Elected 1994, seat up 2006 Born: May 10, 1958, Winchester, VA Home: Penn Hills Education: PA St. U., B.A. 1980, U. of Pittsburgh, M.B.A. 1981, Dickinson Law Schl., J.D. 1986 Religion: Catholic Marital Status: married (Karen)

Career:

• Political: U.S. House of Reps., 1990-94.
• Professional: A.A., PA Sen. J. Doyle 1981-86; Exec. Dir., PA Senate Local Govt. Cmte., 1981-84; Exec. Dir., PA Senate Transportation Cmte., 1984-86; Practicing atty., 1986-90.

DC Office: 120 RSOB 20510, 202-224-6324; Fax: 202-228-0604; Web site: www.senate.gov/~santorum

State Offices: Allentown, 610-770-0142; Altoona,814-946-7023; Erie,814-454-7114; Harrisburg,717-231-7540; Philadelphia,215-864-6900; Pittsburgh,412-562-0533; Scranton,570-344-8799.

Committees:

• Republican Conference Chairman
.
• Aging (Special).
• Armed Services: Airland Forces (RMM); Emerging Threats & Capabilities; Readiness & Management Support.
• Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs: Financial Institutions; Housing & Transportation; Securities & Investment.
• Rules & Administration.

Rick Santorum, a Republican elected in 1994, is the third youngest senator (Peter Fitzgerald and Blanche Lincoln are younger), elected from one of the oldest states, a strong conservative elected in a state that still has many New Deal voters. Santorum is the son of an Italian immigrant who was a clinical psychologist for the Veterans' Administration; he was born in Virginia and moved to Butler, Pennsylvania, at age 7. He started in politics working for John Heinz's first Senate campaign in 1976; he went to Penn State and Pitt business school and worked his way through Dickinson law school as a staffer for state Senate Republicans in Harrisburg; he worked for a blue chip law firm in Pittsburgh for four years. In 1990, at 32, he challenged seven-term incumbent Congressman Doug Walgren, who outspent him $717,000 to $251,000. But Santorum knocked on 25,000 doors, amassed an army of volunteers including many right-to-lifers, attacked Walgren for voting for a pay raise seven times and for living in the Washington suburbs. Santorum opposed the congressional pay raise, backed the line-item veto and came out for limits on PAC contributions. He won 51%-49%.

In the House he had a solid conservative voting record and was one of the ''Gang of Seven'' freshman Republicans who helped expose the House bank scandal. Redistricting gave him a seat shorn of many Republican suburbs and centered on the industrial Monongahela Valley, historically very Democratic. George Bush got only 30% in this new district, but Santorum beat a state senator 61%-38%--an astonishing victory. Brash and confident, Santorum immediately started running for the Senate. His opponent was Harris Wofford, elected in November 1991 to replace John Heinz, who died in a plane crash. Wofford was a civil rights activist in the 1960s, the adviser who persuaded John Kennedy to phone Coretta Scott King when her husband was jailed during the 1960 campaign. Appointed to the Senate by Governor Bob Casey in May 1991, he upset former Governor Dick Thornburgh 55%-45% by emphasizing health care. In the Senate Wofford was politically hurt when the Clinton health care bill failed to pass.

This was a race of sharp contrasts in issues and style: Santorum, brashly eager to chop government, backing medical savings accounts and opposing gun control; Wofford, earnestly working for government health care financing, backing the 1994 crime bill and gun control. Wofford appealed to a long liberal tradition; Santorum scoffed at him for championing 1960s ideas in the 1990s. With home town appeal, Santorum ran behind only 50%-47% in metro Pittsburgh, where Wofford had won 61% in 1991. Santorum did not go over so well in metro Philadelphia, which Wofford carried 54%-42%. But in the rest of the state--where half the votes are cast and where gun control hurt Wofford--Santorum won 55%-41%, for a statewide victory of 49%-47%.

Santorum was not cowed by the traditions of the Senate. In his first full month there he argued about the balanced budget amendment with Robert Byrd, who was elected to the Senate the year Santorum was born. Then, when senior Republican Mark Hatfield cast a decisive vote against the amendment, Santorum called on Hatfield to be removed as Appropriations chairman. Senior senators and Washington insiders tut-tutted. Hatfield wasn't removed, but Senate Republicans changed the rules, limiting chairmen to six years and calling for secret ballot elections of chairmen starting in 1997. Later in 1995 Santorum took to the floor a dozen times with a ''Where's Bill?'' sign, asking where the President's balanced budget was; Democrats were furious. Santorum's reply to those who call him brash: ''I don't run around looking for a fight. I just stand up for what I'm elected to do.''

