Spencer Bachus

All you want to know about Spencer Bachus

Spencer Bachus
Spencer Bachus
Opponent(s) none
Incumbent Spencer Bachus
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Alabama's 6th district
Incumbent
Assumed office 
January 3, 1993
Preceded by Ben Erdreich
Born December 28, 1947 (1947-12-28) (age 60)
Birmingham, Alabama
Political party Republican
Spouse Linda Bachus
Residence Vestavia Hills, Alabama
Alma mater Auburn University
Occupation attorney
Religion Baptist
Military service
Service/branch United States Army National Guard
Years of service 1969-1971
Unit Alabama

Spencer Thomas Bachus III (born December 28, 1947), American politician, has been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 1993, representing Alabama's 6th congressional district.

Contents

Early life and career

Bachus was born in Birmingham to Edith Wells and Spencer Thomas Bachus, Jr.[1] He currently lives in Vestavia Hills, a Birmingham suburb. He graduated from Auburn University in 1969 where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Tau social fraternity. He served in the Alabama National Guard from 1969 to 1971, during the Vietnam War, while attending law school; he earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Alabama's School of Law in 1972. Prior to his political career, he owned a sawmill and practiced law until 1992.[2]

Bachus and his wife Linda are the parents of five children.

State politics

Bachus was elected to the Alabama Senate in 1983, serving one term before moving to the Alabama House of Representatives for two terms. After running unsuccessfully for attorney general in 1990, he became chairman of the Alabama Republican Party in 1991, serving in that position until his campaign for election to Congress. He also served as the 6th District's representative on the state board of education from 1987 to 1991.

U.S. House of Representatives

Election in 1992

The 6th District and its predecessors had been based in Birmingham for over a century, but after the 1990 United States Census, the Justice Department required the state to have a black-majority district. The state legislature failed to act, and a federal court drafted a plan that significantly reconfigured the neighboring 7th District, adding predominantly black portions of Birmingham and Montgomery. The 7th and its various permutations had been based in Tuscaloosa for over a century.

In the process, however, the court plan added most of the whiter and wealthier portions of Tuscaloosa to the 6th. Also added was Shelby County, a wealthy suburban county near Birmingham. The new 6th was almost 97% white, and on paper was one of the most Republican districts in the nation. Bachus won the Republican nomination for the seat and faced five-term Democratic incumbent Ben Erdreich. Despite being outspent almost 2 to 1, the new district's heavy Republican tilt (George H. W. Bush won the new 6th with 74% of the vote in 2000) enabled Bachus to win by seven points.

Re-elections

Since 1992, Bachus has been reelected seven times without anything resembling serious opposition. After defeating three underfunded Democrats with 70% or more of the vote, he has not faced any Democratic opposition at all since 2000. President Bush won 78% of the vote in the district in 2004, higher than in any other district in the nation.

Bachus was challenged in the 2004 Republican primary by Phillip Jauregui, a member of former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore's legal team. Since no other party ran a candidate, victory in the Republican primary was tantamount to election in November. Jauregui claimed that Bachus wasn't doing enough to curb "judicial activism." However, Bachus won the primary easily, effectively clinching a seventh term.

House record

Bachus has a mostly, but not totally, conservative voting record, and has been an aggressive lawmaker and investigator. During his tenure as Chairman of the Banking Oversight Committee, he uncovered the Community Development Financial Institute (CDFI) incident during the Clinton administration, which led to the resignation of the top two CDFI officials. Although less adversarial during the Bush administration, he has remained an active legislator, helping to amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to curtail identity theft and ease consumer access to their credit reports. He also has a reputation for good constituent service.

On December 14, 2005 he voted for the reauthorization of the U.S. Patriot Act. On June 29, 2005 he voted for the increase of funds by another $25 million for anti-marijuana print a TV ads. On October 6, 2005 he voted for the Department of Homeland Security.

Bachus is a staunch advocate of a federal prohibition of online poker. In 2006, he cosponsored H.R. 4411, the Goodlatte-Leach Internet Gambling Prohibition Act[3] and H.R. 4777, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act.[4] In 2008, he opposed H.R. 5767, the Payment Systems Protection Act (a bill that sought to place a moratorium on enforcement of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act while the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve defined "unlawful Internet gambling").

He has also distinguished himself on foreign policy, albeit with a reputation as somewhat of a maverick. In the 1990s he became an advocate of international debt relief for the Third World, and joined a broad coalition of activists in a one-day fast to demand action, which was ultimately successful. He criticized the Bush administration in 2002 over negotiations with the genocidal regime in Sudan, and has urged Bush to stop payment of oil revenues to the Sudanese government.

On May 23, 2005, Bachus made the news for saying that comedian Bill Maher made "treasonous comments" on his show when making a joke about the Army's inability to reach its quota on new recruits. [1]

Bachus also has been active in advancing the search for Natalee Holloway, who went missing while on a senior trip to Aruba. Holloway attended high school in Mountain Brook, an affluent Birmingham suburb in the congressman's district.

