Profile courtesy of
Sen. Sam Brownback (R) Elected 1996, 2d full term up 2010
Born:	Sept. 12, 1956, Garnett
Home:	Topeka
Education:	KS St. U., B.S. 1978, U. of KS, J.D. 1982
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	married (Mary)
Elected Office:	U.S. House of Reps., 1994-96.
Professional Career:	Radio broadcaster, KKSU, 1978-79; Practicing atty., 1982-86, 1993; Prof., KS St. U. Law Schl., 1982-86; Ogden & Leonardville City Atty., 1983-86; KS Secy. of Agriculture, 1986-93; White House Fellow, Office of USTR, 1990-91.
DC Office	303 HSOB20510, 202-224-6521; Fax: 202-228-1265; Web site: brownback.senate.gov
State Offices	Garden City, 620-275-1124; Overland Park, 913-492-6378; Pittsburg, 620-231-6040; Topeka, 785-233-2503; Wichita, 316-264-8066
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Kansas: Senior Senator

Sen. Sam Brownback (R)

Sam Brownback grew up on a farm in Anderson County, some 50 miles from Kansas City; he has family roots in Osawatomie, a center of evangelical abolitionism in the bleeding Kansas of the 1850s. He was student body president at Kansas State University and briefly worked as a farm broadcaster. After law school, he practiced law for four years in Manhattan, Kansas, in the 1980s; he was appointed secretary of the state Board of Agriculture in 1986 and served until it was abolished in 1993. He was a White House Fellow, working from 1990-91 for Special Trade Representative Carla Hills. In March 1994, after 2d District Democrat Jim Slattery ran for governor, Brownback announced for Congress, condemning "a welfare system that discourages the work ethic and encourages the disintegration of families and a government that can't say no to spending or yes to reform." He won the three-way House primary; in the general, he faced John Carlin, governor from 1978-86. Brownback won 66%-34%, carrying every county.

Brownback was one of the enthusiastic 1994 freshmen who tried to shake up the House. He pushed successfully to reduce Congress's own budget. He headed a group of "New Federalists," which sought to abolish three cabinet departments. He backed the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill and in 1995 spoke at Ross Perot's United We Stand convention denouncing "influence peddling" in Washington. On immigration, he played a key role in separating the legal and illegal immigration issues, which led to passage of a tough measure against illegal immigrants but no major reductions in the number of legal immigrants.

On May 15, 1996, Bob Dole surprised just about everyone when he announced he was resigning from the Senate on June 11. On May 17, Brownback said he would seek the seat, noting, "They are size 25 shoes that even Michael Jordan couldn't fill." Governor Bill Graves' choice to fill the vacancy, Lieutenant Governor Sheila Frahm, delayed ten days before accepting. Then Brownback decided to run. There were strong differences between the two on issues. She was pro-choice on abortion, he was pro-life. Brownback accused her of voting as a state legislator to raise taxes $500 million; she criticized his "slash and burn" approach to federal spending. In the August primary, Brownback won 55%-42%. In the general election for the remaining two years of Dole's term, Brownback faced a Democrat with a great political name, Wichita stockbroker Jill Docking, wife of a former lieutenant governor whose father and grandfather both served as governor. Docking promised "Kansas common sense" and likened herself to Kassebaum. Brownback campaigned on the 3 R's: "Reduce, reform and return. Reduce the size and scope of the federal government. Reform the Congress. Return to the basic values that built the country: Work and family and the recognition of a higher moral authority." He promised to serve only two terms--presumably two full terms. Both candidates spent liberally, and some fall polls showed the race close. But Brownback won by the convincing though not overwhelming margin of 54%-43%.

Brownback has a conservative voting record in the Senate and has taken on many issues because of his strong moral views; his hero is William Wilberforce, the parliamentarian who led the fight to end the slave trade. "I think every life is sacred and beautiful, whether it's the unborn or whether it's Ted Kennedy," he has said. "I really try to reach out and work with anybody and everybody I can." After September 11, Brownback and Kennedy co-sponsored a bill to strengthen the nation's borders. It provided for an automatic entry and exit system, the development of biometric identifiers and tracking of foreign students and called for greater sharing of information about potential terrorists by the INS, State Department and intelligence agencies. The bill became law in May 2002. He has had less success in banning human cloning, an issue he became interested in while working as state agriculture secretary. His bill, co-sponsored by Mary Landrieu, would ban reproductive human cloning and the cloning of embryos for use in research; as a fallback, he called for a six-month moratorium on cloning. But he was denied a freestanding vote and a competing bill sponsored by Dianne Feinstein and Arlen Specter passed instead.

