Mike Crapo is a Republican first elected to the House in 1992 and to the Senate in 1998. He grew up in Idaho Falls. His father ran the local post office, and his mother stayed home to care for their six children. The couple also farmed on 200 acres, growing potatoes and grain. Crapo (CRAY-po) graduated from Brigham Young University and Harvard Law School. A devout Mormon, he was named a bishop in the church at age 31. A former congressional intern, he was elected to the state Senate at 33 in 1984, two years after leukemia took his older brother Terry’s life. Terry Crapo had been state House majority leader and a rising star in state politics. The two brothers were close, and Mike Crapo decided to follow his brother’s path to the legislature. He became state Senate leader in 1988. Four years later, he ran for Congress, campaigning against tax increases and in favor of spending cuts, a balanced-budget amendment, and the line-item veto. He won the primary 68%-32%. “Cowboy Democrat” J.D. Williams, the state controller, ran on a “Put America First” platform on industrial policy and trade. Crapo won 61%-35%. Read More

Mike Crapo is a Republican first elected to the House in 1992 and to the Senate in 1998. He grew up in Idaho Falls. His father ran the local post office, and his mother stayed home to care for their six children. The couple also farmed on 200 acres, growing potatoes and grain. Crapo (CRAY-po) graduated from Brigham Young University and Harvard Law School. A devout Mormon, he was named a bishop in the church at age 31. A former congressional intern, he was elected to the state Senate at 33 in 1984, two years after leukemia took his older brother Terry’s life. Terry Crapo had been state House majority leader and a rising star in state politics. The two brothers were close, and Mike Crapo decided to follow his brother’s path to the legislature. He became state Senate leader in 1988. Four years later, he ran for Congress, campaigning against tax increases and in favor of spending cuts, a balanced-budget amendment, and the line-item veto. He won the primary 68%-32%. “Cowboy Democrat” J.D. Williams, the state controller, ran on a “Put America First” platform on industrial policy and trade. Crapo won 61%-35%.

With a self-professed “passion for reform,” Crapo became a Republican freshman class leader and championed institutional reforms, advocating more power for rank-and-file members to bring bills to the floor and calling for more open voting. Like many Republicans then, Crapo favored hard-and-fast rules in the budget process to force tough decisions: He favored a balanced budget and across-the-board discretionary spending cuts, excluding Social Security. He sponsored the deficit-reduction bill that passed the House in 1995. His overall voting record in the House was very conservative, with some exceptions on economics. He opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993 but supported normalizing trade relations with China in 2000. He criticized some trade agreements for accepting limits on U.S. agricultural exports as leverage for opening up access for other products.

In 1997, Crapo, who prides himself on returning to Idaho Falls to be with his family every weekend, faced a career choice. Republican Gov. Phil Batt announced his retirement, and GOP Sen. Dirk Kempthorne said he would run for governor. Within days, Crapo announced he would run for the Senate seat the following year, and he was unopposed in the Republican primary. His opponent was Bill Mauk, a former Democratic state chairman and Boise trial lawyer. Idaho, one-quarter Mormon, had never elected a Mormon to the Senate, but this time it did. Crapo led in polls by a wide margin and won 70%-28%, carrying every county.

In his first years in the Senate, Crapo was active in the effort to fix the financially troubled Superfund program and other environment-related issues. He sponsored the Senate version of the Bush-era Healthy Forests Restoration Act, aimed at cutting dense forest land after widespread fires in 2002. He has worked over the years on altering the Endangered Species Act, and he is among the Republicans calling for greater incentives for nuclear power. In 2010, President Obama signed into law his bill regulating formaldehyde in wood products.

Despite a uniformly conservative voting record, Crapo has developed a reputation for diligence in trying to forge consensus legislation. Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden said, “He is not a showboat. He is somebody who, day in and day out, is always a constructive force for sensible public policy.” Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid in 2005 suggested Crapo as one of three GOP senators who would make “outstanding” Supreme Court justices. At the same time, his stock has risen among Republican leaders. In 2009, he was tapped as a deputy whip and made chairman of the GOP caucus panel charged with committee assignments. He also was named in 2010 to the bipartisan debt commission. He joined fellow commission members and GOP senators Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Judd Gregg of New Hampshire along with eight others in backing its recommendations, which fell short of the 14 supporters needed for Senate floor consideration.

From his seat on the powerful Finance Committee, which he secured in 2005, Crapo has worked quietly and productively. He secured a permanent tax break for state colleges by attaching it to a pension bill, while separately heading off a proposed cut in food stamps. Crapo also urged the Internal Revenue Service to implement a tax break that would help the country’s short-line railroads, one of the largest of which is used by Idaho farmers to move crops and equipment. Crapo and Montana Democrat Max Baucus, the Finance Committee chairman, co-sponsored bills to relax restrictions on agricultural sales to Cuba. During the 2009 health care debate, Crapo sought to amend the bill in the committee to seek to prevent individuals making $200,000 annually and families earning $250,000 a year or less from being taxed to pay for the policy changes in the bill; it was defeated after Baucus called it a “killer amendment” that would deprive the legislation of needed revenue. In 2007, Crapo was named to the Senate Republican task force on earmarks, where he supported increased transparency but not a moratorium on spending earmarks.

From his seat on the Banking Committee, Crapo won passage in 2006 of a bill that would ease outdated regulation of the banking industry. Four years later, he worked on the Dodd-Frank financial industry overhaul legislation but said he was disappointed with the result, citing its creation of a new consumer protection bureau and its requirement for commercial banks to spin off most of their derivatives trading operations. He also expressed frustration that the bill would not revamp troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

For several years, Crapo worked to forge a consensus on the Owyhee Canyonlands wilderness proposal with local officials, landowners, cattlemen, environmental groups, and the Shoshone-Paiute tribe. The agreement that was ultimately reached opened 199,000 acres formerly off limits to fence-building and pipelines; set aside 517,000 acres as wilderness; and protected 316 miles of rivers. The habitat of the California bighorn sheep and sage grouse were protected. His measure was included in the lands bill enacted in early 2009.

Though he had expressed interest in a federal District Court judgeship, Crapo sought re-election in 2004. He had no Democratic opponent and won with 99% of the vote. In 2010, he won handily against Democratic financial consultant Tom Sullivan, 71%-25%.