Stock trading

In 2007, Bachus made trades with a number of short term stock options, betting that stocks would rise or fall for a quick profit or loss. Bachus made up to $160,000, including a bet in March that the stock market would drop that earned him between $15,000 and $50,000. Most members of Congress hold some stocks or mutual funds, but Bachus' rapid-fire trades are unusual for a leading member of Congress, particularly one with the key role of ranking member of the House Committee on Financial Services.[5]

Committees and Subcommittees

Spencer Bachus as Chair of the Financial Institutions Committee
Spencer Bachus as Chair of the Financial Institutions Committee
  • House Committee on Financial Services (Ranking Member)
  • Congressional Steel Caucus
  • Congressional Cement Caucus
  • Passenger Rail Caucus
  • House Cancer Caucus
  • Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus
  • Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus
  • Congressional Fire Services Caucus
  • Congressional China Caucus
  • Friends of Switzerland Caucus
  • International Conservation Caucus

Electoral history

Alabama's 6th congressional district: Results 1992–2006[6]

Year Democrat Votes Pct Republican Votes Pct 3rd Party Party Votes Pct 3rd Party Party Votes Pct
1992 Ben Erdreich 126,062 45% Spencer Bachus 146,599 52% Carla Cloum Independent 4,521 2% Mark Bodenhausen Libertarian 2,836 1% *
1994 Larry Fortenberry 41,030 21% Spencer Bachus 155,047 79% *
1996 Mary Lynn Bates 69,592 27% Spencer Bachus 180,781 71% T. Franklin Harris Libertarian 2,293 1% Diane Susan Vogel Natural Law 2,113 1% *
1998 Donna W. Smalley 60,657 28% Spencer Bachus 154,761 72% *
2000 (no candidate) Spencer Bachus 212,751 88% Terry Reagin Libertarian 28,189 12% Write-ins 977 <1%
2002 (no candidate) Spencer Bachus 178,171 90% J. Holden McAllister Libertarian 19,639 10% Write-ins 536 <1%
2004 (no candidate) Spencer Bachus 264,819 99% Write-ins 3,224 1%
2006 (no candidate) Spencer Bachus 163,514 98% Write-ins 2,786 2%
*Write-in and minor candidate notes: In 1992, write-ins received 121 votes. In 1994, write-ins received 145 votes. In 1996, write-ins received 80 votes. In 1998, write-ins received 164 votes.

Group Ratings (2004)

Quotes

  • "There have been studies by Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, McGill University in Canada, American Psychiatric Association — all of these say the younger someone starts gambling, the more likelihood that they become a compulsive gambler. Addicted to gambling, just like addicted to drugs. So there is a correlation between drug dealers and gambling sites." — October 2006, CNN
  • Excerpt from Radley Balko's testimony before Congress on Internet Gambling:

Mr. Bachus: Are you familiar with Ross Boatman's biography on [Full Tilt Poker's] website?
Mr. Balko: No, I'm not.
Mr. Bachus: Let me tell you about him. [Reading from bio.] Ross was 10 years old when he played poker for the first time. His brother Barney, who is a little older than Ross, was playing with some friends, and after much pleading, they let him sit in.
His gambling career really didn't get started until a couple of years later, though, when he was 12 years old. Ross was too young and didn't have the money to play with those guys—I guess they're talking about his 14-year-old brother—but they let him sit and watch, and he learned plenty.
[Bachus, now looking at Balko.] I guess the verification system didn't work.
Mr. Balko [flummoxed]: I believe that all took place well before the age of Internet gambling, Congressman.
Mr. Bachus: Okay. Was it? I wonder why it's still on the site today[7][8].

References

  1. ^ 1
  2. ^ "Veterans in the US House of Representatives 109th Congress" (PDF). Navy League. Retrieved on 2006-12-09.
  3. ^ Thomas (Library of Congress): HR 4411
  4. ^ Thomas (Library of Congress): HR 4777
  5. ^ Ben Evans, "Lead financial services lawmaker defends trading", Associated Press, September 23, 2008
  6. ^ "Election Statistics". Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. Retrieved on 2008-01-10.
  7. ^ The Agitator » Blog Archive » Rep. Bachus and the Intertrons
  8. ^ Transcript, 110th House Financial Services Committee Hearing, 2007-06-08

External links


United States House of Representatives
Preceded by
Ben Erdreich		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Alabama's 6th congressional district
1993 – present		 Incumbent
v • d • e
Alabama's current delegation to the United States Congress
Senators
Representative(s)
Jo Bonner (R), Terry Everett (R), Mike D. Rogers (R), Robert Aderholt (R), Bud Cramer (D), Spencer Bachus (R), Artur Davis (D)
State delegations
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Non-voting delegations
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_Bachus"

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