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Chris Gibson (New York politician)

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Chris Gibson
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from New York's 19th district
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 3, 2013
Preceded byNan Hayworth
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from New York's 20th district
In office
January 3, 2011 – January 3, 2013
Preceded byScott Murphy
Succeeded byPaul Tonko
Personal details
Born (1964-05-13) May 13, 1964 (age 60)
Rockville Centre, New York
Political partyRepublican
SpouseMary Jo Gibson
Residence(s)Kinderhook, New York
Alma materSiena College and Cornell University
ProfessionUnited States Army officer
Professor
AwardsLegion of Merit (2)[1][2]
Bronze Star (4)[1][2]
Purple Heart[1][2]
Joint Service Commendation Medal[2]
Combat Infantry Badge with star[1][2]
Master Parachutist Badge[1][2]
Ranger tab[1][2]
other awards and medals[2]
WebsiteOfficial House Website
Campaign Website
Military service
Branch/serviceUnited States Army
Years of service1986–2010[1]
Rank Colonel[1]
Commands 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division[3]
2nd Battalion, 325th Infantry Regiment[4]
Battles/warsPersian Gulf war[1]
Kosovo[3]
Iraq[1]

Christopher P. "Chris" Gibson (born May 13, 1964) is an American politician and former officer in the United States Army. He is currently the Republican U.S. Representative for New York's 19th congressional district. A retired Army colonel, Gibson holds a Ph.D in government from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He is a lifelong resident of Kinderhook, New York.

Gibson joined the United States Army in 1986 after graduating from Siena College. He served tours in the First Gulf War, Kosovo, and Iraq. He later taught American politics at West Point and was a national security affairs fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.[4] He has received four Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart, among other awards while in the military.

In 2008, he published his first book, Securing the State, which offered his overview on national security decision-making. He retired from the army at the rank of colonel in 2010 to run for congress, where he beat incumbent Scott Murphy with 55% of the vote. Gibson is married to Mary Jo Gibson, and the couple have three children.

Early life, education, and academic career

Gibson was born in Rockville Centre, New York, to Robert and Barbara Gibson, and moved to Kinderhook at a young age. He attended Ichabod Crane High School there, where he was point guard and co-captain of the basketball team. He then attended Roman Catholic-affiliated Siena College in Loudonville, New York, having earned his ROTC Commission and graduating magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in history.[3][5]

Gibson took his commission with the United States Army after graduating from Siena. While in the Army Gibson rose to the rank of Colonel, serving seven tours including four combat tours in Iraq, as well as separate tours in Kosovo, the American Southwest in counter-narcotics interdiction and most recently deploying to Haiti after the earthquake where he led the 82nd Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team during the opening month of the humanitarian effort there.[3]

Throughout his career Gibson earned a number of military decorations, including a Purple Heart, 4 Bronze Stars, 2 Legions of Merit, the Master Parachutist Badge, the Combat Infantryman’s Badge with Star and the Ranger tab. His units have also won awards, for their actions in Mosul in support of the first Iraqi national elections his Battalion Task Force earned the Valorous Unit Award. Later in Tal Afar his battalion and the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment were recognized for excellence by the President and earned a 2nd Valorous Unit Award.[6][failed verification]. Gibson was selected as the General George C. Marshall Award winner at the top graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth.[citation needed]

Gibson earned an MPA, as well as an MA and Ph.D. in government, from Cornell University.[7] He then became a Professor of American Politics at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He was a National Security fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University where he wrote a book on Civil-Military relations titled Securing the State.[6]

U.S. House of Representatives

Tenure

After winning the election in 2010, Gibson was sworn into office in January 2011 as part of the 112th Congress. He immediately voted to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

One of his first major votes in Congress was to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood, the nation's leading sexual and reproductive health care provider [8]. Gibson also staunchly opposes marriage equality [9] and opposed the repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell." [10]

Gibson joined nearly all other Republican members of the US House of Representatives in voting to support The Path to Prosperity, the budget put forward by U.S. Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) [11]. He also supported the Budget Control Act of 2011, more commonly referred to as the Sequester [12], which included $1 trillion in automatic, arbitrary and across the board budget cuts [13].

