Rep. Steny Hoyer (D) Elected May 1981, 11th term
Born:	June 14, 1939, New York, NY
Home:	Mechanicsville
Education:	U. of MD, B.S. 1963, Georgetown U., J.D. 1966
Religion:	Baptist
Marital Status:	widowed
Elected  Office:	MD Senate, 1966-78, Pres., 1975-78.
Professional Career:	Practicing atty., 1966-80; MD Bd. of Higher Educ., 1978-81.
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Southern Maryland was first settled by Catholics, the Calvert family of the Lords Baltimore, who founded St. Marys in 1634, not long after Jamestown and Plymouth Rock. Maryland became one of the two great Chesapeake tobacco colonies, and plantation houses were built on every inlet off the broad Potomac and Patuxent Rivers. For years, none of these towns grew much, and even today many people here are directly descended from the old families. This was never puritanical country: Liquor flowed even during Prohibition and slot machines were specifically allowed for years by Maryland law. But tobacco farming is nearing an end here. Still, the area hasn't completely renounced its tobacco heritage: The highlight of the annual Charles County fair remains the crowning of Queen Nicotina. The area's economic base owes much to government installations like the Civil War Point Lookout prisoner-of-war camp and the Patuxent River Naval Complex, where many astronauts got their first training. And now metro Washington and Baltimore are spreading into southern Maryland, with rapid growth in the 1990s in Calvert County south of Annapolis--the fastest growing county in Maryland--and Charles County south of Prince George's County; it is reaching even further south into St. Mary's County, where the first settlers landed in 1634.

The 5th Congressional District of Maryland includes those three counties, plus a large slice of Prince George's--most of the county beyond the Capital Beltway. Its lines were drawn to assure a large black percentage in the adjacent 4th District, but there are also large numbers of blacks in the 5th--30% of the population in 2002--both new suburbanites and descendants of old southern Maryland families. Many of its people live north of Washington, in College Park, home of the University of Maryland, and in Hyattsville, Greenbelt, Beltsville, Laurel and Bowie. The 5th also includes southern Prince George's, from Clinton south, southern Anne Arundel County and all of St. Mary's, Calvert and Charles counties. Historically, this is a Democratic area, but southern Maryland voted heavily for Republican Governor Bob Ehrlich in 2002.

The congressman from the 5th District is Steny Hoyer, a veteran Democrat and now minority whip, who was first elected in 1981. Hoyer was elected to the Maryland Senate in 1966, at 27, just after graduating from law school. He was Senate president from 1975-78, the youngest in Maryland history; he made a misstep running for lieutenant governor on a losing ticket in 1978. But when the 5th District, then entirely in Prince George's, was declared vacant in 1981--after incumbent Gladys Spellman went into an irreversible coma--Hoyer won the special election by edging out Spellman's husband and several other Democrats in the primary and beating a well-financed, competent Republican candidate in the general.

Interestingly, Hoyer is of Danish descent, like the original Prince George. He has fine political instincts, works hard and can speak in an old-fashioned patriotic style that is genuinely moving. A fast riser in Maryland politics, he was also a fast riser in Congress. He excelled at constituency service and soon won a seat on the Appropriations Committee, where he became a key player for the whole D.C. metropolitan area. When Democrats had control, Hoyer chaired the Treasury, Postal Service and General Government Appropriations subcommittee, which oversees several major components of the federal work force and the White House budget. He used the panel to get $6 million for flexiplace telecommuting centers and to roll back benefit contribution rates for federal employees to 1998 levels in 2001. In 2001, he urged the Bush administration to convert 1% of federal pay increase into a "locality pay" adjustment for workers in high cost-of-living areas; Bush declined to do so in 2002.

Hoyer has pushed for funding for Chesapeake Bay cleanup and dredging the Bay for Baltimore harbor; he got into a dispute with Wayne Gilchrest over whether dredging spoils should be dumped near the Bay Bridge. He got the proposed National Harbor resort exempted from further federal review in 1999. Hoyer has worked indefatigably and shrewdly to maintain and increase jobs at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, the Patuxent River Naval Air Station, and the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Indian Head. He uses his Appropriations seat to fund programs and to see that local facilities are suited for them. In summer 2000, he added to the Clinton budget $3 million for the Joint Strike Fighter, $2.5 million for the Force Operational Readiness Combat Simulator, and $7.5 million for a Navy Remote Emitter Simulator. He helped get the Marine Corps chemical and biological warfare team moved to Indian Head in 2000.

