Rep. Mike Pence (R) Elected 2000, 2d term
Born:	June, 7, 1959, Columbus
Home:	Elwood
Education:	Hanover Col., B.A. 1981, IN U., J.D. 1986
Religion:	Protestant
Marital Status:	married (Karen)
Professional Career:	Practicing atty., 1986-91; Pres., IN Policy Review Fndt., 1991-93; Radio broadcaster, Network Indiana, 1992-99; Host, Pub. Affairs TV, UPN-23, 1995-99.
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Muncie, Indiana, became famous as the "Middletown" that sociologists Robert and Helen Lynd lived in and reported on in 1924-25 and again in 1935, and where a team of sociologists investigated again in 1976-78. The Lynds were attracted to Muncie by its typicalness--"every small city from Maine to California," said Life magazine. But it wasn't exactly: It was a factory town in a country still almost half rural, it was almost entirely Protestant and Northern in a country one-quarter Catholic and one-third Southern. Muncie was more typical in being culturally homogeneous but economically riven. In the 1920s Muncie celebrated its common values and was loath to admit its economic disparities; in the 1930s the latter came out into the open when Muncie, like most of the industrial Midwest, was unionized in what were sometimes violent uprisings. Workers who were joining CIO unions and voting for Democrats fiercely opposed the business elite--local bankers, merchants, executives at General Motors and the Ball family's glass company. Partisan politics took on the sharp, bitter tone of a struggle for wealth between two rival classes whose claims seemed irreconcilable. Echoes of this class-warfare politics reverberate only faintly today. They grow louder with local economic distress, as Muncie suffered years ago in layoffs at GM and more recently when the Ball headquarters moved to Colorado in 1998. And there are higher Democratic percentages in towns with union traditions, like Muncie and Anderson, than in others such as Richmond. But Indiana's late 1990s prosperity, based on high-skill manufacturing, brought something like a political consensus here for tax cuts, trimmed budgets and quiet support of traditional values, with strong support for candidates of either party who agree.

The 6th Congressional District covers most of east-central Indiana. It includes Muncie and Anderson, with their big GM factories, in the north; and Richmond, founded by a major branch of American Quakers and the home of their Earlham College. Suburbs of Fort Wayne and Cincinnati, but none of the cities themselves, are part of the district. Redistricting added some rural counties to the north and south and renumbered the district (it used to be the 2d) and removed parts of Shelby and Johnson Counties outside Indianapolis. The district leans Republican in presidential politics and has been a swing district in some Indiana races.

The congressman from the 6th District is Mike Pence, a Republican first elected in 2000. He grew up in Columbus and graduated from Hanover College and Indiana University Law School, then practiced law; he is an evangelical Christian. Starting before he was 30, he ran as the Republican nominee for this seat in 1988 and 1990 against longtime Democratic Congressman (1975-95) Philip Sharp, then wrote an article after the second contest called "Confessions of a Negative Campaigner," in which he apologized for running negative advertisements. From 1991 to 1993, he was president of the conservative Indiana Policy Review Foundation, a think tank based in Fort Wayne. In 1992, he began broadcasting "The Mike Pence Show," a conservative talk radio program that was syndicated statewide beginning in 1994 until he began his 2000 campaign.

The seat opened up when three-term Republican Congressman David McIntosh challenged Governor Frank O'Bannon. In the six-candidate Republican primary in May 2000, Pence led the second-place finisher, state Representative Jeff Linder, by a solid 44%-24%. Robert Rock, Anderson lawyer and son of former Lieutenant Governor Robert Rock, had a closer contest in the Democratic primary, 30%-23%. The general became complicated when Bill Frazier, a former Republican state senator and four-time losing nominee against Sharp, entered the race as an independent after the primary. All three candidates opposed abortion rights and gun control and supported increased military spending. But Frazier tried to tap into populist sentiment by attacking free trade agreements, supporting a minimum wage increase, touting American energy independence and offering to donate his congressional salary to fund college scholarships. Rock, a former Marine, attacked Pence for not serving in the military (Pence was 13 when the draft was abolished and U.S. troops left Vietnam) and supported tax cuts for middle-income families. Pence called for across-the-board tax cuts, including repeal of the marriage penalty and estate tax, as well as reform of Medicare financing. Pence won 51% to 39% for Rock and 9% for Frazier.

Pence was the only freshman to get a subcommittee chairmanship in 2001: The Small Business panel on Regulatory Reform Oversight. He quickly made his mark as one of the House's more conservative members. He worked with Tom DeLay and conservative Christian groups to pressure the Bush administration to advocate strong support for Israel. He antagonized the business community by voting against the bankruptcy bill because he objected to a provision on abortion. As the only House member to become a plaintiff in the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of campaign finance reform, Pence said that Senator John McCain was "so deep in bed with the Democrats that his feet are coming out of the bottom of the sheets." He was one of 33 House Republicans to vote against final action on President Bush's education bill. His first term was marked by some unwanted notoriety: His sixth-floor Longworth building office was one of three in the House that was shut down in October 2001 after inspectors detected slight traces of anthrax.

Pence was easily reelected in 2002.

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DC Office
1605 LHOB 20515, 202-225-3021; Fax: 202-225-3382; Web site: www.house.gov/mikepence

State Offices
Anderson, 765-640-2919.

Committees

• Agriculture (15th of 27 R): General Farm Commodities & Risk Management; Livestock & Horticulture.
• International Relations (23d of 26 R): International Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Human Rights; Middle East & Central Asia.
• Judiciary (16th of 21 R): Courts, the Internet & Intellectual Property; Crime, Terrorism & Homeland Security.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	5	7	0	13	58	88	59	84	100	100	100
2001	0	--	0	0	--	--	76	96	100	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	7%	--	89%		20%	--	79%
Social	0%	--	81%		0%	--	75%
Foreign	0%	--	97%		0%	--	85%
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 Y 3. Campaign Finance Reform N 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 Y 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	Mike Pence (R)	118,436	64%	$1,214,879
	Melina Fox (D)	63,871	34%	$342,987
	Other	3,346	2%
2002 primary	Mike Pence (R)	unopposed
2000 general	Mike Pence (R)	106,023	51%	$1,106,140
	Robert W. Rock (D)	80,885	39%	$364,888
	Bill Frazier (I)	19,077	9%	$398,999
	Other	2,422	1%

2000 presidential
	Bush (R)	148,415	58%
	Gore (D)	100,231	40%
	Other	5,090	2%
For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Sixth 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 +10
• District Size: 5,572 square miles
• Population in 2000: 675,669; 59.3% urban; 40.7% rural
• Median Household Income: $39,002; 9.7% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 35.0% blue collar; 49.7% white collar; 15.3% gray collar; 13.6% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 93.4% White, 3.8% Black, 0.5% Asian, 0.2% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 0.8% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 1.3% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 16.8% German, 12.7% USA, 7.7% English
• Click here for statewide demographic data.