Olympia Snowe

Olympia Snowe
Chairwoman of the Senate Small Business Committee
In office January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2007
Preceded by	John Kerry
Succeeded by	John Kerry
United States Senator from Maine
In office January 3, 1995 – January 3, 2013
Preceded by	George Mitchell
Succeeded by	Angus King
First Lady of Maine
In office February 24, 1989 – January 8, 1995
Governor	John McKernan
Preceded by	Constance Brennan
Succeeded by	Mary Herman
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maine's 2nd district
In office January 3, 1979 – January 3, 1995
Preceded by	Bill Cohen
Succeeded by	John Baldacci
Personal details
Born	Olympia Jean Bouchles (1947-02-21) February 21, 1947 Augusta, Maine, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Peter Snowe (1969–1973) John McKernan (1989–present)
Alma mater	University of Maine, Orono
Religion	Eastern Orthodoxy
Signature
Website	Official website

Olympia Jean Snowe (born February 21, 1947) is an American politician who was a United States Senator from Maine from 1995 to 2013. Snowe, a member of the Republican Party, became widely known for her ability to influence the outcome of close votes, including whether to end filibusters.^[1][2] In 2006, she was named one of America's Best Senators by Time Magazine.^[3] Snowe was famously known for her ability to compromise and her strong sense of bipartisanship. Along with Susan Collins, she was considered one of the most moderate Republicans in office.^[4]

On February 28, 2012, Snowe announced that she would not seek reelection in November 2012, and retired when her third term ended on January 3, 2013.^[5] She cited hyper-partisanship leading to a dysfunctional Congress as the reason for her retirement from the Senate. Her seat went to popular former Governor Angus King, a former Democrat and currently independent, who won the election to succeed her; King caucuses with the Democrats.

Snowe is currently a senior fellow for the Bipartisan Policy Center and co-chairs its Commission on Political Reform.^[6]

Early life

Official photo of Representative Snowe in 1980

Snowe was born Olympia Jean Bouchles in Augusta, Maine, the daughter of Georgia (née Goranites) and George John Bouchles. Her father immigrated to the United States from Sparti, Greece, and her maternal grandparents were also Greek.^[7][8] She is a member of the Greek Orthodox Church.^[9]

Snowe's early life had its share of tragedies. When she was eight years old, her mother died of breast cancer, and her father died of heart disease less than a year later. Orphaned, she was moved to Auburn, to be raised by her aunt and uncle, a textile mill worker and a barber, respectively, along with their five children. Her brother John was raised separately, by other family members. Within a few years, disease would also claim her uncle's life. Following her mother's death, Snowe was sent to St. Basil's Academy in Garrison, New York, where she remained from the third grade to the ninth. One of her teachers was Athena Hatziemmanuel, a notable Greek-American educator at the school. Returning to Auburn, she attended Edward Little High School, before entering the University of Maine in Orono, from which she earned a degree in Political Science (1969). Shortly after graduation, Bouchles married her fiancé, Republican state legislator Peter T. Snowe on December 29, 1969 in New York City.^[10]

Early political career

State Senator Snowe

Snowe entered politics and rose quickly, winning a seat on the Board of Voter Registration and working for Congressman (later U.S. Senator and U.S. Secretary of Defense) William Cohen. Tragedy struck Snowe again in 1973, when her husband was killed in an automobile accident. At the urging of family, friends, neighbors and local leaders, Snowe ran for her husband's Auburn-based seat in the Maine House of Representatives at the age of 26 and won. She was re-elected to the House in 1974, and, in 1976, won election to the Maine Senate, representing Androscoggin County. That same year, she was a delegate to both the state and national Republican conventions. Snowe was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978, and represented Maine's 2nd Congressional District from 1979 to 1995. The district takes in most of the northern two-thirds of the state, including Bangor and her hometown of Auburn. She served as a member of the Budget and International Relations Committees.

Snowe married John R. McKernan, Jr., then Governor of Maine, in February 1989. Tragedy struck Snowe yet again in 1991 when her stepson Peter McKernan died from a heart ailment at the age of 20. Snowe and Jock McKernan had served together in the United States House of Representatives from 1983 to 1986, when McKernan represented the 1st District. While Snowe was First Lady of Maine from 1989 to 1995, she served as a U.S. Representative and was elected and sworn in as a United States Senator.

