Bill Nelson was first elected to the Senate in 2000. He grew up in Melbourne, Fla. His mother was a schoolteacher, and his father was a lawyer and real estate investor who died when Bill was 14. Nelson likes to recall that his great-grandfather arrived in Florida from Denmark as a stowaway on a ship. From his family home in Rock Point, Nelson could see rockets blast off in the 1950s and 1960s from what is now the Kennedy Space Center. He was active in student government and has always been something of a straight arrow; he doesn’t drink, smoke or swear. He attended the University of Florida for two years, and then graduated from Yale and the University of Virginia law school. After a two-year hitch in the Army, he returned to Melbourne and briefly practiced law and worked on the staff of Democratic Gov. Reubin Askew. In 1972, at age 30, he was elected to the state House of Representatives. Read More
Bill Nelson was first elected to the Senate in 2000. He grew up in Melbourne, Fla. His mother was a schoolteacher, and his father was a lawyer and real estate investor who died when Bill was 14. Nelson likes to recall that his great-grandfather arrived in Florida from Denmark as a stowaway on a ship. From his family home in Rock Point, Nelson could see rockets blast off in the 1950s and 1960s from what is now the Kennedy Space Center. He was active in student government and has always been something of a straight arrow; he doesn’t drink, smoke or swear. He attended the University of Florida for two years, and then graduated from Yale and the University of Virginia law school. After a two-year hitch in the Army, he returned to Melbourne and briefly practiced law and worked on the staff of Democratic Gov. Reubin Askew. In 1972, at age 30, he was elected to the state House of Representatives.
In 1978, when Republican Rep. Louis Frey retired, Nelson ran for the U.S. House in a district that then included the Space Coast’s Brevard County and most of Orlando’s Orange County. His religious faith and traditional values, his indefatigable campaigning and folksy manner made him popular in an area that was trending Republican. He won the seat 61%-39%; in five succeeding elections, he captured 61% to 73% of the ballots in a district that voted just 29% for Democrat Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential race. In the House, he became chairman of the Science Committee’s Space Subcommittee, obviously of prime importance to the district. Nelson not only boosted the space program in every possible way but also rode the space shuttle Columbia himself, spending six days orbiting the Earth in early 1986. Less than two weeks later, space shuttle Challenger exploded as it took off. After the Columbia was lost in February 2003, he called for continued manned space flight despite the risks.
In 1989, with the support of leading Florida Democrats, Nelson set out to run against Republican Gov. Bob Martinez, who was not faring well in polls. But in early 1990, some Democrats became antsy about Nelson’s prospects and persuaded Lawton Chiles, who had retired from the Senate in 1988 after three terms, to run. Chiles was always far ahead in their race and won the September primary 69%-31%. Nelson returned to his 77-acre oceanfront home in Melbourne, his political career seemingly over. But in 1994, he found an opening when state Insurance Commissioner Tom Gallagher, a Republican, ran for governor. Nelson was elected in November to an office whose full title was treasurer, insurance commissioner, and state fire marshal, and proceeded to compile an activist record.
Nelson’s chance to run for higher office came in March 1999, when Republican Sen. Connie Mack said he would not run for re-election in 2000. Mack’s retirement left a seat up for grabs in a state that, as Election Night 2000 returns would show, was closely divided between the parties. Republicans nominated 20-year, Orlando-based Rep. Bill McCollum, one of the House managers of the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.
Washington observers considered the race a contest about the wisdom of impeachment but mostly it was a battle of competing styles. Running his fourth statewide race in 10 years, Nelson’s easygoing manner contrasted favorably with McCollum’s stiff, often aggressive demeanor. With a long conservative record on abortion rights and gun control, McCollum attempted to moderate his positions but only succeeded in antagonizing his base supporters. This was the most expensive Florida Senate race to that point, with the two candidates spending more than $15 million between them. Nelson won 51%-46%. He prevailed 60%-37% in the Gold Coast. In the Interstate 4 corridor, which included McCollum’s congressional district and most of the district that Nelson had represented in the House, Nelson won 51%-46%. In the rest of the state, Nelson lost by only 52%-46%, compared with the 55%-42% ratio by which Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore lost there that year. Folksiness and Florida roots counted.
