Bob Schaffer

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Bob Schaffer
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Colorado's 4th district
In office January 3, 1997 – January 3, 2003
Preceded by	Wayne Allard
Succeeded by	Marilyn Musgrave
Member of the Colorado State Board of Education from the 4th district
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 11, 2006[1]
Born	July 24, 1962 (1962-07-24) (age 45) Cincinnati, Ohio
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Maureen Schaffer
Religion	Roman Catholic

Robert Warren "Bob" Schaffer (born July 24, 1962) was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from the State of Colorado in the 105th Congress and the two succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1997 to January 3, 2003). In 2004, Schaffer lost in the primary election to be the Republican nominee for a U.S. Senate seat. He is now a candidate for Colorado's other Senate seat in the 2008 election.

[edit] Biography

Bob Schaffer was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on July 24, 1962 and attended Archbishop Moeller High School. He received his B.A. in Political Science at the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio (1984).

Schaffer lives in Fort Collins, Colorado, with his wife, Maureen, and their five children, Emily and Jenny (twins), Justin, Sarah and Mary. The Schaffers are Roman Catholic and attend St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish.

The son of retired public school educators, Schaffer worked his way through college as a farm hand, receiving his B.A. from the University of Dayton and an honorary doctorate in management from Colorado Technical University.

Prior to entering politics, Schaffer held a variety of jobs, including carpet layer, lifeguard, salmon cannery worker, legislative researcher, speechwriter, and small business owner. From 1989 to 1995, he owned and operated Northern Front Range Marketing and Distribution, a small marketing business serving Colorado’s tourism industry.

[edit] Colorado State Senator

Schaffer served nine years as a Colorado State Senator in the Colorado General Assembly. Schaffer was only 25 years old in 1987, when he was appointed to finish Colorado State Senator Jim Beatty's term, making Schaffer the youngest to serve in Colorado's Senate. As a Colorado Senator, he was Chairman of the Finance Committee, the State Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, and the Local Government Committee. Schaffer was also the Vice-Chairman of the Senate Education Committee. Schaffer was awarded the "National Republican Legislator of the Year for 1995" by the National Republican Legislators Association.^{[citation needed]} In 1993, Schaffer made headlines when he removed a display from the Capitol -- that were in regular view of visiting children -- that contained pamphlets describing "unsafe sexual practices." [1]

[edit] U.S. Congressman

Schaffer was first elected to U.S. Congress in November 1996 representing Colorado's 4th congressional district, succeeding Wayne Allard and Hank Brown.

[edit] Congressional highlights

• Schaffer introduced the proposed Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
• Schaffer was elected president of the 1996 Republican class, a post to which he was elected by his congressional colleagues.^{[citation needed]}
• He served on three House Committees: Agriculture, Resources and the Education and the Workforce.
• He is an advocate for Ukraine and was a co-chair of Ukraine Caucus.
• He was a member of the GOP Theme Team, the "one-minute conservative debate squad", which can be seen nearly every morning on C-Span
• He was an active member of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), a caucus of House Republicans organized to promote a conservative social and economic agenda.

Schaffer served three terms in Congress, fulfilling the three term pledge he made during his first Congressional campaign.^[2] Schaffer upheld his pledge in spite of pleas from national Republicans and President George W. Bush to run for another term.[2] Upon his retirement from Congress, he was awarded the Benemerenti Medal by Pope John Paul II. He was succeeded by Marilyn Musgrave in January 2003.

[edit] 2004 U.S. Senate race

In 2004, Schaffer contended for the Republican nomination to the U.S. Senate after incumbent Republican Ben Nighthorse Campbell chose not to run for re-election. Brewing magnate Pete Coors opposed Schaffer. Coors entered the bitter primary battle after Schaffer faced down potential contenders such as David Liniger, founder of ReMax. The nomination battle concluded when Coors won the Republican nomination over Schaffer with 61% of the vote. Coors went on to lose to Democratic candidate Ken Salazar in the 2004 General Election. [3]

[edit] Post-2002 career

Schaffer is currently vice-president for business development at Aspect Energy, LLC., where he is involved in a variety of energy, mining and education projects. He served as president of the Parental Alliance for Choice in Education, a non-profit corporation promoting school choice reform in Colorado's public education system, and is active in the state’s transformation to a market-driven education system. Schaffer is a trustee of Yorktown University.^[3] He is also Chairman of the Leadership Program of the Rockies, a Colorado group providing political organizational training.^[4] Schaffer was also an opinion columnist for the now-defunct Northern Colorado Courier.

In March 2005, Schaffer was elected Republican National Committeeman for Colorado.

Schaffer was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Colorado State Board of Education by a party vacancy committee, representing a district that is contiguous with the state's Fourth Congressional District. He successfully ran for the seat in 2006, against Democrat Tom Griggs. Schaffer is the Vice Chairman.

