Chuck Hagel

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. He is a potential candidate for the 2008 Presidential Race

[edit] Senate career

Senator Chuck Hagel.

In 1996, Chuck Hagel ran for the US Senate against Ben Nelson, who was the sitting governor of Nebraska. Although many people believed he had no chance of winning, 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). During his first campaign, Hagel indicated that, were he to be elected, he would retire in 2008 after two terms in the Senate. [1] 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. 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.

In August 2004, Hagel acknowledged that he is considering a United States presidential election, 2008.

On immigration, Senator Hagel supports a "pathway to citizenship" and a "guest worker program" for illegal aliens which opponents call an amnesty. On May 25, 2006 he voted for S._2611 the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 which passed the Senate before reaching a stalemate in the House in Late 2006.

[edit] Possible 2008 presidential candidacy

Hagel is widely discussed as a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2008. There is a Draft Hagel grassroots movement underway, with blogs and on-line groups devoted to recruiting Senator Hagel to run for President. This on-line movement was reported on in the Omaha World Herald.^[1]

In January 2007, Newsweek featured an article that contrasts Senator Hagel with Senator McCain on the War in Iraq.^[2] Another column by Jonathan Alter specifically made the case that Hagel is the more attractive - perhaps most attractive - candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.^[3]

The Senator has repeatedly said that he will not decide whether or not to run until early 2007, but according to C-Span, he might run as an independent candidate if he is unable to secure the Republican nomination. ^[4]

Also discussed is the possibility of Hagel retiring from the Senate - whether he runs for President or not. A 30 January, 2007 article in The Hill entitled 'Hagel low on cash on hand, raising retirement issue' stated that Hagel has the least cash-on-hand of any of the 33 Senators up for re-election in 2008, aside from his GOP colleague Wayne Allard of Colorado, who has already announced his retirement. Hagel raised just $80,000 in the final three months of 2006 and began the new year with only $140,000. 'Spokesman Mike Buttry said Hagel’s campaign financial filings offer no clue about his future plans and emphasized Hagel’s fundraising through his political action committee, which raised more than $400,000 during the last cycle. “I wouldn’t read anything into that,” Buttry said. “Sen. Hagel’s focus last year was on raising and contributing money from his Political action committee.”'

On March 7, 2007, Senator Hagel's office announced he would make an appearance in his home state to "discuss his future plans." It is speculated that this could entail an announcement of a 2008 Presidential campaign, though it could also involve a 2008 Senatorial re-election campaign or an announcement that he plans to leave the political sphere after his current term in the Senate expires. ^[5]

On March 12, 2007, Hagel announced that he will make a decision on his future later this year, and in the meantime will continue to work on other issues important to the country. "Hagel delays decision on presidential bid"

This article uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Chuck_Hagel. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the CC by-sa 3.0 License.

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