Illinois Senate career of Barack Obama: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 14:23, 22 October 2008
Barack "Barry" Obama | |
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| Illinois State Senator from the 13th district | |
| In office January 8, 1997 – November 4, 2004 | |
| Preceded by | Alice J. Palmer |
| Succeeded by | Kwame Raoul |
| Personal details | |
| Born | August 4, 1961 Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Michelle Obama (m. 1992) |
| Children | Malia Ann (b. 1998), Natasha ("Sasha") (b. 2001) |
| Residence(s) | (Kenwood), Chicago, Illinois |
| Alma mater | Harvard Law School Columbia University Occidental College |
| Profession | Attorney / Politician |
| Signature |  |
| Website | Barack Obama—U.S. Senator for Illinois |
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Personal
Illinois State Senator and U.S. Senator from Illinois 44th President of the United States Tenure
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Template:FixBunching The Illinois Senate career of Barack Obama stretched from 1996 to 2004, when Barack Obama was elected to the United States Senate. Starting in 1993 and throughout his state senate career, Obama also taught constitutional law part-time at the University of Chicago Law School, as a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996 and as a Senior Lecturer from 1996-2004, when he was elected to the U.S. Senate.[1]
State elections
Obama ran for State Senator when Alice Palmer decided to run for Congress in a 1995 special election, and he received her endorsement.[2] After finishing third in the primary, which was won by Jesse Jackson Jr., Palmer returned to request that Obama drop out of the race and let her run again for the seat.[3] Obama declined, and Palmer decided to run against him. Prior to the primary, Obama challenged the validity of ballot petition signatures for his opponents, resulting in their exclusion from the ballot and allowing him to run unopposed in the primary.[2][4] Obama won the heavily Democratic 13th district by a large margin.[4] He was easily reelected in 1998, and again in 2002 (after redistricting to span Chicago lakefront neighborhoods from the Gold Coast south to South Chicago).[2][5]
Early Senate career
Early in his first term, the just-retired U.S. Senator Paul Simon called a longtime Obama mentor, judge and former congressman Abner Mikva. Simon suggested that Mikva recommend Obama to Emil Jones, Jr., the powerful Democratic leader of the state Senate. "'Say, our friend Barack Obama has a chance to push this campaign finance bill through,'" Simon said in a telephone conversation, as recounted by Mikva in a 2008 interview. "'Why don’t you call your friend Emil Jones and tell him how good he is.'" With Jones' support, Obama helped pass a sweeping law that banned most gifts from lobbyists and personal use of campaign funds by state legislators.[6]
During his first years as a state senator, Obama was a co-sponsor of a bill which re-structured the Illinois welfare program into the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. He was also involved in various pieces of legislation which established a $100 million Earned Income Tax Credit for working families, increased child care subsidies for low-income families, and required advance notice before mass layoffs and plant closings.[7]
Campaign for Bobby Rush's congressional seat
In 2000, Obama made a Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives seat held by four-term incumbent candidate Bobby Rush. Rush had been badly defeated in the February 1999 Chicago Mayoral election by Richard M. Daley and was thought to be vulnerable.[2][8] In 1999, Obama asked his friend and mentor, Newton Minow to help him raise funds for the race, and Minow complied, but the fund-raising effort bombed. (Minow later said he asked Obama if he was "nuts" to challenge Rush.)[6]
During the campaign, Rush charged that Obama was not sufficiently rooted in Chicago's black neighborhoods to represent constituents' concerns, and also benefitted from an outpouring of sympathy when his son was shot to death shortly before the election.[2][8] Obama said Rush was a part of "a politics that is rooted in the past" and said he himself could build bridges with whites to get things done. But while Obama did well in his own Hyde Park base, he didn't get enough support from the surrounding black neighborhoods.[6] Starting with just 10 percent name recognition, Obama went on to get only 31 percent of the votes, losing by a more than 2-to-1 margin despite winning among white voters.[9][10] Despite losing the 2000 Congressional primary and not running for Illinois Senate as he had in 1996, 1998, and 2002, Obama did not lose his Illinois Senate seat because the Illinois Senate elections are on a 2-4-4 year cycle.[11]
Later Senate career
After losing the primary for U.S. Congress to Bobby Rush, Obama worked to repair relations with black politicians and clergy members, telling them he bore no grudges against the victor. He also became more responsive to requests for state funding, getting money for churches and community groups in his district. State Senator Donne E. Trotter, then the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in 2008 that he knew Obama was responding more to funding requests "because the community groups in his district stopped coming to me".[6]
In September 2001, Democrats won a lottery to redraw legislative districts that had been drawn ten years earlier by Republicans and had helped ensure ten uninterrupted years of Republican control of the Illinois Senate.[12] In the November 2002 election, the Democratic remap helped them win control of the Illinois Senate and expand their majority in the Illinois House to work with the first Democratic Illinois governor in 26 years.[13] In January 2003, after six years on the committee and four years as its minority spokesman, Obama became chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee. The new Democratic majority allowed Obama to write and pass more legislation than in previous years. He sponsored successful efforts to expand children's health care, create a plan to provide equal health care access for all Illinois residents, and create a "Hospital Report Card" system, and worker's rights laws that protected whistleblowers, domestic violence victims, equal pay for women, and overtime pay.[14] His most public accomplishment was a bill requiring police to videotape interrogations and confessions in potential death penalty cases. Obama was willing to listen to Republicans and police organizations and negotiate compromises to get the law passed.[15] That helped him develop a reputation as a pragmatist able to work with various sides of an issue.[6] Obama also led the passage of a law to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they stopped.[16]
He resigned from the Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his election to the U.S. Senate.[17]
2002 anti-war rally speech
In 2002, Obama delivered a speech at a Chicago anti-war rally in which he opposed the impending invasion of Iraq. By early 2008, as a New York Times article put it, the speech had "helped define him nationally". At one point, Obama stated, "I’m not opposed to all wars." Obama, who was already considering a run for federal office, had discussed the phrase with his political advisers, and with an eye on how the speech might be viewed in a future campaign.[6]
Notes
- ^ "Statement Regarding Barack Obama". University of Chicago Law School. Retrieved 2008-03-29. See also: Sweet, Lynn (March 30, 2008). "No 'Professor' Obama at U. of C." Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) See also: Pallasch, Abdon M (February 12 2007). "Professor Obama was a Listener, Students Say". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2008-01-04.{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b c d e "Making It -- How Chicago shaped Obama". The New Yorker. July 21, 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-25.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Jesse Jackson Jr. Wins Primary in Chicago". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. 1995-11-29. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b <ref"Obama played hardball in first Chicago campaign". CNN. 2008-05-29. Retrieved 2008-06-02.
