Bob Packwood | |
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Chair of the Senate Finance Committee | |
In office January 3, 1995 –October 1, 1995 | |
Preceded by | Daniel Patrick Moynihan |
Succeeded by | William Roth |
In office January 3,1985 –January 3,1987 | |
Preceded by | Bob Dole |
Succeeded by | Lloyd Bentsen |
Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee | |
In office January 3,1981 –January 3,1985 | |
Preceded by | Howard Cannon |
Succeeded by | John Danforth |
United States Senator from Oregon | |
In office January 3,1969 –October 1,1995 | |
Preceded by | Wayne Morse |
Succeeded by | Ron Wyden |
Member of the OregonHouseofRepresentatives from the 6th district | |
In office January 14,1963 –January 3,1969 | |
Preceded by | Multi-member district |
Succeeded by | Multi-member district |
Personal details | |
Born | Robert William Packwood September 11,1932 Portland,Oregon,U.S. |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse(s) | Georgie Oberteuffer (m. 1964;div. 1991)Elaine Franklin (m. 1998) |
Children | 2 |
Education | Willamette University (BA) New York University (JD) |
Robert William "Bob" Packwood (born September 11, 1932) is an American retired lawyer and politician from Oregon. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a member of the United States Senate from 1969 to 1995. He resigned from the U.S. Senate under threat of expulsion, in 1995 after allegations of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and assault of women emerged.
Packwood was born to Frederick William and Gladys Dorothy (Taft) Packwood in Portland, Oregon, graduated from Grant High School in 1950, and in 1954 graduated from Willamette University in Salem.
Packwood is the great-grandson of William Packwood, the youngest member of the Oregon Constitutional Convention of 1857. [1] [2] Packwood had his great-grandfather's political bent from his early years. During his undergraduate years, he participated in Young Republican activities and worked on political campaigns, including later Governor and U.S. Senator Mark Hatfield's first run for the Oregon House of Representatives. He received the Root-Tilden Scholarship to New York University's Law School, where he earned national awards in moot court competition and was elected student body president. [3] After graduating from the NYU Law School in 1957, he was admitted to the bar and practiced law in Portland.
In 1960, he was elected Chairman of the Multnomah County, Oregon Republican Central Committee, thus becoming the youngest party chairman of a major metropolitan area in the country. [4] In 1962, he became the youngest member of the Oregon Legislature [5] when he was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives after a campaign waged by what The Oregonian called "one of the most effective working organizations in many an election moon in Oregon". Hundreds of volunteers went door-to-door, distributing leaflets throughout the district, and put up lawn signs that became "literally a geographical feature" of the district. [6] Because of the effectiveness of his own campaigns, Packwood was selected to organize a political action committee that recruited attractive Republican candidates for the Oregon House throughout the state, [3] and trained them in "Packwood-style" campaigning methods. [7] [8] The success of his candidates was credited with the Republican takeover of the Oregon House, thus making Oregon the only state in the Union in which the Republicans were able to score a significant victory in 1964. [7] [8] [9]
Packwood was a member of the Oregon House of Representatives from 1963 to 1968. In 1965, he founded the Dorchester Conference, an annual political conclave on the Oregon coast that "pointedly ignored state leadership in the Grand Old Party" [10] to bring Republican officeholders and citizens together, to discuss current issues and pass resolutions taking stands on those issues. Initially a forum for liberal politics, it has become an annual networking event for Oregon Republicans.
In 1968, Packwood was nominated to run for the U.S. Senate in Oregon as the Republican candidate against Democratic incumbent Wayne Morse. Morse had been elected to the Senate as a Republican in 1944 and 1950, then switched parties due to his liberal views, and was easily re-elected as a Democrat in 1956 and 1962. The relatively unknown Packwood was given little chance, but after an 11th-hour debate with the incumbent before the City Club of Portland, which Packwood was generally considered to have won, [11] and a statewide recount in which over 100,000 ballots were challenged by both parties, [12] Packwood was declared the winner by 3,500 votes. [13] Packwood replaced Senator Ted Kennedy as the youngest senator. [14] Packwood was re-elected in 1974, 1980, 1986, and 1992.
