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GovernmentExecutive.com - Covering The Business Of The Federal Government
Florida: Fourth District
Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R)
Last Updated June 22, 2005


Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R)
Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R)
Elected 2000, 3d term
Born: Sept. 1, 1944, Jacksonville
Home: Jacksonville
Education: U. of GA, B.A. 1966, U. of FL, J.D. 1969
Religion: Episcopalian
Marital Status: married (Kitty)
Elected
 Office:
FL House of Reps., 1972-78; FL Senate 1986-93.
Professional Career: Investment banker, 1980-2000.
DC Office 127 CHOB20515, 202-225-2501; Fax: 202-225-2504; Web site: crenshaw.house.gov
State Offices Jacksonville, 904-598-0481; Lake City, 386-365-3316.
Additional Info
Committees · Ratings · Key Votes · Election Results
District Demographics
More On Florida
At A Glance · State Profile
District Map
Redistricting · Almanac Home
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Search the CongressDaily, Hotline, House Race Hotline, National Journal and Technology Daily archives using the form above:
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With a metropolitan area of 1.2 million people, Jacksonville is beginning to overcome its reputation as Florida's overlooked city. Not long ago, Jacksonville was considered a backwater, dominated by insurance and smelly paper mills. It now boasts a National Football League franchise, the Jaguars; bold new skyscrapers looming above a wide river; and a shopping mall that overshadows gridded streets and tiny shotgun houses. The city received favorable reviews when it hosted the 2005 Super Bowl, even though it has far fewer hotel rooms than the usual sites; to meet the demands for lodging, cruise ships docked in the harbor, which has grown as a destination for cargo and passenger operations. The wide freeways sidestep primeval wetlands on their way to huge beachfront subdivisions. With the Mayport Naval Station and the Naval Air Station, Jacksonville has a significant military employment base (they are two of the top three metro area employers). Shrewd marketing has lured big-name private sector companies; Jacksonville has the headquarters of Winn-Dixie supermarkets and railway giant CSX and has big operations of Publix supermarkets, UPS and Bank of America. The metro area grew 33% from 1990 to 2004.

The 4th Congressional District of Florida includes much of Jacksonville (minus the mostly black neighborhoods, which are in the 3d District) as well as a northern tier of counties along the Georgia border that runs all the way west to Tallahassee. This northern tier is sleepy territory punctuated by small towns like White Springs, Lake City, and Raiford (home to a big state prison); it is criss-crossed by Interstates 10 and 75. Some 70% of the population is in Jacksonville and Nassau County, just to the north. The boosterish Jacksonville civic culture and significant military presence make the 4th a pro-business, pro-military and pro-Republican district. George W. Bush won 66% of the vote here in 2000 and 69% in 2004, both his second highest percentages in any Florida district.

The congressman from the 4th District is Ander Crenshaw, a Republican first elected in 2000. He grew up in Jacksonville and attended the University of Georgia on a basketball scholarship, then graduated from the University of Florida law school. His wife's father, Claude Kirk, was elected governor, the first Republican since Reconstruction, in 1966, then defeated in 1970. Crenshaw was elected to the state House in 1972 and served for six years until he ran unsuccessfully for secretary of state; he then became an investment banker. In 1980 he ran for the Senate and finished third of six in the 1980 Republican primary won by Paula Hawkins. From 1986 until 1993 he served in the state Senate, and in 1992 became the first Republican state Senate president in 118 years. He ran for governor in 1994 but ran fourth in the primary, far behind Jeb Bush, who narrowly lost to Chiles in November. Crenshaw's opportunity to run for the House came in 2000 when Republican Tillie Fowler announced that she would honor her promise to serve only four terms. Crenshaw was promptly endorsed by local Republican leaders, which discouraged several other potential candidates. He won the primary 70%-30% and the general election 67%-31%.

