Elected 1998, seat up 2004 Born: Nov. 23, 1950, Brooklyn Home: Brooklyn Education: Harvard U., B.A. 1971, J.D. 1974 Religion: Jewish Marital Status: married (Iris)

Career:

• Political: NY Assembly, 1974-80; U.S. House of Reps., 1980-1998.

DC Office: 313 HSOB 20510, 202-224-6542; Fax: 202-228-3027; Web site: www.senate.gov/~schumer

State Offices: Albany, 518-431-4070; Binghamton,607-772-8109; Buffalo,716-846-4545; Manhattan,212-486-4430; Rochester,716-263-5866; Syracuse,315-423-5471.

Committees:

• Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs: Economic Policy (Chmn.); Housing & Transportation; Securities & Investment.
• Energy & Natural Resources: Energy; National Parks; Public Lands & Forests.
• Judiciary: Administrative Oversight & the Courts (Chmn.); Antitrust, Business Rights & Competition; Constitution, Federalism & Property Rights; Immigration.
• Rules & Administration.

Charles Schumer, New York's senior senator, is a Democrat elected in 1998 in what was the most expensive Senate race ever in which neither candidate self-financed his campaign--at least it was until the 2000 New York Senate race (a short-lived notoriety). Schumer grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn, and graduated first in his class at James Madison High School, alma mater of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and many other notables. He graduated from Harvard College and Law School and, with the latter diploma fresh in his hand in June 1974, immediately began running for an open Assembly seat. He won, at 23. In 1980 he was elected to the House from an open Brooklyn seat, just before he turned 30. Through energy, imagination, hard work, good humor and a certain amount of chutzpah, he became a skilled legislator, and one noted--and sometimes resented--for his knack for getting publicity: Bob Dole said that the most dangerous place in Washington was in between Schumer and a television camera. As soon as he got to Congress he raised a campaign treasury of over $1 million, lest he and Brooklyn neighbor Stephen Solarz be redistricted together in 1982, but they weren't and both coexisted for a decade. By 1992 he had $2 million in the bank, again for fear of a primary race against Solarz; but Solarz ran and lost in the neighboring Hispanic-majority 12th District.

From the unlikely venue of the Banking Committee, a panel that most talented members lobby to get off of, Schumer spotted the perverse incentives set up by the combination of deposit insurance and letting S&Ls make risky investments. He called early on for higher capital requirements, and helped shape the 1989 S&L bailout bill. He also worked on housing programs, building on the success of the Nehemiah projects in Brooklyn. On Judiciary and, eventually, as chairman of its Crime Subcommittee, he ranged far afield, contributing key provisions to immigration acts in 1986 and 1990, leading with free marketeer Dick Armey attacks on farm subsidies, and with Florida Republican Dan Miller a nearly successful assault on sugar programs. Other Schumer causes included the Violence Against Women Act and a federal law against impeding access to abortion clinics. Schumer sponsored the 1994 crime bill and got the House to pass the Brady bill, with its waiting period for handgun purchases, over strong opposition from the National Rifle Association.

The idea of running for statewide office was surely never far from his mind. Had Mario Cuomo retired in 1994, Schumer would probably have run for governor, and in 1995 and 1996 he was considering running against Governor George Pataki. But in April 1997 Pataki's strong job rating, and especially his overwhelming strength Upstate, led Schumer to switch and use his $5 million treasury to run for Alfonse D'Amato's senate seat instead. It was by no means obvious that he would win. D'Amato was known for his assiduous constituent service and for his ability to win the tabloid wars that dominate campaigning in metropolitan New York. Although some of his stands--against abortion and gun control--and his aggressive investigation of Whitewater in 1995 were unpopular in New York, he also achieved results in popular crusades--for breast cancer research, against Swiss banks withholding money from Holocaust survivors, for gay rights. D'Amato was chairman of the Banking Committee and excelled at raising money; his early support did much to make Pataki governor. Schumer started off largely unknown outside his district (which starting in 1992 included part of Queens as well as Brooklyn) and faced serious primary opposition from 1984 vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro and Mark Green, New York City public advocate and D'Amato's opponent in 1986. By summer Schumer was leading in polls and was much better financed, and 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 he had told ''too many lies for too long''; it echoed D'Amato's attacks on earlier opponents as ''too liberal for too long.'' Schumer claimed he was tougher on crime, citing his support for longer sentences, limiting death row appeals, expanding capital punishment and broadening wiretap authority; he emphasized his support of abortion rights and gun control. D'Amato concentrated heavily on Schumer's missed votes while running for Senate, but the implication that Schumer was lazy was implausible. Still, by mid-October, Schumer's poll leads were mostly less than the statistical margin of error. On October 20, D'Amato scored coups by winning endorsements from the Human Rights Campaign and former Democratic Congressman Floyd Flake of Queens. But in a closed meeting before a Jewish group D'Amato called Schumer a ''putzhead''; when that became public, he denied it, then backtracked unconvincingly after his own supporter, former Democratic Mayor Edward Koch, confirmed it. D'Amato lost confidence and momentum, and by early November was sagging in polls. Schumer, who announced in October that he would vote against impeachment though he believed Bill Clinton lied under oath, was the beneficiary of two visits from Clinton and no less than four from Hillary Rodham Clinton (the rousing reception she got may have been what convinced her to run for the Senate in New York). Though outspent, Schumer won 55%-44%, winning 74%-25% in a big turnout in New York City and losing the suburbs by only 51%-49%. He lost Upstate by only 53%-45%. Jewish voters, about 40% of whom voted for D'Amato in 1986 and 1992, now went 76%-23% for Schumer; voters with graduate degrees, the most heavily Democratic educational group in New York, went 69%-31% for Schumer.

