Rep. Bud Cramer (D) Elected 1990, 7th term
Born:	Aug. 22, 1947, Huntsville
Home:	Huntsville
Education:	U. of AL, B.A. 1969, J.D. 1972
Religion:	Methodist
Marital Status:	widowed
Military Career:	Army, 1972; Army Reserves, 1976-78.
Professional Career:	Instructor, U. of AL Law Schl., Dir., Clinical Studies Program, 1972-73; Madison Cnty. Asst. Dist. Atty., 1973-75; Practicing atty., 1975-80; Madison Cnty. Dist. Atty., 1981-90; Founder, Natl. Children's Advocacy Ctr., 1985.
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Twice this century, the federal government has transformed the northern Alabama counties along the Tennessee River. The first time was when it created the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933. Proposed by Nebraska Senator George Norris, a favorite of President Franklin Roosevelt, TVA took the World War I federal munitions plant at Muscle Shoals on the unnavigable Tennessee River, and built a series of dams to control flooding and produce cheap hydroelectric power. This was backwards country then: Poor white farmers scratched an existence out of hardscrabble land, were housed in shacks without electricity or running water, and lived off a diet that produced pellagra and rickets. The TVA was intended to showcase what an enlightened, generous federal government could do. The second major federal project here was the space program. After the Soviets put up Sputnik in 1957, the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville became the nation's major missile development center--the first of the large U.S. ballistic missiles were developed here. NASA built its Marshall Space Flight Center nearby in the 1960s and the Huntsville-Decatur area achieved high-tech critical mass. The Boeing research center here has been a prime contractor for the space station, which--after surviving a legislative funding battle by one vote in 1993--has remained a major project of NASA. Boeing also produces its Delta IV booster out of its local factory in Decatur. With the formation of the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command in 1997, recent years also have seen the growth of the Army's Redstone Arsenal. All of this helps to explain why Huntsville-centered Madison County has been booming and is the third-largest in Alabama; the population of several suburbs nearly doubled in the 1990s.

The 5th Congressional District takes in most of the state's TVA and space counties. TVA and the space program were primarily Democratic projects, and for years most voters here were staunch New Deal Democrats, liberal on economics and not much interested in race, like the longtime Senator John Sparkman, the party's vice presidential nominee in 1952. But professional and technical people in the space business tend to combine high-tech and traditional values, and this made much of northern Alabama marginal-to-Republican country in the 1990s. This district has never elected a Republican to Congress, but it has voted Republican for president since the departure of Jimmy Carter, and in the mid-1990s, it had seriously contested congressional elections. Fenced in by borders on three states, the district was barely changed by redistricting.

The congressman from the 5th District is Bud Cramer, a Democrat first elected in 1990. He was born in Huntsville, served as an Army tank officer after law school, and beat the incumbent district attorney in 1980, at 33. In 1985, he set up the Child Advocacy Center, a child-friendly environment for abused children; as congressman, he set up a $5 million federal program to encourage such centers across the country in more than 500 programs across the nation in what is known as the National Children's Alliance. "We are the Mayo Clinic there in Huntsville of child abuse," he boasted. When Congressman Ronnie Flippo ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1990, Cramer ran for Congress. He won the general election by a 2-1 margin.

In the House, Cramer has been a tireless booster of the beleaguered Space Station and a leading advocate of a spending boost for missile defense. In the TVA tradition, he supported the Democratic leadership on key issues. But his votes for the Clinton budget and tax package in 1993 and for the Clinton crime bill with its gun control provisions were unpopular locally, and were seized upon by Republican Wayne Parker in 1994. Cramer outspent Parker, and he had support from the local media. But the issues worked against him, and he barely won, 50%-49%. Since then, Cramer has avoided liberal votes on visible issues. He won a 56%-42% rematch against Parker in 1996, and his reelection problems have disappeared since then. With his seat on Appropriations, he has successfully pursued a nonpartisan approach of federal dollars and contracts. In 2001, the 5th District received $7.9 billion from Washington, among the top 60 districts nationwide. The September 11 attacks provided an additional financial boost: Cramer got $23 million for bomb squad training at the Redstone Arsenal.

Cramer's overall voting record remains in the middle of the House. But he has voted conservative on key issues, ranging from the Republicans' impeachment inquiry of Bill Clinton to the ban on partial-birth abortions and needle exchanges. In 2001, he was one of only four Democrats voting both to repeal the Clinton ergonomic standards and to approve George W. Bush's income tax cuts.

After the 2000 election, Cramer was said to be under consideration for a job in the Bush administration. But he also was touted as a possible challenger to Jeff Sessions in the 2002 Senate campaign. In May 2001, he said he wouldn't run for the Senate. Cramer has been strikingly coy about persistent rumors that he might switch parties. Both before and after the 2002 election, his standard response has been, "I don't plan on switching parties right now," or, "at this time." Amid this speculation, Democratic leadership gave him a seat on the Intelligence Committee. So far, Cramer has skillfully played off the two parties to the benefit of both his district and his own political career.

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DC Office
2368 RHOB 20515, 202-225-4801; Fax: 202-225-4392; Web site: www.house.gov/cramer

State Offices
Decatur, 256-355-9400; Huntsville, 256-551-0190; Tuscumbia, 256-381-3450.

Committees

• Appropriations (17th of 29 D): Commerce, Justice, State & Judiciary; District of Columbia; VA, HUD & Independent Agencies.
• Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (6th of 9 D): Human Intelligence, Analysis & Counterintelligence; Technical & Tactical Intelligence (RMM); Terrorism & Homeland Security.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	45	20	67	50	0	62	36	80	56	47	67
2001	45	--	40	29	--	--	40	82	65	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	52%	--	48%		51%	--	48%
Social	46%	--	55%		49%	--	50%
Foreign	56%	--	41%		51%	--	49%
For National Journal's complete 2002 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 107th Congress (More Info)
1. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 2. Limit Patients' Bill of Rights N 3. Campaign Finance Reform Y 4. Ban ANWR Development N 5. Faith-Based Charities Y 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts Y		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  8. Arm Commercial Pilots Y  9. Trade Promotion Authority N 10. Bar Funds for Intl. Court Y 11. Authorize Force in Iraq Y 12. Deny Home. Sec. Dept. Union Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Bud Cramer (D)	143,029	73%	$770,032
	Stephen Engel (R)	48,226	25%	$13,593
	Other	3,916	2%
2002 primary	Bud Cramer (D)	unopposed
2000 general	Bud Cramer (D)	186,059	89%	$512,728
	Alan Barksdale (LIB)	22,110	11%
Prior winning percentages: 1998 (70%); 1996 (56%); 1994 (50%); 1992 (66%); 1990 (67%)

2000 presidential
	Bush (R)	131,608	54%
	Gore (D)	106,685	44%
	Other	5,241	2%
For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Fifth District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: R + 6
• District Size: 4,689 square miles
• Population in 2000: 635,300; 59.4% urban; 40.6% rural
• Median Household Income: $38,054; 12.5% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 29.6% blue collar; 57.1% white collar; 13.3% gray collar; 14.0% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 77.7% White, 16.9% Black, 1.0% Asian, 0.9% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 1.4% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 2.0% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 16.1% USA, 8.0% Irish, 7.6% English
• Click here for statewide demographic data.