Angus King

Angus King
United States Senator from Maine
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2013 Serving with Susan Collins
Preceded by	Olympia Snowe
72nd Governor of Maine
In office January 5, 1995 – January 8, 2003
Preceded by	John McKernan
Succeeded by	John Baldacci
Personal details
Born	Angus Stanley King, Jr. (1944-03-31) March 31, 1944 Alexandria, Virginia, U.S.
Political party	Democratic (Before 1993) Independent (1993–present)
Spouse(s)	Mary Herman (1984–present)
Children	5
Alma mater	Dartmouth College (B.A.) University of Virginia (LL.B.)
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Episcopalian
Website	Senate website

Angus Stanley King, Jr. (born March 31, 1944) is an American politician and the junior United States Senator from the state of Maine. A political independent, he served as the 72nd Governor of Maine from 1995 to 2003.

King won Maine's 2012 Senate election to replace the retiring Republican Olympia Snowe and took office on January 3, 2013. For committee assignment purposes, he caucuses with the Democratic Party.

Early life, education, and early career

King was born in Alexandria, Virginia, the son of Ellen Archer (née Ticer) and Angus Stanley King, Sr., a lawyer. He has spent most of his adult years in the state of Maine. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1966 and the University of Virginia School of Law in 1969. While a student at Dartmouth, King joined the Delta Upsilon social fraternity.

Soon after graduation from Virginia, King entered private law practice in Brunswick, Maine. He was a staff attorney for Pine Tree Legal Assistance in Skowhegan. In 1972, he served as chief counsel to U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Alcoholism and Narcotics. King served as a Legislative Assistant to Democratic U.S. Senator William Hathaway in the 1970s. He was also well-known statewide as a television host on public television in Maine. In 1973, when he was 29, King was diagnosed with an aggressive form of malignant melanoma during a routine doctor's appointment -- an appointment, King says, he never would have made had he not had health insurance at the time. As a result of the visit and the early detection, King was able to receive treatment, and today, the experience undergirds his support for the Affordable Care Act.

In 1975, he returned to Maine to practice with Smith, Loyd and King in Brunswick. In 1983, King was appointed vice president of Swift River/Hafslund Company, which developed alternative energy (hydro and biomass) projects in New England. In 1989, King founded Northeast Energy Management, Inc. The company developed, installed, and operated large-scale electrical energy conservation projects at commercial and industrial facilities throughout south-central Maine.

Governor of Maine

1994 election

Main article: Maine gubernatorial election, 1994

In May 1993, King announced he would run for governor of Maine as an independent, as incumbent Governor John McKernan, a Republican, was term-limited and could not seek another term. King abandoned his lifelong affiliation with the Maine Democratic Party. "The Democratic Party as an institution has become too much the party that is looking for something from government," King explained to the Bangor Daily News a few weeks after he announced he would be running.

The Republican Party nominee was Susan Collins, Commissioner of Professional and Financial Regulation under Governor John McKernan and a protégé of U.S. Senator William Cohen and at the time relatively unknown to the electorate. The Democratic nominee was former Governor and U.S. Rep. Joseph E. Brennan. This was Brennan's fifth campaign for governor.

The general election was a highly competitive four-candidate race between King, Collins, Brennan, and Green Party nominee Jonathan Carter. King decided to invest early in television advertising during Maine's unusually early June primary, allowing him to emerge from the primary season on an equal footing with his partisan rivals. King focused on job creation and education. King positioned himself as a businessman and a pragmatic environmentalist. The Washington Times described King as an idealist who "wants to slash regulations but preserve the environment; hold the line on taxes; impose work and education requirements on welfare recipients; experiment with public school choice and cut at least $60 million from the state budget." His opponents criticized him of flip-flopping. Collins argued King "presents different images, depending on who he is talking to. Angus has been a Democrat his whole life. In my opinion, he became an independent because he didn't think he could beat Joe Brennan in a primary. He's extremely smooth, articulate and bright, but he says different things to different groups."