Santorum's voting record has grown somewhat less conservative over the years, but he still ranks among the more conservative Republicans in the Senate. But he took the lead on important legislation, and on occasion at some political risk. Santorum floor-managed welfare reform to passage three times in 1995 and 1996; the first two times it was vetoed by Bill Clinton, but in August 1996, 13 weeks before the election, Clinton signed it. Santorum has also taken the lead on the partial birth abortion ban. It passed the Senate 64-36 in May 1997--a big gain from 54-44 in 1995--and was vetoed by Bill Clinton; it passed 63-34 in October 1999, and was again vetoed. This was not just a theoretical issue for him: In 1996 he and his wife had to decide what to do when their unborn child had a fatal defect; the baby was born in October 1996 and died two hours later. Santorum was part of the Renewal Alliance: conservative Republicans who want to encourage private sector, especially faith-based, organizations to care for the poor and helpless, even as they repeal government programs originally intended to help them. In early 2001 he was the lead sponsor of George W. Bush's faith-based initiative and charitable tax deduction plan, which was not included in Bush's final tax bill.

Santorum has taken care to support some measures of great importance to labor unions. He backed minimum wage increases in the House and Senate, and supported the steel import quota bill which died in June 1999. He serves on the Agriculture Committee, and got into the 1996 farm bill an amendment helping states' farmland protection programs, which in Pennsylvania covers more than 100,000 acres; he voted for $7.4 billion in farm relief in 1999, the first time he had voted to exceed the budget ceilings. He has proposed a safety net for dairy farmers and opposed the Northeast Dairy Compact. He has sponsored bills putting a $250,000 cap on medical malpractice lawsuits; he was embarrassed in December 1999 when his wife won a $350,000 judgment against her former chiropractor. A spokesman explained, "The senator and his wife, believe it or not, disagree on some issues. This is a case between her and her attorney and her chiropractor. It has nothing to do with Senator Santorum." He supported the compromise organ transplant bill which would have sent organs to the sickest patients instead of those who live closet to the donors; Pittsburgh has one of the country's biggest organ transplant programs. He has sponsored bills to promote telecommuting and sponsored an Internet filtering amendment for libraries. In June 2000 he and Joseph Lieberman sponsored a version of the community renewal bill which would have doubled the spending of the $6 billion program backed by Bill Clinton and Speaker Dennis Hastert.

Perhaps Santorum's greatest gamble has been to propose Social Security reform; Pennsylvania has a high percentage of elderly. In 1999 he came forward with a plan to allow personal retirement accounts, with 4% of earnings up to $18,000 and then 2% up to the Social Security wage limit, to be invested, with limitations, in the stock market; benefits similar to the current system would be guaranteed. Santorum argues that this would enable low- and middle-income workers to accumulate wealth as upper-income workers do already. He argues that having the government invest the funds in the markets, as some Democrats have proposed, would mean that stock market increases would go to other government programs rather than individuals. Far from quailing at this issue, Santorum became co-chairman of Trent Lott's Social Security task force and spoke forcefully for his plan at the December 1998 White House conference on Social Security. While some observers of his 2000 campaign argued that he was becoming more liberal by talking about Social Security, they failed to notice that his proposal differs greatly from liberal orthodoxy--and that he was re-elected nonetheless.

