Sen. Joseph Biden (D) Elected 1972, 6th term up 2008
Born:	Nov. 20, 1942, Scranton, PA
Home:	Wilmington
Education:	U. of DE, B.A. 1965, Syracuse U., J.D. 1968
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	married (Jill)
Elected  Office:	New Castle Cnty. Cncl., 1970-72.
Professional Career:	Practicing atty., 1968-72.
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Joseph Biden, Delaware's longest-serving senator, was first elected in 1972, at age 29 (he reached the constitutional age of 30 by the time he took office); he has spent most of his life as a senator. Biden grew up in the suburbs of Wilmington in a middle class home; his father was a car salesman and one grandfather was a state senator in Pennsylvania. As a teenager he had a stutter, but taught himself to deliver a speech to his whole school; he is now one of the Senate's most fluent orators. He married and started a family while still in law school. After school he moved back to the Wilmington suburbs, practiced law, and in 1970, at 27, was elected to the New Castle County Council. In 1972 he ran for the Senate, against a popular incumbent who seemed ready to retire, while this young challenger had energy, an attractive extended family and an ability to connect with voters' emotions. He won 51%-49%. A month later his wife and daughter were killed in an auto accident; his two young sons were injured. He thought about resigning, but was persuaded to serve, and began his practice, kept to this day, of commuting from his home near Wilmington on Amtrak, 80 minutes to and from Washington every day. He remains a familiar figure in, and one familiar with, his constituency.

In the Senate, Biden has a moderate-to-liberal voting record. For many years he did much of his most visible work on the Judiciary Committee, which he chaired from 1987-95 and served as ranking Democrat on from 1981-87 and 1995-97. The issues that arise here--abortion, flag-burning, capital punishment, crime control--cut deeply, and for years the cultural liberals in the Democratic Party differed sharply on most of them from the constituents Biden saw in Delaware every day. As chairman, Biden presided over the most contentious Supreme Court confirmation hearings in history. In his 1987 hearings, nominee Robert Bork set a high standard for intellectual seriousness, but some of his opponents used his candor to vote against him for disgracefully dishonest reasons, from which Biden's attempts to construct an honestly based, anti-Bork rationale proved politically indistinguishable; no other nominee since has testified so frankly. The 1991 hearings on Clarence Thomas exploded when someone leaked charges of sexual harassment by Anita Hill against the nominee. Biden was bitterly criticized for covering up this information, but he had shared it with committee members, who agreed that Hill's initial unwillingness to testify publicly meant that any reference to it would be unfair to Thomas. Once the story was out though, Hill and then Thomas testified to fascinated television audiences; Thomas was confirmed, over Biden's opposition. In 2001 and 2002 he usually, but not always, sided with Chairman Patrick Leahy in opposing targeted Bush judicial nominees. But he voted for Brooks Smith, despite Smith's 1993 criticism of Biden's views on federalism, and pledged to vote for Dennis Shedd, a former staffer to Strom Thurmond, and was conveniently absent when Shedd was approved for want of a 10th Democratic vote against him.

In the middle of the Bork hearings came a climactic moment for Biden, who in 1987 started running for president. He hoped to inspire a new generation as John Kennedy had inspired his. But Biden decided to leave the race when a Michael Dukakis staffer leaked an ''attack video'' showing similarities between Biden's stump speech about his background and a speech by British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock. Paraphrasing someone else's words is not a political crime--most political discourse is conducted in familiar shorthand terms--but Biden in dramatizing his background actually distorted it, for unlike Kinnock he did not rise from working class roots, and unlike in Britain, upward social mobility is a common experience in the United States. In 1988, Biden nearly died of an aneurysm, but recovered fully.