He is the Colorado Chairman of the Judicial Confirmation Network.

In 2006, Bob Schaffer founded Dreamsoft Colorado, LLC^[5], a firm that creates high-end interactive websites for business and political clients. He is also the President of AMDG LLC.

[edit] 2008 U.S. Senate election

Main article: Colorado United States Senate election, 2008

Schaffer is currently running for the U.S. Senate as a Republican to replace retiring Senator Wayne Allard in the 2008 election. On May 9, 2007, Bob Schaffer filed his official statement of candidacy with the Federal Elections Commission, and on May 12, 2007 made an official announcement^[6] in Boulder that he would run for U.S. Senate to a group of over 150 Republicans attending a fundraising event. Recently, a Rasmussen Reports Poll came out, showing Bob Schaffer in a virtual tie with likely Democratic nominee Mark Udall. ^[7]

[edit] Criticisms and controversies

[edit] Campaign ad controversy

In April 2008, a Virginia group airing ads on Schaffer's behalf was accused of violating federal election law^[8] by paying for a 2008 election video ad for Colorado Republican Schaffer while claiming that it did not endorse candidates. The video ad also did not include a required statement that said who paid for the content. The ad cost $470,000 to create and broadcast.^[9] The ad buy was criticized by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal activist group which "targets almost exclusively Republicans."^[10]

[edit] Environmental record

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.(May 2008) Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.

In 2008 the League of Conservation Voters named former Colorado Republican Representative "Dirty Dozen" member number three because of accusations of an anti-environmental record during his tenure in Congress.^[11] The League of Conservation Voters is a partner of America Votes, a liberal activist organization whose president from April, 2006 until June, 2007 was Maggie L. Fox, the wife of Mark Udall, Bob Schaffer's opponent in the 2008 U.S. Senate race in Colorado.^[12][13]

In 2001 Schaffer, as a Colorado Republican Representative, voted for Republican President Bush's energy plan that Democrats argued was a $33 billion gift to the oil corporations.^[14] Republicans argued that the bill would help reduce America's dependence on foreign oil.^[15]

[edit] Mariana Islands trip

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.(May 2008) Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.

Bob Schaffer, accompanied by his wife, said he visited more than 20 textile factories during the trip to investigate claims of labor violations.

During their 1999 visit to the Mariana Islands, Bob Schaffer and his wife, Maureen, tried parasailing

In 1999 then-Congressman Schaffer took a fact-finding trip to the Northern Mariana Islands — organized by the non-profit Traditional Values Coalition — to look over allegations of poor labor conditions and "forced abortions", the latter of which was the primary concern of the Traditional Values Coalition. It has been alleged but not proven that the lobbying firm of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff paid the trip's $13,000 cost through the non-profit organization, but there is no evidence that Schaffer was aware of any such connection. ^[16] On the islands. Schaffer's trip included a free stay at a beach resort for him and his wife as well as a parasailing excursion which was taken on Schaffer's personal time after four days of official work had been completed. While Schaffer concluded that the working conditions were fine at most of the garment factories he visited, he also reported to his Congressional committee problems with at least one factory; that factory was closed shortly after Schaffer's visit. A class-action lawsuit included accusations of sweatshop conditions and an Interior Department investigation concluded that pregnant women were forced to have abortions to keep their jobs and some were forced into prostitution.^[17] However, corruption within the Department of Interior at the time casts doubt on their "investigation."^[18] Furthermore, claims of "forced abortion" appear to have been wildly exaggerated if not outright fabricated. In his own interviews with workers, clergy, government officials, and social workers, Bob Schaffer was unable to find any known case of a forced abortion in the Northern Marianas,^[19] the only area of the United States where abortion is banned by their local constitution.^[20][21]

During his 2008 Senate campaign, Schaffer suggested that the Northern Marianas' guest worker program might serve as a model for U.S. national immigration policy, stirring further controversy.^[22] Schaffer was particularly impressed with their pre-qualifying foreign workers before they were allowed to immigrate to the CNMI. According to a 1998 World magazine article that mainly sourced Andrea Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, some argued that the issues of the Northern Marianas labor, wage, and immigration laws are simply attacks by U.S.-based labor unions who are attempting to eliminate competition.^[23] Schaffer also downplayed criticism from pro-life organizations that he participated in Abramoff's lobbying strategy to protect the sweatshop system by arguing, "In five days, I did not observe a forced abortion or meet anybody who had any knowledge of them."^[24]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Bob Schaffer for U.S. Senate, Campaign website

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• Guide to the Papers of Congressman Bob Schaffer
• Ukraine.Com
• Online Voting Record
• National Review, Interview re: Ukraine
• USA Today: Salazar Defeats Coors for Colorado Senate Seat
• American Prospect: Purple People Watch
• Rep. Bob Schaffer to Retire