Bernie Sanders

Bernard "Bernie" Sanders (born September 8, 1941) is the junior United States Senator from Vermont. He previously represented Vermont's at-large district in the United States House of Representatives and served as Mayor of Burlington, the largest city in Vermont.

Sanders is a self-described democratic socialist,  and has praised European social democracy (though he has also criticized its contemporary "Third Way" departure). He is the first person elected to the U.S. Senate to identify as a socialist in six decades. Sanders caucuses with the Democratic Party and is counted as a Democrat for the purposes of committee assignments, but because he does not belong to a formal political party, he appears as an independent on the ballot. He was also the only independent member of the House during much of his service.

Early life, education, and early political career
Sanders, the son of Polish Jewish immigrants, was born in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from James Madison High School in Brooklyn, and later attended the University of Chicago, graduating with an Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1964. After graduating from college, Sanders spent time on an Israeli kibbutz, an experience that shaped his political views. In 1964, Sanders moved to Vermont, where he worked as a carpenter, filmmaker, writer and researcher, among other jobs.

Sanders's political career began in 1971, when he joined the anti-Vietnam War Liberty Union Party (LU) in Vermont. In the special U.S. Senate election of January 1972, recently appointed incumbent Republican Robert Theodore Stafford defeated Democratic nominee Randolph Mayor and LU nominee Sanders 64%-33%-2%. In the November 1972 gubernatorial election, Democrat Thomas Salmon defeated Republican Luther Fred Hackett and Sanders 55%-44%-1%. In the 1974 U.S. Senate election, Democrat Patrick Leahy defeated Republican Richard Mallary and Sanders 49%-46%-4%. In the 1976 gubernatorial election, Republican Richard Snelling defeated Democrat Stella Hackel and Sanders 53%-40%-6%. In 1979, Sanders resigned from Liberty Union and worked as a writer and the director of the nonprofit American People's Historical Society.

Mayor of Burlington
In 1981, at the suggestion of his friend Richard Sugarman, a professor of religion at the University of Vermont, Sanders ran for Mayor of Burlington and defeated six-term Democratic incumbent Gordon Paquette by 10 votes in a four-way contest. Sanders won three more terms, defeating both Democratic and Republican candidates. In his final run for Mayor in 1987, Sanders defeated a candidate endorsed by both major parties.

During Sanders's first term, his supporters, including the first Citizens Party City Councilor Terry Bouricius, formed the Progressive Coalition, forerunner of the Vermont Progressive Party. The Progressives never held more than six seats on the 13-member city council, but held enough votes to keep the council from overriding Sanders's vetoes. Under Sanders, Burlington became the first city in the country to fund community-trust housing. His administration also sued the local cable television provider and won considerably reduced rates and a substantial cash settlement.

Sanders ran for governor for the third time in 1986. He finished third with 14.5% of the vote – enough to deny incumbent Democrat Madeleine Kunin a majority; she was then elected by the state legislature, pursuant to Vermont law. In 1988, when seven-term incumbent Representative Jim Jeffords made a successful run for the Senate, Sanders ran for Jeffords's vacated seat in the House and narrowly lost to Peter P. Smith, the former lieutenant governor and the 1986 Republican candidate for governor.

Sanders taught at Harvard University in 1989 and Hamilton College in 1991.

Elections
In 1988, incumbent Republican Congressman Jim Jeffords decided to run for the U.S. Senate, vacating Vermont's At-large congressional district. Republican Lieutenant Governor Peter Smith won the House election with a plurality of 41%. Sanders, who ran as an independent, won 38%. Democratic nominee Paul N. Poirier, a State Representative, won 19% in third place.

In 1990, Sanders ran for the seat again and defeated Smith in a rematch, winning 56%-40%. He became the first independent elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 40 years since Frazier Reams from Ohio, and the first Congressman to describe himself as a socialist in 60 years, the earlier being Victor L. Berger from Wisconsin.

In 1992, Sanders won reelection with 58%, In 1994, in the midst of the Republican Revolution that swept Republicans into control of the Congress, Sanders had his most difficult reelection campaign, defeating Republican State Senator John Carroll 50% to 47%; no Democrat was on the ballot. In 1996, he defeated Republican State Senator Susan Sweetser and Democrat Jack Long 55%-33%-9%. Thereafter he continually won reelection with over 60% of the vote.

Tenure
Sanders's lifetime legislative score from the AFL-CIO is 99%. , he has a grade of "C-" from the National Rifle Association (NRA). Sanders voted against the Brady Bill, and in favor of an NRA-supported bill to restrict lawsuits against gun manufacturers in 2005. Sanders voted to abolish the so-called "marriage penalty" for income taxes and also voted for a bill that sought to ban human cloning. Sanders has endorsed every Democratic nominee for president of the United States since 1992. Sanders is a co-founder of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and chaired the grouping of mostly liberal Democrats for its first eight years.

