Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D) Elected 1976, 5th term up 2006
Born:	Feb. 3, 1933, Salisbury
Home:	Baltimore
Education:	Princeton, A.B. 1954, Rhodes Scholar, Oxford U., B.A. 1957, Harvard, LL.B. 1960
Religion:	Greek Orthodox
Marital Status:	married (Christine)
Elected  Office:	MD House of Delegates, 1966-70; U.S. House of Reps., 1970-76.
Professional Career:	Law Clerk, Judge Morris A. Soper, U.S. 4th Circuit Crt. of Appeals, 1960-61; Practicing atty., 1961-62, 1965-70; A.A., Pres. Kennedy's Cncl. of Econ. Advisers, 1962-63; Exec. Dir., Baltimore Charter Revision Comm., 1963-64.
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Paul Sarbanes, the longest-serving Maryland senator in history, was first elected to the Senate in 1976. His liberalism is rooted in his experience growing up in Salisbury on the Eastern Shore, as the son of a Greek immigrant who owned the Mayflower Grill and taught himself enough on the side to discuss philosophy with his son's Princeton professors. Sarbanes was always interested in politics: As a Princeton student in 1952 he went up to Manhattan with a "Princeton for Adlai" sign and got into the candidate's hotel suite, and as a big firm lawyer in Baltimore he worked on the city Charter Revision Commission. Working with small groups, organizing liberal supporters, he ran for office as an insurgent, and always won. He was first elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1966. In 1970, he challenged an incumbent in the primary and was elected to the U.S. House; another incumbent retired rather than run against him after redistricting in 1972. In 1976, he defeated former Senator Joseph Tydings in the Democratic primary and incumbent Senator Glenn Beall in the general by 59%-41%.

Since then, Sarbanes has been one of the most durable champions of liberal politics: On the Banking Committee, on which he has been ranking Democrat since 1995 and chairman from June 2001 to January 2003, on the Joint Economic Committee, which he chaired from 1991-95, and on Foreign Relations. He was one of just 21 senators who voted against the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. On the financial services deregulation bill, he sponsored an amendment to allow states to issue tougher laws protecting the privacy of depositors and credit card holders than those in the federal bill. On becoming chairman, he worked to promote opt-in clauses, which would prohibit financial institutions from using personal financial information unless the individual affirmatively authorizes it. In October 2001, he got the committee to pass a money laundering bill which was then attached to the anti-terrorism bill which sailed through the Senate with one dissenting vote; he held oversight hearings on the issue in 2002 and called for more aggressive enforcement. He called in October 2000 for investigations of lenders to low-income homeowners who require single-premium credit life insurance. His own approach to investing is conservative: He purchased his first mutual fund in 2000 and since entering Congress has not owned stock.

Sarbanes's first moment in the national spotlight came in 1974 when he served on the House Judiciary Committee and sponsored articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon. Another came in July 2002, when the Senate passed and George W. Bush signed his bill regulating the accounting industry. The issue was raised by the collapse of Enron in late 2001 after the company's accountants approved statements that in retrospect were highly misleading. Sarbanes pursued the issue in his typical fashion. Without seeking publicity and with a minimum of partisan rhetoric, he held 10 hearings on the issue in March 2002, with many points of view represented; despite his liberal reputation, he was careful to listen to arguments made by the accounting industry and large corporations. He postponed a markup in May 2002, when ranking Republican and former Chairman Phil Gramm filed many amendments. But in June he did hold markup hearings, and gained the support on critical issues of Republican Mike Enzi of Wyoming, the only CPA in the Senate. Sarbanes's bill banned accounting firms from selling many, but not all, consulting services to firms for which they did audit work; it limited to five years the time an individual partner could work on one company's books and it set up an accounting regulatory board independent of the SEC. He did not go so far as to require companies to list stock options to executives and employees as expenses. Sarbanes's bill passed the committee 17-4 on June 18. Breaking news about the WorldCom scandal made the bill's prospects on the Senate floor far more favorable, and debate started July 2002. Sarbanes defended his bill and opposed Arizona Senator John McCain's amendment to require expensing of stock options. On July 12, the Senate voted 91-2 to cut off debate and on July 15, the bill passed 97-0. It went to conference committee with a bill passed by the House in April which made lesser changes in the law. With George W. Bush pressing for a bill before the August recess, House Financial Services Chairman Michael Oxley yielded on most provisions, but did get the accounting regulatory board designated as being within the SEC, though independent of its commissioners. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and Democratic campaign strategists probably would have preferred a protracted debate in which they could have portrayed Republicans as defenders of corrupt corporate executives. But Sarbanes preferred to make a law, and did; it was signed July 30.

