Jim Bunning

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U.S. Senator

Jim Bunning

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R-KY

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Positions
Leadership: No leadership position
Committees: Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Senate Committee on Finance, and Senate Committee on the Budget
(subcommittees and past assignments)

Candidates for the KY-Senate Class III Seat:
(Next election: November 2, 2010)

Confirmed: None so far
Considering: None so far
Rumored: None so far
Potential: None so far
Dropped-out: None so far
(more info and editing for the KY-Senate Class III Seat)
On the Web
Official website
Twitter
This member of Congress does not Twitter.

YouTube Channel
Jim Bunning doesn't have a YouTube channel.
Here's the Senate Republican channel instead.

James Paul David "Jim" Bunning, a Republican, has been the Junior Senator from Kentucky since 1999.

Bunning is also well known as a Major League Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher, playing from 1955 to 1971.

Contents

Record and controversies

Congressional scorecards

Click through the score to see the records of other members of Congress and full descriptions of the individual votes.

Want to see someone else's scorecard added to the list? You can do it!

Organization 2007 Scorecard
Score - Agree ratio
American Conservative Union 92 - 23/25
AFSCME 0 - 0/7
Americans for Democratic Action 10 - 2/20
U.S. Chamber of Commerce -






Iraq War

Bunning voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq in Oct. 2002.

For more information see the chart of U.S. Senate votes on the Iraq War.

Environmental record

For more information on environmental legislation, see the Energy and Environment Policy Portal

Anonymous hold on Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act

On April 26, 2007, when Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) tried again to bring the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act, which would require senators to file their campaign finance reports electronically to the Federal Election Commission, to the floor for a unanimous consent motion after an initial anonymous hold had been placed on it, Sen. Bunning registered another anonymous objection from the Republican side, blocking it again.

Main article: Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act of 2007

Erratic behavior during 2004 election

During Bunning's reelection bid in 2004, controversy erupted when Bunning described Mongiardo as looking "like one of Saddam Hussein's sons." Public distaste compelled him to apologize. Other behavior, including accusing Mongiardo of physically assaulting Bunning's wife—claiming that his wife was left "black and blue"—and the use of a teleprompter during a televised debate, caused several media analysts to question Bunning's mental state.

Bunning set unprecedented conditions on the debate in question: he could not appear in person due to an important vote held just few hours before the debate and instead was televised from the Republican national headquarters; he refused to allow an independent observer in the room with him; he insisted that no portion of any recording of his performance could be rebroadcast; he insisted that the debate be broadcast live in the afternoon instead of the customary prime time hours; and other conditions.[1] After the debate, the state's two largest newspapers, the Louisville Courier-Journal and Lexington Herald-Leader, both called for Bunning to step down, however both papers had previously been critical of Bunning.

In yet another instance of questionable behavior, Bunning told reporters, in October of 2004, that he had not heard about protests by American soldiers in Iraq who refused to ride in insufficiently armored vehicles. His explanation: "Let me explain something: I don't watch the national news, and I don't read the paper. I haven't done that for the last six weeks. I watch Fox News to get my information." [2] [3]

Jack Abramoff campaign contribution

Jim Bunning received $1,000 for "his 2004 re-election campaign" "directly" from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff "and his wife, Pamela" [4][5]

Bio

Background

Jim Bunning was born October 23, 1931 in Southgate, Kentucky. He graduated from St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati in 1945 and later received a bachelor's degree in economics from Xavier University.

He pitched for the Detroit Tigers from 1955 to 1963, moving to the Philadelphia Phillies from 1964 through 1967, to the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1968 through the middle of the 1969 season, finished the 1969 season on the Los Angeles Dodgers, and returned to the Phillies in 1970, retiring in 1971.

Bunning was first elected to office in 1977, serving two years on the city council of Fort Thomas, Kentucky. In 1979 he won a seat in the Kentucky Senate. From 1987 to 1999 he served in the U.S. House of Representatives representing Kentucky's 4th Congressional District Bunning was the Republican candidate for governor in 1983, but lost in the general election.

Senate Career

In 1998, Wendell Ford decided to retire after 24 years in the Senate. Bunning won the Republican nomination for the seat, and faced fellow Congressman Scotty Baesler in the general election. Bunning defeated Baesler by just over half a percentage point. The race was very close; Bunning only won by swamping Baesler in his home district (the 4th) by a margin that Baesler couldn't make up in the rest of the state.