Sanders voted against the resolutions authorizing the use of force against Iraq in 1991 and 2002 and opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq; he later joined almost all his colleagues in voting for a non-binding resolution expressing support for U.S. troops at the outset of the invasion, but gave a floor speech criticizing the partisan nature of the resolution, and the Bush administration's actions in the run-up to the war. On April 7, 2006, in regard to the investigation of the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity, Sanders said, "The revelation that the President authorized the release of classified information in order to discredit an Iraq war critic should tell every member of Congress that the time is now for a serious investigation of how we got into the war in Iraq and why Congress can no longer act as a rubber stamp for the President."

In June 2005, Sanders proposed an amendment to limit provisions that allow the government to obtain individuals' library and book-buying records. The amendment passed the House by a bipartisan majority but was removed on November 4 that year in House-Senate negotiations and never became law. Sanders followed this vote on November 5, 2005, by voting against the Online Freedom of Speech Act, which would have exempted the Internet from the restrictions of the McCain-Feingold Bill.

In March 2006, after a series of resolutions calling for him to bring articles of impeachment against the President passed in various towns in Vermont, Sanders stated it would be impractical to impeach George W. Bush, given the "reality that the Republicans control the House and the Senate". Still, Sanders made no secret of his opposition to the Bush Administration, which he regularly attacked for cuts to social programs he supports.

Sanders is a critic of Alan Greenspan; in June 2003, during a question-and-answer discussion with the then-Federal Reserve Chairman, Sanders told Greenspan that he was concerned that Greenspan was "way out of touch" and "that you see your major function in your position as the need to represent the wealthy and large corporations". Sanders said in 1998 that investment banks and commercial banks should remain as separate entities.

Republicans have attacked Sanders as "an ineffective extremist" for successfully sponsoring only one law and fifteen amendments in his eight terms in the House. Sanders responded by saying that he had gotten "the most floor amendments of any member of the House since 1996 [passed]."

Elections
Sanders had mentioned on several occasions that he would run for the Senate if Jeffords (with whom he has a longstanding friendship) were to retire, and after Jeffords's announcement that he would not seek a fourth term, Sanders entered the race on April 21, 2005. New York Senator Chuck Schumer, the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, endorsed Sanders. Schumer's backing was critical, as it meant that any Democrat running against Sanders could not expect to receive any significant financial help on a national level.

Sanders was also endorsed by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, and Democratic National Committee Chairman and former Vermont Governor Howard Dean. Dean said in May 2005 that he considered Sanders an ally who "votes with the Democrats 98% of the time". Then-Senator Barack Obama also campaigned for Sanders in Vermont. Sanders entered into an agreement with the Democratic Party, much as he had as a congressman, to be listed in their primary but to decline the nomination should he win, which he did.

Speculation abounded that the state's popular Republican Governor, Jim Douglas, would enter the race as well. Many pundits believed Douglas was the only Republican who could possibly defeat Sanders. But on April 30, Douglas announced that he would seek a third term as governor. In the view of many pundits, this effectively handed the open seat to Sanders. Sanders consistently led his Republican challenger, businessman Richard Tarrant, by wide margins in polling. In the most expensive political campaign in Vermont's history, Sanders defeated Tarrant by an approximately 2-to-1 margin. Many national media outlets projected Sanders the winner before any returns came in.

Sanders is only the third senator from Vermont to caucus with the Democrats, after Jeffords and Patrick Leahy. He entered into an agreement with the Democratic leadership similar to the one Jeffords made after Jeffords became an independent. In exchange for receiving the committee seats that would be available to him as a Democrat, Sanders votes with the Democrats on all procedural matters unless he asks permission of Majority Whip Richard Durbin. Such a request is almost never made or granted. Sanders is free to vote as he pleases on policy matters but almost always votes with the Democrats.

Sanders was reelected to the Senate in 2012 with 71% of the vote.

Tenure
Sanders and Senator Barbara Boxer introduced the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 on January 15, 2007. The measure would have provided funding for research and development on geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide, set emissions standards for new vehicles and a renewable fuels requirement for gasoline beginning in 2016, established energy efficiency and renewable portfolio standards beginning in 2008 and low-carbon electric generation standards beginning in 2016 for electric utilities and would have required periodic evaluations by the National Academy of Sciences to determine whether emissions targets are adequate.

On September 24, 2008, Senator Sanders posted on his website a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, against the initial bailout proposal, drawing more than 8,000 citizen cosigners in the first 24 hours. On January 26, 2009, Sanders and Democrats Robert Byrd, Russ Feingold and Tom Harkin were the sole majority members to vote against confirmation of Timothy Geithner to be United States Secretary of the Treasury.

