Why He Matters
Carper, a centrist Democrat with a strong record of brokering bipartisan consensus, is expected to play a central role in upcoming Senate debates about the budget, health-care reform and climate-change legislation. Since Carper entered politics in 1972, he has won 12 statewide elections, more than any other Delaware politician.
Carper’s career in public office includes positions as treasurer, congressman, governor and senator of the First State. He has twice unseated popular Republican incumbents and has posted comfortable margins of victory in his own re-election bids.
Carper entered the 111th Congress as Delaware’s senior senator when former Sen.
Joe Biden (D-Del.) was elected vice president. He has twice been Democratic whip.
He recently joined with fellow moderates Sen.
Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) and Sen.
Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) to form the Moderate Dems Working Group, a coalition of 15 centrist Democrats in the Senate. The group -- which Bayh dubbed "The Pratical Caucus -- has positioned itself to fight for deficit reduction and fiscal responsibility. Its members, whom Carper says agree with President Obama’s “broad overall goals,” are expected to play a central role in upcoming battles over the budget, health-care reform and climate change legislation.
Carper, who recently secured a seat on the Senate Finance Committee, has identified strengthening the economy and extending tax cuts for renewable energy sources as current legislative priorities. In addition to his work on the environment, Carper has been the leading advocate for Postal Service reform. He supported extending a moratorium on taxing Internet service fees, but opposes making the ban permanent.He has also fought to increase funding for the construction of more railroads and added security for rail systems.
Carper has a history of reaching across the aisle and supporting Republican-backed measures. Congressional Quarterly’s 2008 vote study named him the sixth-most likely Democrat to back President George W. Bush’s policies.Carper says he plans to continue to make bipartisanship a staple of his Senate career.
“A big part of my job in the Senate is to get people to work together. ... Americans don’t care whether our ideas are liberal, conservative, Democrat or Republican. They just want us to figure out what works,” he said.