Saxby Chambliss

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Saxby Chambliss
Image of Saxby Chambliss

Republican Party

Prior offices
U.S. House of Representatives
U.S. Senate Georgia
Successor: David Perdue

Compensation

Net worth

$243,504.50

Education

High school

C.E. Byrd High School, 1961

Bachelor's

Louisiana Tech University, University of Georgia, 1966

Law

University of Tennessee College of Law, 1968

Personal
Religion
Christian: Episcopalian
Profession
Attorney

Clarence Saxby Chambliss, Jr. (b. November 10, 1943, in Warrenton, NC) was previously a Republican member of the U.S. Senate from the state of Georgia. Chambliss was first elected to the Senate in 2002.

On January 25, 2013, Chambliss announced that he was retiring at the end of his current term and would not seek re-election in 2014. He cited gridlock in Congress and a lack of leadership from the White House as being the main reasons for his retirement. He denied rumors that his retirement was based on any potential primary challenges.[1]

He previously was a member of the U.S. House from 1994 to 2002.[2]

Biography

Born in Warrenton, NC, Chambliss attended Louisiana Tech University and the University of Georgia. He received his law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1968. He was elected to the U.S. House in 1994. When redistricting threatened his House seat in 2002, he announced a run for the U.S. Senate.[2]

Career

Committee assignments

U.S. Senate

2013-2014

Chambliss served on the following Senate committees:[3]

2011-2012

  • U.S. Senate Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe[4]

Key votes

113th Congress

The second session of the 113th Congress enacted into law 224 out of the 3215 introduced bills (7 percent). Comparatively, the 112th Congress had 4.2 percent of introduced bills enacted into law in the second session.[5] The Senate confirmed 13,949 out of 18,323 executive nominations received (76.1 percent). For more information pertaining to Chambliss's voting record in the 113th Congress, please see the below sections.[6]

National security

John Brennan CIA nomination

Nay3.png Chambliss voted against the confirmation of John Brennan as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The nomination was confirmed by the Senate on March 7, 2013, with a vote of 63 - 34. Most Democrats supported the nomination, while Republicans were somewhat divided with roughly one-third supporting the nomination.[7]

Economy

Farm bill

Yea3.png On February 4, 2014, the Democratic controlled Senate approved the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013, H.R. 2642, also known as the Farm Bill.[8] It passed the Senate with a vote of 68-32. The nearly 1,000-page bill reformed and continued various programs of the Department of Agriculture through 2018. The $1 trillion bill expanded crop insurance for farmers by $7 billion over the next decade and created new subsidies for rice and peanut growers that will kick in when prices drop; however, cuts to the food stamp program cut an average of $90 per month for 1.7 million people in 15 states.[9] Chambliss joined with 19 other Republican senators in favor of the bill.

2014 Budget

Neutral/Abstain On January 16, 2014, the Democratic-controlled Senate approved H.R. 3547, a $1.1 trillion spending bill to fund the government through September 30, 2014.[10][11] The Senate voted 72-26 for the 1,582 page bill, with 17 Republicans and 55 Democrats voting in favor of the bill.[11] The omnibus package included 12 annual spending bills to fund federal operations.[12] It included a 1% increase in the paychecks of federal workers and military personnel, a $1 billion increase in Head Start funding for early childhood education, reduced funding to the Internal Revenue Service and the Environmental Protection Agency and left the Affordable Care Act without any drastic cuts. Chambliss did not vote on the bill.[10][11]

Government shutdown

See also: United States budget debate, 2013

Yea3.png During the shutdown in October 2013, the Senate rejected, down party lines, every House-originated bill that stripped the budget of funding for the Affordable Care Act. A deal was reached late on October 16, 2013, just hours before the debt ceiling deadline. The bill to reopen the government, H.R. 2775, lifted the $16.7 trillion debt limit and funded the government through January 15, 2014. Federal employees also received retroactive pay for the shutdown period. The only concession made by Senate Democrats was to require income verification for Obamacare subsidies.[13] The final vote on H.R. 2775 was 81-18, with all 18 votes against the bill from Republican members. Chambliss voted with the Democratic Party for the bill.[14]

No Budget, No Pay Act of 2013

Nay3.png Chambliss voted against H.R.325 -- No Budget, No Pay Act of 2013. The bill passed the Senate on January 31, 2013, with a vote of 64 - 34. The purpose of the bill was to temporarily suspend the debt ceiling and withhold the pay of members of Congress until a budget could be passed. The vote largely followed party lines with Democrats overwhelmingly supporting it and many Republicans in opposition to the bill.[7]

