National
Journal Group
Learn more about our publications and sign up for a free trial.
E-Mail Alerts
Get notified the moment your favorite features are updated.
Need A Reprint?
Click here for details on reprints, permissions and back issues.
Advertise With Us
Details on advertising with National Journal Group -- both online and in print -- can be found in our online media kit.
Go Wireless
Get daily political updates on your handheld computer.
|
Colorado: Senior Senator Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R) Last Updated July 14, 2003
Ben Nighthorse Campbell is the only Native American in the Senate--only the eighth to serve in Congress, and a former Democrat who switched to the Republican Party in March 1995. Campbell had a rough early life: He was placed in an orphanage, dropped out of high school, joined the Air Force and served in the Korean War. He studied judo for four years in Japan and was captain of the 1964 U.S. Olympic judo team; he carried the American flag in the opening ceremonies. He settled not in a trendy ski resort but in the small town of Ignacio, on the plain below Durango, near the New Mexico border, where he bred horses and built a successful jewelry-making business. He is one of the 44 chiefs of the Northern Cheyenne tribe and attends tribal ceremonies; in November 2002, he reburied in the Northern Cheyenne lands in Montana remains of his great-grandfather Black Horse, a chief who in the 1870s escaped twice from federal custody in Oklahoma and returned to Montana--this was made possible by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, which he himself sponsored. "The guy was flat tough," Campbell said. "Sometimes that's where I think I get my saltiness." Campbell is a distinctive figure on Capitol Hill, with his neck scarves, pony tail, Western-cut sport coats and Levi's Sta-Prest pants, riding a motorcycle (he owns eight of them) as he did in a parade at the 1996 Republican National Convention, or riding a horse wearing full Indian headdress as he did at the 1993 Presidential Inaugural Parade. He worked his way through college driving trucks, and renewed his trucker's license in time to truck in the 2000 Capitol Christmas tree. There are medicine bags on the walls of his Senate office, a carved gourd rattle on the coffee table, a ceremonial pipe on the desk, a shovel used in the groundbreaking of the National Museum of the American Indian leaning against a wall. His Indian headdress has 75 feathers, one for each of his wins in judo. Campbell got into politics serendipitously. One day in 1982 his plane was grounded and he attended a Democratic Party meeting for a friend being nominated for sheriff; Campbell spoke briefly and was soon drafted to run for the legislature. He spent $13,000 of his own money and won. In 1986, he ran for Congress and beat a Republican incumbent who had personal financial problems. In the House, he had a moderate record, showing more interest in economic growth than in preserving the environment. In 1992, when Senator Tim Wirth retired, Campbell plunged into the race. In the primary, he faced former Governor Dick Lamm, an environmentalist and opponent of immigration, who once said the terminally ill have a ''duty to die.'' Campbell, with backing from the Western Slope and other non-upscale areas, beat the Denver-based Lamm 46%-36%. In the general election, Campbell faced former state Senator Terry Considine, who started the national term limits movement in Colorado. In the weeks before his election, Campbell kept with him a ceremonial eagle feather tuft and Northern Cheyennes held a series of ritual ceremonies and prayer meetings on his behalf. With support from the active Colorado Perot organization, and with the help of his moderate record, Campbell won 52%-43%--even as Bill Clinton was carrying Colorado. In the Senate, Campbell criticized Clinton's stands on grazing fees and Mining Act revision. Then, in March 1995, the day after the balanced budget amendment failed in the Senate by one vote, he switched parties. He acted partly out of irritation with Denver area liberals, for their environmental stands and also maybe their penchant for reform: He was upset when he was denied an exemption from congressional income limits on his jewelry making, even though book royalties and investment income are exempted. As a Republican, he switched on some issues--the partial-birth abortion ban, oil-drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR), the assault weapons ban. But he continued to support labor unions' positions on many issues, and his voting record on economic and cultural issues has been near the middle of the Senate. Campbell has chaired or been ranking member on the Indian Affairs Committee since 1997, and started legislating on Indian issues before that. He co-sponsored the 1989 law authorizing the National Museum of the American Indian on the Mall in Washington, and in 1999 broke ground for the building. But he insists that "I'm Colorado's senator, not the Indian senator-at-large," and opposes changing the name of Columbus Day. He says that high unemployment is the Indians' top problem, and says gaming (gambling) is a major part of the answer. He defends Indian gaming as not being infiltrated by organized crime, as being sufficiently regulated and notes that federal authorities approve contracts. Citing author Hernando de Soto's argument that property rights have to be secure for Third World citizens to work their way out of poverty, he has