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New Hampshire: Senior Senator Sen. Judd Gregg (R) Last Updated July 25, 2003
Judd Gregg, a Republican, was first elected governor in 1988 and senator in 1992. He grew up in Nashua and was involved in politics early: in 1952, when he was 5, his father Hugh Gregg was elected governor. Hugh Gregg remained a power in presidential primary politics for many years and in 1988 provided crucial backing to George H.W. Bush. Judd Gregg was a student at Columbia during the student riots of 1968, but stayed true to New Hampshire Republicanism; he graduated from Boston University Law School and returned to Nashua and practiced law. In 1978, at 31, he was elected to the Executive Council, which dates to the colonial era and approves state appointments and expenditures. In 1980 he was elected to the House, where he was an eager participant in the Reagan revolution. In 1988, he ran for governor and won handily; he was easily reelected in 1990. In 1992, Gregg ran for the Senate when Warren Rudman retired, and in his taciturn way seemed sure he would win. But the New Hampshire economy had turned sour, and the race turned close. In the September primary he beat a construction company owner by only 50%-38%. In the general, he faced retired businessman John Rauh, who backed the line-item veto and balanced budget amendment and attacked Gregg for opposing abortion rights. Gregg was also attacked for having received a draft deferment in 1969 for bad knees, sleepwalking and severe acne. He won by an unimpressive 48%-45% margin. Gregg is now chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee; he became ranking minority member after Jim Jeffords left the Republican party in May 2001. In 2001 he was the lead Senate supporter of the Bush education bill. He worked with Edward Kennedy on the details; his amendment to allow private school choice in 10 cities was rejected in June 2002 by a 58-41 vote. In November 2001 he and Kennedy and House members John Boehner and George Miller reached a final compromise; it left in place the Bush proposal for annual testing in math and reading from grades three to eight and flexibility for states and school districts; it included allowing disadvantaged students to use federal funds for private tutoring and summer school. Gregg has opposed mandatory funding of special education, but has worked to increase discretionary funding up toward the 40% federal commitment. He points out that federal special education funding increased from $2.4 billion in 1996 to $10.5 billion in 2002. In January 2003 he moved to add $1.5 billion to the $2 billion in increases supported by the Bush administration in 2001 and 2002. In January 2003 he also pushed through an amendment increasing education spending by $5 billion and reducing other discretionary non-military spending by a corresponding amount. On health issues Gregg has worked to reduce the number of uninsured. To do that, he says, "We should ensure a broader choice in health insurance plans, instead of current policies that force employees to buy expensive plans only." He has worked to change FDA procedures. To combat bioterrorism, he has advocated voluntary smallpox vaccination and has called for reduction of what he calls trial lawyer and regulator barriers to the development of safe vaccines. In July 2002 he tried to amend the prescription drug bill to limit medical malpractice awards. He was one of many members calling for extension of unemployment benefits in January 2003. Gregg has been a leader in proposing changes to Social Security. He served on the 1994 Entitlements Commission and in 1995 headed the Senate Republicans' working group on entitlement reform; he drafted a Medicare reform to give seniors more choices, including the current system. In 1998 he served on the CSIS National Commission on Retirement Policy and co-sponsored its Social Security reform, which would put 2% of payroll taxes into mandatory investment accounts, lift minimum benefits levels, raise the retirement age and means-test affluent workers. Gregg has taken on some other causes. After a young woman from Nashua was murdered by a high school classmate who had traced her down through an Internet website, he sponsored with Dianne Feinstein a bill, opposed by banks and many businesses, to ban the sale or display of Social Security numbers. It was not acted on in 2002, and they reintroduced it in 2003. His amendment to end the federal sugar program was beaten 71-29 in December 2001. He has taken a hand in foreign policy in his role as chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the State Department. On environmental issues Gregg has backed reform of the 1872 Mining Act and higher grazing fees. He opposed the 1999 Clinton order closing off 30% of the White Mountain National Forest, and has argued that local communities should have more of a say in forest use. He has procured federal money to buy land to preserve Lake Tarleton, expand the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, and to purchase a conservation easement in the Ossipee Mountains. He was one of six Republicans to vote in January 2003 against the Bush administration's New Source Review rules. He has also used his seat on Appropriations to fund other New Hampshire projects and claims to have gotten $275 million for New Hampshire colleges and universities. He used an appropriations rider to seek patent protection on a drug owned by his alma mater, Columbia, and in a hand-written amendment got $1.4 million for the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce. He got $355,000 to repair the National Weather Radio transmitter on Pack Monadnock Mountain in Peterborough. Gregg has maintained a network of supporters in New Hampshire, but the Gregg organization that was so effective for George H.W. Bush in 1988 was unable to deliver a victory for George W. Bush in the 2000 primary. Gregg played Al Gore in candidate Bush's debate preparation; whether he anticipated Gore's loud sighs in the first debate is not clear. Gregg's standing in New Hampshire seems strong. In 1998 he was opposed by a low-spending Democrat who called him a ''draft dodger'' and a ''wimp'' and who said at one rally that he would like to get Gregg between a dog and a fire hydrant. Gregg won 68%-28%. In December 2002 he announced he would run again in 2004. One possible opponent is state Senator Burt Cohen, who voted for a state income tax and who announced an exploratory committee in early 2003. Gregg seems likely to be the first New Hampshire senator elected to a third term since Norris Cotton in 1968.
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