King narrowly won the four-candidate election on November 8, 1994 with 35% of the vote. Brennan lost by just 7,878 votes with 34% of the vote. Collins received 23% of the vote in third place and Carter received a respectable 6% in fourth place. King won eight counties, while Collins won five and Brennan won three. King's election as an independent was not unprecedented in Maine politics, as independent James B. Longley had been elected twenty years earlier.

1998 election

Main article: Maine gubernatorial election, 1998

Governor King won re-election to a second term in 1998 with 59% of the vote. He defeated Republican Jim Longley Jr. (the son of the former governor) (19%) and Democrat Thomas Connolly (12%). King was so popular, his 59% share of the vote was highest since Democrat Joseph E. Brennan was re-elected in 1982 with 62% of the vote. Brennan's re-election in 1982 was the last time before 1998 that a gubernatorial candidate was able to get an overall majority of the vote, and King's re-election in 1998 was the last time in a Maine gubernatorial election that the winner got a majority of the vote.

Tenure

During his tenure, he was the only governor in the United States unaffiliated with any political party. He was also one of only two governors nationwide not affiliated with either of the two major parties, the other being Jesse Ventura of Minnesota, who was elected in 1998 as a member of the Reform Party. The term of Connecticut's independent governor Lowell Weicker ended when King's began. In his book Independent Nation (2004), political analyst John Avlon describes all three governors as radical centrist thinkers.

File:Russians presents their social project to Maine governor Angus King.jpg

King meets with a Russian delegation as Maine governor in October 2002.

While in office Governor King launched the Maine Learning Technology Initiative or MLTI to provide laptops for every public middle-school student in the state of Maine, a first of its kind in the nation. It met with considerable resistance due to costs but was enacted by the Maine Legislature. On September 5, 2002 the state began the program with a four-year $37.2-million contract with Apple Inc. to equip all seventh- and eighth-grade students and teachers in the state with laptops. "I think we're going to demonstrate the power of one-to-one computer access that's going to transform education", said Governor Angus King in a Wired magazine interview. "The economic future will belong to the technologically adept." While ushering in the program King quipped "We've still got fish but we're heavily into the chips", in reference to the State of Maine's fishing industry and the new laptop initiative.

One of the more controversial initiatives of Governor King was a law requiring all school employees – including volunteers and contractors working in schools – to be fingerprinted by the Maine State Police, and to have background checks conducted on them. The program purported to protect children from abuse by potential predators working within the schools but met with strong resistance from teachers' unions who considered it a breach of civil liberties. Supporters of the law claimed the fingerprinting requirement would stop previous offenders from coming to Maine to work in the schools and if Maine did not have this requirement it would send a message to previous offenders that they could work in Maine without fear of being identified as a child abuser. Critics of the law maintained that there was no evidence of a problem with child abuse by school employees and the fingerprinting represented a violation of constitutional guarantees (a claim which was not backed up by Supreme Court rulings on the issue). Fifty-seven teachers from across the state resigned in protest of the fingerprinting bill. The Maine Legislature voted to exempt current school employees, but this was vetoed by Gov. King in April 1997. The cost of the requirement was initially to be paid for by the school employees themselves but the Legislature voted to have the state fund the costs of the measure.

While governor, King vetoed a bill which would have raised Maine's minimum wage by 25 cents per hour.

Post-gubernatorial career (2003–12)

The day after he left office in 2003, King, his wife, Mary Herman, and their two children – Ben, 14, and Molly, 10 – embarked on a road trip in a 40-foot motor home to see America. Over the next six months, the family traveled 15,000 miles and visited 33 states before returning home in June 2003.

From 2004, King was a lecturer at Bowdoin College teaching a course called "Leaders and Leadership"; in the fall of 2009 and 2010, he taught a similar course at Bates College. He also became employed at one of Maine's premier law firms, Bernstein Shur, and a mergers and acquisitions advisory firm (Leaders LLC) in Portland, Maine. He also worked on issues of sustainable and renewable energy. In spring 2009, he endorsed the Maine Green Energy Project, a summer program for young people to learn to build and advocate for green energy in Maine.

