Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-At Large) Elected 1992, 7th term
Born:	Sept. 2, 1952, Valley City
Home:	Valley City
Education:	U. of ND, B.A. 1974, J.D., 1979
Religion:	Presbyterian
Marital Status:	married (Laurie Kirby)
Elected  Office:	ND House of Reps., 1980-84; ND Insurance Commissioner, 1984-92.
Professional Career:	Practicing atty., 1979-84; Natl. Assn. of Insurance Commissioners., Vice Pres. 1989, Pres. 1990.
DC Office	1501 LHOB20515, 202-225-2611; Fax: 202-226-0893; Web site: www.house.gov/pomeroy
State Offices	Bismarck, 701-224-0355; Fargo, 701-235-9760.
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Earl Pomeroy, North Dakota's lone House member, is a Democrat first elected in 1992. Pomeroy grew up in Valley City and after college served as Byron Dorgan's driver during the 1974 campaign, then went to law school and practiced law in Valley City. In 1980, when Dorgan and Kent Conrad won statewide elections, Pomeroy at 28 won a seat in the legislature; in 1984 and 1988 he was elected insurance commissioner. In 1992, he was planning to retire from politics and serve in the Peace Corps in Russia; then Dorgan ran for Conrad's seat in the Senate and Pomeroy decided to run for Dorgan's seat in the House. Articulate, cheerful and sincere, a critic of insurance companies yet unabrasive, he was the obvious choice for the House seat and was nominated unanimously by the Democratic convention. He won the general 57%-39%, almost exactly Dorgan's margin in the Senate race.

Pomeroy has compiled a moderate to liberal voting record, defending North Dakota interests and working with Republicans as well as Democrats on some issues. In the Republican Congress, he strongly supported the adoption tax credit and brought his two-year-old daughter, adopted from Korea, onto the floor for the vote. He strongly supported normal trade relations with China and has pushed for more exports of North Dakota wheat there. Pomeroy voted against repeal of the estate tax. When Republican leaders brought up a bill to make it permanent in June 2002, Pomeroy offered an amendment to raise the $1 million exemption to $3 million; it was rejected 231-197. In 2003 Pomeroy supported the Medicare prescription drug bill, which among other things increased the Medicare reimbursement rate for rural and small city hospitals; this brought in $48 million to Bismarck hospitals alone and $183 million statewide. He has urged more audits of corporate taxpayers and called for Congress to change the requirement that corporations use the 30-year Treasury bond rate in calculating the reserves needed for defined benefit pension plans. In an anticipatory mode he sponsored in 2004 a bill to extend the ethanol tax credit from its current expiration date in 2007 to 2010. In 2004 he sponsored a bill to overrule an IRS ruling that made retired farmers' income from the Conservation Reserve Program subject to self-employment tax.

In 2003 Pomeroy got a seat on the Agriculture Committee, a gift from the Democratic leadership since it is unusual for a Ways and Means member to serve on another committee. He opposed the 1996 Freedom to Farm Act, supported the crop insurance and disaster relief bills that have provided the rough equivalent of the old subsidies that the Freedom to Farm Act tried to phase out; he backed the 2002 farm act that vastly altered its terms and expanded the Conservation Reserve Program, in which North Dakota is the third largest participant, with 3.3 million acres. In that bill he pressed successfully for country-of-origin meat labeling; in 2004 he opposed the postponement of the effective date for that from 2004 to 2006. The 2002 farm act does not expire until 2007; in the meantime, the biggest agricultural issues are related to trade, over which Ways and Means has jurisdiction. Pomeroy hailed Special Trade Representative Robert Zoellick's WTO suit against alleged subsidies by the Canadian Wheat Board; he was cheered when the WTO ruled in April that Canada unfairly excluded foreign wheat from its distribution arrangements and was unhappy when in August 2004 the WTO ruled that the Canadian system does not violate WTO rules. In future negotiations, he said, "We don't think it should involve concessions on our part for something that we think is illegal." When Zoellick negotiated an allowance of sugar imports from the Dominican Republic as part of the Central American Free Trade Agreement in March 2004, he protested vigorously and said that the only way to settle sugar issues should be through worldwide WTO negotiations, not regional free trade agreements. North Dakota has a thriving sugar beet industry; Pomeroy said, "Granting subsidized foreign sugar access to our markets in an incremental fashion amounts to 'death by a thousand cuts' for our sugar industry." He voted against the Australian Free Trade Agreement in July 2004, arguing that the Australian Wheat Board provided subsidies; it passed anyway.

