, but the only one who is widely seen as a real threat is Connie Mack. In March 2011, Vice President Joe Biden was reported as having said that if Nelson lost in 2012, “it means President Obama and the Democratic presidential ticket won't win the key battleground state, either....'He's a truly, truly decent guy who has the absolute respect of his colleagues, and I've heard that from both sides of the aisle,' Biden said of his former Senate colleague.”

In September 2011, the Sunshine State News reported that the National Republican Senate Committee was trying to link Nelson to Obama and big-government policies. “When it comes to jobs, Floridians have been listening to the same empty promises from Bill Nelson and President Obama for the last several years,” said NRSC spokesman Jahan Wilcox. “It’s painfully clear that Obama and Nelson’s liberal tax-spend-and-borrow economic agenda has failed to create the jobs they promised while driving our national debt to $14.6 trillion...”

On November 11, 2011, it was reported that Mack was “in a statistical dead heat with Bill Nelson, the Democratic incumbent, in a Quinnipiac University poll of registered voters....Mack received the support of 40 percent of Florida voters in the poll, and Nelson received 42 percent.” A Quinnipiac pollster said that “The entrance of Congressman Connie Mack into the Senate race changes what had been shaping up as an easy reelection for Sen. Bill Nelson into a tough fight that the incumbent could lose.” On the same date, Real Clear Politics wrote that after Nelson had “had the benefit of running in good years for Senate Democrats, and avoiding strong opponents” in 2000 and 2006, he was now facing “a year that doesn’t look to be particularly good for Senate Democrats” and had acquired a formidable opponent in Connie Mack.

When Mack announced for the Senate, he said: “When Barack Obama wanted to pass his nationalized health care over the objections of most Americans, Bill Nelson was there fighting by his side -- not once but three times....Bill Nelson has become Barack Obama's closest friend and ally in the United States Senate."

Controversies

On February 17, 2009, David D. Kirkpatrick wrote that Nelson was one of three lawmakers who “were returning campaign contributions from donors listed as employees of the PMA Group, a Washington lobbying firm whose founder is under investigation for purportedly funneling money through bogus donors.”

During his 2006 Senate campaign, according to the Open Congress website, Nelson “was accused of taking $80,000 in illegal campaign contributions from Riscorp, Inc....The Riscorp scandal involved dozens of Florida state legislators and was among the largest scandals in recent Florida history.”

In November 2011, Ahmed Bedier, an activist linked to CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood, donated money to Nelson and co-hosted a fundraiser for him. Nelson's representatives later claimed that he “did not know about Bedier's relationship with CAIR” and that Bedier had exaggerated his closeness to the Senator. In November 2011 Marc Caputo of the Miami Herald wrote that the scandal over Bedier threatened the Jewish vote for Nelson, given that Bedier had called Israel a “terrorist state.” Caputo noted that while “Nelson has gone to great lengths to fashion himself as pro-Israel,” that wasn't enough for some conservative groups.

Committee assignments

Senator Nelson serves on the following committees in the 112th Congress.

• Committee on the Budget
• Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
  • Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security
  • Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet
  • Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard
  • Subcommittee on Science and Space (Chairman)
• Committee on Finance
  • Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure
  • Subcommittee on Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Growth (Chairman)
  • Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness
  • Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight
• Select Committee on Intelligence
• Special Committee on Aging

Electoral history

Florida State House of Representatives election 1972
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Bill Nelson	26,771	68.9
	Republican	David Vozzola	12,078	31.1

Florida 9th District U.S. House of Representatives election 1978
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Bill Nelson	89,543	61.5
	Republican	Edward J. Gurney	56,074	38.5

Florida 9th District U.S. House of Representatives election 1980
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Bill Nelson	139,468	70.4
	Republican	Stan Dowiat	58,734	29.6

Florida 11th District U.S. House of Representatives election 1982
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Bill Nelson (Incumbent)	101,746	70.6
	Republican	Joel Robinson	42,422	29.4

Florida 11th District U.S. House of Representatives election 1984
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Bill Nelson (Incumbent)	145,764	60.5
	Republican	Rob Quartel	95,115	39.5

Florida 11th District U.S. House of Representatives election 1986
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Bill Nelson (Incumbent)	149,109	72.7
	Republican	Scott Ellis	55,952	27.3

Florida 11th District U.S. House of Representatives election 1988
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Bill Nelson (Incumbent)	168,390	60.8
	Republican	Bill Tolley	108,373	39.2

Florida Governor, Democratic primary election 1990
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Lawton Chiles	745,325	69.5
	Democratic	Bill Nelson	327,731	30.5

Florida State Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner and Fire Marshal election 1994
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Bill Nelson	2,070,604	51.7
	Republican	Tim Ireland	1,933,570	48.3

Florida State Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner and Fire Marshal election 1998
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Bill Nelson (Incumbent)	2,195,283	56.5	+4.8
	Republican	Tim Ireland	1,687,712	43.5	-4.8

Florida U.S. Senate election 2000
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Bill Nelson	2,987,644	52.1
	Republican	Bill McCollum	2,703,608	47.2

Florida U.S. Senate election 2006
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Bill Nelson (Incumbent)	2,890,548	60.3	+9.8
	Republican	Katherine Harris	1,826,127	38.1

External links

• United States Senator Bill Nelson official U.S. Senate site
• Nelson for US Senate official campaign site
• Biography at WhoRunsGov.com at The Washington Post
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Congressional profile at GovTrack
• Congressional profile at OpenCongress
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
• Staff salaries, trips and personal finance at LegiStorm.com
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Appearances on C-SPAN programs
• Collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• NASA – Bill Nelson official NASA astronaut biography

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Louis Frey (R)	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 9th congressional district January 3, 1979 – January 3, 1983	Succeeded by Michael Bilirakis (R)
Preceded by Daniel A. Mica (D)	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 11th congressional district January 3, 1983 – January 3, 1991	Succeeded by Jim Bacchus (D)
United States Senate
Preceded by Connie Mack III (R)	United States Senator (Class 1) from Florida January 3, 2001- Served alongside: Bob Graham, Mel Martinez, George LeMieux, Marco Rubio	Succeeded by Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Sam Brownback R-Kansas	Chairman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Space, Aeronautics, and Related Sciences January 4, 2007–present	Succeeded by Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by Hugh Rodham	Democratic Party nominee for United States Senator from Florida (Class 1) 2000, 2006	Succeeded by To be determined
United States order of precedence
Preceded by Mike Crapo R-Idaho	United States Senators by seniority 40th	Succeeded by Tom Carper D-Delaware