Olympia Snowe

Olympia Snowe Yessssiir
United States Senator from Maine
Incumbent
Assumed office January 4, 1995 Serving with Susan Collins
Preceded by	George J. Mitchell
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maine's 2nd district
In office January 3, 1979 – January 3, 1995
Preceded by	William Cohen
Succeeded by	John Baldacci
Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
In office January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2007
Preceded by	John Kerry
Succeeded by	John Kerry
Personal details
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	(1) Peter Snowe (deceased) (2) John R. McKernan, Jr.
Residence	Auburn, Maine
Alma mater	University of Maine
Occupation	Senator

Olympia Jean Bouchles Snowe McKernan (born February 21, 1947) is the senior United States Senator from Maine.

The most liberal Republican in the U.S. Senate, Snowe has become widely known for her ability to influence the outcome of close votes and Senatorial filibusters, in part making her one of the most influential modern U.S. Senators.

In 2006, she was named one of "America's Top Ten Senators" by Time Magazine. Congressional Quarterly noted that her presence at the negotiating table in the 107th Congress was "nearly a necessity." Her political popularity in her home state is the highest of any current U.S. Senator; as of November 22, 2006, she enjoyed a 79 percent approval rating in her home state of Maine.

Early life

Snowe was born Olympia Jean Bouchles in Augusta, Maine, the daughter of Georgia Goranites and George John Bouchles. Her father emigrated to the United States from Sparta, Greece. She is a member of the Greek Orthodox Church.

Snowe's early life contained much tragedy; her mother died of breast cancer when she was eight, and her father died of heart disease barely a year later. Orphaned, she was moved to Auburn, Maine, to be raised by her aunt and uncle, a barber and a textile mill worker respectively, along with their five other children. Her brother John was raised separately, by other family members. Within a few years, illness would also claim her uncle's life.

Following her mother's death, Snowe was sent to St. Basil's Academy in Garrison, New York, where she remained from the third grade to the ninth. Returning to Auburn, she attended Edward Little High School, before entering the University of Maine in Orono, Maine in 1969, where she earned a degree in political science. Snowe later received an honorary degree from Bates College in 1998, and another from the University of Delaware in 2008. Shortly after graduation, Bouchles married her fiancée, Republican state legislator Peter Snowe.

Career in politics

Snowe in the Maine Senate, 1977

Snowe entered politics and rose quickly, winning a seat on the Board of Voter Registration and working for Congressman (later U.S. Senator and U.S. Secretary of Defense) William Cohen. Tragedy struck Snowe again in 1973, when her husband was killed in an automobile accident. At the urging of family, friends, neighbors and local leaders, Snowe ran for her husband's Auburn-based seat in the Maine House of Representatives at the age of 26 and won. She was re-elected to the House in 1974, and, in 1976, won election to the Maine Senate, representing Androscoggin County. That same year, she was a delegate to both the state and national Republican conventions.

Snowe was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978, and represented Maine's 2nd Congressional District from 1979 to 1995. The district takes in most of the northern two-thirds of the state, including Bangor and her hometown of Auburn. She served as a member of the Budget and International Relations Committees.

Snowe married John "Jock" McKernan, then-Governor of Maine, in February 1989. Snowe and McKernan had served together in the United States House of Representatives from 1983 to 1986. Snowe was First Lady of Maine from 1989 to 1995, while also a U.S. Representative.

Senate career

In 1994, when Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell declined to run for reelection, Snowe immediately declared her candidacy for the seat. The Democratic nominee was her House colleague, 1st District Congressman Tom Andrews. Snowe defeated Andrews 60%-36%, carrying every county in the state. Snowe was part of the Republican sweeping elections of 1994, where the Republican party would capture the House and Senate for the first time since 1954. Snowe was easily reelected in 2000 over State Senate President Mark Lawrence, increasing her winning margin to 69%-31%.

Snowe was an important voice during the Senate's 1999 impeachment trial of then-President Bill Clinton. She and fellow Maine Senator Susan Collins sponsored a motion that would have allowed the Senate to vote separately on the charges and the remedy — a "finding of fact" resolution. When the motion failed, Snowe and Collins voted to acquit, arguing that Clinton's perjury did not warrant his removal from office.

Her occasional breaks with the Bush administration have drawn attacks from conservative Republicans; the Club for Growth and Concerned Women for America label her a "Republican In Name Only" (RINO).

In February 2006, TheWhiteHouseProject.org named Olympia Snowe one of its "8 in '08", a group of eight female politicians who could possibly run and/or be elected president in 2008.

In April 2006, Snowe was selected by Time as one of "America's 10 Best Senators." She was the only woman so recognized. Time praised Snowe for her sensitivity to her constituents, also noting that: "Because of her centrist views and eagerness to get beyond partisan point scoring, Maine Republican Olympia Snowe is in the center of every policy debate in Washington."

A woman of firsts

Snowe is the fourth woman to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee and the first to chair its seapower subcommittee, which oversees the Navy and Marine Corps. In 2001, Snowe became the first Republican woman to secure a full-term seat on the Senate Finance Committee.