Immigration

Mexico-U.S. border

Yea3.png Chambliss voted forf Senate Amendment 1197 -- Requires the Completion of the Fence Along the United States-Mexico Border. The amendment was rejected by the Senate on June 18, 2013, with a vote of 39 - 54. The purpose of the amendment was to require the completion of 350 miles of fence described in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 before registered provisional immigrant status may be granted. It would also require 700 miles of fence be completed before the status of registered provisional immigrants may be changed to permanent resident status. The vote followed party lines.[7]

Social issues

Violence Against Women (2013)

Yea3.png Chambliss voted for S.47 -- Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013. The bill was passed by the Senate on February 12, 2013, with a vote of 78 - 22. The purpose of the bill was to combat violence against women, from domestic violence to international trafficking in persons. All 22 dissenting votes were cast by Republicans.[7]

Previous congressional sessions

Fiscal Cliff

Yea3.png Chambliss voted for the fiscal cliff compromise bill, which made permanent most of the Bush tax cuts originally passed in 2001 and 2003 while also raising tax rates on the highest income levels. The bill was passed in the Senate by an 89 - 8 vote on January 1, 2013.[15]

Issues

National security

Drones filibuster

See also: Rand Paul filibuster of John Brennan's CIA Nomination in March 2013

On March 6, 2013, Senator Rand Paul (R) led a 13-hour filibuster of President Obama's CIA Director nominee, John Brennan. Paul started the filibuster in order to highlight his concerns about the administration's drone policies. In particular, Paul said he was concerned about whether a drone could be used to kill an American citizen within the United States border without any due process involved. Paul and other civil liberties activists were critical of President Obama for not offering a clear response to the question. A total of 14 senators joined Paul in the filibuster—13 Republicans and one Democrat.[16][17][18]

Chambliss was one of the 13 Republican senators who joined Paul in his filibuster.[19][20]

Thirty Republican senators did not support the filibuster.[21][22][23]

The day after the filibuster, Attorney General Eric Holder sent a letter to Paul, responding to the filibuster. Holder wrote, "Does the president have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on U.S. soil? The answer to that is no."[24]

American response in Syria

See also: United States involvement in Syria

On September 1, 2013, Chambliss said that President Barack Obama demonstrated “weakness” as commander-in-chief on the conflict in Syria.[25]

“I was supportive of the president taking early action, but he hasn't done that,” Chambliss said. “And now that it's been delayed this much, I think that Congress does have a role to play here.”[25]

Teleprompter comments

During an appearance on Fox & Friends on September 5, 2013, Chambliss commented that President Obama may have drawn a red line last year on the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons because he did not have the assistance of a teleprompter.[26][27]

Elections

2014

See also: United States Senate elections in Georgia, 2014

On January 25, 2013, Chambliss announced that he was retiring at the end of his current term and would not seek re-election in 2014. He cited gridlock in Congress and a lack of leadership from the White House as being the main reasons for his retirement. He denied rumors that his retirement was based on any potential primary challenges.[1]

Full history


Campaign finance summary

Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

Saxby Chambliss campaign contribution history
YearOfficeStatusContributionsExpenditures
2008U.S. Senate (Georgia)Won $18,346,273 N/A**
2002U.S. Senate (Georgia)Won $7,797,139 N/A**
2000U.S. House (Georgia, District 8)Won $1,805,868 N/A**
Grand total$27,949,280 N/A**
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
** Data on expenditures is not available for this election cycle
Note: Totals above reflect only availabale data.

Personal Gain Index

Congressional Personal Gain Index graphic.png
See also: Personal Gain Index (U.S. Congress)

The Personal Gain Index (U.S. Congress) is a two-part measurement that illustrates the extent to which members of the U.S. Congress have prospered during their tenure as public servants.
It consists of two different metrics:

PGI: Change in net worth

See also: Changes in Net Worth of U.S. Senators and Representatives (Personal Gain Index) and Net worth of United States Senators and Representatives
Net Worth Metric graphic.png

Based on congressional financial disclosure forms and calculations made available by OpenSecrets.org, Chambliss' net worth as of 2012 was estimated between $107,009 and $380,000. That averages to $243,504.50, which is lower than the average net worth of Republican senators in 2012 of $6,956,438.47. Chambliss ranked as the 92nd most wealthy senator in 2012.[30] Between 2004 and 2012, Chambliss' calculated net worth[31] increased by an average of 144 percent per year. Between 2004 and 2014, the average annual percentage increase for a member of Congress was 15.4 percent.[32]

Saxby Chambliss Yearly Net Worth
YearAverage Net Worth
2004$19,448
2012$243,504
Growth from 2004 to 2012:1,152%
Average annual growth:144%[33]
Comparatively, the American citizen experienced a median yearly decline in net worth of -0.94%.[34]

The data used to calculate changes in net worth may include changes resulting from assets gained through marriage, inheritance, changes in family estates and/or trusts, changes in family business ownership, and many other variables unrelated to a member's behavior in Congress.

