Tom Vilsack

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{{Infobox_Governor

|name= Tom Vilsack |image= Tvilsack.jpg |caption= |order=40^th |office= Governor of Iowa |term_start= January 1999 |term_end=present |lieutenant= Sally Pederson |predecessor= Terry E. Branstad |successor= incumbent |birth_date= December 13, 1950 |birth_place= Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |death_date= |death_place= |spouse= Christie Vilsack |profession= Lawyer |party= Democrat |footnotes= }} Thomas James Vilsack (born December 13, 1950) is 40th Governor of the state of Iowa. He was first elected in 1998, and reelected to a second four-year term in 2002. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

1 Early life and family
2 Early political career
3 Governorship
4 Recent Events
5 External links

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Early life and family

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Vilsack was orphaned at birth and was placed in a Catholic orphanage several days later. His name was "Kenneth" before he was adopted in 1951 as an infant by Bud and Dolly Vilsack, who raised him in their Roman Catholic faith. His adoptive father was a real-estate agent and insurance salesman, and his adoptive mother was a homemaker. He had one sister, Alice, who was six years older than he and who died in her mid-40s.

He went to high school at Shady Side Academy, a private college preparatory school in Pittsburgh. He received his bachelor's degree in 1972 from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York where he was also a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity. During the early 1970s he met his wife Christine Bell. He then went to Albany Law School, and received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in 1975. He then passed the bar exam. A few years later he and his wife decided to move to her hometown of Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Vilsack then joined his father-in-law in his law practice.

Tom and Christie Vilsack have two sons – Jess and Doug. Both have graduated from college. Jess graduated from the University of Iowa Law School in May, 2003. Doug graduated at about the same time from Colorado College.

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Early political career

Vilsack was first elected mayor of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, in 1987. Vilsack was elected to the Iowa State Senate in 1992. As a State Senator, Vilsack worked to require companies who received state tax incentives to provide better pay and benefits. He also helped pass a law which allowed workers to receive their health coverage when changing jobs, and helped redesign the state's Workforce Development Department. In addition, he wrote a bill which required the state to pay for 50% of county mental health costs.

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Governorship

In 1998 former conservative Republican Governor of Iowa, Terry E. Branstad, decided not to seek re-election after having served 16 years as Governor. The Republicans nominated Jim Ross Lightfoot, a former Representative to the US House. Lightfoot had narrowly lost the 1998 U.S. Senate race to Democratic Senator Tom Harkin. Lightfoot became the odds-on favorite to succeed Branstad, causing bigger name Democrats to avoid seeking the Democratic nomination. Vilsack defeated former Iowa Supreme Court Justice Mark McCormick in the Democratic primary. Lightfoot began the race against Vilsack with a large poll lead, which Vilsack steadily decreased. However, on the eve of the 1998 Election, Lightfoot was still narrowly leading Vilsack in every major poll, but Vilsack won in an upset. Vilsack's election marked the first time in about 30 years that a Democrat was elected as Governor.

In 2002 he won his second term in office by defeating Republican challenger Doug Gross, a lawyer from Des Moines and former chief of staff to Terry Branstad.

Image:VilsackatIEC.jpg

The first year of his second term saw the creation of the Iowa Values Fund, a $503-million fund designed to help boost the Iowa economy by creating higher-income jobs. Vilsack used a line-item veto, which was later ruled unconstitutional by Iowa's Supreme Court, to pass the fund while vetoing portions of the same bill that would have cut income taxes and eased business regulations. The entire bill, including the Iowa Values Fund, was nullified. By that time the fund had made commitments to over 30 companies. After a special legislative session on September 7, 2004, $100 million in state money was set aside to honor those commitments. The Iowa Values Fund was reinstated at the end of the 2005 session, as $50 million a year will be set aside over the next ten years. All but one of the candidates seeking to replace Vilsack (Mike Blouin, whose prior job included administrating the fund) have openly criticised this program. [1] Their complaints include the fact that the companies lured into Iowa by the fund, unlike Iowa-based corporations, can just as easily be lured out by greater cash incentives elsewhere. Another criticism is that it does nothing to promote new business. Iowa was rated as the worst place in tha nation to start a new business by Entreprenuer magazine. [2]

For most of Vilsack's tenure as governor, Republicans have held majorities in both chambers of the Legislature. However, after the November 2, 2004, elections, the 50-member Senate became evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. Republicans continued to hold a 51-49 majority in the House.

During the 2005 legislative session, Vilsack signed a bill that requires products that contain pseudoephedrine to be sold behind pharmacy counters; anyone wishing to buy such products is required to show identification and sign a log book first. The new law, designed to reduce methamphetamine use in Iowa, took effect on May 21, 2005. Another anti-crime law was passed after 10-year-old Jetseta Gage of Cedar Rapids was murdered by a convicted sex crime offender on March 24. The new law extends prison sentences and strengthens supervision of sex offenders once they are released from prison. Vilsack is an opponent of capital punishment, and has vowed to veto any legislation seeking to reinstate the death penaly in Iowa, even in terrorism cases. The 2005 session ended on May 20, three weeks later than usual, after a budget for the 2005-2006 fiscal year was approved.

Currently Vilsack is a member of the National Governors' Association Executive Committee. He was the chairman of the Democratic Governors' Association in 2004, and he was also previously involved with the Jobs for America's Graduates (JAG) program. He had also is past chair of the Governors Biotechnology Partnership, the Governors Ethanol Coalition, and the Midwest Governors Conference, and has also been chair and vice chair of the National Governors Association's committee on Natural Resources, where he worked to develop the NGA's farm and energy policies.

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Recent Events

Prior to Democratic Presidential candidate Senator John Kerry's (D-Massachusetts) selection of Senator John Edwards, Vilsack was thought to be high on the list of potential running mates for Kerry in the 2004 presidential election. During the Kerry campaign some political observers felt that the chances were good that Vilsack would have been offered a cabinet level position in the event of a Kerry victory.

Vilsack's current term will expire in 2007. Governor Vilsack has recently said that he would not seek a third term as governor. As a result a number of leading Republicans and Democrats - such as Republican Jim Nussle and Democrats Mike Blouin, Ed Fallon, Chet Culver - have begun to explore running for the Governor's office.

Vilsack's name was recently put forth as a possible candidate to chair the Democratic National Committee after the term of chairman Terry McAuliffe had expired. Vilsack withdrew his name from consideration for that post on November 22, 2004. He stated that he did that in order to focus on his governing agenda for the last two years of his term. There has also been some speculation about a possible Presidential run in 2008.

In 2005, Vilsack established Heartland PAC, a political action committee aimed at electing Democratic Governors and other statewide candidates. In the first report, Vilsack raised over half of a million dollars.

On July 16, 2005, Vilsack was named chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, an appointment which will allow him to travel widely and converse with party leaders. This was the position held by Bill Clinton prior to winning the White House in 1992.

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