called for an updating of Indian property laws and has sponsored bills to scale back requirements of approval by the Secretary of the Interior for contracts and mineral leases by tribes and to exempt tribes from the Davis-Bacon Act. In 2000, he passed laws setting up a Indian Tribal Regulatory Reform and Development on Indian Land Commission, providing for Indian land consolidation, addressing probate leasing and transfer of fractionated allotments, and reforming Indian probate law with a uniform national rule. He has worked to develop the Strategic Plan required by the 1994 Indian Trust Fund Reform Act and to establish a Tribal Leaders Trust Fund Task Force so that tribal leaders will be consulted on an issue that has generated lengthy and acrimonious litigation. In 2001, he secured a memorial designation for the site of the 1864 Sand Creek massacre in Colorado. Campbell has often found himself at odds with environmental restriction groups. "Environmental fanaticism is at the top of my list of concerns," he once wrote. He has worked for years to create the Animas-LaPlata water project in his home area. This, the last major western dam under consideration, has been scaled back and repackaged as an attempt to settle the water rights claims for the Southern Ute tribe and appears to be moving ahead. He has strongly backed oil drilling in ANWR; he traveled there and talked with the Inupiat in Kaktovik, who favored it too. He criticized Denver regional EPA officials for badmouthing the Bush administration's Clear Skies Initiative. He has long backed logging to thin national forests and warned in May 2002 that failure to do so could lead to devastating forest fires, just a month before the catastrophic Colorado fires. But he also worked to upgrade the Black Canyon of the Gunnison to National Park status. He voted against storage of nuclear waste in Nevada's Yucca Mountain, saying he was concerned about waste-laden trucks on Colorado roads. He passed a law setting up a task force on catastrophic cattle diseases like hoof and mouth. After Colorado Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo called for an INS investigation of Jesus Apodaca, a straight-A student who was featured in an article about the eligibility of illegal aliens for in-state tuition, Campbell introduced a bill for amnesty for Apodaca and his family. Campbell was re-elected in 1998, the first Colorado senator to seek re-election since 1984 and the first Coloradan to have been elected in two different parties since Henry Teller in 1903. It was a little bumpy along the way. Western Slope Congressman Scott McInnis, who believed Campbell would run for governor, had raised $850,000 for a Senate race, and vowed to run anyway; national Republican leaders, eager to protect a party-switcher, persuaded him to withdraw in October 1999. A conservative got 43% against Campbell in the Republican state convention, but national Republicans backed him and he won the primary 71%-29%. In the general election, Campbell received spirited opposition from Dottie Lamm, wife of his 1992 primary opponent and for 17 years a Denver Post columnist. Lamm ran an ingenious ad campaign hitting Campbell for his flip-flops on issues from gay rights to campaign finance reform to ANWR. Campbell countered with radio ads of a clock repairman discussing Lamm's columns--17 years of potentially controversial material!--with his wife. As he read words questioning organ transplants to seniors and life support for the smallest premature babies, the listener suddenly heard, ''Cuckoo, cuckoo.'' Lamm carried little more than the liberal base in a state mostly trending conservative--Denver, Boulder, Aspen, Telluride--and not by wide margins. Campbell swamped her in rural areas and in the Denver suburbs, and won 62%-35%. Campbell comes up for reelection in 2004; amid speculation that he was angling to become chief executive officer of the U.S. Olympic Committee, he said, "Hell, everybody knows I'm running for reelection." Campbell had already bought a $160,000 50-foot tractor-trailer to use as a mobile campaign office. One small drawback: In 1999, he decided to invest $240,000 of campaign money in the stock market; he pulled out two years later, with half of it gone. Possible Democratic opponents include 2d District Rep. Mark Udall and Denver Mayor Wellington Webb (both mulled running against Senator Wayne Allard in 2002), and state Attorney General Ken Salazar and Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter. All may run if Campbell does not, and in that case, possible Republicans include 3d District Rep. Scott McInnis, 6th District Rep. Tom Tancredo and Governor Bill Owens. Footnote: Campbell's son Colin is married to his colleague Wayne Allard's niece Karen.
Recent News Coverage
DC Office State Offices Committees
National Journal Group offers both print and electronic reprint services, as well as permissions for academic use, photocopying and republication. Click here to order, or call us at 877-394-7350. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NEW FEATURE
[ Site Index | Staff | Privacy Policy | E-Mail Alerts ]
[ Reprints And Back Issues | Content Licensing ]
[ Make NationalJournal.com Your Homepage ]
[ About National Journal Group Inc. ]
[ Employment Opportunities ]
Copyright 2013 by National Journal Group Inc.
The Watergate · 600 New Hampshire Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20037
202-739-8400 · fax 202-833-8069
NationalJournal.com is an Atlantic Media publication.
