Elected 1976, seat up 2006 Born: Feb. 3, 1933, Salisbury Home: Baltimore Education: Princeton, A.B. 1954, Rhodes Scholar, Oxford U., B.A. 1957, Harvard, LL.B. 1960 Religion: Greek Orthodox Marital Status: married (Christine)

Career:

• Political: MD House of Delegates, 1966-70; U.S. House of Reps., 1970-76.
• Professional: Law Clerk, Judge Morris A. Soper, U.S. 4th Circuit Crt. of Appeals, 1960-61; Practicing atty., 1961-62, 1965-70; A.A., Pres. Kennedy's Cncl. of Econ. Advisers, 1962-63; Exec. Dir., Baltimore Charter Revision Comm., 1963-64.

DC Office: 309 HSOB 20510, 202-224-4524; Fax: 202-224-1651; Web site: www.senate.gov/~sarbanes

State Offices: Baltimore, 410-962-4436; Cobb Island,301-259-2404; Cumberland,301-724-0695; Salisbury,410-860-2131; Silver Spring,301-589-0797.

Committees:

• Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs (Chmn.).
• Foreign Relations: East Asian & Pacific Affairs; European Affairs; International Economic Policy, Export & Trade Promotion (Chmn.); Near Eastern & South Asian Affairs.
• Joint Economic Committee (3d of 11 Sens.).

Paul Sarbanes, now the longest-serving Maryland senator in history, was first elected to the Senate in 1976. His liberalism is rooted in his experience growing up in Salisbury on the Eastern Shore, the son of a Greek immigrant, who owned the Mayflower Grill and taught himself enough on the side to discuss philosophy with his son's Princeton professors. Sarbanes was always interested in politics: As a Princeton student in 1952 he went up to Manhattan with a "Princeton for Adlai" sign and got into the candidate's hotel suite, and as a big firm lawyer in Baltimore he worked on the city Charter Revision Commission. Working with small groups, organizing liberal supporters, he ran for office as an insurgent, and always won. He was first elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1966. In 1970 he challenged an incumbent in the primary and was elected to the U.S. House; another incumbent retired rather than run against him after redistricting in 1972. In 1976 he defeated former Senator Joseph Tydings in the Democratic primary and incumbent Senator Glenn Beall in the general by 59%-41%.

Since then Sarbanes has been one of the most durable champions of liberal politics: on the Banking Committee, on which he has been ranking Democrat since 1995, on the Joint Economic Committee, which he chaired from 1991-95, and on Foreign Relations. He was one of just 21 senators who voted against the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. On the financial services deregulation bill, he sponsored an amendment to allow states to issue tougher laws protecting the privacy of depositors and credit card holders than those in the federal bill: "It's quite simple--a fundamental right of privacy should be accorded every American who entrusts his or her highly sensitive and confidential information to a financial institution." He introduced new legislation to strengthen financial privacy for consumers in January 2001. He called in October 2000 for investigations of lenders to low-income homeowners who require single-premium credit life insurance. His own approach to investing is conservative: He purchased his first mutual fund in 2000 and since entering Congress has not owned stock.

He is the second ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, where he has tilted toward aid for Greece and away from Turkey; he has supported the resolution condemning the Turks for genocidal treatment of Armenians in World War I. He worked successfully to prevent elimination of AID as a separate agency and opposes weapons sales to countries with poor human rights records. In June 2000 he was one of 19 senators to vote to cut most of the funding for the Clinton administration's military assistance to Colombia. He was the only senator to vote against the bill authorizing payment of the U.S.'s United Nations dues; he argued that it was wrong to impose conditions on the UN in repayment for payment of dues that were owed: "It's simply unacceptable that the richest nation on earth is also the biggest debtor to the United Nations." He and his Maryland colleague were two of the 15 senators who voted against Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China in September 2000.

Closer to home, Sarbanes has sponsored projects like the Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Watertrails Network, a special conservation reserve for buffer zones along Chesapeake Bay, and a project to restore the eroding Poplar Island using material dredged from the port of Baltimore's shipping channels. In 2000 he sponsored the reauthorization of the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Act, which doubled federal spending to $40 million. To help drought-stricken Maryland farmers, he sponsored in 2000 an increase in market loss payments from $75,000 to $150,000. In 2000 he also pushed through a bill to roll back federal employee benefit contribution rates to 1998 levels.

Sarbanes is not a senator who courts publicity; he sponsors few bills and sends out few press releases. He enjoys working on the mechanics of government, but returns every night to his home in Baltimore. He has been re-elected without great difficulty four times. His smallest margin was in the Republican year of 1994, when he beat former Tennessee Senator Bill Brock (who beat Albert Gore Sr. in 1970) by a solid 59%-41% margin. At one point it looked like Sarbanes might face Republican Congressman Bob Ehrlich in 2000. But Ehrlich, after seeing how handily Governor Parris Glendening beat Republican Ellen Sauerbrey in 1998, decided not to run. Sarbanes' opponent was Paul Rappaport, former Howard County police chief and unsuccessful candidate for statewide office in 1994 and 1998, who said Sarbanes was an "ultra-liberal." Sarbanes did not bother to run TV ads until five days before the election and still won 63%-37%, running 6% ahead of Al Gore's strong showing. As Rappaport said on election night, "Maybe the state is more liberal than I thought it was."

Group Ratings
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2000	95	71	100	100	63	60	12	40	12	6	15
1999	100	--	100	89	51	--	4	35	4	--	--

National Journal Ratings
	1999 LIB	--	1999 CONS		2000 LIB	--	2000 CONS
Economic	90%	--	0%		96%	--	0%
Social	88%	--	0%		79%	--	0%
Foreign	87%	--	0%		66%	--	31%

Key Votes of the 106th Congress
1. Educ. Savings Accts. N 2. Prescrip. Drug Benefit Y 3. Delay Ergonomic Standards N 4. Phase Out Estate Tax N 5. Review Movie Violence N 6. Gun Show Bckgrnd. Checks Y		7. Ban Part.-Birth Abortion N  8. Broaden Hate Crimes List Y  9. NATO War in Serbia Y 10. Table Cuba Travel Ban N 11. Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Y 12. Perm. Trade with China N

Election Results
2000 general	Paul S. Sarbanes (D)	1,230,013	(63%)
	Paul H. Rappaport (R)	715,178	(37%)
2000 primary	Paul S. Sarbanes (D)	384,748	(83%)
	George English (D)	45,984	(10%)
	Sidney Altman (D)	31,502	(7%)
1994 general	Paul S. Sarbanes (D)	809,125	(59%)
	William Brock (R)	559,908	(41%)

Campaign Finance
2000	Receipts	Receipts from PACs	Expenditures
Paul S. Sarbanes (D)	$1,851,731	$748,964	$1,837,286
Paul H. Rappaport (R)	$141,624	$2,510	$146,866