Gordon Smith
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- For other people by this name see Gordon Smith (disambiguation)
| Gordon Smith | |
| | |
| 1997–Present | |
| Political party: | Republican |
|---|---|
| Preceded by: | Mark Hatfield |
| Succeeded by: | Incumbent (2009) |
| Born: | May 25, 1952 Pendleton, Oregon |
| Spouse: | Sharon Smith |
| Religion: | Mormon |
Gordon Harold Smith (born May 25, 1952) is a United States Senator from Oregon. He is a member of the Republican Party.
Contents |
[edit] Background
Smith was born in Pendleton, Oregon. His family moved to Bethesda, Maryland when he was a child because his father became an assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. After graduating high school he went on a two-year mission for his church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to New Zealand. He then went to college at Brigham Young University, attended law school at Southwestern University School of Law, in Los Angeles, and became an attorney in New Mexico and Arizona, but moved back to Oregon in the 1980s to become director of Smith Frozen Foods company in Weston, Oregon.
In 1989, he adopted a son, Morgan. In addition, he and his wife Sharon adopted a daughter, Brittany, born in 1980.
On September 8, 2003, Smith experienced a personal tragedy when his 21-year-old adopted son, Garrett, a college culinary arts major, committed suicide. In 2004, President George W. Bush signed the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act, authorizing $82 million for suicide-prevention and awareness programs at colleges.
Smith is also a member of the Udall political family, being a double cousin of Democratic Congressmen Mo and Stewart Udall, and a double second cousin of current Congressmen Mark Udall and Tom Udall (Smith is the only Republican in the group).
[edit] Political career
Smith entered politics and was elected to the Oregon State Senate in 1992, becoming president of that body in 1995. Later in 1995, he ran in a special election for a Senate seat vacated by the resignation of Bob Packwood, but was defeated in the January 1996 election by congressman Ron Wyden. He was able to run for the Senate again later that year, however, when Mark Hatfield announced his retirement and Smith became the Republican candidate for the regular 1996 November election. This time he won, defeating Democrat Tom Bruggerre, and was soon serving as a colleague with his former political opponent, Ron Wyden. Smith also achieved political distinction by being the first person to run for the Senate twice in one year. He was reelected in 2002.
Smith became a strong supporter of expanding hate crime laws to encompass crimes against homosexuals. On June 15, 2004, he successfully passed an amendment doing just that (65-33) with every Democrat in the Senate voting for his amendment. As a result, he was one of a few Republican senators supported by gay rights groups in the United States, including the Human Rights Campaign. Since then, he came out in support of the Federal Marriage Amendment that would define marriage as between a man and a woman. Leading up to the 2006 midterm elections, Smith reached across the aisle and joined Senate Democrats to introduce legislation that would guarantee gay employees of the federal government domestic partnership benefits.
In January 2006, Smith began circulating draft legislation entitled the Digital Content Protection Act of 2006 [1]. The legislation would grant the Federal Communications Commission the authority to authorize a "broadcast flag" for "digital audio receiving devices" and devices that "transmit digital audio broadcast signals".
Smith is a member of The Republican Main Street Partnership and supports stem cell research, even as he largely opposes abortion.
The latest National Journal congressional rating placed Smith in the exact ideological center of the Senate. [2]
[edit] Committee assignments
- Special Committee on Aging - Chairman
[edit] References
<references/>
- The Congress and Scouting. Fact sheet. Boy Scouts of America. Retrieved on 2006-09-06.
[edit] External links
- Official website
- The Oregonian on Garrett Smith's suicide
- IMNO Interviews Gordon Smith
- Biography at the Political Graveyard
- Voting record maintained by the Washington Post
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by: Mark Hatfield | United States Senator (Class 2) from Oregon 1997- | Incumbent |
| Oregon's current delegation to the United States Congress |
|---|
| Senators: Ron Wyden (D), Gordon H. Smith (R)
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