Sen. Mike Crapo (R) Elected 1998, 1st term up 2004
Born:	May 20, 1951, Idaho Falls
Home:	Idaho Falls
Education:	Brigham Young U., B.A. 1973, Harvard U., J.D. 1977
Religion:	Mormon
Marital Status:	married (Susan)
Elected  Office:	ID Senate, 1984-92, Senate Ldr., 1988-92; U.S. House of Reps., 1992-98.
Professional Career:	Practicing atty., 1977-92.
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Mike Crapo (pronounced CRAY-poe) is a Republican elected to the House in 1992 and the Senate in 1998. He grew up in Idaho Falls, went to Brigham Young University and Harvard Law School, is a faithful Mormon who was named a bishop in the church at 31. He was elected to the state Senate in 1984, at 33, and became state Senate leader in 1988. Crapo ran for the House in 1992 and campaigned against all tax increases, for spending cuts, a balanced budget amendment and the line-item veto--the Contract with America two years early. He won the primary 68%-32%. ''Cowboy Democrat'' J. D. Williams, the state controller, ran on a ''put America first'' stand on industrial policy and trade. Crapo won 61%-35%.

With a self-professed ''passion for reform,'' Crapo became Republican freshman class leader and championed institutional reforms--on discharge petitions, select committees, closed rules, closed committee meetings, open voting--many of which were adopted after Republicans won control in 1994. Like many Republicans, he favored simple, hard-and-fast rules--a balanced budget, term limits, across-the-board discretionary spending cuts (excluding Social Security)--to force tough decisions. He sponsored the deficit reduction lock box bill that passed the House in 1995; he served on Agriculture as it passed the Freedom To Farm Act. He was a founding member of the Congressional Water Caucus and a member of the fabled Congressional Boot Caucus, an informal group of Western lawmakers who wear boots; he is co-chairman of the Congressional Sportsman's Caucus and the Senate Nuclear Cleanup Caucus. His overall voting record has been very conservative, with some exceptions on economics. He opposed NAFTA in 1993 but supported PNTR for China in 2000; he said that opening markets would help China's citizens "realize that there are other ways of governing." In 2002, he voted in favor of trade promotion authority. At the WTO meeting in Seattle, he worked to get China to agree to imports of 1.5 million metric tons of wheat from the Pacific Northwest.

In 1997 Crapo, who prides himself on returning to Idaho Falls to be with his family every weekend, faced a career choice that many House members would like to face. In September Governor Phil Batt announced his retirement and in October Senator Dirk Kempthorne said he would run for governor. Within days Crapo announced he would run for the Senate. His opponent was former Democratic chairman and Boise trial lawyer Bill Mauk. He attacked Crapo for accepting tobacco PAC money; Crapo replied he had stopped taking it some time ago. Idaho, one-quarter Mormon, had never elected a Mormon senator--this time it did. Crapo led in polls by a wide margin and won 70%-28%, carrying every county.

In his first years in the Senate, Crapo became chairman of the subcommittee with jurisdiction over the troubled Superfund program and many EPA programs. In March 2001 he was one of three voting against the brownfields bill in committee, on the grounds that it did not give state governments enough authority over cleanups. On the Agriculture Committee he worked on the farm bill in 2001 and 2002. He was particularly concerned about the provision that would require farmers taking advantage of the conservation program to agree to be bound by federal water standards; he saw this as undermining state water law, and he and Larry Craig introduced an amendment that would not require surrendering of water rights. He was troubled with the bill's dairy provisions, which he said would take money away from Western producers and give it to Eastern dairies. But he favored the more equal treatment of specialty crops, the tripling of the environmental quality incentives program, the increased funding for private grazing land and Craig's Grasslands Reserve Program; ultimately he voted in favor of the bill. In October 2002 he was one of 10 senators protesting the Agriculture Department's use of differential crop loan rates for different oilseeds and the elimination of loans for crambe and sesame seeds. With North Dakota Senator Kent Conrad, he sponsored a bill to pay for telehealth networks.

Much of his legislative work has an Idaho angle. In 1999 he developed Project SEARCH, a $1.3 million program to help cities with less than 2,500 people to apply for federal grants and comply with federal mandates; it was inspired by difficulties encountered by the town of Stanley in Custer County. He opposed reintroduction of grizzly bears to the Bitterroot Mountains and breaching the Snake River dams. He opposed spring drawdowns on lower Snake River dams and wrote a bill to compensate businesses around the Dworshak Reservoir for summer drawdowns to help migrating salmon. He rounded up support from California and Oregon colleagues for a plan that would give Idaho funding for salmon recovery proportionate to that of the Pacific Coast states, but Ted Stevens of Alaska remained resolutely opposed because it gave priority to stocks listed under the Endangered Species Act. He opposed fees at national forests and persuaded his colleague Larry Craig to switch and stand with him. "The grades are in, and the recreation fee demonstration project has flunked in Idaho. We have seen the Forest Service aggressively grow the user fees beyond the original intent of the program." With Harry Reid of Nevada he got the Senate in June 2002 to pass unanimously a bill providing for continuous producton of the American Eagle Silver Bullion Coin by having the Treasury replenish its silver supply on the open market. Blanks for coins are manufactured at the Sunshine Minting in Coeur d'Alene and Idaho's Silver Valley mines produce $70 million of silver per year. He got the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to agree that they would not close grass airstrips on government land without consulting the state.

Crapo announced in April 2001 that he would seek reelection in 2004; he had expressed interest in a federal district judgeship. There is no reason to think he will have serious competition.

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DC Office
239 DSOB 20510, 202-224-6142; Web site: crapo.senate.gov

State Offices
Boise, 208-334-1776; Caldwell,208-455-0360; Coeur D'Alene,208-664-5490; Idaho Falls,208-522-9779; Pocatello,208-236-6775; Twin Falls,208-734-2515.

Committees

• Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry: Forestry, Conservation & Rural Revitalization (Chmn.); Research, Nutrition & General Legislation.
• Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs: Financial Institutions; International Trade & Finance; Securities & Investment.
• Budget.
• Environment & Public Works: Clean Air, Climate Change & Nuclear Safety; Fisheries, Wildlife & Water (Chmn.).
• Small Business & Entrepreneurship.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	10	40	0	6	43	100	54	94	94	87	--
2001	10	--	8	0	--	--	79	100	92	--	80

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	28%	--	71%		24%	--	75%
Social	31%	--	68%		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 *  8. Overseas Military Abortions N  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
1998 general	Mike Crapo (R)	262,966	70%	$1,563,811
	Bill Mauk (D)	107,375	28%	$241,443
	Other	7,833	2%
1998 primary	Mike Crapo (R)	unopposed
1992 general	Dirk Kempthorne (R)	270,468	57%
	Richard Stallings (D)	208,036	43%
Prior winning percentages: 1996 House (69%); 1994 House (75%); 1992 House (61%)