Sen. Richard Durbin (D) Elected 1996, 2d term up 2008
Born:	Nov. 21, 1944, E. St. Louis
Home:	Springfield
Education:	Georgetown U., B.S. 1966, J.D. 1969
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	married (Loretta)
Elected  Office:	U.S. House of Reps., 1982-96.
Professional Career:	Staff, Lt. Gov. Paul Simon, 1969-72; Legal Cnsl., IL Sen. Judiciary Cmte., 1972-82; Prof., S. IL Schl. of Medicine, 1978-82.
DC Office	332 DSOB20510, 202-224-2152; Fax: 202-228-0400; Web site: durbin.senate.gov
State Offices	Chicago, 312-353-4952; Marion, 618-998-8812; Springfield, 217-492-4062.
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Richard Durbin, Illinois's senior senator, is a Democrat first elected to the House in 1982 and the Senate in 1996. Durbin grew up in East St. Louis, and for almost all his adult life has been in politics: Right out of law school he joined Paul Simon's staff when he was lieutenant governor (1969-73), then was a state Senate staffer in the 1970s. He lost two races for office in the 1970s, but in 1982 won the nomination to oppose Republican Congressman Paul Findley, who had characterized himself as Yasir Arafat's best friend in Congress; that helped Durbin raise large sums from Israel supporters. Durbin won that race, got a seat on the Agriculture Committee and then moved to Appropriations, where in 1993 he became chairman of the Agriculture Subcommittee. Durbin's father died of lung cancer when he was 14, and Durbin's most prominent achievement in the House was the 1988 ban on smoking on domestic airline flights; he followed that up by trying to limit tobacco subsidies and in 1994 moved unsuccessfully to direct the FDA to regulate tobacco as a health hazard.

Durbin won his Senate seat in 1996 after his onetime employer Senator Paul Simon announced his retirement; the race may have looked more attractive because Democrats had lost control of the House in 1994 and because Durbin's own margins in the 1992 and 1994 House races were fairly close. Raising more than $1 million, he outspent former state Treasurer (and current Lieutenant Governor) Pat Quinn in the March 1996 primary and won 65%-30%. In the general he faced trial lawyer and abortion opponent Al Salvi and won 56%-41%.

In the Senate, Durbin has compiled a liberal voting record, though he has supported welfare reform and the death penalty. He has been an active and dependable Democratic partisan on the floor and on cable news networks. After the defeat of Tom Daschle in 2004 and the elevation of Harry Reid as minority leader, Durbin became minority whip--a natural promotion since he has held the floor for Democrats on many seriously contested issues. He serves on the Judiciary Committee and has been a strong opponent of the Bush judicial nominees whom the Democrats have chosen to oppose. In his early years there he attempted to move his goal of gun control incrementally forward. But many Democrats have concluded that gun control helped defeat Al Gore in 2000 and these moves have not been successful. While serving in the House, Durbin favored restrictions on abortion, including the Hyde Amendment and the Human Life amendment. But in the Senate he has opposed restrictions on abortion, including the partial-birth abortion ban; he said it should include an exception for health of the mother. This has caused some controversy among his fellow Catholics. In April 2004 the priest at his home church in Springfield said that he wouldn't give Holy Communion to Durbin; he said that earlier leafletters had subjected him to a "rather uncomfortable atmosphere" there. Durbin responded, "It troubles me to have some members of the Church--and I'm not pointing to the clergy now, I'm really speaking to laypeople--who have appointed themselves the policemen of the church." In June 2004 he presented a report showing how senators voted on positions taken by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, including international and domestic issues beyond abortion; it showed Democratic senators, including John Kerry, Edward Kennedy and Durbin himself with records above 60%.

On other domestic issues, Durbin has had a very strong pro-union voting record, but split with them on trade, supporting NAFTA in the House and normal trade relations with China in the Senate: Illinois is a big exporter. In the wake of September 11, Durbin proposed $1.8 billion for more security on trains and on rail bridges and tunnels and for national standards for state-issued driver's licenses; in 2004 he called for more spending on air traffic controllers than the Bush administration proposed.

