Mike Crapo

Mike Crapo
United States Senator from Idaho
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 1999 Serving with Jim Risch
Preceded by	Dirk Kempthorne
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Idaho's 2nd district
In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 1999
Preceded by	Richard H. Stallings
Succeeded by	Mike Simpson
37th President pro tempore of the Idaho Senate
In office December 1, 1988 – December 1, 1992
Preceded by	Jim Risch
Succeeded by	Jerry Twiggs
Idaho State Senator from District 32
In office December 1, 1984 – December 1, 1992
Preceded by	Unknown
Succeeded by	Mel Richardson
Personal details
Born	Michael Dean Crapo (1951-05-20) May 20, 1951 Bonneville County, Idaho, U.S.
Nationality	United States
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Susan Hasleton Crapo
Children	Michelle Crapo Brian Crapo Stephanie Crapo Lara Crapo Paul Crapo
Residence	Idaho Falls, Idaho, U.S.
Alma mater	Brigham Young Univ. (B.A.) Harvard Law School (J.D.)
Profession	Attorney
Religion	The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon)
Website	www.crapo.senate.gov

Michael Dean "Mike" Crapo (pron.: /ˈkreɪpoʊ/ KRAY-poh; born May 20, 1951) is the senior United States Senator from the state of Idaho, in office since 1999. Previously he served as the United States Representative for Idaho's 2nd congressional district from 1993 to 1999. He is a member of the Republican Party.

Born in the city of Idaho Falls, Crapo is a graduate of Brigham Young University and Harvard Law School. He practiced law in his home city throughout the 1980s, while maintaining an active role in local Republican politics. His brother Terry Crapo was majority leader in the Idaho House of Representatives and a growing political figure until his death from leukemia in 1982. Mike Crapo, prompted by his brother's death, successfully ran for the Idaho Senate in 1984. He served as Senate President pro tempore from 1988 to 1992, in which position he served as acting governor of Idaho for 12 hours in January 1989.

Crapo was elected to Congress in 1992, representing Idaho's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. After three terms in the House he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1998 with 70% of the vote. He was re-elected unopposed in the 2004 election, a rarity in the Senate. He was re-elected in 2010 with 71% of the vote.

Crapo, who had previously claimed that as a Mormon he abstained from using alcohol, was arrested for DUI on December 23, 2012, in Alexandria, Virginia, after he ran a red light, failed field sobriety tests, and registered a blood alcohol content of 0.11 percent. On January 4, he pled guilty to a drunk driving charge. He was fined $250 dollars and received a one year suspension of his driver's license.

Early life

Crapo was born in Idaho Falls, Idaho, the son of Melba (née Olsen) and George Lavelle Crapo. He is distantly related to Henry Howland Crapo, who served as Governor of Michigan from 1865 to 1869, and William Crapo Durant, Henry's grandson, who founded General Motors. Crapo graduated from Idaho Falls High School in 1969, then earned a B.A. in political science from Brigham Young University in 1973 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1977.

Family

The senator married Susan Diane Hasleton in June 1974; the couple has five children.

Early political career

He served for one year as clerk to Judge James M. Carter at the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and then returned to Idaho to become a lawyer. While practicing law in Idaho Falls in the 1980s, he was active in the Republican Party's campaigns for seats in the state legislature. His brother Terry Crapo served in Idaho House of Representatives, four years as majority leader and was seen as a rising star in Idaho politics.

Terry Crapo's death from leukemia in 1982 prompted MIke Crapo to run for an open seat in the Idaho Senate. Crapo was elected to the state senate in 1984 where he served until 1992. In 1988, Senate President pro tempore Jim Risch unexpectedly lost reelection to the Idaho Senate and Crapo was elected by his colleagues to that position. Crapo served as senate president pro tempore from 1988 to 1992. On January 27, 1989 Crapo served as acting governor of Idaho for 12 hours. Governor Cecil D. Andrus was out of the state testifying before Congress and then-Lieutenant Governor Butch Otter was out of the state on business for his employer Simplot. Laws of succession dictate that the president pro tempore is next in line. Andrus, a Democrat, left Crapo a note saying "Don't do anything I wouldn't do.... P.S. The chair is comfortable, isn't it?"

