Elected 1980, seat up 2004 Born: Dec. 6, 1948, Ponca City Home: Ponca City Education: OK St. U., B.A. 1971 Religion: Catholic Marital Status: married (Linda)

Career:

• Political: OK Senate, 1978-80.
• Professional: V. P. & Gen. Mgr., Nickles Machine Co., 1976-80.
• Military: OK Natl. Guard, 1970-76.

DC Office: 133 HSOB 20510, 202-224-5754; Fax: 202-224-6008; Web site: www.senate.gov/~nickles

State Offices: Lawton, 580-357-9878; Oklahoma City,405-231-4941; Ponca City,580-767-1270; Tulsa,918-581-7651.

Committees:

• Minority Whip
.
• Energy & Natural Resources: Energy (RMM); Public Lands & Forests.
• Finance: Health Care; Social Security & Family Policy; Taxation & IRS Oversight (RMM).
• Rules & Administration.

Don Nickles, the Senate minority whip, was first elected in 1980. He grew up in Ponca City, and, after his father died when he was 13, worked his way through Oklahoma State as a janitor making minimum wage; he then returned to Ponca City and helped run the family machine business. In 1978, at 29, he was elected to the Oklahoma Senate; two years later, he ran for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Henry Bellmon. With support from Christian conservatives, he won 35% in a multi-candidate primary and 65% in the runoff; in the general he won 53%-44%, and at 31 became the youngest Republican ever elected to the Senate. It was a signal that conservative Republicanism was the prevailing current of opinion in Oklahoma, just as Nickles's rise to a Senate leadership post is a signal of conservative Republican strength there.

In the Senate Nickles has been a stalwart for conservative principles--"the keeper of the conservative flame," as CongressDaily put it. He ascribes his views to his experience running a small business. ''I'm a strong proponent and believer in the free enterprise system. … I built up a business that was almost bankrupt. If I see government causing problems or doing things that interfere with personal freedom or economic freedom or religious freedom, I feel very strongly that we should get involved and try to change it.'' Without much notice outside Washington, he has risen to the number two position in the Republican leadership. He chaired the Republican Senate campaign committee during the 1990 cycle and, as an opponent of the 1990 budget summit tax increase, he beat the more senior Pete Domenici for Republican Conference chairman in December 1990 by 23-20. When Bob Dole resigned in June 1998, Nickles considered running for majority leader, but didn't challenge Trent Lott; both got their posts unopposed. After the November 1998 election, Nickles was urged to run against Lott, but decided not to. He said a race against Lott "would probably end one of our political careers."

There is nonetheless a tension between their approaches: Lott, though very conservative on substance, is temperamentally a deal-maker; Nickles, though personable and pleasant, is inclined to stand solid on his convictions. After the June 1997 tobacco settlement, Lott charged Nickles with putting together a tobacco bill, but he would not compromise with the tax increases sought by Orrin Hatch and Edward Kennedy. The assignment went to Commerce Chairman John McCain, whose bill Nickles opposed as ''one of the worst pieces of legislation I've ever seen.'' In summer 1998 he coordinated a three-week filibuster which killed the bill; his own proposal is for a $1 billion program to discourage teen smoking and drug use. On HMO regulation, Lott in 1997 made Nickles head of a health care task force. In summer 1998 Nickles came up with his own HMO bill with 49 co-sponsors, and Democrats did not bring up their bill after a version of it passed the House. When Democrats got 51 votes for the House bill in 2000, Nickles continued to resist action, and it did not come to the floor. Nickles has resisted increases in the minimum wage, even when leavened by tax relief for small business. "By raising the minimum wage, politicians would yank the ladder up too high for some people to get on in the first place." He had little enthusiasm for the community renewal bill which was a 2000 project of Bill Clinton and Dennis Hastert.

In his early years in the Senate Nickles backed the successful fights to deregulate oil and natural gas prices, to repeal the windfall profits tax, and to repeal the 55-mile-per-hour speed limit. He opposed the Clinton Btu and gasoline taxes in 1993, and in 1998 sponsored an electricity deregulation law which would prohibit the states from granting electric utilities exclusive service territories. He got the Senate to go on record 76-23 in 1993 against allowing HIV-positive immigrants into the country. In 1998 he held up the nomination of Jane Henney to head the FDA until HHS Secretary Donna Shalala agreed not to seek a manufacturer for RU-486 or finance more abortions under Medicaid or Kiddiecare. He takes sometimes lonely stands--against the confirmation of Ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke in 1999, against $15 billion in aid to farmers and against outlawing Section 527 campaign organizations in 2000. He opposed the Conservation and Reinvestment Act as a federal power grab and called AmeriCorps a "boondoggle," though Oklahoma's Republican Governor Frank Keating supports both. His move to require congressional approval of national monument designations--a power used by Bill Clinton during the 1996 campaign and in his last year in office--failed by a 50-49 vote in July 2000. He spoke out against tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in September 2000 and against giving Native Hawaiians the same status as American Indian tribes in October 2000.