The next year he joined nine other Republicans in voting against Ryan's budget, and he supported the Cooper-LaTourette Budget, loosely based on the President's Fiscal Commission Simpson Bowles and Domenici-Rivlin Debt Reduction Task Force. According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, Cooper and LaTourette "raise approximately $1 trillion less revenue over the decade than Simpson-Bowles and Domenici-Rivlin; and second, that their budget cuts to non-defense annually appropriated (discretionary) spending are harsher than either of the bipartisan commissions" [14] Gibson said he wouldn't re-sign Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform Taxpayer Protection Pledge, but he remains opposed to raising tax rates [15].

Gibson has received a failing grade for his record on environmental protection. His lifetime League of Conservation Voters score is 29% [16] .

After Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee hit the 20th District in 2011, Gibson focused on getting federal aid to his constituents.[17]

Gibson has made a name for himself focusing on local issues like expanding access to broadband and better treatment of Lyme Disease. He held a forum on Lyme Disease in Saratoga Springs that attracted 500 people, including patients, medical experts, and environmental professionals.[18]

He also has been an advocate for passage of the 2012 Farm Bill, even signing a discharge petition to bring the bill to a vote in the House.[19]

Elections

2010
See also: United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 2010 § District 20*
External media
Images
image icon Gibson Campaign Flickr photostream
Video
video icon Gibson-Murphy debate, WMHT, October 21, 2010

Gibson challenged Democratic incumbent Scott Murphy for the 20th Congressional district seat in the House of Representatives and won on November 4, 2010.

While there were initially four candidates for the GOP nomination, the other three all dropped their bid, with one of them, Patrick Ziegler, joining Gibson’s staff as his campaign manager.[20][21] The uncontested Republican and Conservative candidate, Gibson outraised Murphy in his first full quarter in the campaign, and was a GOP Young Gun.[22][23]

Beginning in September, Gibson saw a steady rise in polling numbers: he started behind at 37% compared to Murphy's 54%. However by October 26, Gibson had risen to 51% and Murphy had fallen to 42%, numbers that more closely reflected the actual outcome.[citation needed] Newsweek described Gibson's win as a combination of running as a Republican in "perhaps the most conservative [district] in the state"[Note 1] and Murphy having supported "the two biggest items on Nancy Pelosi’s agenda", regardless of the fact that "the National Journal had characterized his voting record as one of the 10 most moderate in the House".[25]

Gibson took part in a televised debate with Murphy on October 21, presented by the local PBS station, WMHT.[26] Gibson began the campaign at 17 points behind in the polls but ended up winning the election with 55% of the vote.[27]

2012
See also: United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 2012 § District 19

Gibson, who was redistricted from the 20th district to the 19th district, defeated former federal prosecutor and Ulster County Democratic Party chairman, Julian Schreibman. In this race, he was endorsed by all the major newspapers in the district, including the Albany Times Union,[28] Kingston Daily Freeman,[29] Poughkeepsie Journal, and Oneonta Daily Star[30]

Committee assignments

Following his swearing in, Gibson became a member of the following House committees:[31]

He is a member of both the Conservative Republican Study Committee and the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership

Personal life

Gibson lives in Kinderhook with his wife, Mary Jo, and their three children. The family is Roman Catholic and attends St. John's Catholic Church in Valatie.[32]

Written works

  • Gibson, Christopher P. (2008). Securing the State: Reforming the National Security Decisionmaking Process at the Civil-Military Nexus. Burlington, Vermont: Hanover Institution. ISBN 978-0-7546-7290-6.
  • Gibson, Christopher P. (1998). Countervailing Forces: Enhancing Civilian Control and National Security Through Madisonian Concepts (PhD thesis). Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. OCLC 64748644.
  • Gibson, Christopher P. (1997). "Explaining Post-Cold War Civil-Military Relations: a New Institutionalist Approach". Working Papers Series: U.S. Post-Cold War Civil-Military Relations. 08. Harvard University John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies. OCLC 37535789. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

