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Sam Brownback

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Sam Brownback
Senior Senator, Kansas
In office
November 1996–Present
Preceded byRobert Dole
Succeeded byIncumbent (2011)
Personal details
Nationalityamerican
Political partyRepublican
SpouseMary Brownback

Samuel Dale Brownback (born September 12, 1956) is a Senator from Kansas. He is a member of the Republican Party and is considered by many political pundits to be a likely candidate for president in his party's primaries in 2008.

Brownback grew up on his family's farm near Parker, Kansas. He graduated from Kansas State University in 1979, where he was a member of Alpha Gamma Rho, and received a law degree from the University of Kansas in 1982. He was a broadcaster, teacher and attorney before becoming the Kansas secretary of agriculture in 1986. In 1990, he was called upon to be a White House Fellow for the Class of '90-91, to serve in George H.W. Bush's Administration. After serving in that capacity for one year at the White House, Brownback returned to Kansas to resume his position as secretary of agriculture and remained in this position until 1993. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1994, but served there for only one term as he was elected Senator in a special election in November 1996 to replace Bob Dole, who had resigned his Senate seat during his presidential campaign. Brownback was elected to a full term in the Senate in 1998. He won re-election in the 2004 senate election with 69% of the vote, easily defeating his Democratic challenger, Lee Jones, a former Washington, D.C. lobbyist. He was one of the leading opponents of Bush Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, whom many regarded as not qualified enough and perhaps too moderate. Brownback has announced that he would not run for reelection in 2010, in accordance with his support of term limits for members of Congress.

Brownback is married to the former Mary Stauffer, heiress to a Topeka newspaper fortune. The couple has five children (two of them adopted).

Views

Brownback is an outspoken, socially conservative politician. He opposes federal-funding of embryonic stem cell research that involves the cloning and killing of human embryos, and also favors capital punishment. He is averse to same-sex marriage, is "concerned" about pornography [1], and is loudly pro-life, having compared abortion to a holocaust [2]. Should Brownback be a candidate in the 2008 presidential election, he would have broad appeal among social conservatives. He was received into the Roman Catholic church in 2002, with the assistance of fellow Republican Senator Rick Santorum. Contrary to popular rumor, he is not a member of the Catholic Church's Opus Dei (although he was introduced to Catholicism by a member).

Political Future

Although Brownback has little name recognition outside of Washington, D.C. and his home state of Kansas, he has been working to garner public support since his re-election to the Senate in 2004. Having made visits to early primary and caucus states New Hampshire and Iowa, the senator is taking many of the steps common among future presidential candidates. With his strongly conservative cultural views, he is considered by many to be the front-runner of the socially-conservative wing of the Republican Party. In an appearance on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson voiced support of a Brownback presidential bid. With growing name recognition nationwide, Sam Brownback has been working to garner public support since his re-election to the Senate in 2004. Having made visits to early primary and caucus states New Hampshire and Iowa, the senator is taking many of the steps common among future presidential candidates. With his strongly conservative cultural views, he is considered by many to be the front-runner of the socially-conservative wing of the Republican Party.

Should Senator Brownback not receive the presidential nomination of his party and the position of presidential contender be awarded to a more centrist Republican such as Rudy Giuliani or John McCain, it is plausible that such moderates would select Brownback as a vice-presidential running mate in an effort to secure the backing of social conservatives.

Controversy

Brownback accepted $42,000 from Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist who has been accused of defrauding Native American tribes. This prompted Wyandotte Nation Chief Leaford Bearskin to state in a press release that he was "outraged and so very disappointed to learn that Senator Brownback reportedly received large sums of dirty money from Jack Abramoff, a Washington D.C. lobbyist who abused the political system for financial gain at the expense of the Native American community."[3]

In December 2005, Brownback advocated using Washington, DC as a "laboratory" for a flat tax. His advocated position on this issue was "that making D.C. a test case would, with limited potential for negative impact, provide valuable data about the effects of a flat tax that would prove helpful in determining whether it should be applied nationwide." [4] This has irked many residents of the District, as the idea of a Senator from Kansas forcing a system of taxation on them would seem to only further the District's taxation without representation. Indeed, DC mayor Anthony Williams said "Leaving aside the merits of this proposal, we continue to resist any efforts on the part of any member of Congress to impose rules and regulations on the people of the District." [5]

Preceded by United States Representative for the 2nd Congressional District of Kansas
1995–1996 		Succeeded by
Preceded by United States Senator (Class 3) from Kansas
1996– 		Succeeded by
Incumbent
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