Current Position: U.S. Senator (since 1976)
Credit: Dominic Bracco II/TWP
Why He Matters
It’s a sign of Lugar’s clout that his 2007 speech on Iraq (delivered to an almost empty Senate chamber) generated front-page headlines and some serious soul-searching on the way forward in the war there.
The six-term senator is a foreign-policy giant who has dedicated himself to reducing the number of weapons of mass destruction around the world and promoting democracy in Latin America and Africa. He helped convince his fellow Republicans that a new course was needed in Iraq in 2007 and was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his work on nuclear issues.
His colleagues call the former Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman an intellectual who votes on his principles – Lugar has bucked his party to support stem- cell research, an increase in the minimum wage and a higher fuel-mileage requirement for cars.
Despite his independent voting record, Lugar is still wildly popular in his home state. He is the first Indiana senator elected to a fourth, fifth, and now sixth term, and was the only Republican in the country to run without a Democratic opponent in 2006. Even ex-Rep.
Timothy J. Roemer (D-Ind.) refused to oppose him. “Let’s be honest,” said Dan Parker, the Democratic Party chairman of Indiana. “Richard Lugar is beloved not only be Republicans, but by Independents and Democrats.”
At a Glance
Current Position: Ranking minority member, Senate Judiciary Committee (since 2007)
Career History: U.S. Senator (since 1976); Indianapolis mayor (1968 to 1975); Indianapolis Board of School Commissioners (1964 to 1967)
Birthday: April 4, 1932
Hometown: Indianapolis, Ind.
Alma Mater: Denison University, B.A., 1954; Oxford University, M.A., 1956
Spouse: Charlene
Religion: Methodist
DC Office: 306 Hart Senate Office Building; (202) 224-4814
State Offices: Evansville, (812) 465-6313; Fort Wayne, (260) 422-1505; Indianapolis, (317) 226-5555; Valparaiso, (219) 548-8035
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Path to Power
Lugar was born in Indianapolis on April 4, 1932. He was plagued by ear infections and allergies, and spent much of his childhood indoors reading biographies and publishing a family newspaper. In high school, his father taught him and his brothers how to farm and would pay his sons 10 cents an hour to work the family fields during the summer. In time, Lugar and his two siblings saved enough money to buy an acre of wheat, only to see their crop wiped out by a flood the next harvest season.
The Eagle Scout graduated first in his high school class and from Denison University in Ohio. At Denison, he was also co-president of the student government with his future wife Charlene Smeltzer. After graduation, Lugar attended Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship. There he studied politics, philosophy, and economics.
Lugar returned to the United States in 1956 and enlisted in the Navy. He moved to Washington, where he was assigned the delicate task of preparing intelligence briefings for the chief of Naval Operations and for President Dwight D. Eisenhower (R).
In 1964, Lugar ran for a seat on the Indiana school board - his first political office. He won a race for Indianapolis mayor in 1967. In a move that is widely credited with saving the city, in 1970 Lugar consolidated Indianapolis and its surrounding towns into a single government. The move created a wider tax base and kept the city solvent. He also bucked trends by calling for fewer federal programs, a move that earned him the moniker of “Richard Nixon’s favorite mayor.”
That nickname hurt him when Lugar first ran for senator in 1974, the year Nixon resigned over Watergate. He lost the race (against the father of his current Senate colleague, Evan Bayh (D)) by five percent. But he defeated a weaker Democrat in 1976, winning his seat with 59 percent of the vote.
U.S. Senate
In the Senate, Lugar quickly became known for following his stubborn convictions. "He is a quiet, intelligent, steady force," former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey (D) told Time magazine. But make no mistake, Kerrey adds, "he's unmovable when he reaches a conclusion about what ought to be done."
In the Senate, Lugar’s passion was foreign relations. He chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1985 to 1987 and again from 2003 to 2007. He also chaired the Agriculture Committee from 1995 to 2001. As the only working farmer on the committee, he led the unsuccessful charge to get rid of most farm subsidies in a 1996 Freedom to Farm bill. But low crop prices led Congress to reverse most of the changes in 2002.
In 1996, Lugar ran for president on a platform of “nuclear security and fiscal sanity” and lobbied for an end to nuclear terrorism and a 17-percent national sales tax. But his campaign never picked up momentum – his intellectual sensibility came off as lecturing and pedantic on television. Lugar finished near the bottom in Iowa and New Hampshire and then exited the race.