In the Senate, Nelson has become known as a careful, deliberative lawmaker who has compiled a moderate-to-liberal voting record. He is not especially well known nationally, but his activity on issues directly relevant to segments of Florida’s population—including space, oil drilling, health care and national security—has raised his profile. He sided with President George W. Bush on the Iraq war resolution but later opposed Bush’s troop “surge” strategy. But he looked with favor on military involvement elsewhere, calling in May 2007 for United Nations peacekeeping troops on both sides of the Sudan-Chad border and a no-fly zone over the area. In recent years he has raised concerns about warming relations with Cuba. In March 2009, he and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., held up a $410 billion omnibus spending bill because of provisions that loosened travel and export restrictions with Cuba. The pair relented only after Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner assured them in writing that the provisions would have little effect on current law.
Since January 2007, Nelson has been chairman of the Commerce subcommittee with jurisdiction over the space program. After the loss of Columbia, he called for accelerated development of a reusable space vehicle to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. In 2004, Nelson won passage of an amendment calling on NASA to report to Congress on the costs of extending the space shuttle program beyond 2010, but he did not get approval of another amendment requiring NASA to find laid-off shuttle workers similar jobs in the agency. When President Obama took office, Nelson sharply criticized his administration’s commitment to NASA and got a bill through the Senate in 2010 providing enough money for another space shuttle flight in 2011, jump-starting NASA’s new heavy-lift rocket, and developing the commercial rocket industry.
Starting in 2005, Nelson worked with Republican colleague Mel Martinez of Florida to block oil and gas exploration in the eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico. After Republican Gov. Charlie Crist came out in favor of offshore drilling in June 2008, Nelson continued to oppose it. Then, in September 2008, Nelson said he would back a bipartisan deal allowing some offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, provided it was limited to 125 miles, rather than 50 miles, from the Florida coast. Then came the massive BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Nelson joined Menendez and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., in leading the opposition to expanded drilling along the East Coast and the Gulf. Over objections from Republicans, Nelson also sought to increase the cap on damages from oil spills from $75 million to $10 billion.
As a new member of the powerful Finance Committee, Nelson emerged as a player in the 2009-2010 health care debate. He amended an early version of the bill to lessen the impact of cuts to Medicare Advantage, a privatized Medicare program that covers more than 900,000 seniors in Florida. But Republicans castigated it as a backroom deal intended to benefit Florida, and his amendment was killed. He did successfully add an amendment to the Finance version of the bill exempting seniors from a hike in the itemized medical deduction limit from 7.5 % to 10%.
Florida seems to have more than its share of disputes over elections. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Nelson objected vigorously when the Democratic National Committee stripped Florida of its national delegates and urged presidential candidates to boycott the state after the legislature set the state’s primary for January 29 rather than the earliest date permitted by party rules, February 5. He and Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings sued the DNC, but a judge ruled against them. Nelson then pressed for a second primary or a mail-in vote, which the committee refused to pay for, and he argued to have half of the delegates seated, which the DNC ultimately agreed to do.
In June 2005, two-term Republican Rep. Katherine Harris announced she would challenge Nelson. Polling data indicated that Harris’ prominent role as Florida secretary of state during the disputed 2000 presidential election had left her too unpopular to win, but she enjoyed celebrity status among many rank-and-file Republican voters. Efforts to persuade Gov. Jeb Bush, House Speaker Allen Bense, and former Rep. Joe Scarborough to run failed, and Harris became the nominee. Harris announced she would use $10 million of her own money on her campaign; she ended up spending a third of that amount. Nelson won in a landslide, 60%-38%. He lost in the Panhandle but carried 57 of 67 counties, including Harris’ home county of Sarasota. He may have a considerably more difficult challenge in 2012—the Republican National Convention will be held in Tampa that year, energizing the state’s GOP, and Nelson is the lone Democrat left in statewide office in Florida.