In the Senate Schumer has a solidly liberal voting record and has not yet matched his legislative productivity in the House; but even in his first year he appeared 14 times on Sunday interview programs, sixth most of all senators. He got to vote twice on impeachment: against it in the House in December 1998, against conviction in the Senate in February 1999. He lobbied successfully to get approval for JetBlue to fly from Kennedy to Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse--high air fares is a perennial Upstate complaint--and he pressed for more money for New York's teaching hospitals. He helped to broker agreement between Banking Chairman Phil Gramm and the Clinton administration on Community Reinvestment Act disclosure, the last obstacle to enactment of financial services deregulation in October 1999. An ally of the securities industry on both the House and Senate Banking Committees, Schumer has called for making electronic communications networks subject to the same regulations as stock exchanges and for making the New York Stock Exchange a profit-making corporation. He opposed the Clinton administration by calling for mandatory, not discretionary, penalties against offshore banks involved in money laundering. He opposed the bankruptcy reform bill and passed an amendment making penalties for assaults on abortion clinics undischargeable in bankruptcy.

Schumer serves on Judiciary, where he was one of the most vocal opponents of the confirmation of Attorney General John Ashcroft. He was one of the leading advocates for gun control measures after the Columbine shootings of April 1999, and in 2000 sponsored bills to require ballistic fingerprinting, licensing and registration of all handguns and cracking down on gun dealers who sell to straw purchases; he sponsored studies showing that many guns used in crimes were sold illegally. With conservative Bob Barr, he sponsored a bill to require employers to tell employees if employers can read their email. He and John McCain sponsored a bill to speed approval of generic drugs. In 2000 he called early for release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to combat OPEC price increases. He has a bill to reclassify SUVs as cars, not trucks, and subject them to higher fuel efficiency requirements. In 1999 he called for the Navy to leave the Puerto Rican island of Vieques and worked against restrictions on the import of antiquities from Italy--both, in their way, New York issues. The two New York and two California senators threatened a filibuster when Richard Shelby tried to limit states to 12.5% of federal transit spending. He has worked to get $170 million for the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, for vintage designation for Long Island, for disaster relief for a lobster killoff in Long Island Sound, for shutting down a federal halfway house in Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood. After the 2000 election, he and Sam Brownback of Kansas sponsored a bill to create a commission, with eight members appointed by Congress, plus experts and state and local officials, to recommend upgrades in voting machines and to provide $2.5 billion in federal matching grants for states to carry out its recommendations. On the pardon of Marc Rich he was not, like his colleague Hillary Rodham Clinton, silent: "The pardoning of fugitives stands our criminal justice system on its head."

Schumer faces the prospect of a long Senate career: No Democratic incumbent senator has been defeated in New York since direct election of senators began (though seven incumbent Republicans have lost). He knew that he would become the state's senior senator soon, since three days after the 1998 election Daniel Patrick Moynihan announced his retirement. There is much speculation that he may resent being in the shadow of his new junior colleague, who also has the prospect of a long Senate career ahead of her if she wants. But Schumer is resourceful, energetic and creative enough--and unbashful enough--to find plenty of work and get some publicity for it.

Group Ratings
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2000	95	71	85	100	50	87	16	53	12	6	15
1999	100	--	100	100	19	--	8	53	4	--	--

National Journal Ratings
	1999 LIB	--	1999 CONS		2000 LIB	--	2000 CONS
Economic	80%	--	17%		84%	--	11%
Social	88%	--	0%		79%	--	0%
Foreign	87%	--	0%		72%	--	15%

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 Y

Election Results
1998 general	Charles E. Schumer (D-Ind-L)	2,551,065	(55%)
	Al D'Amato (R-C-RTL)	2,058,988	(44%)
	Other	60,752	(1%)
1998 primary	Charles E. Schumer (D)	388,701	(51%)
	Geraldine A. Ferraro (D)	201,265	(26%)
	Mark Green (D)	145,819	(19%)
	Other	28,493	(4%)
1992 general	Al D'Amato (R-C-RTL)	3,166,994	(49%)
	Robert Abrams (D-L)	3,086,200	(48%)
	Other	205,632	(3%)

Campaign Finance
1998	Receipts	Receipts from PACs	Expenditures
Charles E. Schumer (D-Ind-L)	$16,825,671	$560,446	$16,671,877
Al D'Amato (R-C-RTL)	$17,760,311	$1,926,518	$24,195,287