Notes

  1. ^ The New York State Board of Elections reported that Republicans outnumbered Democrats in the district by more than 60,000 on November 1, 2010 (187,780 registered Republicans versus 126,774 registered Democrats).[24] After redistricting in 2002, then-Congressman John E. Sweeney was quoted as saying that “no Republican can ever lose” the district.[25]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Once a Soldier... Always a Soldier" (PDF). Legislative Agenda. Association of the United States Army. 2011. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h "Congressman Chris Gibson". Candidates. Combat Veterans For Congress Political Action Committee. 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  3. ^ a b c d Robert Lachman (March 7, 2010). "Kinderhook Republican to challenge Murphy for House seat". Hudson-Catskill Newspapers. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
  4. ^ a b "Colonel Chris Gibson". Hoover Institute. Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University. 12 March 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  5. ^ Zeller, Shawn (November 6, 2010). "112th Congress: Chris Gibson, R-N.Y. (20th District)". Congressional Quarterly. Retrieved November 11, 2010.
  6. ^ a b The Hoover Institute (2010). "Colonel Chris Gibson". The Hoover Institute. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
  7. ^ Lowery, George (2010-11-08). "Nine alumni run for – and mostly win – national offices". Cornell Chronicle. Cornell University. Retrieved 2010-11-14.
  8. ^ "House Vote 93 - Eliminates Funding for Planned Parenthood". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  9. ^ Sanzone, Danielle. "Rep. Chris Gibson, Democratic challenger Julian Schreibman have spirited exchange". Troy Record. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  10. ^ Hornbeck, Leigh. "Gibson: Wait on 'don't ask'". Albany Times Union. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  11. ^ "House Vote 277 - Passes Ryan Budget Bill". The New York Times. Retrieved May 23, 2013.
  12. ^ "S. 365 (112th): Budget Control Act of 2011 (On Passage of the Bill)". May 23, 2013. GovTrack.us.
  13. ^ "The Sequester". The White House. Retrieved May 23, 2013.
  14. ^ "Cooper-LaTourette Fiscal Year 2013 Budget: The Details". Bipartisan Policy Center. Retrieved May 23, 2013.
  15. ^ http://thedailystar.com/local/x2120608553/Gibson-disavows-Norquist-tax-pledge
  16. ^ "National Environmental Scorecard". League of Conservation Voters. Retrieved 5/23/2013. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  17. ^ http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/79748/gibson-this-is-going-to-take-our-very-best-effort/
  18. ^ "Skidmore hosts Lyme disease forum". YNN. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  19. ^ http://braley.house.gov/press-release/braley-leads-bipartisan-coalition-launch-farm-bill-discharge-petition-effort
  20. ^ Maury Thompson (March 26, 2010). "Chris Gibson has lock on GOP endorsement in 20th district". The Post Star. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
  21. ^ Jimmy Vielkind (April 5, 2010). "Gibson hires Ziegler, who has endorsed Gibson". The Times Union. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
  22. ^ Jimmy Vielkind (July 13, 2010). "Gibson outraises Murphy, Murphy has way more cash (updated)". The Times Union. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
  23. ^ Jeremy P. Jacobs (August 31, 2010). "NRCC Names 6 New Young Guns". National Journal. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
  24. ^ "NYSVoter Enrollment by Congressional District, Party Affiliation and Status" (PDF). New York State Board of Elections. 2010-11-01. p. 9. Retrieved 2010-11-14.
  25. ^ a b Roske, Tim. "Murphy's Law: One Democrat's defeat explains how the party lost the House". Newsweek. Retrieved 2010-11-14.
  26. ^ New York's 20th Congressional District Debate. North Greenbush, New York: WMHT. 2010-10-21. Retrieved 2010-11-14.
  27. ^ Leigh Hornbeck and Dennis Yusko (3 November 2010). "Gibson defeats Murphy in 20th". The Albany Times-Union. Retrieved 3 November 2010.
  28. ^ http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/our-picks-%E2%80%A8for-congress/22675/
  29. ^ http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2012/11/04/opinion/doc5094350356f8b379293626.txt
  30. ^ http://thedailystar.com/opinion/x1133193538/Chris-Gibson-a-clear-choice-for-Congress
  31. ^ Vielkind, Jimmy. "Riding the Republican Wave". Times Union (Albany). Hearst Newspapers. Retrieved 2010-12-23.
  32. ^ Chris Gibson for Congress (2010). "About". Chris Gibson for Congress. Retrieved 2010-11-14.
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from New York's 20th congressional district
January 3, 2011 – January 3, 2013 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from New York's 19th congressional district
January 3, 2011 – present 		Succeeded by
Incumbent
U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial)
Preceded by United States Representatives by seniority
297th 		Succeeded by

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