Going into the 2000 campaign cycle, Santorum looked to some to be one of the most vulnerable of the Republican senators elected in 1994. Although Pennsylvania has elected a Democratic senator only once since 1962, it has not had a Republican senator as forthrightly conservative on so many, if not all, issues since the 1950s. A fair-sized field assembled to run in the April Democratic primary for the right to oppose Santorum, but there were some dropouts. Former Congressman Peter Kostmayer, then the Washington head of Zero Population Growth, decided not to run in 1999. Former Congresswoman Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, who switched and cast the decisive vote for the Clinton tax increase in July 1993, left the race in January 2000. That left three major candidates: state Senator Allyson Schwartz, from the Philadelphia suburbs, who formerly headed a women's health clinic; former state Labor Secretary Tom Foley, from Hershey, who ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 1994 and auditor general in 1996; and Congressman Ron Klink, from suburban Pittsburgh and a former anchor on KDKA-TV. Schwartz had backing from feminists and from Philadelphia Mayor John Street; Foley had support from AFSCME and Harrisburg insiders; Klink got support from Allegheny County Democratic leader Leonard Bodack, the United Steelworkers and state Auditor Bob Casey Jr. But this was primarily a regional contest. Pennsylvania's two major metropolitan areas might as well be in two different states. And on cultural issues, Philadelphia area Democrats tend to be strong liberals while Pittsburgh area Democrats are strong conservatives. Klink, who opposes gun control and abortion, had great strength in his home media market; he borrowed $300,000 on his home and put most of his money into Pittsburgh TV, and put a Casey spot up in Scranton. Klink's strategy paid off. Schwartz carried metro Philadelphia with 56%, to 26% for Foley and only 9% for Klink; but the Philly area cast only 27% of the statewide vote. Metro Pittsburgh, which has fewer people but higher turnout and cast 35% of the vote, voted 73% for Klink, with 12% each for Schwartz and Foley. Foley slightly edged Klink in the rest of the state, but that was not enough: Klink won 41% of the vote, to 27% for Schwartz and 25% for Foley.

On paper Klink looked like a strong candidate, with vote-getting appeal in Santorum's home base and conservative issue stands appealing in the huge "T" between metro Philadelphia and metro Pittsburgh. Klink, referring to Santorum's brash first years in the Senate, called him "an absolute embarrassment" and attacked his "public commitments that he wanted to privatize Social Security and that he wants to raise the retirement age to 70 or higher." But Santorum was way ahead in one key respect: money. Santorum had $3.7 million cash on hand after the April primary; Klink had $119,000, with debts of $446,000. And Klink had great difficulty raising more. For Democratic moneygivers in the Philadelphia area, and for that matter in the nation generally, no issues evoke more emotional commitment than abortion and gun control, and on these issues Klink's stands were totally wrong. Not until nearly three months after the primary did Allyson Schwartz agree to be eastern Pennsylvania chairman for Klink; not until July 2000 did the indefatigable fundraiser Bill Clinton come in to make a lukewarm pitch for him. In the meantime, Santorum was running positive ads about his record, campaigning as a "compassionate conservative," emphasizing his ability to work with Democrats like Joseph Lieberman and former Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell. The first Klink ads did not go up until September; he went negative against Santorum, and voters never really heard a positive case for Klink. Santorum concentrated on positive spots, though near the end he ran ads in the Pittsburgh market charging that Klink had been part owner of a bar shut down for illegal gambling and had been the subject of civil lawsuits: "Trouble with the law seems to be a pattern for Klink." In all Santorum spent $10.6 million, Klink $3.6 million. Santorum won 52%-46%. He ran behind in metro Philadelphia 53%-45%, but this 8% margin was far better than Al Gore's 25% margin over George W. Bush there. He ran slightly behind his 1994 showing in metro Pittsburgh, which Klink carried 52%-46%. But in the rest of the state, which cast 46% of the votes, Santorum won a whopping 60%-37% margin, a big improvement on 1994.

Back in Washington, Santorum was elected Republican Conference chairman by a 30-20 margin over Missouri's Christopher Bond.

Group Ratings
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2000	0	14	0	0	26	90	73	93	100	94	92
1999	5	--	0	0	61	--	74	81	88	--	--

National Journal Ratings
	1999 LIB	--	1999 CONS		2000 LIB	--	2000 CONS
Economic	45%	--	54%		0%	--	86%
Social	23%	--	72%		30%	--	68%
Foreign	10%	--	84%		15%	--	84%

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 Y 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
2000 general	Rick Santorum (R)	2,481,962	(52%)
	Ron Klink (D)	2,154,908	(46%)
	Others	98,246	(2%)
2000 primary	Rick Santorum (R)	unopposed
1994 general	Rick Santorum (R)	1,735,691	(49%)
	Harris Wofford (D)	1,648,481	(47%)
	Other	129,189	(4%)

Campaign Finance
2000	Receipts	Receipts from PACs	Expenditures
Rick Santorum (R)	$9,126,046	$1,878,625	$10,616,262
Ron Klink (D)	$3,660,955	$923,833	$3,641,167