Packwood's voting record was moderate. He supported restrictions on gun owners and liberal civil rights legislation. Packwood voted in favor of the bill establishing Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a federal holiday, and the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 (as well as to override Ronald Reagan's veto). [15] [16] [17]
Packwood differed with President Richard Nixon on some significant issues. He voted against Nixon's Supreme Court nominees Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell, [18] as well as Nixon's proposals for the Rockwell B-1 Lancer, submarines capable of carrying the Trident and the supersonic transport (SST). [18] He became the first U.S. Senate Republican to support the Impeachment process against Richard Nixon, which was unsuccessful. [2] In a White House meeting on November 15, 1973, he told Nixon that the public no longer believed him, and no longer trusted the integrity of the administration. [19]
Two years before the Roe v. Wade decision by the Supreme Court, Packwood introduced the Senate's first abortion legalization bill, but he was unable to attract a co-sponsor for it. [20] His pro-choice stance earned him the loyalty of many feminist groups, [21] and numerous awards, including those from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (January 10, 1983) and the National Women's Political Caucus (October 23, 1985). In 1987, Packwood crossed party lines to vote against the nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court, and he was one of only two Republicans to vote against the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the court in 1991. [3] Both votes were based on the nominee's opposition to abortion rights. [3]
He played a major role in the enactment of the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area Act, [22] sponsoring a bill which protected scenic Hells Canyon, the deepest river gorge in North America, by making it into a 652,488-acre (2,640.53 km2) National Recreation Area on the borders of northeastern Oregon and western Idaho. [23] [24] Environmentalists also praised his advocacy of solar energy, returnable bottles, and bike paths. [18]
Deregulation was another interest of Packwood's. In the late 1970s, he became a passionate supporter of trucking deregulation, and a "persuasive spokesman" for reform. [25]
He has been described as an "ardent" pro-Israel supporter. He opposed a sale of F-15s to Saudi Arabia under President Reagan. [26]
He was most noted for his role in the 1986 tax reform, while he was chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. [27] President Ronald Reagan had proposed the idea of tax reform in 1984, but Packwood's initial response was indifferent. However, he played a leading role in fashioning a tax code that would raise business taxes by some $120 billion over five years, and lower personal income taxes by roughly the same amount. [3]
Packwood's debating skills were rated A+ by USA Today in the issue of July 18, 1986.[ citation needed ] But his debating and legislative skills could kill bills as well as pass them. His floor management has been credited with killing President Clinton's 1993 health care bill. [28] And he could be stubborn; in 1988, he was carried feet-first into the Senate Chamber by Capitol Police for a quorum call on campaign finance reform legislation. [29] [30]
Packwood's political career began to unravel in November 1992, when a Washington Post story detailed claims of sexual abuse and assault from ten women, chiefly former staffers and lobbyists. [31] Publication of the story was delayed until after the 1992 election, as Packwood had denied the allegations and the Post had not gathered enough information about the story at the time. [32] [33] Packwood defeated the Democratic nominee, Representative Les AuCoin, 52.1% to 46.5%–easily his closest race since his initial run for the seat a quarter-century earlier. Eventually, 19 women came forward. [34] [35]
As the situation developed, Packwood's diary became an issue. Wrangling over whether the diary could be subpoenaed and whether it was protected by the Fifth Amendment's protection against self-incrimination ensued. He did divulge 5,000 pages to the Senate Ethics Committee but balked when a further 3,200 pages were demanded by the committee. It was discovered that he had edited the diary, removing what were allegedly references to sexual encounters and the sexual abuse allegations made against him. Packwood then made what some of his colleagues interpreted as a threat to expose wrongdoing by other members of Congress. The diary allegedly detailed some of his abusive behavior toward women and, according to a press statement made by Richard Bryan, at that time serving as senator from Nevada, "raised questions about possible violations of one or more laws, including criminal laws". [36]
Despite pressure for open hearings from the public and from female Senators, especially Barbara Boxer from California, the Senate ultimately decided against them.[ why? ] The Ethics Committee's indictment, running to ten volumes and 10,145 pages, much of it from Packwood's own writings, according to a report in The New York Times , detailed the sexual misconduct, obstruction of justice, and ethics charges being made against him. [37] The chairman of the Ethics Committee, Republican senator Mitch McConnell, referred to Packwood's "habitual pattern of aggressive, blatantly sexual advances, mostly directed at members of his own staff or others whose livelihoods were connected in some way to his power and authority as a Senator" and said Packwood's behavior included "deliberately altering and destroying relevant portions of his diary" that Packwood himself had described in the diary as "very incriminating information". On September 7, the committee unanimously recommended that Packwood be expelled from the Senate. [37]
The following morning, the committee released its findings. With bipartisan pressure mounting, Packwood announced his resignation from the Senate, saying that he was "aware of the dishonor that has befallen me in the last three years" and his "duty to resign." [37] Democratic Representative Ron Wyden won the seat in a special election.