PGI: Donation Concentration Metric

See also: The Donation Concentration Metric (U.S. Congress Personal Gain Index)

Filings required by the Federal Election Commission report on the industries that give to each candidate. Using campaign filings and information calculated by OpenSecrets.org, Ballotpedia calculated the percentage of donations by industry received by each incumbent over the course of his or her career (or 1989 and later, if elected prior to 1988). In the 113th Congress, Chambliss was the ranking Republican member of the United States Senate Committee on Intelligence. Chambliss received the most donations from individuals and PACs employed by the Crop Production & Basic Processing industry.

From 1991-2014, 18.76 percent of Chambliss' career contributions came from the top five industries as listed below.[35]

Donation Concentration Metric graphic.png
Saxby Chambliss Campaign Contributions
Total Raised $34,057,262
Total Spent $34,197,504
Ranking member of the United States Senate Committee on Intelligence
Top five industries that contributed to campaign committee
Crop Production & Basic Processing$1,608,400
Retired$1,499,885
Lawyers/Law Firms$1,224,426
Health Professionals$1,045,959
Real Estate$1,008,773
% total in top industry4.72%
% total in top two industries9.13%
% total in top five industries18.76%

Analysis

Ideology and leadership

See also: GovTrack's Political Spectrum & Legislative Leadership ranking

Based on an analysis of bill sponsorship by GovTrack, Chambliss was a "lonely far-right Republican follower," as of July 22, 2014. Chambliss was rated as a "far-right Republican follower" in June 2013.[36]

Like-minded colleagues

The website OpenCongress tracks the voting records of each member to determine with whom he or she votes most and least often. The results include a member from each party.[37]

Chambliss most often voted with:

Chambliss least often voted with:


Lifetime voting record

See also: Lifetime voting records of United States Senators and Representatives

According to the website GovTrack, Chambliss missed 100 of 3,251 roll call votes from January 2003 to August 2014. This amounts to 3.1 percent, which is worse than the median of 1.7% among currently serving senators as of August 2014.[38]

Congressional staff salaries

See also: Staff salaries of United States Senators and Representatives

The website Legistorm compiles staff salary information for members of Congress. Chambliss paid his congressional staff a total of $2,434,315 in 2011. He ranked 23rd on the list of the lowest paid Republican senatorial staff salaries and ranked 32nd overall of the lowest paid senatorial staff salaries in 2011. Overall, Georgia ranked 44th in average salary for senatorial staff. The average U.S. Senate congressional staff was paid $2,529,141.70 in fiscal year 2011.[39]

National Journal vote ratings

See also: National Journal vote ratings

Each year National Journal publishes an analysis of how liberally or conservatively each member of Congress voted in the previous year.

2013

Chambliss ranked 31st in the conservative rankings in 2013.[40]

2012

Chambliss ranked 11th in the conservative rankings in 2012.[41]

2011

Chambliss ranked 26th in the conservative rankings in 2011.[42]

Voting with party

The website OpenCongress tracks how often members of Congress vote with the majority of the chamber caucus.

2014

Chambliss voted with the Republican Party 88.5 percent of the time, which ranked 18th among the 45 Senate Republican members as of July 2014.[43]

2013

Chambliss voted with the Republican Party 87.8 percent of the time, which ranked 24th among the 46 Senate Republican members as of June 2013.[44]

Personal

Note: Please contact us if the personal information below requires an update.
Chambliss and his wife, Julianne, have been married since 1966, and reside in Moultrie, GA. They have two children and five grandchildren.[2]

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for Saxby + Chambliss + Georgia + Senate


Saxby Chambliss News Feed

See also

External links

 


Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Washington Post, "Saxby Chambliss retiring in 2014," accessed January 25, 2013
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Saxby Chambliss, U.S. Senator for Georgia, "Biography," accessed October 13, 2011
  3. ↑ Congressional Quarterly, "Senate Committee List," accessed January 22, 2013
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Saxby Chambliss, U.S. Senator for Georgia, "Committee Assignments" accessed October 13, 2011
  5. ↑ Congressional Record, "Resume of Congressional Activity, First Session of the 112th Congress," accessed September 5, 2013
  6. ↑ Congressional Record, "Resume of Congressional Activity, Second Session of the 113th Congress," accessed March 4, 2014
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Project Vote Smart, "Saxby Chambliss Key Votes," accessed October 16, 2013
  8. ↑ Senate.gov, "H.R. 2642 (Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013)," accessed February 12, 2014
  9. ↑ New York Times, "Senate Passes Long-Stalled Farm Bill, With Clear Winners and Losers," accessed February 12, 2014
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Politico, "Senate approves $1.1 trillion spending bill," accessed January 20, 2014
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 U.S. Senate, "January 16 Vote," accessed January 20, 2014
  12. ↑ Roll Call, "House Passes $1.1 Trillion Omnibus," accessed January 20, 2014
  13. ↑ The Washington Post, "Reid, McConnell propose bipartisan Senate bill to end shutdown, extend borrowing," accessed October 16, 2013
  14. ↑ Senate.gov, "H.R. 2775 As Amended," accessed October 31, 2013
  15. ↑ U.S. Senate, "Roll Call Vote on the Fiscal Cliff," accessed January 4, 2013
  16. ↑ CNN, "Rand Paul says he's heard from White House after filibuster," March 7, 2013
  17. ↑ USA Today, "Rand Paul filibuster ranks among Senate's longest," March 7, 2013
  18. ↑ ABC News, "Rand Paul Wins Applause From GOP and Liberals," March 7, 2013
  19. ↑ The Blaze, "Here Are All the GOP Senators That Participated in Rand Paul’s 12+ Hour Filibuster… and the Ones Who Didn’t," March 7, 2013
  20. ↑ Los Angeles Times, "Sen. Rand Paul ends marathon filibuster of John Brennan," March 7, 2013
  21. ↑ Breitbart, "AWOL: Meet The GOP Senators Who Refused to Stand With Rand," March 7, 2013
  22. ↑ Politico, "Rand Paul filibuster blasted by Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham," March 7, 2013
  23. ↑ Politico, "Rand Paul pulls plug on nearly 13-hour filibuster," March 7, 2017
  24. ↑ Washington Post, "Eric Holder responds to Rand Paul with ‘no’," March 7, 2013
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Politico, "Chambliss: Obama's 'weakness'," accessed September 2, 2013
  26. ↑ Talking Points Memo,, "GOP Senator: Obama Drew ‘Red Line’ Because He Didn’t Have Teleprompter (VIDEO)," accessed September 6, 2013
  27. ↑ Daily Kos, "Sen. Saxby Chambliss says Obama drew Syria 'red line' because he didn't have a teleprompter," accessed September 6, 2013
  28. ↑ U.S. Congress House Clerk, "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 4, 2008," accessed March 28, 2013
  29. ↑ U.S. Congress House Clerk, "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 5, 2002," accessed March 28, 2013
  30. ↑ OpenSecrets, "Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), 2012," accessed February 18, 2014
  31. ↑ This figure represents the average annual percentage growth from either 2004 (if the member entered office in 2004 or earlier) or their first year in office (as noted in the chart below) to 2012, divided by the number of years calculated.
  32. ↑ This number was found by dividing each member's total net worth growth percentage by the number of years included in the calculation.
  33. ↑ This figure represents the total percentage growth divided by the number of years for which there are net worth figures for each member.
  34. ↑ This figure was calculated using median asset data from the Census Bureau. Please see the Congressional Net Worth data for Ballotpedia spreadsheet for more information on this calculation.
  35. ↑ OpenSecrets.org, "Sen. Saxby Chambliss," accessed September 18, 2014
  36. ↑ GovTrack, "Saxby Chambliss," accessed July 22, 2014
  37. ↑ OpenCongress, "Rep. Jo Chambliss," archived March 5, 2016
  38. ↑ GovTrack, "Saxby Chambliss," accessed March 29, 2013
  39. ↑ LegiStorm, "Saxby Chambliss," accessed 2011
  40. ↑ National Journal, "2013 Senate Vote Ratings," accessed July 21, 2014
  41. ↑ National Journal, "2012 Congressional Vote Ratings," accessed February 28, 2013
  42. ↑ National Journal, "Searchable Vote Ratings Tables: Senate," accessed February 23, 2012
  43. ↑ OpenCongress, "Voting With Party," accessed July 2014
  44. ↑ OpenCongress, "Voting With Party," accessed July 2014
Political offices
Preceded by
J. Maxwell Cleland (R) 		U.S. Senate - Georgia
2003-2015 		Succeeded by
David Perdue (R)
Preceded by
Roy Rowland 		U.S. House of Representatives - Georgia
1995-2003 		Succeeded by
Mac Collins (R)


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