- ^ White, Jesse (2005). "Legislative Districts of Northeastern Illinois, 2001 Reapportionment". Illinois Blue Book 2005–2006. Springfield: Illinois Secretary of State. pp. p. 64.
{{cite book}}:|pages=has extra text (help); External link in|chapterurl=|chapterurl=ignored (|chapter-url=suggested) (help) - ^ a b c d e f Becker, Jo and Drew, Christopher, "Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side", The New York Times, May 11, 2008, retrieved July 28, 2008
- ^ "Highlights of Obama's Strong Record of Accomplishment in the U.S. and Illinois Senate". Know the Facts. Retrieved 2008-09-11.
- ^ a b "Is Bobby Rush in Trouble?". The Chicago Reader. 2000-03-17. Retrieved 2008-07-26.
- ^ Federal Election Commission, 2000 U.S. House of Representatives Results. See also: "Obama's Loss May Have Aided White House Bid". and Scott, Janny (September 9 2007). "A Streetwise Veteran Schooled Young Obama". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-04-20.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ McClelland, Edward (February 12 2007). "How Obama Learned to Be a Natural". Salon. Retrieved 2008-04-20.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) See also: Wolffe, Richard (July 16 2007). "Across the Divide". Newsweek. MSNBC. Retrieved 2008-04-20.{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) Helman, Scott (October 12 2007). "Early Defeat Launched a Rapid Political Climb". Boston Globe. Retrieved 2008-04-20.{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) and "Obama learned from failed Congress run". - ^ Illinois Constitution Article IV, Section 2(a) http://www.ilga.gov/commission/lrb/con4.htm
- ^ Pearson, Rick (September 6, 2001). "Democrats win lottery for remap; Bilandic to break deadlock on state redistricting". Chicago Tribune. p. 1. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
- ^ Finke, Doug (October 21, 2002). "Democrats try to sweep state elections; Legislative control comes down to just a few contests". The State Journal-Register. p. 1. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
Finke, Doug (November 6, 2002). "Democrats take charge of General Assembly". The State Journal-Register. p. 5. Retrieved 2008-10-17. - ^ "Highlights of Obama's Strong Record of Accomplishment in the U.S. and Illinois Senate". Know the Facts. Retrieved 2008-09-11.
- ^ Peters, Charles (January 4, 2008). "Judge Him By His Laws". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-09-11.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Scott, Janny (July 30 2007). "In Illinois, Obama Proved Pragmatic and Shrewd". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) See also: Pearson, Rick (May 3 2007). "Careful Steps, Looking Ahead". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2008-01-14.{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ "13th District: Barack Obama". Illinois State Senate Democrats. August 24 2000. Archived from the original (archive) on 2000-08-24. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) "13th District: Barack Obama". Illinois State Senate Democrats. October 9 2004. Archived from the original (archive) on 2004-10-09. Retrieved 2008-01-14.{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) Cohen, Jodi S (November 7 2004). "Obama's Springfield Seat Goes to Lawyer" (paid archive). Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2008-01-14.{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)
Further reading
- Curry, Jessica. "Barack Obama: Under the Lights", Chicago Life, Fall 2004. Retrieved on 2008-01-14.
- Graff, Garrett. "The Legend of Barack Obama", Washingtonian, November 1 2006. Retrieved on 2008-01-14.
- Lizza, Ryan. "Above the Fray", GQ, September 2007. Retrieved on 2008-01-14.
- MacFarquhar, Larissa. "The Conciliator: Where is Barack Obama Coming From?", New Yorker, May 7 2007. Retrieved on 2008-01-14.
- Mundy, Liza. "A Series of Fortunate Events", Washington Post Magazine, August 12 2007. Retrieved on 2008-01-14.
- Wallace-Wells, Ben. "Destiny's Child", Rolling Stone, February 7 2007. Retrieved on 2008-01-14.
- Zutter, Hank De. "What Makes Obama Run?", Chicago Reader, December 8 1995. Retrieved on 2008-01-14.
External links
- Obama '08—BarackObama.com (includes links to other official Obama campaign sites)
- Chicago Tribune candidate coverage and biography (includes several stories about his time in state senate)
