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:''For other people named Bill Nelson, see Bill Nelson (disambiguation).''
'Clarence William "Bill" Nelson' (born September 29, 1942) is the senior U.S. Senator from Florida, Nelson is a member of the Democratic Party. Nelson became the second sitting member of the United States Congress to fly in space when he flew aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia as a Payload Specialist during NASA mission STS-61-C (January 12–18, 1986).

Contents

Early life

Early career

U.S. House of Representatives

1990–2000

U.S. Senate

Election

Political actions and positions

2006 re-election campaign

Trip to Damascus

Electoral history

Footnotes

External links

Early life

Nelson was born in Miami to Nannie Merle and C. W. Nelson.^[1] He attended the University of Florida for three years, where he was a member of Beta Theta Pi, and then transferred to Yale University, where he received his Bachelor of Arts in 1965. He served in the U.S. Army Reserves from 1965 to 1971. During this time, Nelson studied at the University of Virginia, where he received his law degree in 1968.
Nelson married Grace Cavert in 1972; they have two children: Bill Nelson, Jr. and Nan Ellen Nelson.

Early career

Nelson worked as a fire marshal and later as a lawyer before beginning his political career in the Florida House of Representatives. Nelson served in the state house from 1972 to 1979.

U.S. House of Representatives

Nelson was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978. He served in the U.S. House from 1979 to 1991.
In 1986, Nelson became the second sitting member of Congress (and the first from the House) to travel into space. He went through NASA training, along with Senator Jake Garn, of Utah. He was a Payload Specialist on Space Shuttle ''Columbia'''s STS-61-C mission, with six other astronauts, from January 12–18. Ten days after his return, on January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' exploded shortly after lift-off. Nelson was originally scheduled to be on that fateful Challenger flight, but a scheduling conflict bumped him to an earlier launch.

1990–2000

In 1990, Nelson ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Florida. He lost to former U.S. Senator Lawton Chiles, who went on to win the general election. During the primary campaign, Nelson tried to make an issue out of Chiles' health and age, a strategy that backfired on him in a state with a large population of retirees and senior citizens.
From 1995 to 2000, Nelson was the Treasurer and Insurance Commissioner of Florida.

U.S. Senate

Election

In 2000, Nelson won the election for U.S. Senator from Florida, defeating then-Representative Bill McCollum, the Republican candidate. The election was to replace retiring Republican Senator Connie Mack.

Political actions and positions

Nelson has been a vocal opponent of oil drilling off Florida's coast. He supports allowing the government to negotiate for lower drug prices from pharmaceutical companies in the Medicare prescription drug program. He is generally regarded as a moderate, and was among the few Democrats to vote in favor of CAFTA. He has also voted in favor of tighter bankruptcy restrictions and abolishing the estate tax. Nelson has received a 75-percent rating from the National Abortion Rights Action League [1]. He has voted against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act as it had no exception for the life or health of the mother. [2] He has also voted against a bill providing for criminal penalties for anyone harming an unborn child during the commission of a crime. [3] In general, Nelson has high ratings from other left-of-center political action groups. [4]
Nelson has also introduced legislation banning paperless electronic voting machines [5].
In 2007, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted on a measure to de-fund torture by the CIA except in "dire emergencies." Nelson was the lone Democrat to vote against the measure, but all Republicans voted against it as well, thus defeating it [6].
Senator Nelson is also a member of the Congressional Cuba Democracy Caucus

2006 re-election campaign

Main articles: Florida United States Senate election, 2006

Nelson's job approval ratings were 49 percent during the 2006 campaign, three percentage points higher than fellow Florida senator Mel Martinez, a Republican in a nominally red state.
Republican Rep. Katherine Harris won the Republican primary, and faced Nelson in the November general election. In an interview with Sean Hannity on March 15, 2006, Harris claimed that Nelson was a member of the ideological far-left and had taken bribes. She did not state from whom, nor did she give any other specifics as to these allegations. Nelson is generally regarded as a moderate in Florida.^[2]
Jim Dobson promised to launch a battle "from sea to shining sea" against Nelson's reelection if he participated in a filibuster of Bush's ''strict constructionist'' court nominees.^[3] Dobson has been joined by other activists, such as Randall Terry, because of his opposition to Samuel Alito and his refusal to join what were largely Republican efforts to block the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. The Schiavo incident prompted Brian Darling, a strategist in Mel Martinez's staff, to write the Schiavo memo that articulated a plan to use the Schiavo controversy as a campaign tool against Nelson in 2006. Darling resigned when it was traced to him, and Martinez apologized publicly to Nelson. [7]
Nelson was reelected as Senator on November 7, 2006 with 60 percent of the vote. His victory is the largest margin by a Democratic candidate in the state in many years.^[4][5][6]
As a relatively popular Senator from a Southern battleground state, he might be a good addition to a Democratic ticket as a vice-presidential candidate.

Trip to Damascus

On December 13, 2006, Nelson went to Damascus and met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. This came following his appointment to the Senate Intelligence Committee. "He (Assad) stated that we in fact, have an interest, common interest, to stabilize Iraq. I think it is a crack in the door, and it is for discussions to continue," he said in a conference call from Amman, Jordan after meeting Assad in Damascus. The White House said that members of congress should not be going to Syria. "I think it is a real stretch to think that the Syrians don't know where we stand or what we think. We have made it clear and we will continue to make it clear," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.
In the days following Nelson's meeting with Assad, Senator Arlen Specter flew to Syria and met with Assad. Specter wrote an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer that emphasized the importance of such visits and reaffirmed Nelson's position that it was part of his constitutional duty.[8]

Electoral history

Footnotes

1. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~battle/senators/nelsonbil.htm
2. http://www.surveyusa.com/50State2006/100USSenator060221State.htm
3. http://web.archive.org/web/20050311175154/http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050101-091244-8539r.htm
4. http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x11385.xml?ReleaseID=942
5. http://www.mason-dixon.com/news_text.cfm?news_id=237
6. http://strategicvision.biz/political/florida_poll_072606.htm

External links

★ United States Senator Bill Nelson 'official Senate site'

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★ Federal Election Commission — Bill Nelson campaign finance reports and data

★ NASA — Bill Nelson official astronaut biography

★ New York Times — Bill Nelson News collected news and commentary

★ On the Issues — Bill Nelson issue positions and quotes

★ OpenSecrets.org — Bill Nelson campaign contributions

★ Project Vote Smart — Senator Bill Nelson (FL) profile

★ SourceWatch Congresspedia — Bill Nelson profile

★ Washington Post — Congress Votes Database: Bill Nelson voting record

★ Nelson for US Senate 'official campaign site'