Sen. Kent Conrad (D) Elected 1986, 3d term up 2006
Born:	Mar. 12, 1948, Bismarck
Home:	Bismarck
Education:	Stanford U., B.A. 1971, George Washington U., M.B.A. 1975
Religion:	Unitarian
Marital Status:	married (Lucy Calautti)
Elected  Office:	ND Tax Commissioner, 1981-86.
Professional Career:	Asst., ND Tax Commissioner, 1974-80; Dir., Mgmt. Planning & Personnel, ND Tax Dept., 1980.
Additional Info
Recent Articles · Offices · Committees · Ratings · Key Votes · Election Results
More On North Dakota
At A Glance · State Profile Junior Senator · Almanac Home

Kent Conrad, North Dakota's senior senator, was first elected in 1986. He grew up in North Dakota; his parents were killed in an auto accident when he was five, and he was raised by his grandparents. One grandfather owned a bi-weekly newspaper in Bismarck and had been North Dakota chairman for Progressive Robert LaFollette in 1924; another was the physician for longtime Governor and Senator William Langer: it was a family full of connections in the small world of North Dakota politics. Conrad's first political effort was to lead, in 1968, a campaign to grant voting rights to 19-year-olds. He graduated from Stanford, and then returned in 1974 to work on Byron Dorgan's unsuccessful House campaign. When Dorgan ran for Congress again in 1980, Conrad ran for tax commissioner and won; when Dorgan declined the opportunity again, in 1986 Conrad ran against Senator Mark Andrews, and won 50%-49%. In 1986 Conrad earnestly promised not to run again unless ''the federal deficit, the trade deficit and real interest rates will be brought under control.'' By 1992 the latter two arguably were, and he could argue that he had worked to cut the budget deficit. Early 1992 polls showed Conrad well ahead, but in April 1992, after ruminating on the issue and after his wife had been mugged and dragged down the street near their Capitol Hill home, Conrad announced he was retiring because he had not kept his pledge, and Dorgan ran for his seat.

Then, in September 1992, the elderly Senator Quentin Burdick, no ally of Dorgan and Conrad, died. State law said a special election had to be held after November but before January, so Conrad ran for this seat while serving his last month in the other. This was awkward, but Conrad's earnestness, on display in more than 1,000 town meetings over six years, helped. He was nominated unanimously at the Democratic state convention. His Republican opponent called for an absurdly expensive $5 per bushel wheat program, and an anti-abortion independent lambasted Conrad; Conrad had far more money and won easily, 63%-34%. For a few hours in December 1992, Conrad held both Senate seats: he was sworn in December 14 to fill Burdick's term, and a few hours later Dorgan was sworn in to fill his. In 1994 this seat came up again. Republican Ben Clayburgh, 70-year-old former head of the state medical association, accused Conrad of voting most of the time with Bill Clinton; Conrad responded with an ad saying he voted with Bob Dole more than 50% of the time. Dole endorsed Clayburgh, but Conrad won by a reduced margin of 58%-42%.

Conrad became ranking minority member on the Budget Committee in January 2001 and chairman in June 2001. Throughout his career he has always called for balanced budgets and decried budget deficits, and he had the pain of watching as chairman while the surplus turned to deficit. From the 1930s to the 1970s, Republicans were the great critics of deficits; since the 1980s Democrats have increasingly taken that stand, Conrad foremost among them. One reason may be that surpluses leave more room for spending, while deficits create pressure against it; as conservative Paul Gigot wrote of Conrad in The Wall Street Journal, "Nobody is better at using the rhetoric of fiscal conservatism to disguise demands for larger government." The tension between Conrad's desire for balanced budgets and support for government programs came out in the mid-1990s debate on a constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget. Conrad voted for such an amendment in 1994. But when his colleague Dorgan pushed an amendment taking Social Security out of the calculations, which would tend to increase deficits, Conrad hesitated, negotiating first in the Republican and then the Democratic cloakroom and emerging to cast the deciding vote against the amendment in March 1995; never since has it come as close to passing. In spring 2001 Conrad worked to get in the budget resolution $73 billion for farm programs over the next 10 years: This left room for the farm bill passed in 2002. But he also called for a continued surplus. Once chairman, he started lambasting the Bush administration and, using his trademark charts (he is known as "the chart man" on Capitol Hill), argued that the tax cut passed in May 2001 and lower than expected revenue would lead to deficits. "This new administration, only six months after assuming responsibility for the fiscal affairs of this country, after grabbing the steering wheel, has driven us right into the fiscal ditch," he said in July 2001. But he did not seek to undo the tax cut. He did threaten to hold back the reserve fund that the May 2001 budget resolution allowed the two Budget Committee chairmen to dole out. In March 2002 Conrad presented a $2.1 trillion dollar budget with a $90 billion deficit; it would pay off more of the national debt than the Bush budget. His plan passed in committee but in the 51-49 Senate there were not enough senators willing to constrain appropriators and Conrad's resolution never came to a vote. For the first time since the Budget Committees were set up in 1974, no budget resolution passed Congress. The Republicans won back a Senate majority in November 2002 and in January 2003 Conrad became ranking minority member again; he is the only Budget chairman never to have passed a budget resolution.

