Charles Schumer, a Democrat first elected in 1998, is New York’s senior senator. He grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn, where his father had a small exterminating business. Schumer graduated first in his class at James Madison High School, the alma mater of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman. It’s safe to say that Schumer was interested in politics from the start. He graduated from Harvard College and Law School and, with his law degree fresh in hand in June 1974, he ran for an open New York Assembly seat. He won, at age 23, becoming the state’s youngest Assembly member since Theodore Roosevelt. In 1980, just before turning 30, he was elected to the U.S. House from an open Brooklyn seat. Through energy, imagination, hard work, and a certain amount of chutzpah, he became a skilled legislator and a politician noted—and sometimes resented—for attracting publicity. (Former Senate GOP Leader Bob Dole of Kansas was one of the first, but not the last, to say that the most dangerous place to be in Washington was between Chuck Schumer and a television camera.)
Schumer got a seat on the Banking Committee, a panel that most talented members lobby to leave. But he stayed on, aware of its importance to New York’s financial services industry. He also served on the Judiciary Committee and chaired the Crime Subcommittee. Schumer sponsored the 1994 crime bill that banned assault weapons and shepherded through the House President Bill Clinton’s proposal to add 100,000 police officers across the country. The legislation also created “three strikes” mandatory life terms for repeat violent criminals. Schumer was the House sponsor of the Brady bill, which created waiting periods for handgun purchases and was passed over the strong opposition of the National Rifle Association. Schumer also contributed key provisions to the immigration acts in 1986 and 1990.
The idea of running for statewide office was surely never far from his mind. In early 1997 Schumer considered seeking the governorship, but incumbent Republican George Pataki’s strong job ratings persuaded Schumer to use his $5 million campaign treasury to run instead against GOP Sen. Alfonse D’Amato. It was by no means obvious that Schumer would win. D’Amato was known for his assiduous constituent service and for his ability to dominate the tabloid wars that are a mainstay of metropolitan New York political campaigns. As the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, he also excelled at raising money. Schumer started off largely unknown outside his district, and he faced serious primary opposition from Geraldine Ferraro, the1984 vice presidential nominee, and Mark Green, the New York City public advocate and D’Amato’s 1986 opponent. By summer, Schumer was leading in polls and was much better financed than his rivals. In September, he won the primary with 51% of the vote to 26% for Ferraro and 19% for Green.
Schumer immediately launched an attack on D’Amato, saying that the incumbent had told “too many lies for too long,” which echoed D’Amato’s earlier criticisms of his opponents as “too liberal for too long.” Schumer maintained that he was tougher on crime than D’Amato, and he emphasized his support of abortion rights and gun regulation. D’Amato concentrated heavily on Schumer’s missed votes while running for the Senate, but the implication that the high-voltage Schumer was lazy was implausible. Still, by mid-October, most of Schumer’s poll leads were within the statistical margin of error. Then, in a closed meeting before a Jewish group, D’Amato called Schumer a “putzhead,” Yiddish slang for “jerk.” When the remark became public, he denied it, before backtracking unconvincingly after his own supporter, former Democratic Mayor Edward Koch, confirmed it. By early November, D’Amato was sagging in the polls. Schumer had announced in October that he would vote against impeaching Clinton, although he said he believed that the president lied under oath about a sexual relationship with a White House intern. Schumer was the beneficiary of two visits from Clinton and no less than four from first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. (The rousing receptions she got may have encouraged her successful run for the Senate in New York two years later.) Although outspent, Schumer won 55%-44%.
In the Senate, Schumer established a solidly liberal voting record. And he elevated his skills for occupying the limelight to high art. He made a practice of visiting all 62 counties each year and he regularly spent Mondays on upstate swings that got him on Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany television. He often held Sunday press conferences to take advantage of the slow news digest that day, a tactic that earned him coverage on the evening news and in the Monday editions of newspapers.
On the Banking Committee, Schumer gladly returned to work on financial services issues. He supported the 1999 Gramm-Bliley-Leach bill eliminating the barriers between banks and investment banks and in 2001 he joined GOP Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas in successfully halving the fees paid by Wall Street firms to the Securities and Exchange Commission. In 2002, Schumer played a key role in scuttling a Republican bankruptcy bill by persuading the Senate to pass an amendment that made fines and penalties for attacking abortion clinics not dischargeable in bankruptcy cases; abortion rights opponents were increasingly declaring bankruptcy to avoid paying such fines. Abortion opponents in the House refused to vote for the bill as long as it contained Schumer’s amendment. The bill died, but was revived in 2005. This time, Schumer’s abortion amendment was voted down, 53-46, in the Senate, and the bill was ultimately enacted. He has long opposed moves to toughen regulation of the government-sponsored mortgage institutions, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, citing the rising rate of homeownership and the possibility of increased interest rates. And Schumer also opposed taxing the carried interest income of hedge fund operators, of vital interest to the city’s Financial District.
