Democrat Thomas Carper is Delaware’s senior senator. He grew up in Southside Virginia and Ohio and graduated from Ohio State University. He first came to Delaware as an ensign in the Navy, then returned to get his M.B.A. at the University of Delaware after service in Southeast Asia, where he was a mission commander piloting submarine-hunting planes. In 1976, he was elected state treasurer, at age 29. He ran for the U.S. House in 1982 and beat a scandal-tarred incumbent. In office, Carper established a moderate voting record and worked to let banks into the securities business and to prevent ocean sludge-dumping, both causes supported by Delaware constituencies. In 1992, when Republican Gov. Michael Castle was term-limited and ran for the House, Carper ran for governor and won the general election with 65% of the vote. Read More
Democrat Thomas Carper is Delaware’s senior senator. He grew up in Southside Virginia and Ohio and graduated from Ohio State University. He first came to Delaware as an ensign in the Navy, then returned to get his M.B.A. at the University of Delaware after service in Southeast Asia, where he was a mission commander piloting submarine-hunting planes. In 1976, he was elected state treasurer, at age 29. He ran for the U.S. House in 1982 and beat a scandal-tarred incumbent. In office, Carper established a moderate voting record and worked to let banks into the securities business and to prevent ocean sludge-dumping, both causes supported by Delaware constituencies. In 1992, when Republican Gov. Michael Castle was term-limited and ran for the House, Carper ran for governor and won the general election with 65% of the vote.
As governor, Carper pursued an agenda that was in many ways more conservative than liberal. He continued former Republican Gov. Pete du Pont’s policy of cutting taxes, reducing income tax rates by about 10%, and also cutting small-business and utility taxes. Delaware’s strong economy helped him keep the budget in the black, and he boosted the state’s credit rating to a historic high even as state spending rose 40% in eight years. He also signed a bill authorizing charter schools. He was re-elected 70%-30% over then-Treasurer Janet Rzewnicki. Barred from a third term, he ran in 2000 for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican William Roth since 1970.
This was a battle of positives. Both candidates had very high approval ratings at home, and both were familiar figures to many voters; they brought a combined total of 58 years in statewide office to the race. Roth had a record of achievements that paid direct benefits to people in this generally affluent state: the Kemp-Roth tax cut of 1981, the Roth IRA enacted in 1997, the reform of the Internal Revenue Service passed in 1998, $2.3 billion for Amtrak capital improvements in 1998. Roth’s main problem was that he was 79 years old. The then 53-year-old Carper was careful not to campaign negatively against Roth or to attack him for his age, but his slogan, “A Senator for Our Future,” spotlighted the contrast between their ages. Carper’s 16-hour campaign days contrasted with Roth’s approach. He stayed in Washington and made only a few campaign appearances with his trademark St. Bernard dogs. Roth outspent Carper, $4.3 million to $2.5 million, but the Democratic Party spent some $4 million in Delaware, more than evening the score. In October, Roth fainted twice on the campaign trail, once in full view of cameras. Polls showed the race close to even in September and October, but in November, Carper won by a solid 56%-44%.
In the Senate, Carper has had one of the more moderate voting records among Democrats, and has been actively involved over the years with centrist organizations like the Democratic Leadership Council. He is often at the center of efforts to build bipartisan coalitions when important legislation bogs down, such as efforts to pass a health care overhaul bill in 2009 and 2010. He has expressed frustration with the pace of getting things done in Congress, and has complained to colleagues on occasion, “My worst day as governor was better than my best day as a United States senator.”
During work on a major revision of health insurance policy, Carper bucked liberals in his party by opposing creation of a government-run insurance plan for people who could not afford private plans. But rather than attack the public option idea, he tried to broker a compromise that he and other centrist Democrats could support. He advanced an alternative that would allow states to individually decide whether to offer such an option to compete with private insurers. The public option was ultimately dropped from the final legislation because of opposition from Republicans and other centrist Democrats. On the sweeping financial regulation bill in 2010, Carper opposed an amendment restricting banks’ charges to merchants and sought to prevent state officials from imposing more stringent regulations than the federal government.