On the Finance Committee, Conrad voted against the Bush tax cut and repeal of the estate tax. He seems likely to oppose changes in Medicare along the lines proposed by John Breaux, and to oppose individual investment accounts as part of Social Security. There is some political risk in these positions: Only one other Democratic senator (Nebraska's Ben Nelson) represents a state that voted by a wider margin for George W. Bush in 2000.

For years North Dakota senators tended closely to the details of farm bills, especially wheat subsidies, and then often voted against the every-four-year farm bills as insufficiently generous. In 2001 and 2002 Conrad worked on putting together a farm bill which abandoned the 1996 Freedom to Farm Act's promise of getting rid of subsidies, a promise undermined by Congress when, starting in 1997, it passed disaster relief for farmers every year. With $73 billion to spend over 10 years, the Senate Agriculture Committee was able to sharply increase the wheat subsidy at the price of increasing cotton and rice subsidies as well. Conrad defended the committee bill. "I know there are people who have cogent arguments that this farm policy encourages overproduction, but that misses the larger reality. We are engaged in a trade war, and it's not pretty. There are going to be unfortunate side effects." He was one of four Senate conferees and helped insure that the bill required country of origin labeling for meat and better treatment of pulses--peas, lentils and other crops planted in rotation on wheat fields. He followed up on implementation of the bill, charging that the "hostile" Agriculture Department wasn't reducing the sugar loan rate as the bill ordered. He didn't give up on further disaster relief, but was pessimistic in December 2002: "It's hard to envision that the drive to reduce domestic spending by billions of dollars in the current fiscal year will allow for the disaster relief that many in agriculture have been hoping for and that some of us in Congress have been pursuing." He and Dorgan welcomed the news that Special Trade Representative Robert Zoellick filed a complaint with the WTO against the Canadian Wheat Board for selling wheat under cost.

North Dakota sits astride North America's longest river, the Missouri, and Conrad has spent much time on water issues. He has worked to maintain high summer levels in Lake Sakakawea and has fought with Missouri senators who want drawdowns to keep barges afloat in their state. He and Dorgan have worked for diversion of Missouri River water to the Red River Valley in eastern North Dakota, which is opposed by Canada, Minnesota and many environmentalists.

Conrad entered the 2000 election with a good job rating. His Republican opponent was Duane Sand, Annapolis graduate and 15-year Navy veteran, who returned to North Dakota and set out running--or rather walking across the state, campaigning door-to-door in every city and town with a post office, about 300 in all. But Conrad spent far more money, $2.3 million, and national Republicans didn't target this race. Conrad ran 29% ahead of Al Gore and won 62%-38%, carrying every demographic group and all but three small counties. His seat comes up in 2006.

Recent News Coverage
Search the CongressDaily, Hotline, National Journal and Technology Daily archives using the form below:

DC Office
530 HSOB 20510, 202-224-2043; Fax: 202-224-7776; Web site: conrad.senate.gov

State Offices
Bismarck, 701-258-4648; Fargo,701-232-8030; Grand Forks,701-775-9601; Minot,701-852-0703.

Committees

• Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry: Marketing, Inspection & Product Promotion; Production & Price Competitiveness (RMM).
• Budget (RMM).
• Finance: International Trade; Long-Term Growth & Debt Reduction; Taxation & IRS Oversight (RMM).
• Indian Affairs.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	95	40	88	53	88	25	15	45	10	6	--
2001	85	--	92	63	--	--	5	50	36	--	40

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	68%	--	31%		59%	--	36%
Social	48%	--	51%		77%	--	18%
Foreign	61%	--	27%		85%	--	12%
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 Y 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts Y		7. $ for Hate Crime Prosecution Y  8. Overseas Military Abortions Y  9. Bar Coop. with Intl. Court Y 10. Trade Promotion Authority N 11. Authorize Force in Iraq N 12. Homeland Sec. Dept. Union Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2000 general	Kent Conrad (D)	176,470	62%	$2,312,543
	Duane Sand (R)	110,420	38%	$399,584
2000 primary	Kent Conrad (D)	unopposed
1994 general	Kent Conrad (D)	137,157	58%	$1,927,866
	Ben Clayburgh (R)	99,390	42%	$941,192
Prior winning percentages: 1992 (63%); 1986 (50%)