Bud Cramer, Congressman for Alabama's Fifth District

by: mooncat

Fri Aug 24, 2007 at 00:31:27 AM CDT

This is the first in what I hope will be a series of "Profiles of a Congressman" to eventually cover the entire Alabama delegation. 

Robert E. “Bud” Cramer, Jr. was born in Huntsville, Alabama in 1947.  He has a BA from the University of Alabama, 1969, and a JD from Alabama School of Law, 1972. Cramer is a widower with one daughter, two grandsons and one granddaughter. He served as District Attorney in Madison County from 1981 to 1991.  Cramer sought the Democratic nomination when Rep. Ronnie Flippo (D) retired.

While he won handily in the elections of 1990 and 1992, Cramer had an extremely close call in 1994 against Republican Wayne Parker.  The NRA spent heavily in the 1994 election to defeat representatives (like Cramer) who had voted for the assault weapons ban.  Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America was all the rage, but Cramer squeaked by with a 1% margin of victory.  After this “near death experience,” Cramer became a little more conservative in his votes. In 1996 he supported a repeal of the assault weapons ban and had an easier time in a rematch with Parker.

Congress.org ranks Cramer as the most powerful member of the Alabama House delegation at number 26 overall.  Most of this power is due to his committee assignments, Appropriations and Intelligence.

Progressive Punch gives Cramer a progressive score of 58.7%.  He scores considerably higher than this on Housing and Fair Taxation, even though he supports permanent elimination of the estate tax.  He has significantly lower scores in the areas of Family Planning and Justice for All.  Those categories include abortion, gun control, the war on drugs.  He has voted for several "defense of marriage" acts and "anti-flag desecration" acts.  Looking through his voting record, I have the distinct impression that he has voted with the “progressive” position more in 2007 than he did in the previous 3 or 4 years.  That is born out by the Washington Post, which says “Bud Cramer has voted with a majority of his Democratic colleagues 91.2% of the time during the current Congress.”  A founding member of the Blue Dog Coalition, his votes to continue funding for the Iraq war without a timetable for the war and for expanded government wiretapping authority have also earned him the title of Bush Dog.

Cramer has been successful at getting and keeping defense and space programs for the Fifth District.  He doesn’t usually take public positions or issue statements on controversial issues … his votes are the record.  He has not faced a serious challenger since 1998, at least.  In my opinion, Cramer moved to the right after 1994 (see this blog post for vote analysis) and in recent years his voting record has been more conservative than absolutely required to keep the seat.  No Republican even bothered to run against him in 2006.

Details in the extended text. 

Elections

1990 Democratic Primary, Runoff 60% vs. Lynn Greer 40%
1990 General 67% vs. Albert McDonald (R) 33%
1992 General 66% vs. Terry Smith (R) 32%
1994 General 50.48% vs. Wayne “Peanut” Parker 49.47%
1996 General 56% vs. Wayne “Peanut” Parker 42%
1998 General 70% vs. Gil Aust (R) 30%
2000 General 89% vs. Alan F. Barksdale (Lib.) 11%
2002 General 73% vs. Stephen Engle (R) 25%
2004 Democratic Primary 90% vs. Michael “People First” Williams 10%
2004 General 73% vs. Gerald “Gerry” Wallace (R) 27%
2006 General 98% vs. no opponent
2008    Cramer has an announced Republican opponent, Ray McKee, whose major campaign platform is support of the Fair Tax.

Voting Record (I tried to pick a representative sample of major votes -- quibble with the selection in the comments. - mc)

Nov. 1993    Voted against NAFTA.
1994           Voted for Crime Bill (HR 1022) including the “assault weapons ban.”
Mar. 1996    Voted to repeal the “assault weapons ban” (HR 125)
July 1996    Voted in favor of the Welfare Reform Act.
May 2001    Voted for No Child Left Behind
Oct. 2001    Voted in favor of the Patriot Act
Oct. 2002    Voted to authorize the invasion of Iraq.
May 2003    Voted in favor of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act (Warning: Orwellian title).
Oct. 2003    Voted in favor of the Partial Birth Abortion ban.
Mar. 2005    Voted in favor of “Relief of the Parents of Theresa Marie Schiavo”
July 2005    Voted against implementation of CAFTA
Oct. 2005    Voted in favor of the Bankruptcy Bill
Dec. 2005    Voted to reauthorize the Patriot Act.
June 2006    Voted to continue the occupation of Iraq.
June 2006    Voted against Markey Amendment (Net Neutrality).
Feb. 2007    Voted to disapprove the 20,000 troop “surge” in Iraq.
April 2007    Voted in favor of the emergency supplemental appropriation with timelines for troop withdrawal from Iraq.
May 2007    Voted in favor of the emergency supplemental appropriation with no timeline for troop withdrawal from Iraq.  *
July 2007    Voted in favor of research utilizing human embryonic stem cells.
Aug. 2007    Voted in favor of SCHIP reauthorization.
Aug. 2007    Voted in favor of the Protect America Act which gives the AG expanded wire-tapping authority for up to 6 months.  *

* These are the two against the party votes which earned Cramer the tag of Bush Dog.

Appointments and Affiliations

House Committee on Appropriations (15)
    Defense Subcommittee (6)
    Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee (6)
    Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee (6)
    House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel (7)
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (4)
    Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee (Chair)
    Technical and Tactical Intelligence Subcommittee (2)
Founding member of Blue Dog Coalition.

District

Alabama’s 5th District includes Colbert, Jackson, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison and portions of Morgan Counties in North Alabama.  Federal Agencies are very important to the 5th District.  TVA has been a major economic player in the region since the 1930’s.  The district is also home to the Army’s Redstone Arsenal and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.  George W. Bush won 60% of the vote here in 2004, but the 5th has been represented by a Democrat in Congress since 1897.  Wikipedia says “the politics of the 5th district have been dominated over the past 70 or so years by liberal economics and disinterest in social issues - the hallmarks of the New Deal Democratic tradition in Northern Alabama.”  That seems about right.  The population is more urban than rural, about 75% white and over half the jobs are white collar.  The largest city in the district is Huntsville, population approx. 160,000.

Particular interests

National Children’s Advocacy Center which he founded in 1985.
Serves on the Advisory Board of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Financial

According to the FEC, Cramer had $1,720,120 cash on hand through 6/30/07.  This puts him at the top of Alabama’s House delegation as far as campaign cash goes.

Per opensecrets.org, 46% of Cramer’s contributions have come from individuals, 42% from PACs.  Of the PAC money, 72.3% was from business and 21.1% from labor sources.  Top contributors are Intergraph, Boeing, the AMA and Southern Company.  Southern Company is a surprise since most (all?) of Cramer’s district is TVA country.

Contact information

budmail@mail.house.gov

2184 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-0105
PHONE: (202) 225-4801
FAX: (202) 225-4392

200 Pratt Avenue, N.E.