Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D) Elected 1982, 4th term up 2006
Born:	Oct. 3, 1943, El Paso, TX
Home:	Santa Fe
Education:	Harvard U., B.A. 1965, Stanford U., LL.B. 1968
Religion:	United Methodist
Marital Status:	married (Anne)
Elected  Office:	NM Atty. Gen., 1978-82.
Military Career:	Army Reserves, 1968-74.
Professional Career:	NM Asst. Atty. Gen., 1969; Practicing atty., 1970-78.
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Jeff Bingaman, a Democrat first elected in 1982, is New Mexico's junior senator. He has a good political lineage: His father was a professor at Western New Mexico University in Silver City, and his uncle was campaign manager for longtime (1949-73) Senator Clinton Anderson. He graduated from Harvard and Stanford Law School, then returned to New Mexico. A year out of law school, Bingaman was counsel to the state constitutional convention; later he went into law practice in Santa Fe with former Governor Jack Campbell. Bingaman's wife, Anne, started a highly successful law practice of her own that helped finance his first campaigns; she was assistant attorney general for antitrust in the first Clinton term. In a small state, bright young people like Jeff Bingaman can rise fast. He ran for attorney general in 1978 and won; in 1982, he ran against Senator Harrison Schmitt, the former astronaut, also from Silver City, and won with 54%, partly because it was a recession year, but also because of Schmitt's misleading and negative ads.

Bingaman has followed a course in the Senate much like that of Clinton Anderson, who used his influence behind the scenes to great effect but shunned national publicity--so much so that one New Mexico magazine called him ''the invisible senator.'' He is not well known in most of Washington, but has a close relationship with Democratic Leader Tom Daschle and stays on good terms with many senators of both parties. He got seats on two committees of great importance to the state, Armed Services and Energy. On Armed Services he became a protege of Sam Nunn, who created a subcommittee tailored to his interests; in 1997, Bingaman traded his ranking position there for one on the Strategic Forces Subcommittee. From these seats Bingaman has had some say over New Mexico's Los Alamos and Sandia labs.

On the Energy Committee, he became the top-ranking Democrat in 1999. He sparred with Chairman Frank Murkowski over electricity regulation in 1999 and 2000. Then, after Jim Jeffords switched parties, Bingaman became chairman of the Energy Committee in June 2001, with the responsibility of coming up with an energy bill in response to the Bush energy proposals. The House passed an energy bill in August, but Bingaman did not present his own version until September. It ignored the controversial proposal for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and left the issue of raising CAFE auto mileage standards to the Commerce Committee. He wanted to encourage more nuclear energy and reauthorize the Price-Anderson Act, which shields plant operators from liability, to require reporting of emissions from so-called greenhouse gases and to give FERC authority over electricity transmission systems; he said the administration and House version had too much in the way of production incentives and too little on renewable energy and energy efficiency. But the administration approach, including ANWR drilling, seemed to have majority support on the committee and in October he withdrew his bill. Republicans, including New Mexico's Pete Domenici, were furious at this and at Bingaman's and Tom Daschle's decision to bring the issue to the floor without committee consideration--a highly unusual tactic for such complex legislation.

Floor debate began in February 2001 and went on for six weeks. Bingaman was beaten by a 62-38 margin on his proposal to increase CAFE mileage standards in cars and SUVs to 35 miles per gallon but kept his proposal to require that 10% of electricity be produced by renewable energy sources by 2020. Bingaman accepted amendments on pipeline safety and maintained his provisions, opposed by environmental restriction groups, to increase the use of nuclear power and promote research in clean coal technology in New Mexico labs. He got in his provisions to encourage more oil and gas development on Indian reservations. The conference committee was delayed in June, as Bingaman claimed he should be conference chairman because the House side had chaired the conference on the Alaska Power Administration Sale Act in 1995; the House's Billy Tauzin argued that the last relevant conference was in 1992, when the Senate side got the chair, and that he should be chairman, and prevailed. The conferees met periodically, but never reached agreement; the bill died after the November election. Democrats lost their majority, and the new chairman would be Domenici, with Bingaman the ranking minority member--the first time in history senators from the same state held the top two spots on a committee.