Durbin took a lead role on asbestos legislation in 2003. Called on by Illinois-based businesses to support a bill establishing quick recovery for injured plaintiffs and reducing the burden on businesses only tangentially connected with asbestos, he negotiated with Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch. But Durbin insisted on a "collateral source" amendment which would grandfather in existing asbestos cases and settlements--a poison pill, in the view of the National Association of Manufacturers. His amendment was not approved and an asbestos bill was not passed. In July 2003 Minority Leader Tom Daschle asked Durbin to be the Democrats' point man on medical malpractice, and he successfully blocked action on the legislation. In November 2003 Durbin opposed the energy bill because of the provisions relieving liability for MTBE; Hastert said he was doing the bidding of the trial lawyers, but in any case the legislation did not pass.

Durbin voted against the Gulf War resolution in January 1991 and the Iraq war resolution in October 2002, though he voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq when Bill Clinton was president in February 1998. In July 2003 he took to the Senate floor to charge that the Bush White House was trying to push him off the Intelligence Committee; some Republican senators said that Durbin may have disclosed classified information. In June and July 2004 he charged that there are "those in the Bush administration who are misinterpreting or ignoring intelligence, who are misusing intelligence and who are setting up their own intelligence-gathering agencies that actually compete with the CIA." He unsuccessfully called on White House staffers to testify before the Intelligence Committee. In September 2004 he called for a special committee to investigate government contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan. In June 2005, Durbin was at the center of a storm over remarks he made from the Senate floor concerning detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Citing an FBI report that described the mistreatment of some prisoners, Durbin likened the American interrogators to "Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime--Pol Pot or others--that had no concern for human beings." His over-the-top comments dominated the news cycle for days; Durbin said he regretted any misunderstanding over his remarks. When that failed to quell the furor, a few days later he issued an emotional apology from the Senate floor.

Durbin was mentioned briefly in 2000 as a possible vice presidential nominee; he said that he had been contacted by the Gore campaign in June and asked for information, but had called back four days later to say they he did not want to be considered. He was reelected 60%-38% in 2002 against an opponent who raised very little money; the parties' Senate campaign committees are unwilling to put money into a long shot race in a large state like Illinois when they can target races in much smaller states with much less money. In March 2004 Durbin was asked by John Kerry to be a co-chairman of the Democratic National Committee and to speak for the ticket on the campaign trail. This time he was not much mentioned as a vice presidential nominee and played only a small role--introducing his soon-to-be colleague Barack Obama--at the Democratic National Convention. In Washington he continues to live in what some call an "animal house" with Senate colleague Charles Schumer and Congressmen George Miller and William Delahunt.

Committees

• Minority Whip
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• Appropriations: Agriculture, Rural Development & Related Agencies; Defense; District of Columbia; Labor, Health and Human Services, Education & Related Agencies; Legislative Branch (RMM); State, Foreign Operations & Related Programs; Transportation, Treasury, the Judiciary, HUD & Related Agencies.
• Judiciary: Constitution, Civil Rights & Property Rights; Corrections & Rehabilitation (RMM); Immigration, Border Security & Citizenship; Intellectual Property; Terrorism, Technology & Homeland Security.
• Rules & Administration.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	95	89	100	83	58	8	47	4	5	0	--
2003	95	--	100	89	--	14	35	10	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	93%	--	0%		90%	--	7%
Social	79%	--	15%		82%	--	0%
Foreign	79%	--	14%		95%	--	1%
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. Ban Drilling in ANWR Y 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts N 3. Medicare/Rx Bill N 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. Y 5. Energy Bill N 6. Support Roe v. Wade Y		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion N  8. Assault Weapons Ban Y  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage N 10. Ban Bunker-Buster Bomb Y 11. Fund Iraq War Y 12. Restrict Missile Defense Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Richard Durbin (D)	2,103,766	60%	$4,979,865
	Jim Durkin (R)	1,325,703	38%	$794,634
	Other	57,382	2%
2002 primary	Richard Durbin (D)	unopposed
1996 general	Richard Durbin (D)	2,384,028	56%	$4,966,804
	Al Salvi (R)	1,728,824	41%	$4,696,065
	Other	137,870	3%
Prior winning percentages: 1994 House (55%); 1992 House (57%); 1990 House (66%); 1988 House (69%); 1986 House (68%); 1984 House (61%); 1982 House (50%)