On occasion Nickles has taken bipartisan initiatives. With Nevada's Harry Reid, he won Senate passage of a bipartisan regulatory reform bill in March 1995--a more realistic and effective version of the moratorium on new regulations in the House's Contract With America. Nickles was also the chief sponsor of the Republican $500-per-child tax credit included in the 1995 budget reconciliation bill vetoed by President Clinton, but passed in 1998. He sponsored the Religious Freedom Act, which passed unanimously in 1998, though without the automatic sanctions some sought. He helped to pass the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and to ratify the World Intellectual Property Organization. He and Mary Landrieu sponsored a 2000 law for automatic citizenship for foreign-born children adopted by Americans.

Nickles can be a tenacious fighter. He has long sought to bar the Cheyenne-Arapaho tribe from claiming ancestral land at Fort Reno which has been an USDA research station. This was the tribe that lobbied Bill Clinton in the White House after making a $100,000 contribution to the Democratic National Committee. In September 2000 Nickles passed an amendment blocking the land transfer, against the strong opposition of Daniel Inouye. Nickles has also worked hard to in effect repeal Oregon's 1994 assisted suicide law, by sponsoring what he calls the Pain Relief Promotion Act which would bar physicians from prescribing controlled substances for purposes of suicide. This passed the House in 1999, and Nickles worked to find a vehicle to bring it to the floor of the Senate. In the process he tangled with Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden, as he attempted to stop a vote and Nickles put holds on other Oregon legislation.

For all his commitment to cutting spending, Nickles does work to bring projects to Oklahoma, including a $12 million veterans cemetery in Fort Sill (line-item vetoed by Clinton but revived in 2000), a $3 million weather station in Norman, $40 million for the Montgomery Point Lock and Dam on the McClellan-Kerr Navigation System and the $18 million anti-terrorism institute near the site of the 1995 federal building bombing in Oklahoma City. He is a big fan of Amtrak's Heartland Flyer that runs from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth, and in August 2000 sponsored a contest for high schoolers to design a symbol for the train.

Nickles has been very popular in Oklahoma. His one tough re-election came in 1986, when he faced Tulsa Congressman Jim Jones. But Jones's ad campaign misfired and Nickles showed greater strength than many in Washington expected, winning 55%-45% in a year several other Southern Republicans elected in 1980 lost. In 1992 Nickles won easily, 59%-38%. In 1998 he had no big-name opponents. The Democratic nomination was won by Tahlequah air-conditioning contractor Don Carroll when he defeated a woman who had died a week after filing for office. Nickles carried all but one county and won 66%-31%. Does he wish to stay in the Senate as long as Strom Thurmond? Nickles professed himself ''surprised I'm running for my fourth term'' and suggested he might retire from office after that. But he said, two years before George W. Bush was elected, the possibility of a Republican president could get him to stay on. No one doubts that he can be re-elected in 2004, and some see him as a successor to Trent Lott as Republican leader.

Group Ratings
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2000	0	29	0	0	93	100	83	86	100	100	100
1999	0	--	0	0	80	--	83	88	96	--	--

National Journal Ratings
	1999 LIB	--	1999 CONS		2000 LIB	--	2000 CONS
Economic	0%	--	83%		27%	--	68%
Social	13%	--	84%		20%	--	78%
Foreign	6%	--	90%		5%	--	86%

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

Election Results
1998 general	Don Nickles (R)	570,682	(66%)
	Don E. Carroll (D)	268,898	(31%)
	Other	20,133	(2%)
1998 primary	Don Nickles (R)	unopposed
1992 general	Don Nickles (R)	757,876	(59%)
	Steve Lewis (D)	494,350	(38%)
	Other	42,197	(3%)

Campaign Finance
1998	Receipts	Receipts from PACs	Expenditures
Don Nickles (R)	$2,718,188	$1,058,146	$2,415,565
Don E. Carroll (D)	$8,619		$8,618