Hoyer's voting record is fairly liberal, though less so than when he represented a near-black-majority district in the late 1980s. He broke with party lines by supporting the balanced budget amendment in 1995, but worked hard in 1996 to support Democratic stands on the minimum wage and health insurance portability; he backed NAFTA, GATT, fast track and PNTR with China. He was the chief House sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990; in January 2002, he criticized the Supreme Court for what he considered an overly narrow interpretation of it. He backed the Shays-Meehan campaign finance bill. In June 1999, he helped launch dozens of motions against the legislative appropriation, arguing that the Republican leadership unilaterally rewrote the appropriation bill. He defended raising the president's salary to $400,000 on the ground that the current value of George Washington's salary was $4.6 million. He begged Speaker Dennis Hastert to lobby for the resolution supporting the Bosnia bombing in April 1999, which was defeated 213-213--"one of the most shameful things the House has done since I was a member." In October 2002, he voted to authorize military action in Iraq. As ranking minority member on House Administration, he took the lead in October 2001 in hammering out bipartisan election reform legislation; it passed 362-63 in December 2001. Hoyer and Chairman Bob Ney have worked in a bipartisan manner on other issues as well and especially after September 11. He is a former chairman of the Helsinki commission and has been a champion of human rights around the world. On September 11, 2001, it was Hoyer's idea to have rank and file members stand behind the leadership in front of the Capitol in the evening, when members long-locked in partisan battle sang out together, "God Bless America."

In 1989, Hoyer was elected chairman of the Democratic Caucus, a term-limited position that he left in 1994. When he tried to move up in June 1991, he was beaten for majority whip by David Bonior, who had the support of liberals and committee chairmen, 160-109. He then became chairman of the Democratic Steering Committee and was parliamentarian at the 2000 Democratic National Convention. During much of 2000 he conducted a campaign for majority whip against Nancy Pelosi, all premised on the notion that Democrats would win control of the House. He ran as the candidate with the more moderate voting record, but that contest was mooted by the 2000 election. But in 2001 Bonior, faced with unfavorable redistricting, began running for governor of Michigan; Hoyer and Pelosi both sought to replace him as minority whip. Hoyer argued that he had greater experience in leadership positions and could do a better job of unifying the caucus; he cited his support from such different members as John Dingell, John Lewis and Charles Stenholm. Pelosi had more publicly committed votes going into the October 2001 caucus--100 versus 77--and she won 118-95 (both did less well than predicted, as often happens in secret ballot leadership races).

Looking ahead, it was plain to Hoyer that there might be another whip contest soon. If Democrats failed to win a majority in November 2002, Dick Gephardt might well resign as Minority Leader, which is what happened; if they succeeded in winning a majority, Gephardt would have been in line to be Speaker and Pelosi Majority Leader, leaving the majority whip position open. So Hoyer kept collecting commitments for a race that was likely but not certain to happen. In April 2002 he announced he had 141 pledges of public support from incumbent Democrats; in May he announced he had 19 more. He campaigned widely for Democrats in House races and contributed more than $750,000 to their campaigns. When many Maryland Democrats complained about Kathleen Kennedy Townsend's 2002 gubernatorial campaign, Hoyer in September made an angry speech telling Democrats to "stop apologizing for our candidate." After Gephardt announced his resignation as Leader after the November election, Pelosi was easily elected to replace him; Hoyer was unanimously elected Minority Whip.

Hoyer had no trouble winning reelection in 2002. After the 1992 redistricting, Hoyer had some serious Republican competition; he won by only 53%-44% in 1992. But he increased his margins as the decade went on, and his district was the only one in Maryland substantially unchanged by the 2002 redistricting.

Recent News Coverage
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DC Office
1705 LHOB 20515, 202-225-4131; Fax: 202-225-4300; Web site: www.house.gov/hoyer

State Offices
Greenbelt, 301-474-0119; Waldorf, 301-843-1577.

Committees

• Minority Whip
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• Appropriations (5th of 29 D): Labor, HHS & Education; Transportation, Treasury & Independent Agencies.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	95	87	100	88	43	38	18	42	4	3	0
2001	95	--	100	86	--	--	10	43	9	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	72%	--	27%		74%	--	25%
Social	81%	--	19%		74%	--	19%
Foreign	69%	--	31%		72%	--	26%
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. Limit Patients' Bill of Rights N 3. Campaign Finance Reform Y 4. Ban ANWR Development Y 5. Faith-Based Charities N 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts N		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion N  8. Arm Commercial Pilots N  9. Trade Promotion Authority N 10. Bar Funds for Intl. Court N 11. Authorize Force in Iraq Y 12. Deny Home. Sec. Dept. Union N

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Steny Hoyer (D)	137,903	69%	$1,236,900
	Joseph Crawford (R)	60,758	31%
2002 primary	Steny Hoyer (D)	unopposed
2000 general	Steny Hoyer (D)	166,231	65%	$1,268,702
	Tim Hutchins (R)	89,019	35%	$64,208
Prior winning percentages: 1998 (65%); 1996 (57%); 1994 (59%); 1992 (53%); 1990 (81%); 1988 (79%); 1986 (82%); 1984 (72%); 1982 (80%); 1981 (55%)

2000 presidential
	Gore (D)	139,068	57%
	Bush (R)	101,056	41%
	Other	5,871	2%
For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Fifth 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: D + 8
• District Size: 1,509 square miles
• Population in 2000: 662,060; 75.2% urban; 24.8% rural
• Median Household Income: $62,661; 5.6% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 18.8% blue collar; 68.0% white collar; 13.2% gray collar; 15.4% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 60.4% White, 30.0% Black, 3.7% Asian, 0.4% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 1.9% Two+ races, 0.2% Other, 3.5% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 10.5% German, 9.9% Irish, 8.1% English
• Click here for statewide demographic data.