King was also involved in a wind power utility company, Independence Wind, co-founded with Robert Gardiner. In August 2009, Independence Wind along with joint venture partner Wagner Forest Management won Maine DEP approval for construction of a proposed $120-million, 22-turbine, utility-scale wind power project along a prominent mountain ridge in Roxbury, Maine. To avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest [3], King sold his part of the company after he entered the 2012 U.S. Senate election. Of the project King has said in part: "However, the people who say wind is only an intermittent resource are looking for a one-shot solution. And my experience is that there are rarely silver bullets, but there is often silver buckshot. Wind is an adjunct source of energy. Ten percent, 20% can be very significant..." King is also interested in solar energy and in spring 2009 he endorsed the Maine Green Energy Project, a summer program for young people to learn to build and advocate for green energy in Maine. King also helped launch the Vital Signs education (Website) program at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in 2009. The Vital Signs program builds upon the 1-to-1 laptop network King established when he was governor of Maine.

United States Senate

Elections

Main article: United States Senate election in Maine, 2012

On March 5, 2012, King announced that he was running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Olympia Snowe. King said "hogwash" to allegations by some Republicans that he had cut a deal with Democrats to keep U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree out of the race.

King's Senate campaign came under scrutiny for posting a heavily-edited newspaper profile of him to the campaign website.

On November 6, 2012, King won the Senate race with 53% of the vote, beating Democrat Cynthia Dill and Republican Charlie Summers. The following week, King announced that he would caucus with Senate Democrats, explaining not only that it made more sense to affiliate with the party that has a clear majority, but that he would have been largely excluded from the committee process had he not caucused with a party. King said he had not ruled out caucusing with the Republicans if they take control of the Senate in 2014 but after the 2014 election in which the Democratic Party lost control of the Senate, he remained within the Democratic caucus.

Tenure

King supports reform of the Senate filibuster, noting that Senators are no longer required to stand on the floor and speak during a filibuster. He also points out that a 60-vote requirement to conduct business in the Senate was not included in the Constitution by the Framers. King voted in favor of the so-called nuclear option in November 2013 to eliminate the filibuster for most Presidential nominees, based on that view.

King opposes attempts by the U.S. House to cut $40 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program over ten years, fearing that it "would affect people in a serious way" and drive more people to soup kitchens and food banks. He supports the more modest Senate efforts to save $4 billion over the same period by closing loopholes.

King had stated that he would not have been willing to attend the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia due to threats against the Games. He further stated that he would not have wanted his family to attend either.

In 2014 King was chosen for the annual honor of reading George Washington's Farewell Address to the Senate.

King endorsed his colleague Susan Collins for re-election in the 2014 U.S. Senate election, calling her a "model Senator". At the same time, he also endorsed Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire for re-election. King also endorsed Eliot Cutler for Governor in the 2014 election, as he had done in 2010, although on October 29, 2014 he switched his endorsement to Democratic nominee Mike Michaud. He also endorsed Emily Cain for the Maine's second congressional district election. and Republican Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee in his re-election campaign.

King announced after the November 4, 2014 election that he would continue to caucus with the Democrats despite the Republicans gaining the majority. He cited his beliefs that a state having a senator from each party is a good thing, and that it is important to have a senator caucus with the same party as the President, saying "In the end, who I caucus with is less important than who I work with." He further said "It does not mean I have become a Democrat. It does not mean I have made a promise to anybody."

On June 22, 2015, Senator King announced that he would undergo prostate cancer surgery on June 26, 2015. King said, in a statement, "I'm looking forward to a full recovery and to continuing my service in the Senate". King had shown no symptoms but doctors had found the cancer in a routine medical exam, and after a biopsy was given, the diagnosis was confirmed. King also announced that this did not change his plans to run for re-election in 2018.

Committee assignments

• Committee on Armed Services
  • Subcommittee on Personnel
  • Subcommittee on Seapower
  • Subcommittee on Strategic Forces
• Committee on the Budget
• Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
  • Subcommittee on Energy
  • Subcommittee on National Parks
  • Subcommittee on Water and Power
• Committee on Rules and Administration
• Select Committee on Intelligence

Political positions

Economy

King has called for the continuation of a tariff on imported athletic footwear and rejects discussing the potential removal of the tariff in trade talks with Vietnam, citing the potential loss of jobs at New Balance's Skowhegan and Madison factories, as New Balance is the only remaining domestic manufacturer of athletic footwear.