On December 10, 2010, Sanders delivered an 8½-hour speech against the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010, the proposed extension of the Bush-era tax rates that eventually became law, saying "Enough is enough! [...] How many homes can you own?" (A long speech such as this is in the tradition of a filibuster, though because it did not block Senate action, it didn't technically qualify as a filibuster under US Senate rules.) On January 19, 2011, Sanders announced that the speech would be published in February 2011 by Nation Books as The Speech: A Historic Filibuster on Corporate Greed and the Decline of Our Middle Class, with authorial proceeds going to Vermont nonprofit charitable organizations.

In response to his "filibuster", "activists across the country started talking up the notion of a 'Sanders for President' run in 2012, either as a dissident Democrat in the primaries or as a left-leaning Independent." Hundreds of people signed online petitions urging Sanders to run, and pollsters began measuring his support in key primary states. Progressive activists such as Rabbi Michael Lerner and economist David Korten publicly voiced their support for a prospective Sanders run against President Barack Obama. Sanders has disavowed any interest in a presidential run, saying he was "very proud to be Vermont's Senator," and maintained that "I am very content to be where I am, but I am flattered by that kind of response."

Polling conducted in August 2011 by Public Policy Polling found that Sanders' approval rating was 67% and his disapproval rating 28%, making him the third most popular Senator in the country.

Committee assignments

 * Committee on the Budget
 * Committee on Veterans' Affairs
 * Committee on Environment and Public Works
 * Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety
 * Subcommittee on Green Jobs and the New Economy (Chairman)
 * Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure
 * Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
 * Subcommittee on Energy
 * Subcommittee on National Parks
 * Subcommittee on Water and Power
 * Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
 * Subcommittee on Children and Families
 * Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging

Political positions
Senator Sanders describes himself as a democratic socialist.

Campaign Finance
Sanders supports the DISCLOSE Act, which would make campaign finances more transparent and ban U.S. corporations controlled by foreign interests to make political contributions. On December 8th, 2011, Sanders introduced a resolution that would amend the Constitution. The resolution, known as the Saving American Democracy Amendment reads as:

″Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to expressly exclude for-profit corporations from the rights given to natural persons by the Constitution of the United States, prohibit corporate spending in all elections, and affirm the authority of Congress and the States to regulate corporations and to regulate and set limits on all election contributions and expenditures.″

Health care
He is a staunch supporter of a universal health care system, and has said “[I]f you are serious about real healthcare reform, the only way to go is single-payer”.

Free trade
Sanders opposes what he terms “unfettered” free trade, which he argues deprives American workers of their jobs while exploiting foreign workers in sweatshop factories.

Media reform
Sanders has been a leader in calling for media reform and opposes increased concentration of ownership of media outlets. He appeared in Orwell Rolls in His Grave and Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, two documentaries on the subject.

Environment
Sanders is a vocal advocate about the ramifications of global warming. In a speech on the Senate floor on July 26, 2012, Sanders addressed claims made by fellow Senator Jim Inhofe; “The bottom line is when Senator Inhofe says global warming is a hoax, he is just dead wrong, according to the vast majority of climate scientists”.

U.S. Federal Reserve
Sanders introduced a Senate companion bill to H.R. 1207, which would conduct an audit of the Federal Reserve.

Civil rights
He is a vocal supporter of gay rights, same-sex marriage, and pro-choice legislation. He voted against the Defense of Marriage Act as a member of the House of Representatives.

Nuclear power
Following the 2011 Japanese nuclear accidents, Sanders called for a moratorium on the licensing of new nuclear plants and re-licensing of existing ones, in an effort to slow down what’s been touted as a nuclear renaissance in the United States. Sanders wrote to President Barack Obama asking for him to appoint a special commission to review the safety of U.S. nuclear plants. Sanders also wants to repeal a federal law that he says leaves the taxpayers to pick up most of the costs of a major nuclear accident. He says, “in a free-enterprise system, the nuclear industry should be required to insure itself against accidents.”

Personal life
Sanders is married to Jane O'Meara, a former president of Burlington College, and has one son, Levi Sanders, from a previous marriage. His brother, Larry Sanders, is a Green Party County Councillor representing the East Oxford division on Oxfordshire County Council, in England.

Sanders is one of two sitting U.S. Senators who went to James Madison High School in Brooklyn, the other being Chuck Schumer. Before Sanders became a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, his roommate was Richard I. Sugarman, a professor at the University of Vermont. Coincidentally, Senator Joseph Lieberman, for much of the time the only other Independent serving in the Senate, shared a suite with Professor Sugarman when the two attended Yale University in the 1960s.

For the Friday segment "Brunch with Bernie" of the Thom Hartmann radio program, Hartmann interviews Sanders and the Senator answers listeners' calls.

Electoral history
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