Snowe was the youngest Republican woman ever elected to the United States House of Representatives; she is also the first woman to have served in both houses of a state legislature and both houses of the U.S. Congress. Additionally, she is the first Greek-American congresswoman. With her 1989 marriage to McKernan, she became the first person to simultaneously be a member of Congress and First Lady of a state. She has never lost an election in 35 years as an elected official, and in the 2006 midterm senatorial elections, Snowe won with a reported 73.99% of votes. Seven months ahead of the election, she had already raised $2.1 million.

Gang of 14

File:Alito.jpg

Snowe meets with U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Samuel Alito.

On May 23, 2005, Snowe was one of fourteen senators, known as the Gang of 14, to forge a compromise on the Democrats' use of the filibuster on judicial nominees. This action both curtailed the Republican leadership's attempt to implement the so-called "nuclear option", and broke Democratic opposition to three nominees brought to the Senate floor. The compromise precludes further filibusters and the implementation of the nuclear option for as long as the Gang of 14 holds together.

Under the agreement, the Democrats retain the power to filibuster a Bush judicial nominee only in an "extraordinary circumstance", and the three most conservative Bush appellate court nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor) receive an up-or-down simple majority vote by the full Senate.

This deal has been strongly criticized by both Democratic and Republican partisans, but the compromise did shift the center of gravity in the Senate at the time towards conservatives like Snowe. The Gang played an important role in the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito, as they asserted that neither met the 'extraordinary circumstances' provision outlined in their agreement. Snowe ultimately voted for both Roberts and Alito.

Committee assignments

• Committee on Finance
  • Subcommittee on Health Care
  • Subcommittee on International Trade and Global Competitiveness
  • Subcommittee on Taxation, IRS Oversight, and Long-term Growth
• Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship (Ranking Member)
• Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
  • Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security
  • Subcommittee on Interstate Commerce, Trade, and Tourism
  • Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard (Ranking Member)
• Select Committee on Intelligence

2006 re-election campaign

Main article: United States Senate election in Maine, 2006

Snowe was re-elected to a third term in 2006. In the November 2006 election, Senator Snowe was faced by Democratic candidate Jean Hay Bright, and Independent candidate Bill Slavick. In August 2006 she was polling at 68% vs 20% for Bright; in the election she won by an even wider margin. Snowe, garnering 74% of the votes, won by the second-largest margin (after Richard Lugar of Indiana, who didn't have a Democratic opponent) of any U.S. Senate candidate in the country.

Political views

Snowe meets with sailors returning from Iraq, at Maine's Naval Air Station Brunswick.

Snowe is a moderate whose support for the Bush administration in the Senate often marks her for complaints from more paleoconservative groups, especially over her support for legalized abortion and gay rights. However, her views on the death penalty and guns are more right-wing. Snowe holds conservative views on other social issues like drug policy, travel to Cuba, and censorship issues like government regulation of the media and prohibiting flag-burning.

In fiscal matters and on defense, Snowe is generally conservative. She has been long-regarded as a hawk on foreign affairs, supporting both President Clinton's involvement in Kosovo and President George W. Bush's invasions in Afghanistan and Iraq, however she recently has criticized the administration's involvement in Iraq. On fiscal matters, she has voiced support for cutting taxes as economic stimulus. However, she ultimately joined fellow Republicans Sen. Lincoln Chafee and Sen. John McCain in voting against the tax cut bill of 2003. In 1992 she was the only Republican in Congress to vote for Tax Fairness and Economic Growth Act which provided some tax refunds to select taxpayers while also increasing non-corporate capital gains tax rates (among other provisions). It was vetoed by President George H. W. Bush. Snowe voted against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), and most free trade measures. She is a strong supporter of environmental protections. Both Snowe and fellow Maine Senator Susan Collins were reluctant converts to limited gun control following the Columbine High School shooting in 1999.

Snowe lists her top legislative priorities as assisting the growth of small business, prescription drug coverage, and student loan and child care funding.

In the 110th Congress, Snowe worked to ensure passage of a genetic non-discrimination act, which she had previously worked to pass for nearly eight years; opposed cutting loans through the Small Business Administration; offered legislation aimed at reducing the price of prescription drugs and insurance costs for small businesses; and became a leading voice among Congressional Republicans expressing concerns over President Bush's plans for the privatization of Social Security.

With fellow Maine Senator Susan Collins

Snowe is a member of The Republican Main Street Partnership and supports stem cell research. She is also a member of Republicans for Environmental Protection, the Republican Majority for Choice, Republicans for Choice and The Wish List (Women In the Senate and House), a group of pro-choice Republican women.

In 2008, Snowe endorsed Republican candidate John McCain for president of the United States.

Electoral history

¹ Change from 1988 Republican candidate Jasper S. Wyman, who was challenging George Mitchell

See also

• Women in the United States Senate
• Rockefeller Republican

Further reading

Nine & Counting: The Women of the Senate, Boxer, Collins, Snowe et al, ISBN 0-06-095706-9.

External links

• U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe page at United States Senate Official Web Site.

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Profile at Vote Smart
• U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe campaign finance reports and data at Federal Election Commission.
• U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe collected news and commentary at New York Times site.
• U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe voting record at "On the Issues".
• U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe profile at SourceWatch Congresspedia.
• U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe video clips from the Senate Republican Conference.
• U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe audio clips from the Senate Republican Conference.
• U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe Official Campaign Site.
• "The Anguished Moderate," The Washington Post, July 15, 2007.