After the sexual harassment case came to light, Packwood entered the Hazelden Foundation clinic for alcoholism in Minnesota, blaming his drinking for the harassments. [38]
Four years later, during debate on Impeachment of Bill Clinton, McConnell said that the Republicans knew that it was very likely Packwood's seat would fall to the Democrats if Packwood were forced out. However, McConnell said, he and his fellow Republicans felt that it came down to a choice of "retain the Senate seat or retain our honor." [39]
Soon after leaving the Senate, Packwood founded the lobbying firm Sunrise Research Corporation. The former senator used his expertise in taxes and trade, and his status as a former Senate Finance Committee chairman, to land lucrative contracts with numerous clients, among them Northwest Airlines, Freightliner Trucks, and Marriott International. [40] Among other projects, he played a key role in the 2001 fight to repeal the estate tax.[ citation needed ] In 2015, Packwood returned to the Senate as a witness for the Senate Finance Committee, which was again considering tax reform. He and Bill Bradley spoke on the Tax Reform Act of 1986. [41]
Theodore Ralph Kulongoski is an American politician, judge, and lawyer who served as the 36th Governor of Oregon from 2003 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in both houses of the Oregon Legislative Assembly and also served as the state Insurance Commissioner. He was the Attorney General of Oregon from 1993 to 1997 and a justice of the Oregon Supreme Court from 1997 to 2001. Kulongoski has served in all three branches of the Oregon state government.
Mark Odom Hatfield was an American politician and educator from the state of Oregon. A Republican, he served eight years as Governor of Oregon, followed by 30 years as one of its United States senators, including time as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. A native Oregonian, he served in the United States Navy in the Pacific Theater during World War II after graduating from Willamette University. After the war he earned a graduate degree from Stanford University before returning to Oregon and Willamette as a professor.
Wayne Lyman Morse was an American attorney and United States Senator from Oregon. Morse is well known for opposing the Democratic Party’s leadership and for his opposition to the Vietnam War on constitutional grounds.
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The 1974 United States Senate elections were held on November 5, with the 34 seats of Class 3 contested in regular elections. They occurred in the wake of the Watergate scandal, Richard M. Nixon's resignation from the presidency, and Gerald Ford's subsequent pardon of Nixon. Economic issues, specifically inflation and stagnation, were also a factor that contributed to Republican losses. As an immediate result of the November 1974 elections, Democrats made a net gain of three seats from the Republicans, as they defeated Republican incumbents in Colorado and Kentucky and picked up open seats in Florida and Vermont, while Republicans won the open seat in Nevada. Following the elections, at the beginning of the 94th U.S. Congress, the Democratic caucus controlled 60 seats, and the Republican caucus controlled 38 seats.
Robert Denison Holmes was an American politician and journalist from the U.S. state of Oregon. A native of the state of New York, he worked in newspapers and radio before entering politics. Though a Republican early in his career, he served as a Democrat in the Oregon State Senate and as the 28th Governor of Oregon. He was governor from 1957 to 1959.
Walter Leslie AuCoin is an American politician. In 1974 he became the first person from the Democratic Party to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Oregon's 1st congressional district, since it was formed in 1892. The seat has been held by Democrats ever since.
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The Oregon Citizens Alliance (OCA) was a conservative Christian political activist organization, founded by Lon Mabon in the U.S. state of Oregon. It was founded in 1986 as a vehicle to challenge then–U.S. Senator Bob Packwood in the Republican primaries, and was involved in Oregon politics from the late 1980s into the 1990s.
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The 1980 Oregon United States Senate election was held on November 4, 1980 to select the U.S. Senator from the state of Oregon. Republican candidate Bob Packwood was re-elected to a third term, defeating Democratic state senator Ted Kulongoski and Libertarian Tonie Nathan.
The 1992 United States Senate election in Oregon was held on November 3, 1992. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Bob Packwood won re-election to his fifth term. As of 2024, this is the last time the Republicans won the Class 3 U.S. Senate seat in Oregon.
The 1986 United States Senate election in Oregon was held on November 8, 1986. Incumbent Republican Bob Packwood ran for re-election. U.S. Congressman Jim Weaver received the Democratic nomination. A populist Democratic congressman from Eugene, Oregon, he was a darling of the environmentalists. Weaver supported the Oregon Wilderness Act of 1984. Packwood was confident, despite the popular opponent, because had more money and a better campaign organization. After winning the party nomination, Weaver was the subject of a House Ethics Committee probe into his campaign finances, and withdrew his candidacy. Rick Bauman was selected to replace Weaver on the ballot, and lost handily to Packwood.
Richard H. "Rick" Bauman is a former American Democratic politician from the US state of Oregon who served in the Oregon House of Representatives and on the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners in the 1980s. He was also the Democratic nominee for United States Senator from Oregon in 1986. After retiring from politics in 1992, Bauman began organizing bicycle tours and was a founder of Portland Bridge Pedal, an annual bicycle tour crossing all the bridges in Portland.
Harold K. Lonsdale was an American scientist, businessman, and politician. A Democrat, he ran for United States Senate in the U.S. state of Oregon three times, losing twice in the primaries and once as the Democratic candidate, losing in the 1990 general election to incumbent Republican Mark Hatfield. In 2011 Lonsdale sponsored a research challenge to determine the origin of life on Earth.
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