On the Judiciary Committee, Schumer took the position that senators should reject President George W. Bush's judicial appointees on “purely ideological grounds.” Starting with the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the U.S. Court of Appeals, he led the opposition to Bush judicial nominees whom he and liberal lobbying groups judged to be out of the mainstream. Schumer, along with other Democrats, used the filibuster to block the appointment of federal judges who enjoyed majority support, forcing the nominee to earn 60 votes to be confirmed. He took strong exception to Senate Republicans who advocated changing the rules to allow nominations to be considered by majority vote. In 2005, Schumer tried to pin down Supreme Court nominee John Roberts in committee hearings and was one of 22 senators who later voted against him and noted later, “Roberts was quite stealthy, but he was so brilliant he could pull it off.” When Bush nominated Samuel Alito in 2005, Schumer said he was “sad that the president felt he had to pick a nominee likely to divide America” and wondered “whether (Alito) would use that seat to reverse much of what Rosa Parks and so many others fought so hard and for so long to put in place.” In 2007, Schumer pounced on the Bush administration’s firings of seven U.S. attorneys around the country, demanding the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Schumer played a major role in shepherding recovery money through Congress after the September 11 attacks. On that fateful day in 2001, Schumer’s daughter was in school a few blocks from the World Trade Center, although she was unharmed. He immediately requested $20 billion in aid for New York, which Bush readily approved. The Bush administration then turned to Schumer to rally support for its centerpiece anti-domestic terrorism law, the USA PATRIOT Act. Schumer has secured federal grants for all manner of projects for New York, ranging from an ambulance for the volunteer fire department in St. Lawrence County to funding for tritium cleanup at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. He also has gotten along well with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg; his wife, Iris Weinshall, was Bloomberg’s transportation commissioner from 2002 to 2007.
Schumer has been a prodigious fundraiser since his early days in the House. In 2004, his money skills enabled him to raise nearly $12 million and ward off a serious challenge to his re-election. Constant traveling in upstate New York also made him as well known there as in New York City. Schumer won easily, 71%-24%, exceeding the 67%-31% record set by Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1988.
Some speculated that Schumer would run for governor in 2006, but that issue was settled when he agreed to accept Democratic Leader Harry Reid’s appointment as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and got a seat on the Finance Committee to boot. The task ahead looked difficult. The lineup of Senate seats up in 2006 left Republicans with more target seats than Democrats. But Schumer did a brilliant job of persuading Democratic incumbents from states that Bush carried in 2004—Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and Bill Nelson of Florida—not to retire. Then he worked on getting strong challengers to Republican incumbents. In Pennsylvania, he aggressively recruited state Treasurer Robert Casey Jr., son of the late governor known for his strong opposition to abortion rights. Schumer astutely calculated that Casey would make inroads in the culturally conservative base of incumbent Rick Santorum and would be acceptable to abortion rights voters in suburban Philadelphia. Casey won by a wide margin.
Schumer made a pitch over dinner in London to Claire McCaskill to compete in Missouri, where she had shown some strength in her losing 2004 gubernatorial race. She ran and won narrowly. He tried to recruit Rep. Jim Langevin to run in Rhode Island, and although he declined, Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse beat incumbent Lincoln Chafee there anyway. In Montana, Schumer spent money on ads against incumbent Republican Conrad Burns, reminding voters that he had received more contributions from the clients of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff than any other member of Congress. Democrat Jon Tester won that contest. In Virginia, Schumer backed Jim Webb, a decorated Vietnam veteran who served as President Ronald Reagan’s Navy secretary, over liberal lobbyist Harris Miller, and Webb won a narrow victory in the primary and went on in the fall to defeat the heavily favored incumbent, Republican George Allen. During the campaign, Schumer wrote a book, Positively American: Winning Back the Middle-Class Majority One Family at a Time, in which he urged Democrats to offer 50% solutions—increase math and reading scores by 50%, cut property taxes by 50%, reduce illegal immigration by 50%, and so forth.
Schumer’s success in helping to win a Democratic majority in 2006 led Reid to ask him to head the DSCC again in the 2008 election season. As an inducement, Reid created a leadership position for Schumer as vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus, although the new post did not come with a staff and a detailed portfolio. Schumer effectively became the confidential adviser to the hot-tempered and difficult Reid and the mellifluous and steady Majority Whip Dick Durbin. Once again he played a key role in producing winning candidates at election time. When Pete Domenici announced his retirement in New Mexico and second-tier Democratic candidates emerged, Schumer persuaded Rep. Tom Udall to run, and he won. Late in the election season, Schumer and Reid persuaded Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich to take on 40-year veteran Ted Stevens shortly before Stevens was indicted in July of failure to disclose receiving gifts. Begich won his seat, 48%-47%. In North Carolina, Schumer and former Gov. Jim Hunt pressed state Sen. Kay Hagan to take on incumbent Elizabeth Dole and helped Hagan wage an aggressive campaign that resulted in an impressive victory.
