Chuck Hagel
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Charles Timothy "Chuck" Hagel (born October 4, 1946) is the senior United States Senator from Nebraska. A member of the Republican Party, he was first elected in 1996 and was reelected in 2002.
Born in North Platte, Nebraska, he graduated from the Brown Institute for Radio and Television in 1966 and from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 1971. He served in the U.S. Army infantry, attaining the rank of Sergeant (E-5) from 1967-68 while serving during the Vietnam War. Hagel is a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran, receiving the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, Purple Heart, Army Commendation Medal and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
He is often characterised as a maverick, much like fellow Republican Senator and Vietnam Veteran John McCain.
In August 2004, Hagel acknowledged that he is considering a presidential campaign in 2008. He spoke to the Iowa delegation at the 2004 Republican National Convention.
Background
In 1996, Chuck Hagel ran for the US Senate against Ben Nelson, who was the governor of Nebraska at the time. Although many people believed he had no chance of winning at all, he won a stunning upset in the election, receiving 54% of the votes (Nelson was later elected to Nebraska's other Senate seat, in 2000). However, 80% of the votes were counted by ES&S, a voting company he formerly owned; he was later caught lying about his ownership of the company to the Senate Ethics Committee. [1] (http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0301/S00166.htm)Six years later in 2002, Hagel overwhelmingly won re-election with over 83% of the vote, the largest margin of victory in any statewide race in Nebraska history.
Since his election to the Senate in 1996, Hagel has served as deputy whip for the Republican Caucus. He has been chair of both the Senate Global Climate Change Observer Group and the Senate Oversight Task Force. He serves as co-chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. He also serves on the NATO Observer Group. Senator Hagel is a member of four Senate committees: Foreign Relations; Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs; the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Committee on Rules and Administration.
Voting Machines' Controversy
Hagel is the former head of American Information Systems Inc. (AIS), which changed its name to Electronic Systems & Software (ES&S) in 1997. ES&S currently provides a very large percentage of inauditable "black box" voting machines. These machines have been the focus of intense scrutiny since the 2000 Presidential election due to their alleged susceptibility to fraud and tampering.
External links
- Official website (http://hagel.senate.gov/).
- Senator Hagel on the issues (http://www.issues2002.org/Senate/Chuck_Hagel.htm)
- Congressional biography (http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H001028).
- Chuck Hagel profile, NNDB (http://www.nndb.com/people/249/000032153/).
| Preceded by: J. James Exon | U.S. Senator (Class 2) from Nebraska 1997- | Succeeded by: Incumbent Template:End box Template:NE-FedRep Template:Current U.S Senators |