In 2001 Bingaman supported the Bush education program except for vouchers, and got several of his amendments added to it--promoting anti-dropout programs, requiring poor schools to inform parents about teachers' qualifications. He opposed the Bush proposal to extend CHIP to unborn children, and put a hold on FDA nominee Mark McClellan and demanded to know his position on the issue. He is a physical fitness buff, and with fellow runner Bill Frist sponsored a bill to combat obesity by providing grants for schools and communities to raise awareness of the importance of exercise and healthy diets. He also co-sponsored a bill, opposed by soft drink and snack food manufacturers, to limit the availability of soft drinks and sweet snacks in schools. Many of his bills have a New Mexico angle. He sponsored a bill to pay up to $125,000 of doctors' loans, to attract specialists to states like New Mexico. He and Kay Bailey Hutchison proposed a Southwest Regional Border Authority to give grants to local communities in the four states on the Mexican border. Bingaman and Harry Reid sponsored provisions in the farm bill to fund acquisition of water rights to protect fish and wildlife and to compensate farmers who make improvements in irrigation efficiency and convert to less water-intensive crops. Bingaman helped to secure $25 million for conservation of the Ogallala Aquifer, which lies under several states including eastern New Mexico. Bingaman and Tom Udall have sought to make Santa Fe, Taos and Rio Arriba counties a National Heritage Area, to provide funding for preservation of cultural sites. Bingaman has pressed for a rider endorsing the settlement of the Sandia Pueblo's land claim on Sandia Mountain; he was opposed on some details by Pete Domenici and Heather Wilson. Bingaman and Domenici worked together to try to overrule a federal court decision ordering the release of water from the Heron Reservoir to protect the silvery minnow.

Bingaman faced his most serious challenge in the Republican year of 1994, when Republican Colin McMillan, a rancher and former assistant Defense secretary, spent over $1 million of his own money and attacked Bingaman's vote for Clinton's 1993 tax increase and for what McMillan said was a vote to increase grazing fees. Bingaman ads boasted of his work on defense conversion, national education standards and education technology. Bingaman won 54%-46%--decisive but not overwhelming. In 2000 he faced former Congressman Bill Redmond, who won the heavily Democratic 3d District in a 1997 special election and then lost to Tom Udall in 1998. Redmond, a former minister with working class roots, called for tax cuts and charged that Bingaman should have worked for forest-thinning earlier. Bingaman talked about bringing high-wage jobs to the state, improving education and expanding access to health care. People heard more of what Bingaman was saying: he spent $2.56 million, Redmond only $639,000. Bingaman won 62%-38%; he lost only six counties and ran 14% ahead of Al Gore.

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DC Office
703 HSOB 20510, 202-224-5521; Fax: 202-224-2852; Web site: bingaman.senate.gov

State Offices
Albuquerque, 505-346-6601; Las Cruces,505-523-6561; Las Vegas,505-454-8824; Roswell,505-622-7113; Santa Fe,505-988-6647.

Committees

• Energy & Natural Resources (RMM).
• Finance: Health Care; Social Security & Family Policy; Taxation & IRS Oversight.
• Health, Education, Labor & Pensions: Children & Families; Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services.
• Joint Economic Committee (10th of 10 Sens.).

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	90	60	88	59	40	62	25	60	17	6	--
2001	90	--	100	75	--	--	7	54	29	--	0

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	68%	--	31%		64%	--	34%
Social	65%	--	32%		82%	--	0%
Foreign	74%	--	14%		74%	--	24%
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 Y 11. Authorize Force in Iraq N 12. Homeland Sec. Dept. Union Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2000 general	Jeff Bingaman (D)	363,744	62%	$2,568,649
	Bill Redmond (R)	225,517	38%	$639,424
2000 primary	Jeff Bingaman (D)	unopposed
1994 general	Jeff Bingaman (D)	249,989	54%	$3,652,899
	Colin R. McMillan (R)	213,025	46%	$1,537,563
Prior winning percentages: 1988 (63%); 1982 (54%)