All told, Democrats picked up six seats in 2006 and seven in November 2008 while losing none of theirs. A 45-seat minority became a 58-seat majority. Seldom has one senator made such a difference in the partisan composition of the body. And seldom if ever has the No. 3 person in a party’s leadership done as much to determine a major party’s policy stands and political positioning in the Senate. As Republican John Cornyn of Texas said ruefully, but with admiration, “In my opinion, his influence is supreme. He’s everywhere.”
Schumer’s position in New York politics is also paramount. When Hillary Rodham Clinton was elected senator in 2000, many thought that she would overshadow Schumer. The earthier Schumer seemed to get along better with Bush, while the more disciplined Clinton seemed to get along better with some Republican senators. And then there are the lifestyle differences. While Clinton held fundraisers in her $2.8 million house off Embassy Row, Schumer shared a spare Capitol Hill townhouse with Durbin and Democratic Reps. Bill Delahunt and George Miller. But Schumer supported Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, and her appointment as secretary of State in the Obama administration made him indisputably New York’s lead senator. When Clinton resigned her Senate seat, and Democratic Gov. David Paterson dithered over choosing a successor, Schumer weighed in on behalf of Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand. He then urged Reid to give her choice committee assignments and put her name on numerous press releases. At a Gillibrand fundraiser that spring, in response to speculation about primary opposition in the 2010 election, he yelled, “There is not going to be a primary!” When former Tennessee Rep. Harold Ford Jr. mulled making the race, Schumer interceded and helped persuade him not to run. As a result Gillibrand, had only desultory primary opposition and won the general election easily.
Schumer entered the 111th Congress (2009-10) in a strong position, having helped in a major way to secure what became, after the 2008 election, a filibuster-proof 60-seat majority, the first time in 30 years that any party had such a large Senate majority. He was heavily engaged in the major issues of the Congress. On President Barack Obama’s health care initiative, he supported creating a government-run insurance option, but sensing that it lacked 60 votes, he worked with Republican moderate Olympia Snowe of Maine on a trigger mechanism that would create a public option only if private plans did not meet certain criteria. But those efforts failed to win Republican support and in September 2009, he dropped it. On the major overhaul of financial industry regulation, he pushed provisions to entirely fund the Securities and Exchange Commission through fees and fines rather than congressional appropriations and to give stockholders a non-binding vote on executive compensation.
Schumer has a longstanding interest in immigration policy reform, and although a comprehensive bill was not high on Obama’s agenda, he worked in 2009 with Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina establishing agreement on concepts for later legislation, including stronger border and workplace enforcement, a guest worker program and a path to legalization for illegal immigrants in the country. After the Supreme Court overturned recent restrictions on campaign donations imposed by Congress in its Citizens United decision, Schumer, with Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., sponsored the DISCLOSE Act to require disclosure by organizations covered by the decision. The bill passed the House, but in the Senate, Schumer could not satisfy liberals unhappy with the exemption the House carved out for the National Rifle Association, and the bill stalled.
On issues important to New York in recent years, Schumer in February 2010 opposed trying alleged September 11 conspirator Khalid Sheik Mohammed anywhere in New York. “My advice to the president is, with a great deal of respect, take New York off your radar screen. Find another location,” he said. He was also the lead sponsor of a bill to compensate September 11 responders for health problems they later encountered.
Though he rarely took a lead position on foreign policy, he did show skepticism about Obama’s 2009 troop increase in Afghanistan, telling MSNBC, “It cost us $6 trillion and 4,500 lives, approximately, to bring stability to Iraq. Just in terms of lives lost and treasure, do we want to do the same exercise in Afghanistan?” In May 2010, he was one of 18 senators voting for an amendment requiring a detailed timetable for troop withdrawals in Afghanistan.
Schumer was up for re-election in 2010, but the outcome was never in doubt. He raised $19 million and clobbered Republican Jay Townsend, the owner of a market research firm, 66%-32%. But he probably had his eye just as much on Nevada, where Reid trailed in polls for months. If Reid had lost, there may well have been a battle between Schumer and Durbin, his housemate and the majority whip, for the top leadership post. But Reid won and the issue became moot. Two weeks after the election, Reid assigned Schumer more legislative scheduling and communications duties.
