Sen. Jack Reed (D) Elected 1996, 2d term up 2008
Born:	Nov. 12, 1949, Providence
Home:	Cranston
Education:	U.S. Military Acad., West Point, B.S. 1971, Harvard U., M.P.P. 1973, J.D. 1982
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	single
Elected  Office:	RI Senate, 1984-90; U.S. House of Reps., 1990-96.
Military Career:	Army, 1967-79; Army Reserves, 1979-91.
Professional Career:	Assoc. Prof., U.S. Military Acad. at West Point, 1978-79; Practicing atty., 1982-90.
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Jack Reed, Rhode Island's senior senator, was elected to the House in 1990 and the Senate in 1996. He grew up in working-class Cranston, the son of a school custodian; he graduated from West Point, served in the 82d Airborne, got a degree at Harvard's Kennedy School, then taught at West Point. In 1979 he retired from the Army and went to Harvard Law School. He practiced law briefly in Washington and then in Providence. In 1984, at 35, he beat an incumbent in the primary for state Senate, where he served for six years, was close to the party leadership and built a good reputation. When Republican Claudine Schneider left the House to run against Senator Claiborne Pell in 1990, Reed ran for the House seat, overcoming several better-known candidates in the primary, and winning with 59% over Save the Bay Executive Director Trudy Coxe in the general.

Reed compiled a substantially, though not quite totally, liberal record in the House. On the Education and the Workforce Committee he worked for the Goals 2000 Act and on reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. He tried to amend the 1996 welfare act to have block grants increase when national unemployment is more than 6%. On local issues, Reed worked for the freight rail connection at the Quonset Point port and introduced legislation to require indelible country-of-origin markings on foreign-made jewelry and jewelry boxes; Rhode Island's jewelry industry produces about a third of the costume jewelry in the United States.

In 1995, when Senator Claiborne Pell announced his retirement after 36 years in the Senate, Reed almost immediately started running. Reed was easily nominated and faced state Treasurer Nancy Mayer in the general. National Republicans spent nearly $1 million on ads attacking Reed as a liberal for opposing workfare and for supporting labor unions; in liberal, heavily unionized Rhode Island these did not hurt him and may have helped. Mayer's support for campaign finance regulation and opposition to soft money were parried when Reed in debate asked her why she didn't call off the Republican soft money campaign against him. Mayer's campaign was overshadowed by Reed's: She spent $773,000 and he spent $2.7 million. His biography was his message: Reed launched his campaign in a school conference room named after his late father; he stressed how he came up from humble beginnings by hard work and called for education spending to help others rise as he had. That message, and his own pleasant, unassuming demeanor evidently touched a chord. He won 63%-35%, an impressive first Senate victory.

In the Senate, Reed has a liberal voting record. He serves on the HELP Committee and has sought to amend major bills. The 1998 Higher Education law included his TEACH program, grants to teacher colleges for partnerships with K-12 schools. He has been a strong supporter of requiring continual teacher training. He believes that school libraries have been underfunded and in 2001 with Thad Cochran sponsored a bill to provide them $500 million. He has sought to increase Medicare spending for home health care and to promote purchasing pools for health insurance. In October 2000 he put a hold on a bill granting citizenship to foreign children adopted by American parents, in an effort to get permanent refugee status for 10,000 Liberians who came to the United States, many of them to Rhode Island. When the Bush administration called for cuts in Low-Income Home Energy Assistance in 2002, he called for increases. He has worked on the national project to eliminate lead poisoning in children by 2010, and criticized the administration for not spending more. With Barbara Mikulski and Christopher Bond, he sponsored a $75 million demonstration project to fight lead poisoning in cities with the highest rates of lead poisoning.

Reed is one of the few senators of his generation with military experience. He was appointed to the governing board of West Point in 1998 and got a seat on the Armed Services Committee in January 1999. He wants to consolidate the Naval War College and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, two of the remaining Rhode Island military facilities; defense jobs in the state declined from 44,000 in 1970 to 8,000 in 1999. In October 2002 he voted against the Iraq war resolution. The 2002 defense appropriation included $1.5 billion for a Virginia class submarine and $645 million for retooling two Trident submarines, with much of the work to be done at Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut, where many Rhode Islanders work. In December 2002 he led the successful fight in committee to cut $15 million off research into a bunker buster nuclear weapon and $812 million off the missile defense budget. In 2003 he became ranking Democrat on the Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee.

In July 2001, after Democrats got their majority in the Senate, Reed got a seat on Appropriations. He promised to be a team player: "Senator Daschle and Chairman [Robert] Byrd have difficult, demanding jobs. If you respect that and try to help out, I think that ultimately is appreciated." He has worked for $2 million for the Save the Bay Education Center in Providence, $3.25 million for Narragansett Bay Commission new sewers, $9.3 million for an undersea combat vehicle at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Middletown, $100,000 for Charlestown Breachway navigation safety and $120,000 for a federal breakwater at the Port of Galilee Harbor of Refuge at Narragansett. When Democrats lost their majority, Reed lost his Appropriations seat.

In Rhode Island politics, Reed has always been his own man, unentangled with the various machine politicians who come and go. In 2002, against a pit manager at Foxwoods Resort Casino, he was reelected 78%-22%. This is a Senate seat whose members have had long tenures. Theodore Green, elected at 69, served 24 years; Claiborne Pell, elected at 41, served 36 years. Reed, elected just before turning 47, has the prospect of long service before him.

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DC Office
728 HSOB 20510, 202-224-4642; Fax: 202-224-4680; Web site: reed.senate.gov

State Offices
Cranston, 401-943-3100; Providence,401-528-5200.

Committees

• Armed Services: Emerging Threats & Capabilities (RMM); Seapower; Strategic Forces.
• Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs: Financial Institutions; Housing & Transportation (RMM); Securities & Investment.
• Health, Education, Labor & Pensions: Children & Families; Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services.
• Joint Economic Committee (7th of 10 Sens.).

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	100	60	100	100	81	38	16	40	0	0	--
2001	100	--	100	100	--	--	8	36	4	--	0

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	93%	--	0%		95%	--	0%
Social	81%	--	8%		82%	--	0%
Foreign	87%	--	3%		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 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 Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Jack Reed (D)	253,773	78%	$1,767,967
	Robert Tingle (R)	69,808	22%
2002 primary	Jack Reed (D)	unopposed
1996 general	Jack Reed (D)	230,676	63%	$2,732,011
	Nancy J. Mayer (R)	127,368	35%	$773,789
Prior winning percentages: 1994 House (68%); 1992 House (71%); 1990 House (59%)