Crapo was elected to Congress in 1992, representing Idaho's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. He was elected to the House for three terms from 1993 until 1999 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 1998.

U.S. Senate

Elections

Crapo was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1998, gaining the seat of Republican Dirk Kempthorne, who stepped down to run successfully for governor. In his Senate bid, as in his House campaigns, his campaign signs had a macron placed over the "a" in his name (Crāpo) to indicate at the correct pronunciation ("Cray-poe").

Crapo was re-elected in 2004 with 99% of the vote, with the other 1% going to write-in candidates. He was the only Senate candidate in 2004 to run unopposed on the ballot.

In November 2010, he was re-elected to a third term with 71% of the vote, defeating P. Tom Sullivan (D) and Randy Bergquist (Constitution Party).

Tenure

In the 111th Congress, Crapo served on the following Senate Committees: Banking, Housing and Urban Development; Budget; Environment and Public Works; Indian Affairs; and Finance. He co-chairs the Senate Nuclear Caucus, the Canada-U.S. Interparliamentary Group (IPG); the COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) Caucus, which he also founded; and the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus.

Crapo became the state's senior senator when the 111th United States Congress convened on January 3, 2009, succeeding Larry Craig, who decided not to seek re-election. At the convening of the 112th United States Congress he is now ranked 39th in seniority in the Senate.

Crapo opposed President Barack Obama's health reform legislation; he voted against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in December 2009, and he voted against the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.

In April 2013, Senator Crapo was one of forty-six senators to vote against the passing of a bill which would have expanded background checks for all buyers. Crapo voted with 40 Republicans and 5 Democrats to stop the passage of the bill. NY Times predicted a 0% chance of Senator Crapo voting Yay on the bill.

Committee assignments

• Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs (Ranking Member)
  • Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation and Community Development
  • Subcommittee on Financial Institutions
  • Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance and Investment (Ranking Member)
• Committee on the Budget
• Committee on Environment and Public Works
  • Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics and Environmental Health
  • Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife (Ranking Member)
• Committee on Finance
  • Subcommittee on Health Care
  • Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure
  • Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness (Ranking Member)
• Committee on Indian Affairs

Caucus memberships

• International Conservation Caucus
• Senate Diabetes Caucus
• Senate Nuclear Cleanup Caucus (co-chair)
• Senate Renewables and Energy Efficiency Caucus (co-chair)
• Sportsmen's Caucus (co-chair)
• Western Water Caucus
• Zero Capital Gains Tax Caucus

Environmental record

Crapo introduced S. 700, legislation to update and improve conservation incentives for landowners to protect endangered and threatened species through tax benefits. The legislation is supported by a broad array of prominent environmental advocacy organizations and outdoor recreationists. This bipartisan, widely-supported legislation has twice been approved by the Senate Finance Committee. Two environmental initiatives Crapo has sponsored or promoted continue that collaborative approach. He sponsored a local working group partnership in Owyhee County, Idaho, to protect and preserve sensitive ecological and riverine areas in the county while ensuring the cooperation of landowners and grazers in the area. The Owyhee Initiative working group brings together local tribal members, ranchers, recreators, land managers, environmentalists, and county leaders and the process has been endorsed by editorials in local papers, including the Boise-based Idaho Statesman newspaper. Another collaboration promoted by Crapo is the Elk Cooperative, a loose working group of tribal members, wildlife officials, and recreators to identify plans that preserve stable populations of elk in northern Idaho.^{[citation needed]}

Project SEARCH (Special Environmental Assistance for the Regulation of Communities and Habitat) has been approved in several Congresses, most recently authorized in the 2002 Farm Bill. It provides grants to small communities, to assist rural communities throughout the country with planning and engineering grants for environmental infrastructure projects necessary to meet the requirements of water and wastewater regulations.^{[citation needed]}

Crapo partnered with the Environmental Protection Agency to provide funding and technical assistance to the Coeur d'Alene Basin Planning Commission, a partnership of state, local, community, and federal officials charged with implementing restoration of formerly-contaminated Superfund areas in the Silver Valley of North Idaho. In 2006, Crapo was given the lowest possible score (0%) by the League of Conservation Voters for his voting record in the Senate. This followed his score of 5% in 2005 to bring his lifetime score down to 4%. The LCV uses selected set of votes to determine the scoring for its yearly rating. Reasons for the low score include his votes for offshore drilling, for arctic refuge drilling, against funding to help "low-income families insulate and weatherize their homes", against funding for the environment and natural resources, against independent review of Army Corps of Engineers projects, and for having the Army Corps of Engineers review themselves.