Still, the veteran lawmaker remains wildly popular in Indiana, where was re-elected with 87 percent of the vote in 2006.
The Issues
Describing Lugar’s voting record, fellow politicians say this: Lugar votes with his heart. While the Indiana senator tends to vote with Republicans the majority of the time (in the 111th Congress, he voted with his party about 80 percent of the time), he is not afraid to oppose his party.
For instance, Lugar supported embryonic stem-cell research, raising auto-mileage standards, and increasing the minimum wage. And though he is from one of America’s industrial and agricultural strongholds, he supports free-trade bills like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and opposes most farm subsidies.
Lugar also takes a long-term view on many policy initiatives. In the 1980s, he led the push for democracy in South Africa at a time when the Reagan administration was backing some controversial regimes. And Lugar has long pushed for developing alternative-fuel sources like ethanol in the U.S., a position that was quite unpopular with many Republicans (though it had wide support in Indiana, where much of the country’s corn is grown).
Iraq
Lugar has been calling for an end to Saddam Hussein’s reign since 1990. He initially supported the 2003 Iraq war, and remained publically supportive of the George W. Bush’s war effort, though he voiced concerns about strategy and the 2007 troop “surge” privately to the Bush administration. He also held more than 30 oversight hearings on the conduct of the war between 2003 and 2007, though he was criticized by many Democrats for not doing enough to halt the march to war. New York Times columnist called him a Presidential “enabler.”
The Iraq turning point for Lugar came in 2007, when the Indiana Republican stood up in front of a mostly empty Senate chamber and said “the costs and risks of continuing down the current path outweigh the potential benefits that might be achieved ... persisting indefinitely with the surge strategy will delay policy adjustments that have a better chance of protecting our vital interests over the long term.” Those comments drew support from several Republican Senators, and were widely seen as the moment Bush lost the backing of Republican lawmakers.
Shortly after his speech, Luger and then-Sen. John W. Warner (D-Va.) sponsored a bill that would have forced Bush to seek a new war authorization from Congress in September 2007. The measure did not pass. Lugar is supportive of Obama’s decision to gradually draw down troops in Iraq. He also supported the nomination of Iraq Amb. Christopher Hill, who was opposed by many Republicans because he did not have direct experience in the Middle East.
Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Ending nuclear proliferation has been a hallmark of Lugar’s career – he was even nominated for the 2000 Nobel Peace prize for his work in the area.
In 1991, Lugar co-authored, with Democrat Sam Nunn (Ga.), legislation to fund the removal and deactivation of thousands of nuclear weapons in several countries in the former Soviet Union. His fear – that the weapons could fall into the hands of terrorists or other rogue groups – seems particularly prescient after the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001.
Since 2004, Lugar pushed President George W. Bush to expand nuclear deactivation program to other countries in the former U.S.S.R. He was driven in part by his fear that terrorists would get their hands on fissile material available in the former Soviet Union. In 2004, Lugar worked on legislation to secure shoulder-launched missiles and to close chemical-weapons depots around the world. But the Bush administration adopted only a small version of the idea, and suspended funding in 2005.
The Republican’s efforts have earned high marks from policy wonks who say that such legislation has played “a critical role in overcoming the inherent limitations of a unilateral but parallel approach to offensive force reductions.”
Lugar also supports increasing federal funding to U.S. cities to better prepare them for hostile attacks.
Trade Issues
Despite indiana’s large agri-business industry, Lugar has voted with his principles, often in favor of legislation like NAFTA. In one of the defining moments of his early political career, Lugar led a 1978 filibuster to defeat the AFL-CIO’s labor law reform bill that would have strengthened unions’ rights to organize.
Health-Care Reform
During the 2009 health care reform debate, Lugar said he would oppose the public option.
The Network
Lugar and Vice President
Joseph R. Biden worked closely together when Biden was head of the Senate Foreign Relations committee and Lugar served as its ranking member. The two worked together on drafting Iraq legislation and figuring out how to address problems in Afghanistan.
Lugar has worked closely with former Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn (Ga.). The pair collaborated on nuclear non-proliferation legislation.
In an April 2009 poll by The Hill newspaper, Lugar was listed as the fourth most bipartisan senator, tying with Sen.
John McCain (R-Ariz.).