Carper has taken a major role in clean air legislation. In 2006, he co-sponsored with Republican Lamar Alexander of Tennessee a bill to limit emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, mercury and carbon dioxide. The legislation has gone nowhere year after year, but Carper keeps trying. In February 2010, he and Alexander reprised their bill to substantially reduce emissions from power plants, and when it failed to attract sufficient bipartisan support to pass, they put it on hold—again. When the Environmental Protection Agency announced new power plant pollution regulations in July 2010, Carper called it “a step in the right direction,” but said he preferred to keep trying to enact a law that would be more resilient to court challenges than the agency’s rule.
In recent years, Carper also supported cap and trade, a proposal to cap greenhouse gas emissions but allow companies to get emissions “credits” from companies that pollute less. In 2007, he co-sponsored the bill with Republican John McCain and independent Joe Lieberman, but later declined to back a version of the bill that did not include limits on mercury, sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide, which he thought necessary. On the issue of car emissions, Carper in May 2007 proposed credits for cars that can run on both gasoline and renewable fuels and $50 million in financing for advanced battery technology research; he supported a compromise bill that passed in December 2007. He also has called for increased use of nuclear energy, and with his Delaware colleagues, he has promoted offshore wind energy.
On the Governmental Affairs Committee, Carper worked with moderate Republican Susan Collins of Maine to pass in December 2006 the first major revision of Postal Service business operations since 1970. (More than half of credit card issuers have operations in Delaware, and that industry provides one-quarter of the Postal Service’s mail.) Their bill provided for a streamlined rate increase procedure and for holding increases below inflation for 10 years. It passed after last-minute compromises with postal unions and retiree groups. In March 2010, Carper endorsed Postmaster General John Potter’s plan to cut postal delivery from six to five days a week to cover revenue shortfalls, an idea that has been blocked by opposition in Congress. “It is not productive for Congress to act like a 535-member board of directors and constantly second-guess these necessary changes,” Carper said. Also that year, Carper sponsored a successful bill, signed into law by President Barack Obama, requiring government agencies to conduct audits to identify some $125 billion that was expected to be lost through waste and fraudulent claims. He also teamed up with Lieberman and Collins on a bill to improve cybersecurity for Internet users, including giving the president authority to shut down Internet services in a national emergency. Critics said the bill went too far in allowing the government to control the Internet.
In earlier battles, Carper, with five Republicans and five other Democrats, managed in the early 2000s to condition the Bush tax cuts on deficit reduction. In 2001, he and Republican Judd Gregg of New Hampshire got $125 million for public school choice programs and $400 million for charter schools. And in 2005, he was more open to Social Security privatization than many Democrats, saying he would not “rule out at some point having private accounts.”
Delaware is a small state in which unusually large percentages of voters actually meet with their elected representatives in person. It has a unique tradition of “Return Day,” the day after the election, in which losing candidates along with winners take part in a parade in the town of Georgetown. It is a familiar ritual for Carper, who has been elected to statewide office 12 times and has ties to just about every prominent Democrat in the state. He even keeps a database with several hundred birthdays, so he can make congratulatory calls to friends and supporters. And Carper is a fierce defender of Delaware’s interests. He was quick to complain in 2007 when the Department of Homeland Security issued a rule that would require buyers of more than 7,500 pounds of propane gas to register with the department. The rule was opposed by chicken growers in Delaware, where there are about 300 chickens to every person. He has worked with others in the Delaware delegation to bring millions on dollars in earmarked projects home to the state. In 2008, after the practice of earmarking became controversial, Carper said he would disclose his earmarks.
In 2006, Carper was re-elected, 70%-29%. He comes up for re-election in 2012.