After the Thomas hearings, Biden seemed defensive about attacks from the feminist left, the greatest source of activism in the Democratic Party, just as the religious right is in the Republican Party. He sought out women to serve on Judiciary and worked hard on the 1994 Violence Against Women Act; he helped renew it in 2000, although the Supreme Court declared part of it unconstitutional. He has been the sponsor in Judiciary of the bankruptcy bill, backed strongly by Delaware's MBNA and other credit card issuers, which was vetoed by Bill Clinton in 2000. It was brought up again in 2001 with a president ready to sign it, and versions passed both the Senate and the House. But there were two contentious issues blocking final passage. One was the homestead exemption; the Senate voted to limit it to $125,000, but the House version allowed unlimited exemptions once a home had been owned for two years (Florida and Texas have unlimited exemptions, and some bankrupts hold onto $5 million houses). Biden agreed to accept the House version. The other issue was Charles Schumer's amendment making fines incurred by anti-abortion protesters undischargeable in bankruptcy. On this, Biden would not yield. In November 2002 the bill, with a version of the Schumer provision was defeated in the House when 87 anti-abortion Republicans spurned the leadership's pleas and defeated the bill. In 2003 Biden will presumably try again. He had more success in July 2002 when he moved with Orrin Hatch to require chief executive officers to verify the accuracy of their quarterly financial statements, with violations punishable by 10 years in prison. The law was quickly enacted, and within months CEOs were signing the statements.

Biden became ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee in 1997 and chairman in June 2001. To the surprise of many, he entered into a constructive working relationship with Chairman Jesse Helms. When democracy in the former Yugoslavia was thwarted by state-led terrorism and when multilateral instrumentalities proved ineffective, Biden was among the strongest voices to call for lifting the arms embargo on Bosnia and training Bosnian Muslims, demanding that the United States and NATO investigate war crimes there, and arguing for NATO air strikes. He once called Slobodan Milosevic a "war criminal" to his face, and in 1999 pushed the Senate to approve the use of U.S. air power in Kosovo. He supported the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in 1999, and was one of the Democrats who called for it to be reported to the floor, where to his surprise it was defeated. He opposed national missile defense.

To the incoming Bush administration he was friendly but sometimes critical. He opposed candidate Bush's call for withdrawing troops from the Balkans. In April 2001 he paternalistically criticized George W. Bush when he apparently renounced the long-held policy of strategic ambiguity and stated clearly that the United States would come to the aid of Taiwan if China attacked. "China is not our enemy," he said. "There's nothing inevitable about China and the United States not being as cooperative as other nations." Then Biden became chairman of Foreign Relations in June 2001 and America was attacked on September 11. In the weeks following the attack Biden praised Bush for being "patient, resolute and cautious." In October some Republicans attacked him when he told the Council on Foreign Relations that the bombing campaign in Afghanistan "plays into every stereotypical criticism of us that we're this high-tech bully that thinks from the air we can do whatever we want to do." But Biden was not endorsing that criticism, rather he was calling for ground troops to be sent in soon, as indeed they were. In July and August 2002 he held two days of hearings on Iraq, with administration witnesses. In August he said the United States has "no choice but to eliminate" Saddam Hussein and that "probably" it means war with Iraq. He conferred frequently with Secretary of State Colin Powell and pushed for the U.S. to bring the issue to the United Nations; he said a unilateral attack would be the "single worst option." In late September 2002, he and ranking Republican Richard Lugar were working to bring forward a resolution that would authorize the president to take action to remove weapons of mass destruction, but not Saddam Hussein himself, only after exhausting diplomatic options. Bush opposed this, and forestalled Biden and Lugar by getting agreement on terms of a resolution from Trent Lott, Dennis Hastert and Richard Gephardt. Biden voted for it in October 2002.

Biden continued to campaign against missile defense and opposed abrogation of the ABM Treaty. But Bush's withdrawal from the treaty did not prevent the May 2002 nuclear disarmament treaty, which Biden hailed as "an important step forward." On Israel and the Palestinians, Biden endorsed the "Quartet" mediators' December 2002 proposal for a road map of reciprocal steps to jump-start negotiations. Biden traveled widely as chairman--to China in August 2001, to Kashmir in January 2002, to northern Iraq to confer with Kurdish leaders in December 2002--and seems to have been taken into the confidence of the administration: Condoleezza Rice encouraged him to sound out Iranian diplomats at the United Nations when they requested a meeting. As ranking minority member he does not, of course, have as much power as he did as chairman. But he has worked closely with the new chairman, Richard Lugar, and has said that he and Lugar are in agreement on a great many issues.