Sarbanes is the second ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, where he has tilted toward aid for Greece and away from Turkey; he has supported the resolution condemning the Turks for genocidal treatment of Armenians in World War I. He backed renewal of sanctions against Iran and Libya in 2001. In June 2000, he was one of 19 senators to vote to cut most of the funding for the Clinton administration's military assistance to Colombia. He was the only senator to vote against the bill authorizing payment of the U.S.'s United Nations dues; he argued that it was wrong to impose conditions on the UN for payment of dues that were owed: "It's simply unacceptable that the richest nation on earth is also the biggest debtor to the United Nations." He and his Maryland colleague Barbara Mikulski were two of the 15 senators who voted against PNTR in September 2000.

Closer to home, Sarbanes sponsored the reauthorization of the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Act in 2000, which doubled federal spending to $40 million. To help drought-stricken Maryland farmers, he sponsored in 2000 an increase in market loss payments from $75,000 to $150,000. In 2000, he also pushed through a bill to roll back federal employee benefit contribution rates to 1998 levels.

Sarbanes is not a senator who courts publicity; he sponsors few bills and sends out few press releases. He enjoys working on the mechanics of government, but returns every night to his home in Baltimore. When one lobbyist cracked that he had sponsored no major law and "the best he could have hoped for was having a Metro stop named after him," Sarbanes said, "Look, my name was on the first article of impeachment on the president of the United States. Having done that, I don't feel any great compulsion to throw out my name. I keep getting these assignments, you know. The Nixon impeachment. I got Iran-contra. I got Whitewater. I had a role in the Clinton impeachment when it was here." Publicity or no, he has been re-elected without great difficulty four times. His smallest margin was in the Republican year of 1994, when he beat former Tennessee Senator Bill Brock (who beat Albert Gore Sr. in 1970) by a solid 59%-41% margin. At one point, it looked like Sarbanes might face Republican Congressman Bob Ehrlich in 2000. But Ehrlich, after seeing how handily Governor Parris Glendening beat Republican Ellen Sauerbrey in 1998, decided not to run; instead he ran for governor in 2002 and won. Sarbanes won in 2000 by a 63%-37%, running 6% ahead of Al Gore's strong showing.

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DC Office
309 HSOB 20510, 202-224-4524; Fax: 202-224-1651; Web site: www.senate.gov/~sarbanes

State Offices
Baltimore, 410-962-4436; Bryans Road,301-283-0947; Cumberland,301-724-0695; Salisbury,410-860-2131; Silver Spring,301-589-0797.

Committees

• Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs (RMM).
• Budget.
• Foreign Relations: European Affairs; International Economic Policy, Export & Trade Promotion (RMM); Near Eastern & South Asian Affairs.
• Joint Economic Committee (9th of 10 Sens.).

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	100	60	100	94	58	38	10	40	0	0	--
2001	95	--	100	100	--	--	5	36	8	--	0

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	93%	--	0%		90%	--	5%
Social	81%	--	8%		82%	--	0%
Foreign	74%	--	14%		90%	--	8%
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 N 2. Expand Patients' Rights Y 3. Campaign Finance Reform Y 4. Permit ANWR Development N 5. Confirm Ashcroft as AG N 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts N		7. $ for Hate Crime Prosecution Y  8. Overseas Military Abortions Y  9. Bar Coop. with Intl. Court N 10. Trade Promotion Authority N 11. Authorize Force in Iraq N 12. Homeland Sec. Dept. Union N

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2000 general	Paul Sarbanes (D)	1,230,013	63%	$1,837,286
	Paul H. Rappaport (R)	715,178	37%	$146,866
2000 primary	Paul Sarbanes (D)	384,748	83%
	George English (D)	45,984	10%
	Sidney Altman (D)	31,502	7%
1994 general	Paul Sarbanes (D)	809,125	59%	$2,767,187
	William Brock (R)	559,908	41%	$3,201,650
Prior winning percentages: 1988 (62%); 1982 (64%); 1976 (59%); 1974 House (84%); 1972 House (70%); 1970 House (70%)