In the House, Crenshaw is a reliable conservative. Although his tall frame makes him hard to miss in a crowd, he has not sought attention. He has cited approvingly the comment by Ronald Reagan: "There's no limit to what you can do as long as you don't care who gets the credit." He displayed his political savvy by becoming freshman class liaison to the Republican leadership, which admitted him to weekly leadership meetings, and he became friends with Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Majority Whip Roy Blunt. In his second term, he won a seat on Appropriations where his top priorities were the district's large military and veterans' facilities. He helped the Pentagon get $115 million for the Marine Corps to buy 1,100 acres on and near Blount Island north of Jacksonville for its maritime prepositioning program. He pushed hard to pass a bill for new veterans' cemeteries in Jacksonville and Sarasota, which George W. Bush signed in November 2003, and he fought for expanded disability coverage for Gulf War veterans. He enacted a bill to add more than 8 acres of sand dunes to the Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve north of the Nassau River. In January 2005, he described as "short-sighted, short-term thinking," reports that the USS John F. Kennedy, which was scheduled for an overhaul in Mayport, might instead be decommissioned. "Our national security demands at least 12 carriers, if not more." He later discussed his concerns for 30 minutes with Bush. Although the Navy did not formally call for retirement of the carrier, one of only two that is oil-powered, it revealed that it planned to reduce its carriers to 11; in April 2005, the Navy announced it was canceling a $378 million overhaul of the ship. But Crenshaw attached a provision to the 2005 emergency supplemental that would delay plans to decommission the Kennedy.

Crenshaw has been reelected twice without general election opposition. He obviously has a safe seat, and in mid-2005 seemed unlikely to run for senator or governor in 2006.

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Committees

  • Appropriations (34th of 37 R): Foreign Operations, Export Financing & Related Programs; Homeland Security; Military Quality of Life & Veterans Affairs & Related Agencies.
  • Budget (3d of 22 R).

Group Ratings (More Info)
ADA ACLU AFS LCV ITIC NTU COC ACU NTLC CHC
2004 0 0 13 9 90 50 100 92 77 84 --
2003 5 -- 0 5 -- 60 97 92 -- -- --

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
2003 LIB -- 2003 CONS            2004 LIB -- 2004 CONS
Economic 9% -- 84%            17% -- 80%
Social 21% -- 78%            17% -- 81%
Foreign 0% -- 89%            10% -- 86%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)

1. Drilling in ANWR Y
2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y
3. Medicare/Rx Bill Y
4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. N
5. DC School Vouchers Y
6. Ban Human Cloning Y

      

 7. Restrict Gun Liability Y
 8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y
 9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage Y
10. Fund Iraq War Y
11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds N
12. Intelligence Reorg. Y

Election Results (More Info)
Candidate Total Votes Percent Expenditures
2004 general Ander Crenshaw (R) unopposed
2004 primary Ander Crenshaw (R) 48,129 90%
Deborah Katz Pueschel (R) 5,368 10%
2002 general Ander Crenshaw (R) unopposed

Prior winning percentages: 2000 (67%)

2004 Presidential Vote
Bush (R) 227,431 (69%)
Kerry (D) 100,414 (31%)

2000 Presidential Vote
Bush (R) 154,615 (66%)
Gore (D) 80,227 (34%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Fourth District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

District Demographics (More Info)
  • Cook Partisan Voting Index: R +16
  • District Size: 4,368 square miles
  • Population in 2000: 639,295; 78.2% urban; 21.8% rural
  • Median Household Income: $43,947; 9.1% are below the poverty line
  • Occupation: 20.6% blue collar; 64.8% white collar; 14.7% gray collar; 17.1% military veterans
  • Race/Ethnic Origin: 77.8% White, 13.5% Black, 2.4% Asian, 0.3% Amer. Indian, 0.1% Hawaiian, 1.5% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 4.2% Hispanic origin
  • Ancestry: 9.7% USA, 9.0% German, 8.7% Irish
  • Click here for statewide demographic data.

Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005 [an error occurred while processing this directive]


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