Ted Stevens

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Template:Infobox Senator Theodore Fulton "Ted" Stevens (born November 18 1923) is an American politician from Alaska. He is currently the longest serving Republican in the U.S. Senate and, because of this, is the current president pro tempore. Stevens served as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee from 1997 to 2005 except for the 18-month interlude when Democrats controlled the chamber. The chairmanship gave Stevens considerable influence among fellow Senators, who relied on him for home-state project funds. Because of Republican Party rules that limit committee chairmanships to six years, Stevens gave up the Appropriations gavel at the start of the 109th Congress.

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Biography

Ted Stevens was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1923. During World War II, he was a pilot in China with the "Flying Tigers" of the Fourteenth Air Force from 1943 to 1946, holding the rank of First Lieutenant. There he received two Distinguished Flying Crosses and two Air Medals, as well as the Yuan Hai medal of Taiwan.

After the war ended, Stevens attended UCLA and Harvard Law School. In the early 1950s he moved to Alaska, then a territory. In Fairbanks Stevens practiced law, and he was appointed U.S. Attorney for Fairbanks in 1953.

In 1956 Stevens was transferred to Washington, D.C. There he worked as legislative counsel and assistant to Secretary of the Interior Fred Seaton. He also pushed for the statehood of Alaska and Hawaii, which occurred in 1959. In 1960, then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower promoted Stevens to solicitor of the Department of the Interior.

After returning to Alaska, Stevens practiced law in Anchorage. He was elected to the Alaska House of Representatives in 1964, and became House majority leader in his second term. In December 1968, Governor Walter Joseph Hickel appointed Stevens to the U.S. Senate after the death of Bob Bartlett. In 1970, Stevens was elected to finish the term in a special election, and has been reelected six times since, in 1972, 1978, 1984, 1990, 1996 and 2002. His current term will expire in 2009.

Stevens served as the Assistant Republican Whip from 1977 to 1985. In 1994, Stevens was appointed Chairman of the Senate Rules Committee. Stevens became the Senate's president pro tempore when Republicans regained control of the chamber as a result the 2002 mid-term elections. He is a former Chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee and the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. In the past, Stevens also has served as Chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, the Arms Control Observer Group, and the Joint Committee on the Library of Congress.

Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in Anchorage is named after him. In December 1978, Stevens survived the crash of a Lear jet at the airport, which killed five people, including his first wife, Ann.

Stevens' son, Ben Stevens, was appointed to the Alaska Senate in 2001 by Democratic Governor Tony Knowles, and is currently the Senate President.

Stevens' current home in Alaska is in Girdwood. His campaign political action committee is called the "Northern Lights PAC."

On October 20 2005, Stevens threatened to resign from the Senate if lawmakers passed language that would have stripped money allocated for two bridges in Alaska and redirected it to Hurricane Katrina repairs in Louisiana. [1] That language was defeated, but in the face of intense public and private criticism, Congress later defunded the bridges specifically and instead redirected the money to a pot for Alaska's general transportation use. Stevens said later that he would not resign over this action because the money is not being taken away from Alaska in general. The Senator's comments on December 21 2005 after a contentious vote on a defense bill from which ANWR provisions had been removed again prompted speculation over his resignation. [2]

A member of the Republican Main Street Partnership, Stevens supports human embryonic stem cell research and abortion rights, with restrictions.

When he is discussing issues that are especially important to him (such as opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling), he wears a necktie with The Incredible Hulk on it to show his seriousness. Marvel Comics responded by sending him free Hulk paraphernalia and throwing a Hulk party for the Senator.[3]

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References

  • Chuck Neubauer and Richard T. Cooper. "Senator's Way to Wealth Was Paved With Favors." The Los Angeles Times. December 17, 2003, [4]. A1.
  • Dana Milbank and Justin Blum. "Document Says Oil Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force", The Washington Post. November 16, 2005, [5]
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External links

Template:Start box {{incumbent U.S. Senator box | state=Alaska | class=2 | before=Bob Bartlett | alongside=Ernest Gruening, Mike Gravel, Frank Murkowski, Lisa Murkowski | start=December 24, 1968}} {{succession box | title=United States Senate Minority Whip | before=Robert P. Griffin | after=Alan Cranston | years=1977 – 1981}} {{incumbent succession box | title=President pro tempore of the United States Senate | before=Robert C. Byrd | start=2003}} {{succession box | title=United States Presidential Line of Succession | before=J. Dennis Hastert | after=Condoleezza Rice | years= }} Template:End box Template:AK-FedRep Template:USSenPresProTemp Template:Current U.S. Senatorsfr:Ted Stevens nl:Ted Stevens pl:Ted Stevens ru:Стивенс, Тэд

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