Dan Coats

Daniel Coats
United States Senator from Indiana
In office January 3, 1989 – January 3, 1999
Preceded by	Dan Quayle
Succeeded by	Evan Bayh
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Indiana's 4th District
In office January 3, 1981 – January 3, 1989
Preceded by	Dan Quayle
Succeeded by	Jill L. Long
29th United States Ambassador to Germany
In office August 15, 2001 – February 28, 2005
President	George W. Bush
Preceded by	John C. Kornblum
Succeeded by	William R. Timken, Jr.
Personal details
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Marcia Coats
Alma mater	Wheaton College Indiana University-Indianapolis
Military service
Branch/service	United States Army
Years of service	1966-1968

For the American football player, see Daniel Coats (American football).

Daniel Ray Coats (born May 16, 1943) is an American lawyer, politician, lobbyist, and diplomat. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a United States Senator from Indiana from 1989 to 1999. Coats was appointed to fill the seat vacated by Dan Quayle following his election as Vice President of the United States in 1988. He won the 1990 special election to serve the remainder of Quayle's unexpired term, as well as the 1992 election for his own full six-year term. He did not seek re-election in 1998.

Prior to his service in the U.S. Senate, Coats was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Indiana's 4th congressional district from 1981 to 1989. He served as U.S. Ambassador to Germany from 2001 to 2005, and is currently a senior policy adviser at King & Spalding.

On February 10, 2010, Coats confirmed that he would challenge Democratic incumbent Evan Bayh in the 2010 U.S. Senate election. On February 15th, Bayh revealed that he will not be running for reelection.

Early life

Coats was born in Jackson, Michigan, to Edward R. and Vera E. Coats. He attended local public schools, and graduated from Jackson High School in 1961. He then studied at Wheaton College in Illinois, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1965. At Wheaton, he was an active student athlete on the soccer team. He served in the United States Army from 1966 to 1968, and earned a Juris Doctor from Indiana University School of Law at Indianapolis in 1971. He was admitted to the Indiana bar in 1972, and began practice as a lawyer in Fort Wayne. He also served as assistant vice president of a Fort Wayne life insurance company.

U.S. Congress

From 1976 to 1980, Coats worked for then-U.S. Representative Dan Quayle, a Republican from Indiana's 4th congressional district, as Quayle's district representative. When Quayle decided to challenge three-term Democratic incumbent Birch Bayh in the 1980 U.S. Senate election, Coats ran for and won Quayle's seat in the U.S. House. When Quayle resigned from the Senate after being elected Vice President of the United States in 1988, Coats was appointed to Quayle’s former seat. Coats served in the Senate until January 1999.

Coats made headlines in August 1998, when he publicly questioned the timing of President Bill Clinton’s attack on terrorist bases in Afghanistan and Sudan, suggesting it might be linked to the Lewinsky scandal.

“While there is clearly much more we need to learn about this attack and why it was ordered today, given the president’s personal difficulties this week, it is legitimate to question the timing of this action.”

After Congress

Coats worked at at the firm Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand in 2000 and 2001, where he was registered as a lobbyist for a foreign interest.

In 2001, Coats was reportedly one of George W. Bush’s top choices to be Defense Secretary, a job eventually given to Donald Rumsfeld, who had previously served as United States Secretary of Defense.

From August 15, 2001 to February 28, 2005, Coats was the United States Ambassador to Germany.

In 2005, Coats drew attention when he was chosen by President George W. Bush to shepherd Harriet Miers' failed nomination to the Supreme Court through the Senate. Echoing Senator Roman Hruska's famous 1970 speech in defense of Harrold Carswell, Coats said to CNN regarding the nomination:

“If great intellectual powerhouse is a qualification to be a member of the court and represent the American people and the wishes of the American people and to interpret the Constitution, then I think we have a court so skewed on the intellectual side that we may not be getting representation of America as a whole.”

After retiring as ambassador, Coats became a lobbyist for the firm King & Spalding.

2010 U.S. Senate campaign

On February 10, 2010, Coats confirmed that he would challenge Evan Bayh in the 2010 United States Senate election. Bayh, however, announced on February 15, 2010, he will not be running for reelection. Currently there is no Democratic candidate officially running for the seat. Both the non-partisan CQ Politics and Cook Political Report rate the election as "Leaning Republican." As of February 2010, Coats is a registered voter in Falls Church, Virginia and maintains residences in both Indiana and Virginia.

In 2008, Coats told the North Carolina delegates at the Republican National Convention that "If you don't tell the good people of Indiana, Marcia and I decided that there might be a better place where some of these older bones can absorb...We have a home down there that we use as a second home but hope it will be our first home, and then I'll be able to register and vote for your two senators and congressmen and be a North Carolinian." In February 2010, a Coats spokesman said that the couple was likely going to sell the house, since Coats now had no plans to retire.

External links

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress