Richard Burr

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Richard Burr
Image:Richard Burr official photo.jpg
Junior Senator from North Carolina
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2005 Serving with Elizabeth Dole
Preceded by	John Edwards
Succeeded by	Incumbent (2011)
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from North Carolina's 5th district
In office January 3, 1995 – January 3, 2005
Preceded by	Stephen L. Neal
Succeeded by	Virginia Foxx

Born	November 30 1955 (1955-11-30) (age 53) Charlottesville, Virginia
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Brooke F. Burr
Alma mater	Wake Forest University
Religion	Methodist

Richard Mauze Burr (born November 30, 1955) is a United States Senator from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. A Republican, Burr represented North Carolina's 5th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives for five terms, and was elected to represent North Carolina as a U.S. Senator in the 2004 election. He defeated the Democratic Party nominee, former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, in the open seat contest.

1 Background
2 House career
3 Senate career
- 3.1 Endorsements
- 3.2 Bioshield Two
4 Electoral history
5 Footnotes
6 External links

[edit] Background

Burr was born in Charlottesville, Virginia to Martha Gillum and Rev. David Horace Burr, a prominent minister.^[1] He graduated from Richard J. Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem, N.C. in 1974 and earned a B.A. from Wake Forest University in 1978. Burr was on the school football team at both Reynolds High School and Wake Forest. He is a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity.

Prior to running for Congress, Burr worked for 17 years as a sales manager for Carswell Distributing Company, a distributor of lawn equipment.^[2] Burr is currently a board member of Brenner Children's Hospital, as well as of the group Idealliance - a group of local, academic, and government officials working to expand North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad Research Park, which involves bio-hazard and chemical, vaccines research.^[3]

In 1984, Burr married Brooke Fauth; the couple has two sons.

Burr is a distant cousin of Aaron Burr; perhaps because of Burr's notorious reputation, he is only the second person with his last name to win election to Congress (the first was the presumably unrelated Albert G. Burr), and the first Burr in the Senate since the Vice President.^[4]

[edit] House career

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^{This short section requires expansion.}

In 1992, Burr ran against incumbent Democratic Representative Stephen L. Neal and lost. He ran again in 1994 after Neal chose not to seek re-election, and was elected to Congress.

[edit] Senate career

In July 2004, Burr won the Republican primary to seek the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democrat John Edwards. He faced Democrat Erskine Bowles and Libertarian Tom Bailey.

Burr won the election by five percentage points. Bowles's and Burr's combined campaign expenditures totaled over 26 million dollars, making it one of the most expensive Senate races in the country. Burr raised more money from political action committees, $2.8 million, than any other Senate candidate in 2004, primarily from the business community. Of the 100 largest companies in America, at least 72 contributed to Burr. Those included the PACs for such corporations as Wal-Mart, Exxon Mobil, General Motors, Ford, General Electric and ChevronTexaco.^{[citation needed]}

Burr has strongly supported the policies of the Bush administration, publicly saying that President Bush "is right 96% of the time."^[5] Like Bush, Burr is pro-life, supports the death penalty, and favors a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. In May 2007, he was one of fourteen Senators to vote against the Iraq War funding bill despite his strong support of the war, due to his opposition to the clauses of the bill that provide for an increase in domestic spending and assistance. ^[6] On June 26, 2007, Burr voted in favor of cloture for the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007. Two days later he voted against cloture.^[7]) (S. 1639)^[8].

A November 1, 2007 poll has his approval rating at 30% with 34% disapproving. ^[9]

According to www.congress.org, in 2007 Burr was the 86^th most powerful Senator out of 100 (37^th among Senate Republicans).^[10]

In 2007, Burr ran for the leadership post of Republican Conference chairman ^[11] but lost to Sen. Lamar Alexander by a vote of 31 to 16. ^[12]

[edit] Endorsements

Sen. Burr endorsed Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), for the 2008 Presidential Election, stating his confidence in McCain's leadership and style of governing.^[13]

[edit] Bioshield Two

Burr is the sponsor of Senate bill 1873, the Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005, nicknamed "Bioshield Two", which he says will give the Department of Health and Human Services "additional authority and resources to partner with the private sector to rapidly develop drugs and vaccines." Critics have stated that this bill would eliminate current regulatory and legal safeguards applied to vaccines. In addition, they state the bill is being pushed through Congress without giving voters the chance to make their objections known to their elected officials.^[14] Portions of Senate Bill 1873 were eventually included in Senate Bill 3678 (the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act^[15]), which was signed into law in December 2006.

[edit] Electoral history

North Carolina's 5th congressional district: Results 1992–2002^[16]
Year	Democrat	Votes	Pct	Republican	Votes	Pct	3rd Party	Party	Votes	Pct		3rd Party	Party	Votes	Pct
1992	Stephen L. Neal	117,835	53%	Richard Burr	102,086	46%	Gary Albrecht	Libertarian	3,758	2%	*
1994	A. P. "Sandy" Sands	63,194	43%	Richard Burr	84,741	57%
1996	Neil Grist Cashion, Jr.	74,320	35%	Richard Burr	130,177	62%	Barbara J. Howe	Libertarian	4,193	2%		Craig Berg	Natural Law	1,008	<1%
1998	Mike Robinson	55,806	32%	Richard Burr	119,103	68%	Gene Paczelt	Libertarian	1,382	1%
2000	(no candidate)			Richard Burr	172,489	93%	Steven Francis LeBoeuf	Libertarian	13,366	7%
2002	David Crawford	58,558	30%	Richard Burr	137,879	70%

*Write-in and minor candidate notes: In 1992, write-ins received 4 votes.

North Carolina Senator (Class III) 2004 results:^[16]
Year		Democrat	Votes	Pct		Republican	Votes	Pct		3rd Party	Party	Votes	Pct
2004		Erskine Bowles	1,632,527	47%		Richard Burr	1,791,450	52%		Tom Bailey	Libertarian	47,743	1%	*

*Write-in and minor candidate notes: In 2004, Walker F. Rucker received 362 votes.

[edit] Footnotes

^ http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~battle/senators/burr.htm
^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/elections/2004/candidates/294802/
^ http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/senators/one_item_and_teasers/burr.htm
^ Durham Herald-Sun
^ http://ontheissues.org/NC/Richard_Burr.htm
^ http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=1&vote=00181
^ http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:s.01639:
^ http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=1&vote=00228
^ http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/surveys/PPP_Release_110107.pdf
^ Burr Senator Ranking
^ http://www.newsobserver.com/646/story/809247.html
^ http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/news.php?viewStory=58200
^ WSOC-TV, Charlotte
^ MediaMonitors.net — 'Pharma To Republicans — Time To Pay Up Again', Evelyn Pringle (November 24, 2005)
^ [1]Senate Bill S 3678 of the 109th Congress
^ ^a ^b Election Statistics. Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. Retrieved on 2007-08-08.

[edit] External links

United States Senator Richard Burr, U.S. Senate site

Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
Inside.Pisd Biography and Blog on Inside.pisd
SourceWatch Congresspedia — Richard Burr profile
Burr for Senate, Campaign site

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Stephen L. Neal	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from North Carolina's 5th congressional district 1995 – 2005	Succeeded by Virginia Foxx
United States Senate
Preceded by John Edwards	United States Senator (Class 3) from North Carolina 2005 – present Served alongside: Elizabeth Dole	Incumbent

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United States Senators from North Carolina

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North Carolina's current delegation to the United States Congress
Senators	Elizabeth Dole (R), Richard Burr (R)
Representative(s)	G. K. Butterfield (D), Bob Etheridge (D), Walter B. Jones (R), David Price (D), Virginia Foxx (R), Howard Coble (R), Mike McIntyre (D), Robin Hayes (R), Sue Myrick (R), Patrick McHenry (R), Heath Shuler (D), Mel Watt (D), Brad Miller (D)
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