U.S. Senate career

Elections

Snowe and her husband, former Maine Gov. John McKernan, with President George W. Bush and Laura Bush at a holiday reception at the White House

In 1994, when Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell declined to run for re-election, Snowe immediately declared her candidacy for the seat. The Democratic nominee was her House colleague, 1st District Congressman Tom Andrews. Snowe defeated Andrews 60–36%, carrying every county in the state. Snowe was part of the Republican election sweep of 1994, when the Republican party captured both the House and Senate for the first time since 1954. Snowe was easily reelected in 2000 over State Senate President Mark Lawrence, increasing her winning margin to 69%–31%. She cruised past Democratic opponent Jean Hay Bright in 2006, winning by 74% to 20.6%.

Tenure

Snowe touring damaged areas of Maine in 2007

Snowe was an important voice during the Senate's 1999 impeachment trial of then-President Bill Clinton. She and fellow Maine Senator Susan Collins sponsored a motion that would have allowed the Senate to vote separately on the charges and the remedy – a "finding of fact" resolution. When the motion failed, Snowe and Collins voted to acquit, arguing that Clinton's perjury did not warrant his removal from office. Her occasional breaks with the Bush administration drew attacks from conservative Republicans; the Club for Growth and Concerned Women for America label her a "Republican In Name Only" (RINO). In February 2006, TheWhiteHouseProject.org named Snowe one of its "8 in '08", a group of eight female politicians who could possibly run and/or be elected president in 2008.

Snowe and the Secretary of the Navy, Donald C. Winter, meeting in the boardroom at Supervisor Shipbuilding, Bath Iron Works

In April 2006, Snowe was selected by Time as one of "America's 10 Best Senators".^[11] She was the only woman so recognized. Time praised Snowe for her sensitivity to her constituents, also noting that: "Because of her centrist views and eagerness to get beyond partisan point scoring, Maine Republican Olympia Snowe is in the center of every policy debate in Washington." She received an honorary degree from Bates College in 1998, and another from the University of Delaware in 2008. Snowe did not miss any of the 657 votes on the Senate floor during the 110th Congress from 2007 to 2009.^[12] She was one of only eight senators who did not miss any votes during that session.^[12]

Snowe is the fourth woman to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee and the first to chair its seapower subcommittee, which oversees the Navy and Marine Corps. In 2001, Snowe became the first Republican woman to secure a full-term seat on the Senate Finance Committee.

Snowe was the youngest Republican woman ever elected to the United States House of Representatives; she is also the first woman to have served in both houses of a state legislature and both houses of the U.S. Congress. She is the first Greek-American congresswoman. With her 1989 marriage to McKernan, she became the first person to simultaneously be a member of Congress and First Lady of a state. She never lost an election in her 35 years as an elected official, and in the 2006 midterm senatorial elections, she won with a reported 73.99% of votes. However, on Tuesday, February 27, 2012, citing excessive partisanship and a dispiriting political environment, Snowe announced she would not run for re-election in November 2012. Her surprise decision delivered a potential blow to Republicans, who needed just a handful of seats to regain control of the Senate; Snowe was considered one of their safer incumbents.^[13]

Gang of 14

Snowe meeting with U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Samuel Alito.

On May 23, 2005, Snowe was one of fourteen senators dubbed the Gang of 14, who defused a confrontation between Senate Democrats (who were filibustering several judicial nominees) and the Senate Republican leadership (who wanted to use the nominations as a flashpoint to eliminate filibusters on nominees through the so-called nuclear option). The Gang-brokered compromise precluded further filibusters and the implementation of the nuclear option for the remainder of the 109th Congress; under its terms, the Democrats retained the power to filibuster a Bush judicial nominee in an "extraordinary circumstance", and nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor) received a simple majority vote by the full Senate. The Gang later played an important role in the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito, as they asserted that neither met the "extraordinary circumstances" provision outlined in their agreement. Snowe ultimately voted for both Roberts and Alito.

Committee assignments

Snowe in a picture of the 16 female senators in the 110th US Congress.

• Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
  • Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security
  • Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet
  • Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance
  • Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard (Ranking Member)
  • Subcommittee on Science and Space
  • Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security
• Committee on Finance
  • Subcommittee on Health Care
  • Subcommittee on Taxation, IRS Oversight, and Long-term Growth
  • Subcommittee on International Trade and Global Competitiveness
• Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship (Ranking Member)
• Select Committee on Intelligence

Caucus memberships

• Dairy Farmer Caucus
• Health Technology Caucus (Co-Chair)
• International Conservation Caucus (Co-Chair)
• Senate Tourism Caucus
• Senate Women’s Caucus
• Sportsmen's Caucus
• Senate Hunger Caucus
• Senate Oceans Caucus

Political positions

Snowe meeting with sailors returning from Iraq, at Maine's Naval Air Station Brunswick.

