Sen. Larry Craig (R) Elected 1990, 3d term up 2008
Born:	July 20, 1945, Midvale
Home:	Payette
Education:	U. of ID, B.A. 1969
Religion:	United Methodist
Marital Status:	married (Suzanne)
Elected  Office:	ID Senate, 1974-80; U.S. House of Reps., 1980-90.
Military Career:	Army Natl. Guard, 1970-74.
Professional Career:	Rancher, farmer.
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Larry Craig was first elected to the Senate in 1990. Born on a ranch homesteaded by his grandfather in 1899, he was first elected to the state Senate in 1974, at 29, and to the U.S. House in 1980, at 35. In 1990, when Senator James McClure retired, he was elected to the Senate. Throughout his career he has had a very conservative voting record and has been a well-informed and persistent critic of Western lands policies favored by environmentalists or, as he says, ''environmental extremism.'' In the Senate he became chairman of the informal conservative Steering Committee, whose members seemed to win most of the leadership positions. After Kansas Senator Bob Dole's resignation in June 1996, Craig became chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, the number four leadership position. He was, Idaho reporter Dan Popkey wrote, ''poised to become the fourth face on Idaho's Mount Rushmore, joining Senators William Borah, Frank Church, and Jim McClure."

Craig has used his seats on the Appropriations, Agriculture and Energy committees to fight for what he considers sensible environmental policies. He opposed Bill Clinton's efforts to revise the Mining Act of 1872 and increase grazing fees and the Clinton proposal to introduce grizzly bears into Idaho's Bitterroot Range. He opposed expansion of the Craters of the Moon National Monument, and sponsored a bill to create certain requirements for presidents to declare national monuments, as Clinton frequently did. He is against breaching the Snake River dams to allow salmon to swim more easily upstream and sponsored a bill to require the Fish and Wildlife Service to consider many factors, including the effect on farming, when it makes decisions on salmon protection programs.

Craig is chairman of the Public Lands and Forests Subcommittee and seems engaged in a long-term battle to change the policies and institutional culture of the Forest Service. In the wake of the summer 2000 wildfires that raged in Idaho, he strongly criticized the Clinton administration for failing to fund fire prevention and, with New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici, called for $240 million for federal agencies to remove timber and brush. He sponsored a reorganization bill to streamline planning procedures, limit court challenges to local people who commented during the planning process, and forbid deviations from the plan once adopted. It would allow states and private organizations, with congressional approval, to take over management of National Forest and Bureau of Land Management lands. He opposed the Clinton proposal to ban construction of roads in national forests and supported the Bush administration's 2002 proposal to give regional managers power to approve commercial or recreational use without protracted environmental impact statements. He favored the Bush Healthy Forest Initiative streamlining approval of forest thinning. Craig keeps up with even the most arcane of resource issues. In October 2002 he sponsored a bill to authorize the Forest Service to study silver-based biocides as wood preservatives. In November 2002, following up on his 1996 Plant Protection Act, which blocks the importation of noxious weeds and plant pests, he introduced a bill to create a noxious weed office in the Interior Department; he says that some scientists believe that noxious weeds are the second greatest threat to endangered species.

Another Craig cause is nuclear waste. He has been pushing relentlessly for the government to meet its commitment to establish a permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Opposition came from Nevada's two senators and from Clinton, who carried Nevada twice by narrow margins after promising to veto bills to establish a temporary waste facility there. In July 2002, Craig's efforts came to fruition: George W. Bush signed a resolution establishing the repository. In March 2002 he inserted into the energy bill a Nuclear Power 2010 program for the Energy Department; noting the lead role of Idaho in nuclear power, he said that the U.S. should consider moving toward more use of nuclear power.

Craig has taken on a variety of national issues. He was a lead sponsor of the constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget in the House in 1982 and in the Senate in 1995. The high-water mark for this measure came in early 1995, when it passed the House with 300 votes and came within one vote of the required two-thirds margin in the Senate. He has supported free trade measures but was co-sponsor with Minnesota Senator Mark Dayton in May 2002 of the amendment to trade promotion authority which would allow Congress to separately examine provisions of any trade agreement that affect trade remedy laws; in effect this would block the president from negotiating such changes. Craig has opposed what he considers dumping of Korean microchips (Micron is Idaho's biggest employer) and Canadian softwood lumber, particularly after the expiration of the Canadian Softwood Lumber Agreement in March 2001. Craig-Dayton passed 61-38, but George W. Bush indicated he would veto the bill if it stayed in, and it was dropped in conference committee. He was one of the leaders in the gun control debate in the Senate in 1999, sponsoring a measure to allow (but not force) unlicensed sellers at gun shows to conduct background checks. In July 2002 he, John McCain, Edward Kennedy and Charles Schumer were an "odd duck" coalition sponsoring a bill to improve the National Instant Check background check system; they want to make sure that it includes all those convicted of crimes or otherwise ineligible to buy guns.