Prior to the 109th Congress, Brownback had a seat on Foreign Relations and was chairman of the East Asian and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee. After September 11, he worked to ease sanctions against Pakistan and urged a tough approach on Iraq; he called the Iraqi National Congress, a group shunned by many in the State Department and the CIA, "invaluable in the fight to rid the world of Saddam's threat." He led the fight for the Sudan Peace Act of 2002 and has worked to end slavery and the civil war there; he and Congressman Frank Wolf visited refugee camps in Darfur in June 2004. In 2003 he secured passage of the Syrian Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Act and got the Bush administration to withdraw its opposition. He co-sponsored the North Korea Refugee Act with Edward Kennedy and in December 2002 said, "If hell is the absence of God, I think you can see North Korea is the closest place to that on Earth." Using his seat on Appropriations, he added $1.5 million in 2003 and $3 million in 2004 for programs to encourage democracy in Iran and $2 million in 2004 for a human rights conference on North Korea; also he removed the requirement that AID get approval from the Egyptian government for pro-democracy projects there. He criticized the State Department for not helping rescue American children abducted by Saudi parents. In June 2004 he criticized China for "trampling on the autonomy" of Hong Kong and threatened that export controls might have to be extended to Hong Kong as well as China. He has supported the Bush administration on Iraq, but in fall 2003 said half the $20 billion for reconstruction should be in loans not grants.

In 2003 and 2004 Brownback used his chairmanship of the Science Subcommittee of Commerce to hold hearings on cloning, genetic testing and pornography addiction. He sponsored a bill to provide $25 million for prizes for private sector successes in space and called for research on asteroids that might hit the Earth. He hailed the Bush administration for bringing a WTO action against Airbus, and said that if European subsidies to Airbus were not removed, U.S. subsidies to Boeing should be considered. He worked with Joseph Lieberman to discourage violence and pornography in movies and rock music. In 2004 he tried, ultimately unsuccessfully to increase the fine on broadcasters for indecency to $500,000. On taxes, he said in April 2004, "I think we need fundamental tax reform--flat, or a consumption-based tax system." With Congressman John Lewis, he worked to authorize the African-American Museum on Washington's Mall, and he sponsored a resolution apologizing to Native Americans for past government misdeeds.

Brownback was elected to a full six-year term in 1998 by a 65%-32% margin after well-known candidates declined to run. In November 2002 Brownback announced he would run again, and Democrats had a hard time finding a candidate to run against him. Former Congressman and Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman bowed out in September 2003; Governor Kathleen Sebelius wasn't interested. The winner of the August 2004 primary withdrew from the race. "Just tired, I guess," he said. Brownback was reelected 69%-27%, carrying 104 of Kansas's 105 counties. After the 2004 elections, some conservatives were talking about Brownback running for president. Michael Horowitz of the Hudson Institute has made the case: "In temperament, vision and faith, Sam Brownback is closer to George Bush than to any member of Congress. Like the president--and Ronald Reagan--his positions are seen by adversaries to spring from decency rather than meanness of spirit. For these and other reasons many conservative and religious leaders intend for him to become a serious candidate to succeed the president."

Committees

• Appropriations: Agriculture, Rural Development & Related Agencies; Commerce, Justice & Science; District of Columbia (Chmn.); Military Construction & Veterans Affairs; State, Foreign Operations & Related Programs; Transportation, Treasury, the Judiciary, HUD & Related Agencies.
• Judiciary: Antitrust, Competition Policy & Consumer Rights; Constitution, Civil Rights & Property Rights (Chmn.); Corrections & Rehabilitation; Immigration, Border Security & Citizenship; Intellectual Property.
• Joint Economic Committee (2d of 10 Sens.)

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	15	11	0	17	100	78	94	96	93	100	--
2003	5	--	11	0	--	72	100	90	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	18%	--	77%		5%	--	91%
Social	0%	--	59%		19%	--	71%
Foreign	39%	--	54%		0%	--	67%
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 N 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 3. Medicare/Rx Bill Y 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. N 5. Energy Bill Y 6. Support Roe v. Wade N		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  8. Assault Weapons Ban N  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage Y 10. Ban Bunker-Buster Bomb N 11. Fund Iraq War Y 12. Restrict Missile Defense N

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Sam Brownback (R)	780,863	69%	$2,476,585
	Lee Jones (D)	310,337	27%	$102,931
	Other	37,822	3%
2004 primary	Sam Brownback (R)	286,839	87%
	Arch Naramore (R)	42,880	13%
1998 general	Sam Brownback (R)	474,639	65%	$1,719,612
	Paul Feleciano Jr. (D)	229,718	32%	$39,500
	Other	22,879	3%
Prior winning percentages: 1996 (54%); 1994 House (66%)