Snowe shares a centrist ideology with her former fellow senator from Maine, Susan Collins, who is considered a "half-turn more conservative" than Snowe.^[14] Snowe supports abortion rights and some gay rights, and though she previously voted to block the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, she was one of eight Republican senators to vote for the repeal on December 18, 2010. In her 2006 re-election campaign, she was one of two Republican Senate candidates endorsed by the prominent gay rights organization, the Human Rights Campaign (the other was Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island).^[15]

Snowe supported both President Clinton's involvement in Kosovo and President George W. Bush's invasions in Afghanistan and Iraq. On fiscal issues, she has voiced support for cutting taxes as economic stimulus, although she joined fellow Republican senators Lincoln Chafee and John McCain in voting against the Bush tax cuts in 2003. However, she voted for the extension in 2011. She opposes most free trade agreements, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). She was the only Republican to vote for the Tax Fairness and Economic Growth Act of 1992. She is a strong supporter of environmental protections. Both Snowe and fellow Maine Senator Susan Collins have embraced strong gun-control measures following the Columbine High School shooting in 1999.

Snowe and Chairman Mary Landrieu address the Small Business Committee

In the 110th Congress, Snowe worked to ensure passage of a genetic non-discrimination act, which she had previously worked to pass for nearly eight years; opposed cutting loans through the Small Business Administration; offered legislation aimed at reducing the price of prescription drugs and insurance costs for small businesses; and became a leading voice among Congressional Republicans expressing concerns over President Bush's plans for the privatization of Social Security.

With fellow Maine Senator Susan Collins

Snowe is a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership and supports stem cell research. She is also a member of Republicans for Environmental Protection, the Republican Majority for Choice, Republicans for Choice and The Wish List (Women In the Senate and House), a group of pro-choice Republican women. In 2008, Snowe endorsed Republican candidate John McCain for President of the United States.^[16]

In the 111th Congress, Snowe backed the release of additional Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. While she opposed President Obama's budget resolution, she pledged to work in a bipartisan manner on the issues of health care reform and energy.^[17]

On October 13, 2009, Snowe voted for the Finance Committee's health care reform bill. However, she stated that she might not support the final bill due to strong reservations.^[18] In December 2009, Snowe voted against cloture for two procedural motions and ultimately against the Senate Health Care Reform Bill. Snowe again voted against health care reform when she voted "no" on the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.^[19]

When Snowe announced in February 2012 that she would not seek re-election, it was reported that she and Democrat Ben Nelson, who also did not seek re-election, had the closest overlap of any two members of the U.S. Senate.^[20]

In 2012, Snowe endorsed Republican candidate Mitt Romney for President of the United States.^[21] After leaving the Senate, Snowe announced her support for same-sex marriage.^[22]

Electoral history

Townspeople and businesses in Bethel, Maine created "Olympia" the snow-woman, named after Snowe

Personal life

The world's largest snowman, dubbed "Olympia Snow," was named in honor of her. Snowe has been on the Board of Directors for the investment counsel firm T. Rowe Price since 2013.^[23] In 2013 she made a guest appearance in the season 5 premiere of the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation, entitled "Ms. Knope Goes to Washington."

See also

• Women in the United States Senate
• Rockefeller Republican

References

Further reading

• Nine & Counting: The Women of the Senate, Boxer, Collins, Snowe et al., ISBN 0-06-095706-9.
• Fighting for Common Ground: How We can Fix the Stalemate in Congress, Snowe, ISBN 1602862176

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Olympia Snowe.

• U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe official U.S. Senate site
• Olympia Snowe for Senate official campaign site
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Profile at Project Vote Smart
• Legislation sponsored at The Library of Congress
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Profile at SourceWatch
• U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe audio clips from the Senate Republican Conference
• "The Anguished Moderate", The Washington Post, July 15, 2007.
• Olympia Snowe Video produced by Makers: Women Who Make America

United States Senators from Maine
Class 1	Holmes Parris Holmes Shepley Dana Williams Fairfield Moor Hamlin Nourse Hamlin Morrill Hamlin E. Hale Johnson F. Hale Brewster Payne Muskie Mitchell Snowe King
Class 2	Chandler Sprague Ruggles Evans Bradbury Fessenden Farwell Fessenden Morrill Blaine Frye Gardner Burleigh Fernald Gould White Smith Hathaway Cohen Collins

Chairmen of the United States Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Select Committee (1950–1981)	Sparkman Thye Sparkman Smathers Bible Nelson
Full Committee (1981–)	Weicker Bumpers Bond Kerry Bond Kerry Snowe Kerry Landrieu Cantwell Vitter