Pete Hoekstra
- This article is about the American politician. For the Dutch footballer, see Peter Hoekstra (footballer).
Peter "Pete" Hoekstra | |
|---|---|
| File:Petehoekstrarep2.jpg | |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan's 2nd district | |
| In office 1993-present | |
| Preceded by | Carl D. Pursell |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | Republican |
Peter ("Pete") Hoekstra (born October 30, 1953) is an American politician from the U.S. state of Michigan. A Republican, Hoekstra has represented the state's 2nd Congressional district (map) since taking office in 1993 following his win in the 1992 election.
Born in Groningen in the Netherlands, Hoekstra emigrated to Holland, Michigan at the age of three with his family. (Hoekstra's district has the largest concentration of Dutch-Americans in the country.) Hoekstra attended Hope College, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1975 and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business in 1977.
Prior to running for Congress, Hoekstra worked for office furniture manufacturer Herman Miller, eventually rising to vice president for marketing. In 1992, he ran in the Republican primary for the 2nd District, which had been renumbered from the 9th district after the 1990 Census.
The district had been held for 26 years by Guy Vander Jagt, longtime chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Hoekstra rode his bicycle across the district, charging that Vander Jagt had served in Congress for too long. He promised to serve no more than six terms (12 years) in the House, and not to accept any money from political action committees. He scored a monumental upset, winning by almost six percent. This primary win was tantamount to election in the 2nd district, the "most Republican" district in Michigan (Republicans have held the district for all but four years since it was created in 1873).
In 2004, Hoekstra broke his term limits pledge by announcing that he would run for a seventh term, citing his membership on the Select Committee on Intelligence. By this time he had also accepted a considerable amount of money from political action committees; in 2006 alone, Hoekstra had accepted more than $160,000.[1] Despite these revelations, Hoekstra faced no significant opposition in the Republican primary or in the general election (as in his previous five reelection campaigns) and went on to secure his seventh term. Shortly after the primary, he was named chairman of the committee, succeeding Porter Goss, who became Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Hoekstra has a very conservative voting record, which is consistent with the tendency of the 2nd to elect some of Michigan's most conservative state and federal legislators. However, he opposes amending the Constitution to prohibit flag desecration.
Weapons of mass destruction
On June 22, 2006, Hoekstra made headlines by announcing on the Fox News Channel that weapons of mass destruction had been located in Iraq in the form of 500 chemical weapons.[2] However, the Iraq Survey Group's Duelfer Report had already dismissed this find almost two years earlier: "While a small number of old, abandoned chemical munitions have been discovered, ISG judges that Iraq unilaterally destroyed its undeclared chemical weapons stockpile in 1991."[3] A number of other media outlets disputed the claims made by Hoekstra and Rick Santorum regarding the existence of weapons of mass destruction, reporting that the claims were disputed by both Pentagon officials and the intelligence community.[4][5]
On November 3, 2006, The New York Times reported that a website created at the request of Hoekstra and senator Pat Roberts was found to contain detailed information which could help nuclear states produce nuclear weapons. The website was shut down on November 2 following questioning by The New York Times and protests by International Atomic Energy Agency officials. Jamal Ware, a spokesman for Hoekstra, said complaints about the site "didn’t sound like a big deal .... We were a little surprised when they pulled the plug." [6]
2006 election
Hoekstra had no primary opponent. In November he will be opposed by the Democratic candidate Kimon Kotos[7], who was also the 2004 nominee.