The junior senator from Rhode Island is Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat elected in 2006. He is a wealthy descendant of Charles Crocker, one of California’s “Big Four” men who built the Central Pacific Railroad, the eastbound section of railroad that connected with the Union Pacific line at Promontory Summit, Utah, to form the nation’s first transcontinental railroad. His grandfather was a diplomat and so was his father, Charles Whitehouse, a World War II Marine Corps pilot who became U.S. ambassador to Laos and Thailand in the 1970s. Sheldon Whitehouse was born in New York City and spent his formative years overseas, including in Cambodia, South Africa, the Philippines and Guinea; as a teenager, he taught English to Vietnamese children in Saigon. He graduated from St. Paul’s preparatory school, Yale College and the University of Virginia Law School. Afterward, Whitehouse clerked for an appeals court judge, and then moved to Rhode Island to take a job as an assistant state attorney general. He was appointed a top staffer for Gov. Bruce Sundlun in 1991, and served two years as head of the state’s department of business regulation. In 1994, on the recommendation of Democratic Sen. Claiborne Pell, a family friend and former Foreign Service officer himself, Whitehouse was appointed U.S. attorney for Rhode Island. Whitehouse launched an undercover investigation that resulted in the conviction of Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci for public corruption. He also focused on environmental cleanup, leading an investigation that resulted in the largest fine in state history for an oil spill in Narragansett Bay. Read More
The junior senator from Rhode Island is Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat elected in 2006. He is a wealthy descendant of Charles Crocker, one of California’s “Big Four” men who built the Central Pacific Railroad, the eastbound section of railroad that connected with the Union Pacific line at Promontory Summit, Utah, to form the nation’s first transcontinental railroad. His grandfather was a diplomat and so was his father, Charles Whitehouse, a World War II Marine Corps pilot who became U.S. ambassador to Laos and Thailand in the 1970s. Sheldon Whitehouse was born in New York City and spent his formative years overseas, including in Cambodia, South Africa, the Philippines and Guinea; as a teenager, he taught English to Vietnamese children in Saigon. He graduated from St. Paul’s preparatory school, Yale College and the University of Virginia Law School. Afterward, Whitehouse clerked for an appeals court judge, and then moved to Rhode Island to take a job as an assistant state attorney general. He was appointed a top staffer for Gov. Bruce Sundlun in 1991, and served two years as head of the state’s department of business regulation. In 1994, on the recommendation of Democratic Sen. Claiborne Pell, a family friend and former Foreign Service officer himself, Whitehouse was appointed U.S. attorney for Rhode Island. Whitehouse launched an undercover investigation that resulted in the conviction of Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci for public corruption. He also focused on environmental cleanup, leading an investigation that resulted in the largest fine in state history for an oil spill in Narragansett Bay.
Whitehouse ran for state attorney general in 1998. In the three-way Democratic primary, his opponents portrayed him as an inexperienced, fox-hunting patrician trying to buy his way into public office. But Whitehouse was better known in the state than his opponents, and he got the nomination. In the general election, state Treasurer Nancy Mayer forced Whitehouse to concede that he had tried drugs as a student and questioned whether he was tough enough for the job. Whitehouse told The Providence Journal, “The book on me was, ‘Smart kid, works hard, but, you know, has no common touch, can’t relate to people, will be a disaster.’ In fact, I got advice from some political types to run sort of a Rose Garden strategy. You know, ‘Don’t go out, don’t let people see you, ’cause if they see you, they’re not going to like you. Just mail your resume around, you know, and spend a lot of money on television.’ ” But the tide began to turn after Mayer ran highly negative ads on the drug issue that backfired in the absence of evidence that the incident was more than a short chapter from Whitehouse’s distant past. He won the election, 66.5% to 33%.
By 2002, Whitehouse was widely viewed as a contender for governor. He ran, but lost the Democratic primary by 926 votes to Myrth York, the 1998 nominee and a Federal Hill neighbor in Providence who outspent Whitehouse by more than 2-to-1. York lost in November to Republican Donald Carcieri.
Whitehouse also considered running for the Senate in 1999, when four-term incumbent John Chafee announced he would not seek a fifth term. But then, Chafee, a Yale roommate of Whitehouse’s father, died that November and Republican Gov. Lincoln Almond appointed his son, Lincoln Chafee, then mayor of Warwick, to fill the vacancy. The following year, Chafee won a full term by beating 2nd District Democratic Rep. Robert Weygand, 57%-41%. In the Senate, Chafee sided with Democrats often enough that there was frequent speculation that he would switch parties. In 2006, Chafee was opposed in the Republican primary by Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey, a conservative and a sharp-elbowed campaigner who was backed by the national anti-tax group Club for Growth. The National Republican Senatorial Committee vigorously defended Chafee, reasoning that he would be the stronger general election candidate, and he won the September primary, 54%-46%.
Meanwhile, Whitehouse had an easier time in the Democratic primary after Secretary of State Matt Brown dropped out in April amid allegations of campaign finance violations. Chafee had little cash left after the primary fight, while Whitehouse had $1 million. Chafee emphasized his willingness to work across party lines, but Whitehouse urged people to vote their party preference. There was little daylight between the candidates on issues—both backed federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, abortion rights, and gun control—so Whitehouse campaigned against the then-unpopular Bush administration, running ads with the tagline, “Finally, a Whitehouse in Washington you can trust.” Whitehouse won 54% to 46%. He won 72% of the vote in Providence, 66% in Pawtucket, 61% in East Providence, 64% in Woonsocket, and 77% in Central Falls. Chafee won 54% in Warwick, he carried Kingston and Westerly’s Washington County, and he ran not much better than even in Newport and Bristol counties.
Whitehouse was one of eight new Democratic senators whose election gave the party a majority in the Senate. He got seats on the Environment and Public Works, Budget, Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, where he joked that he was the only WASP among the committee’s mostly Catholic and Jewish Democrats. “This is the first time in my life I’ve brought diversity to a group,” he said. On Judiciary, Whitehouse criticized Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez for firing U.S. attorneys for what Democrats alleged were political motivations. After Gonzalez resigned, Whitehouse opposed the nomination of Michael Mukasey for refusing to say whether water boarding was an illegal tactic against terrorism detainees. In response to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision lifting limits on corporate expenditures in campaigns, Whitehouse decried “the activist, corporate-leaning pattern of the Supreme Court’s conservative bloc.” He was also one of the leaders of the unsuccessful fight to limit filibusters at the beginning of the 112th Congress in 2011.
Whitehouse supported President Barack Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus bill in 2009, and said he’d even like to see a second stimulus bill focused entirely on the nation’s infrastructure. Whitehouse sparked controversy when he said on the Senate floor that opposition to Obama’s health care reform measure was driven in part by “right-wing militias and Aryan support groups.”
Whitehouse sponsored successful 2010 legislation that authorized the Federal Communications Commission to regulate the volume of television ads. And his amendment facilitating prosecution of anyone using lasers to attack airplanes passed the Senate 96-1 in 2011. On other issues, Whitehouse, with Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, co-sponsored a bill in 2009 to free users of credit cards carrying interest rates 15% above Treasury bonds from the obligation to repay in bankruptcy proceedings. He also co-sponsored a bill for a 65% tax on estates over $500 million. After a March 2007 visit to Iraq, Whitehouse toned down his earlier criticism of the Bush administration and pointed to improved security in the country. Similarly, after an October 2010 trip to Afghanistan, he said the counterinsurgency strategy was working.
Whitehouse comes up for re-election in 2012. In heavily Democratic Rhode Island, he entered the campaign season as a clear favorite.