Craig has been part of a group of conservatives who took over party leadership positions in the 1990s. He was elected chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, the number four position, in June 1996. He was often a conduit between Majority Leader Trent Lott and Republican conservatives. In December 2000 Craig was challenged for the Policy Committee leadership by the more senior and more conciliation-minded Pete Domenici--one of two serious leadership challenges after Senate Republicans had seen their 54-46 majority converted by the 2000 elections to a 50-50 tie. Craig just barely prevailed, by a 26-24 margin. The Policy chairmanship is term limited, and Craig had to leave the position after the 2002 election; he considered running for whip in the fall, but evidently became convinced that Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell had the votes and did not run. He was always a strong supporter of Lott, and after his remarks at Senator Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party he talked often with him. "In the beginning, I said, 'I accept Trent Lott's apology and I think it's time we move on,'" he told a reporter after Lott stepped down. "But I was saying to Trent all along as this developed, 'Trent, this is rapidly not about you. It's become about our party, leadership, the United States Senate and, ultimately, the presidency."

On Idaho issues, he sponsored a bill to transfer 10 acres of land in the Sand Mountain Wilderness Study Area to the Sand Hills Resort with Congressman Mike Simpson; with Congressman Butch Otter, he sponsored a bill to correct an erroneous 1880 public land survey that put a cloud on the titles of owners of land around Spirit Lake and Twin Lakes in Kootenai County.

Craig won the seat relatively easily in 1990, with 59% in the primary against Attorney General Jim Jones and with 61% in the general. In 1996 and 2002, self-financing millionaires opposed him. In 1996 building materials tycoon Walt Minnick spent $945,000 of his own money and attacked Craig sharply for backing Governor Phil Batt's nuclear waste compact. Craig responded by rafting down the river with his family and running ads predicting toxic desolation if the nuclear waste compact was not carried out. Craig won 57%-40%, losing only three counties. In 2002 he was opposed by retired investment banker Alan Blinken, who owned a house in Sun Valley for 10 years and registered to vote there in 2001. Clinton had appointed Blinken Ambassador to Belgium and so he had many points against him: Former investment banker, Clinton appointee, recent New Yorker. Some thought it a liability that he is Jewish, but Idaho can not easily be tarred as anti-Semitic: This was the first state to elect a Jewish governor, Moses Alexander, in 1914, and when Idaho was embarrassed by the doings of an Aryan Nations compound near Coeur d'Alene, citizens responded with a $6.3 million jury verdict for the assault of two people. Blinken did not shy away from such criticism. He boasted that he owned eight pistols, eight rifles and eight shotguns, "and I use them all. I'm a gun-totin' Idaho Democrat."

Blinken said he could bring "good paying" jobs to Idaho and attacked Craig for voting in favor of certain interests shortly after receiving campaign contributions from them. He took umbrage at a Craig press release hailing a new business coming to Idaho that Blinken said he had recruited. Craig defended his votes as being in line with long-held principles and on many issues said that Blinken's stands showed he doesn't understand life in Idaho. Blinken spent over $1.5 million of his own money plus $650,000 contributed by others, but Craig spent more than $3 million and Idaho did not drift far from its usual voting habits. Craig won 65%-33%; he carried 43 counties and Blinken carried the county that includes Sun Valley.

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DC Office
520 HSOB 20510, 202-224-2752; Fax: 202-228-1067; Web site: craig.senate.gov

State Offices
Boise, 208-342-7985; Coeur d'Alene,208-667-6130; Idaho Falls,208-523-5541; Lewiston,208-743-0792; Pocatello,208-236-6817; Twin Falls,208-734-6780.

Committees

• Aging (Special) (Chmn.).
• Appropriations: Agriculture & Rural Development; Energy & Water Development; Homeland Security; Labor, HHS & Education; Military Construction; VA, HUD & Independent Agencies.
• Energy & Natural Resources: Energy; Public Lands & Forests (Chmn.); Water & Power.
• Judiciary: Administrative Oversight & the Courts; Constitution, Civil Rights & Property Rights; Crime, Corrections & Victims' Rights; Immigration, Border Security & Citizenship.
• Veterans' Affairs.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	5	25	0	6	43	100	60	90	100	94	--
2001	0	--	0	0	--	--	82	100	96	--	100

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	0%	--	94%		0%	--	94%
Social	0%	--	79%		0%	--	62%
Foreign	7%	--	72%		24%	--	67%
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. Expand Patients' Rights N 3. Campaign Finance Reform N 4. Permit ANWR Development Y 5. Confirm Ashcroft as AG Y 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts Y		7. $ for Hate Crime Prosecution N  8. Overseas Military Abortions *  9. Bar Coop. with Intl. Court Y 10. Trade Promotion Authority Y 11. Authorize Force in Iraq Y 12. Homeland Sec. Dept. Union N

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Larry Craig (R)	266,215	65%	$3,045,521
	Alan Blinken (D)	132,975	33%	$2,170,928
	Other	9,354	2%
2002 primary	Larry Craig (R)	unopposed
1996 general	Larry Craig (R)	283,532	57%	$2,992,451
	Walt Minnick (D)	198,422	40%	$2,140,878
	Other	15,279	3%
Prior winning percentages: 1990 (61%); 1988 House (66%); 1986 House (65%); 1984 House (69%); 1982 House (54%); 1980 House (54%)