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Last Updated June 22, 2005
Jeff Sessions, Alabama's junior senator, grew up in the state's Black Belt, walked to school barefoot and is the son of a country store owner. He graduated from Huntingdon College and the University of Alabama Law School, practiced law in a small town near the Tennessee Valley, became a federal prosecutor and then practiced law in Mobile. He was appointed U.S. Attorney in 1981, at 35, where he became known as a tough, aggressive prosecutor, and served for 12 years. In 1985, he was nominated for federal judge, but was attacked by liberals for ''gross insensitivity'' in racial matters for prosecuting vote fraud cases. With Alabama's Senator Howell Heflin voting against him in the Judiciary Committee, his nomination never went to the floor. In 1994, Sessions challenged state Attorney General Jimmy Evans, who had successfully prosecuted Governor Guy Hunt the year before, and won 57%-43%. In March 1995, when Heflin announced his retirement, Sessions started running for his seat; he became the favorite among the seven Republicans and four Democrats. Sessions started early, avoiding debates and controversy, and relying on his base in southern Alabama--territory that not long ago cast almost no Republican primary votes. Long-distance carrier executive Sid McDonald spent more than $1 million and attacked Sessions. From Birmingham north, it was a close race: McDonald led in the June 4 primary by 30%-29%. But in the rest of the state, Sessions led 48%-12%, for a 38%-22% statewide margin. In the runoff, McDonald extended his lead north from Birmingham, 54%-46%, but almost half the votes were cast farther south, and there Sessions led 73%-27%, for a 59%-41% win. The Democratic nominee, trial lawyer and state Senator Roger Bedford, was financed by trial lawyers and endorsed by key public employee unions and black organizations--the heart of today's Alabama Democratic Party. In the past, Democratic primaries had turnouts of nearly 1 million, with the advantage going to moderate or conservative candidates, like Glen Browder, the 3d District congressman. But only 315,000 voted in the June 4 Democratic primary in 1996, about half of them black; Bedford led Browder 45%-29%. In the June 25 runoff, Browder attacked Bedford for supporting NAFTA and gambling, and for being backed by trial lawyers, but Bedford had more money. With a low turnout of 230,000, Bedford won 62%-38%. In the general Bedford was competitive in fundraising and seemed the better campaigner. He opposed abortion, gun control, and gays in the military. Sessions avoided debates and attacked the Democrat as a Ted Kennedy backer and for leading the battle against tort reform in the Alabama Senate in 1996. Sessions won 52%-45%, running best in the suburbanizing counties around Alabama's cities; Bedford carried the Black Belt and many rural counties in the north. In the Senate, Sessions has a very conservative voting record. In 2003 he co-sponsored John McCain's bill to prohibit earmarked appropriations. He was one of 21 senators in 2004 to oppose the $318 transportation bill as too expensive, and in May 2004 he told Huntsville lobbyists the outlook was "dicey" for increasing the administration's NASA budget. In early 2004 he also called for reopening the Medicare/prescription drug law passed in December 2003. He serves on the Judiciary Committee which once rejected his own nomination, and in 2003 complained, "I'm angry and passionate about the way the Democrats refused to let the Senate vote on these judgeships." One was for Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor; he received a recess appointment in February 2004, and Sessions called on Bush to nominate him again in 2005. In 2004 he co-sponsored a bill to prevent interstate transportation of children to have abortions. But Sessions also has taken on some causes that are not labeled conservative. With Edward Kennedy he co-sponsored a bill to combat sexual assault in prisons. And in 2002 he co-sponsored a bill to reduce the ratio between the amount of powder cocaine and the amount of crack cocaine required to justify a five-year sentence and to reduce mandatory minimum sentences for minor players in drug offenses. Sessions has not sponsored major legislation, but has had considerable success in inserting provisions that set new federal policy into bills likely to pass. With Bob Graham and Mitch McConnell, Sessions succeeded in putting into the 2001 tax cut a provision expanding Section 529 plans to allow parents and grandparents to contribute up to $250,000 for college expenses into investment accounts if authorized by states. Into the 2003 Medicare/prescription drug bill, Sessions inserted a provision for higher Medicare reimbursement for rural hospitals; he threatened to vote against the measure unless this was retained in conference committee. It was, providing $738 million to Alabama -- more than any other state except Texas and Florida. In the 2004 defense authorization, Sessions and Charles Schumer included a provision giving the Justice Department authority to prosecute employees of civilian contractors supporting the U.S. military overseas; this was prompted by the Abu Ghraib abuses. He also got a provision increasing military life insurance payoffs to $325,000 (later raised to $350,000) and providing two years' salaries and benefits for the families of military personnel killed in hostile action. Sessions also inserted $16.5 million for the Cairns Army Airfield Hangar complex at Fort Rucker. Other Sessions achievements include a 2004 law to make it easier to develop and get FDA approval of drugs for minor animals, such as Alabama catfish. After Hurricane Ivan devastated southern Alabama timberlands, Sessions inserted into the corporate tax bill a provision giving landowners who sell timber in small quantities the same tax advantages of those who sell timber in bulk. The 2004 special education bill included a Sessions provision giving school districts the authority to establish uniform discipline policies for all schools--and to be relieved of the Education Department's complex requirements for special ed discipline. In 2002 Sessions was opposed by Democrat Susan Parker, a fundraiser for colleges, who beat trial lawyer Julian Phillips in the June runoff after Phillips argued that he could handle issues of importance to women and children because he was the father of three and Parker had no children; Parker replied that she had had a miscarriage and her doctor advised her not to have children. Parker had the support of teachers' unions, but Sessions outspent her 4-1. In October, she took note of the travails of New Jersey's Democratic Senator Bob Torricelli and attacked Sessions for seeking a provision, not passed, which would allow a group of investors to escape a $15 million debt owed to Lloyds of London. "Just like the Torch [Torricelli's nickname], Sessions tried to sneak in a bailout for millionaires who gave him money," she said, and then proceeded to dump thousands of dollars onto the floor at a press conference. A clever tactic, but it availed her little. Sessions won 59%-40%, even as Republican Bob Riley was being elected governor by just a narrow margin. Parker carried two Tennessee River counties in the north and 12 Black Belt counties in the center of the state but Sessions carried everything else.
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