Bunning is one of the Senate's most conservative members, gaining high marks from several conservative interest groups.

Bunning was the only member of the United States Senate Banking and Urban Affairs Committee to have opposed Ben Bernanke for Chief of the Federal Reserve. He claimed it was because he had doubts that he would not be different then Alan Greenspan.

Among the bills that has Bunning sponsored is the Bunning-Bereuter-Blumenauer Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2004.

Bunning was heavily favored for a second term in 2004 after his expected Democratic opponent, Governor Paul Patton, saw his career implode in a scandal over an extramarital affair. Eventually, the Democrats settled on Daniel Mongiardo, a relatively unknown physician and state senator from Hazard. Despite heavily outspending Mongiardo, Bunning was dogged by several gaffes and other instances of erratic behavior. The race turned out to be another nail-biter, with Mongiardo leading with as many as 80% of the returns coming in. However, Bunning eventually won by just over a percentage point. Some analysts felt that had it not been for George W. Bush's 20-point victory in the state, Mongiardo would have won.

Bunning had an estimated $4 million campaign war chest, while Mongiardo had only $600,000. The Democratic Party began increasing financial support to Mongiardo when it became apparent that Bunning's bizarre behavior (see "Conroversy" below) was costing him votes, purchasing more than $800,000 worth of additional television airtime on his behalf.

Money in politics

This section contains links to – and feeds from – money in politics databases. For specific controversies, see this article's record and controversies section.

Top Contributors to during the 2008 Election Cycle
DonorAmount (US Dollars)
FMR Corp$ 52,400
American Financial Group$ 24,600
Brown-Forman Corp$ 22,850
Kindred Healthcare$ 20,100
JPMorgan Chase & Co$ 19,462
AXA$ 19,000
Blank Rome LLP$ 18,914
Pain Management Center of Paducah$ 17,000
Securities Industry & Financial Mkt Assn$ 16,000
Wells Fargo$ 15,250
Source: The Center for Responsive Politics' www.OpenSecrets.org site.
Note: Contributions are not from the organizations themselves, but are rather from
the organization's PAC, employees or owners. Totals include subsidiaries and affiliates.
Links to more campaign contribution information for Jim Bunning
from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org site.
Fundraising profile: 2008 election cycle Career totals
Top contributors by organization/corporation: 2008 election cycle Career totals
Top contributors by industry: 2008 election cycle Career totals


Committees and Affiliations

Committee assignments in the 109th Congress (2005-2006)

More Background Data

Wikipedia also has an article on Jim Bunning. This article may use content from the Wikipedia article under the terms of the GFDL.

Contact

DC office
  • 316 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510
    Ph: 202-224-4343 Fax: 202-228-1373
    Webform email
District offices
  • 1717 Dixie Highway, Suite 220, Fort Wright, KY 41011-2770
    Ph: 800-283-8983 Fax: (none entered)
  • Gorman Education Center, 601 Main Street, Suite 2, Hazard, KY 41701
    Ph: 606-435-2390 Fax: (none entered)
  • 1100 South Main Street, Suite 12, Hopkinsville, KY 42240
    Ph: 270-885-1212 Fax: (none entered)
  • 771 Corporate Drive, Suite 105, Lexington, KY 40503
    Ph: 859-219-2239 Fax: (none entered)
  • 600 Doctor Martin Luther King Junior Place, Room 1072 B, Louisville, KY 40202
    Ph: 502-582-5341 Fax: (none entered)
  • 423 Frederica Street, Room 305, Owensboro, KY 42301-3013
    Ph: 270-689-9085 Fax: (none entered)
On the Web
  • Official website
  • This member of Congress does not use Twitter.
  • This member of Congress does not have a YouTube channel.
Campaign office
  • No campaign website entered.
  • No campaign webform email entered.
  • No campaign office information entered.

Articles and Resources

Resources

Articles

Local blogs and discussion sites


Semantic data

Latitude: 39°3′46.151″N
Longitude: 84°32′19.609″W Latitude: 37°14′54.136″N
Longitude: 83°11′43.645″W Latitude: 36°51′52.555″N
Longitude: 87°29′22.078″W Latitude: 38°0′43.401″N
Longitude: 84°33′2.847″W Latitude: 38°15′10.683″N
Longitude: 85°44′55.388″W Latitude: 37°46′20.106″N
Longitude: 87°6′48.208″W





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