During the devastating Grand Forks flooding in April 1997, Pomeroy helped man the dikes and slept in a nearby Air Force shelter in order to help residents deal with the disaster; later he worked and got nearly $500 million in flood relief, and has worked for a $300 million system of levees and walls to prevent future floods. He worked to get federal funding for an emergency outlet for Devils Lake, which has no natural outlet and whose water has risen to record levels and flooded more than 100,000 acres. But he was foiled by the Republican leadership, and in 2003 work was begun by the state government on a channel connecting Devils Lake with the Sheyenne River and through it the Red River of the North. In June 2004, as rains lifted the lake level to its highest point in recorded history, he asked the Risk Management Agency to streamline landowners' claims for reimbursement. Pomeroy opposed having a military base-closing round in 2005, unsuccessfully; he has worked since to keep open Grand Forks Air Force Base, one of three major bases of refueling tankers.

Pomeroy has had serious challenges every two years. In 2002 he faced Tax Commissioner Rick Clayburgh in his toughest race so far. Clayburgh argued that North Dakota would do better with a Republican congressman. He repeatedly attacked Pomeroy for leaving the Agriculture Committee just before it was going to consider the farm bill in order to take the seat on Ways and Means. Republicans hit Pomeroy for voting against estate tax repeal and trade promotion authority. And they attacked him as well for backing "privatization" of Social Security, by which they meant the Clinton plan of having the government invest payroll taxes in the stock market. In October Pomeroy ran an ad showing him near George W. Bush at the signing of a bill of which he was one of 39 co-sponsors continuing a tax exemption for clergy housing expenses. "President Bush signed Pomeroy's bill to stop a $2 billion tax on our rural churches," the announcer intoned. Clayburgh ran an ad assailing the "Earl Pomeroy hustle," voting for liberal measures in Washington while sounding conservative in North Dakota. Pomeroy won 52%-48%; he carried Fargo, Minot and Grand Forks, Clayburgh's hometown; Clayburgh carried Bismarck.

In 2004 Pomeroy was opposed by Duane Sand, a 15-year Navy officer who returned to North Dakota and in 2000 lost to Senator Kent Conrad by a 62%-38% margin. Sand argued that as a member of the minority party Pomeroy was "looking through the keyhole in the door" when decisions were made. He was reinforced by a late October appearance by Speaker Dennis Hastert, who said, "When we're talking about water policy, when we talk about farm policy, there's really nobody there to represent North Dakota." Pomeroy's campaign replied that he had delivered on Medicare reimbursement, disaster relief legislation and agricultural policy. The result was Pomeroy's widest victory margin yet, 60%-40%, even as George W. Bush was carrying the state 63%-35%.

Committees

• Agriculture (17th of 21 D): General Farm Commodities & Risk Management; Livestock & Horticulture.
• Ways & Means (13th of 17 D): Oversight; Social Security.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	85	55	100	82	50	12	67	28	9	38	--
2003	65	--	88	50	--	16	57	40	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	56%	--	44%		56%	--	43%
Social	53%	--	46%		62%	--	37%
Foreign	59%	--	39%		58%	--	42%
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 N 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts N 3. Medicare/Rx Bill Y 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. Y 5. DC School Vouchers N 6. Ban Human Cloning Y		7. Restrict Gun Liability Y  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage N 10. Fund Iraq War Y 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds Y 12. Intelligence Reorg. Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Earl Pomeroy (D)	185,130	60%	$1,809,046
	Duane Sand (R)	125,684	40%	$1,007,576
2004 primary	Earl Pomeroy (D)	unopposed
2002 general	Earl Pomeroy (D)	121,073	52%	$1,761,813
	Rick Clayburgh (R)	109,957	48%	$1,089,336
Prior winning percentages: 2000 (53%); 1998 (56%); 1996 (55%); 1994 (52%); 1992 (57%)

2004 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 196,651 (63%) Kerry (D) 111,052 (35%)

2000 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 174,852 (61%) Gore (D) 95,284 (33%)

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

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: R +13
• District Size: 70,700 square miles
• Population in 2000: 642,200; 55.8% urban; 44.2% rural
• Median Household Income: $34,604; 11.9% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 22.2% blue collar; 59.4% white collar; 18.4% gray collar; 12.7% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 91.7% White, 0.6% Black, 0.6% Asian, 4.8% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 1.0% Two+ races, 0.0% Other, 1.2% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 30.6% German, 20.9% Norwegian, 5.4% Irish
• Click here for statewide demographic data.