Gun control

On April 17, 2013, Crapo voted against the Toomey-Manchin Gun Control Amendment. The amendment failed to reach the sixty senatorial votes necessary to move forward. The Toomey-Manchin Gun Control Amendment is a bipartisan deal on gun background checks. Under the proposal, federal background checks would be expanded to include gun shows and online sales. All such sales would be channeled through licensed firearm dealers who would be charged for keeping record of transactions. The proposal does not require background checks for private sales between individuals.

Personal life

Crapo is an Eagle Scout, awarded in 1966, and was awarded the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award (DESA) in 2000. He is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Crapo was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1999 and underwent a radical prostatectomy in January 2000. While he had a full recovery and was declared cancer-free at that time, prostate cancer recurred in 2005, and he underwent a series of radiation treatments. His experience led him to become active in advocating for early detection tests for cancer and other treatable diseases.

Though he had previously told the Associated Press that he abstains from alcohol, Crapo was arrested for DUI at around 12:45 am EST on December 23, 2012 in Alexandria, Virginia after he ran a red light, failed field sobriety tests, and registered a blood alcohol content of 0.11 percent. He was transported to the Alexandria jail and released on an unsecured $1,000 bond about four hours later. On January 4 Crapo pleaded guilty to a drunk driving charge. He was fined $250 dollars and received a one year suspension of his driver's license.

Electoral history

See also: United States Senate election in Idaho, 2010

Idaho's 2nd congressional district: Results 1992–1996

Year		Democrat	Votes	Pct		Republican	Votes	Pct		3rd Party	Party	Votes	Pct		3rd Party	Party	Votes	Pct
1992		J. D. Williams	81,450	35%		Mike Crapo	139,783	61%		Steven L. Kauer	Independent	4,917	2%		David W. Mansfield	Independent	3,807	2%
1994		Penny Fletcher	47,936	25%		Mike Crapo	143,593	75%
1996		John D. Seidl	67,625	29%		Mike Crapo	157,646	69%		John Butler	Natural Law	3,977	2%

Senate elections in Idaho (Class III): Results 1998–2010

Year		Democrat	Votes	Pct		Republican	Votes	Pct		3rd Party	Party	Votes	Pct
1998		Bill Mauk	107,375	28%		Mike Crapo	262,966	70%		George J. Mansfeld	Natural Law	7,833	2%
2004		(no candidate)				Mike Crapo	499,796	99%		Scott F. McClure	Write-in	4,136	1%
2010		Tom Sullivan	112,057	25%		Mike Crapo	319,953	71%		Randy Bergquist	Constitution	17,429	4%

External links

Media related to Mike Crapo at Wikimedia Commons

• United States Senator Mike Crapo official U.S. Senate site
• Mike Crapo for Senate official campaign site
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Profile at Ballotpedia
• Congressional profile at GovTrack
• Congressional profile at OpenCongress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Financial information (federal office) at OpenSecrets.org
• Staff salaries, trips and personal finance (federal office) at LegiStorm.com
• Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
• Voting record at The Washington Post
• Appearances on C-SPAN programs
• Collected news and commentary at The Washington Post
• Anatomy of a Press Release, editorial, Times-News (Idaho), October 10, 2011

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Richard H. Stallings	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Idaho's 2nd congressional district 1993–1999	Succeeded by Mike Simpson
United States Senate
Preceded by Dirk Kempthorne	United States Senator (Class 3) from Idaho 1999–present Served alongside: Larry Craig, Jim Risch	Incumbent
United States order of precedence
Preceded by Chuck Schumer D-New York	United States Senators by seniority 28th	Succeeded by Bill Nelson D-Florida