Oil

King is opposed to the Keystone XL pipeline, stating that the "project will facilitate the transport of some of the world's dirtiest and most climate-harming oil through our country." and has cast several votes against legislation authorizing its construction. King has said that he is "frustrated" with President Obama's delay in deciding on whether or not to authorize construction, but that he opposes Congress legislating the approval or disapproval of a construction project.

Syria

King has voted to arm Syrian rebels who are fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ISIL militants.

Environment

King opposes oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, believing the amount of oil is not worth the environmental risk of extracting it. He also believes that new developments in the energy field, such as fracking and the Keystone XL pipeline should be subject to "all appropriate environmental safeguards to protect the American people and the American land."

He has expressed opposition to the creation of a Maine Woods National Park, believing that local control is the best way to conserve land, but in 2014 he stated he was keeping an open mind about the idea. He has "serious reservations" about the designation of land in the Katahdin region as a National Monument.

King opposes efforts in Maine to ban the baiting and trapping of bears, including an effort to put the question to voters in 2014, calling such practices necessary to prevent interaction between bears and people, and stating the practices are based on science and the views of experts.

Veterans

King supports the Department of Veterans Affairs goal to eliminate both its claim backlog and veteran homelessness by 2015.

Education

King proposes supporting teacher development, by attempting to elevate the teaching profession to something attractive for top students. With over 29% of teachers claiming they are likely to leave the profession, King proposes steps such as creating a recruitment program, supporting research and development, and improving access to technology. He additionally proposes increasing parent involvement in the classroom, supporting measures like gas cards for parents.

Gun laws

King supports expanding background checks to most firearms transactions, with exceptions for transfers between family members, calling such a position "the single most effective step" that can be taken to keep guns out of the wrong hands. He supports limiting the size of magazines to 10 rounds, and to make purchasing a gun for someone not legally allowed to have one a federal crime. He does not support a ban on assault weapons, believing it will not work and that such a ban is not based on the functionality of the weapons, which are not different from the many hunting rifles owned by Maine residents. He further states the fact that the vast majority of crimes are committed with handguns, not assault weapons.

King voted for the Manchin-Toomey amendment to expand background checks for gun purchases.

Health issues

King supports the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (often referred to as Obamacare). He is also pro-choice on abortion.

On September 27, 2013, King voted to restore funding for the Affordable Care Act as part of an amendment to legislation funding government operations for 45 days, and which also omitted House-passed language prioritizing debt payments if Congress fails to increase the nation’s borrowing limits. He has been quoted as stating that those opposed to the ACA who are attempting to discourage people from purchasing health insurance are "guilty of murder" and that doing so was "one of the grossest violations of our humanity that I could think of." In making this comment, King noted a time in his life when he would have died, had he not acquired health insurance shortly prior to the instance.

Same-sex marriage

King supports same-sex marriage, stating that it is "necessary to provide couples and their families with equal protection under the law." King also signed an amicus brief to the US Supreme Court in the case of United States v. Windsor encouraging it to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional.

Awards and honors

The National Retail Federation gave King the 2014 "Hero of Main Street" award for his support of American retailers.

Further reading

Congress

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Profile at Project Vote Smart
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Legislation sponsored at The Library of Congress

Governor (1995–2003)

• June 2006 Speech by Angus King on the Maine laptop program
• King family site documenting the motorhome trip. (retrieved September 13, 2006)

External links

• Senator Angus King official U.S. Senate website
• Angus King for Senate
• Angus King at DMOZ

Political offices
Preceded by John McKernan	Governor of Maine 1995–2003	Succeeded by John Baldacci
United States Senate
Preceded by Olympia Snowe	U.S. Senator (Class 1) from Maine 2013–present Served alongside: Susan Collins	Incumbent
United States order of precedence (ceremonial)
Preceded by Martin Heinrich	United States Senators by seniority 80th	Succeeded by Tim Kaine

113th	Senate: S. Collins | A. King	House: M. Michaud | C. Pinigree
114th	Senate: S. Collins • A. King	House: C. Pinigree • B. Poliquin