Biden remains an everyday figure in Delaware and has tended to its most local needs. He has worked to protect Dover Air Force Base and its C-5s and C-17s against closing. Sussex County is America's number one chicken-producing county, and he held up a bill for favorable trade status for Russia when that country blocked the import of U.S. chickens. And naturally he has supported Amtrak funding. On his daily commutes, he has come to know the Amtrak crew members personally and hosts an annual Christmas dinner for the crews; crew members in turn keep track of his seniority--he was 7th in seniority among senators in early 2001, but only about 65th among the Amtrak crew. In February 2002 he put holds on two administration appointees--the first time he had ever done so--because Republicans were blocking a vote on a bill, passed unanimously in the Commerce Committee, to spend $1.8 billion on railroad safety. In fall 2002, he dropped the holds with the understanding that the bill would be brought to a vote in the 108th Congress.

Biden's most visible gift is an articulateness that can verge on the mellifluous; he can inspire, but can also drone on at great length (being elected a senator at 29 does not curb a tendency to verbosity). But this has not reduced the appreciation most Delawareans have for his admirable personal qualities. He was re-elected by wide margins in 1984, 1990 and 1996. His 1996 opponent Raymond Clatworthy was a Naval Academy graduate, Marine aviator and businessman who walked, rode a bicycle and rollerbladed through the state, raised $1 million and questioned the sale of Biden's house to an executive of MBNA, the big credit card company whose top executives gave generously to Biden's campaign. But Biden won 60%-38%. In 2002 Clatworthy ran again and raised $1.8 million: Evidently Biden has raised the hackles of many Republicans across the country, and you can raise money by direct mail against him. Clatworthy argued that he would support George W. Bush more fully on defense and foreign policy and called for $1,500 child tax credits and individual investment accounts in Social Security. This time the result was a little closer: Biden won 58%-41%, the same margin he had in 1978. He actually lost Kent County, which includes Dover, and only narrowly carried Sussex County; together the two counties cast 37% of the state's votes, up from 33% in 1996.

Will Biden run for president again? In August 2000, when he was asked if he would run if Al Gore lost, he said, "Would I consider running for president again? Yes. Am I going to run for president again? I don't know." In January 2003 he said he would feel compelled to run if Bush doesn't handle Iraq and North Korea well and if no Democrat offers a viable foreign policy alternative, and would decide by fall 2003. "If it's too late, it's too late," he replied in May to those who thought the fall might be too late to begin a campaign. "I don't know how you can go out and do all the things you need to do to run for president and still try to shape--or in some cases, impede--the president's agenda."

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DC Office
201 RSOB 20510, 202-224-5042; Fax: 202-224-0139; Web site: biden.senate.gov

State Offices
Milford, 302-424-8090; Wilmington,302-573-6345.

Committees

• Foreign Relations (RMM): European Affairs (RMM); International Operations & Terrorism; Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps & Narcotics Affairs.
• Judiciary: Crime, Corrections & Victims' Rights (RMM); Terrorism, Technology & Homeland Security.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	80	60	100	94	58	75	15	50	10	0	--
2001	100	--	100	100	--	--	7	38	12	--	0

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	82%	--	15%		90%	--	5%
Social	81%	--	8%		64%	--	34%
Foreign	87%	--	3%		67%	--	30%
For National Journal's complete 2002 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 107th Congress (More Info)
1. Approve Bush Tax Cuts N 2. Expand Patients' Rights Y 3. Campaign Finance Reform Y 4. Permit ANWR Development N 5. Confirm Ashcroft as AG N 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts N		7. $ for Hate Crime Prosecution Y  8. Overseas Military Abortions Y  9. Bar Coop. with Intl. Court N 10. Trade Promotion Authority Y 11. Authorize Force in Iraq Y 12. Homeland Sec. Dept. Union Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Joseph Biden (D)	135,253	58%	$3,152,762
	Raymond Clatworthy (R)	94,793	41%	$1,983,141
2002 primary	Joseph Biden (D)	unopposed
1996 general	Joseph Biden (D)	165,465	60%	$2,466,499
	Raymond Clatworthy (R)	105,088	38%	$1,126,427
	Other	5,038	2%
Prior winning percentages: 1990 (63%); 1984 (60%); 1978 (58%); 1972 (51%)