Don Nickles, U.S. Senator

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Nickles

Donald Lee Nickles (born December 6, 1948) is an American businessman and politician who was a Republican United States Senator from Oklahoma from 1981 until 2005. He was a fiscal and social conservative.

Early life

Don Nickles was born and raised in Ponca City, Oklahoma, where he attended the public schools. To help pay for their education at Oklahoma State, he and his wife operated a janitorial service (Don Nickles Professional Cleaning Service) in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity at Oklahoma State University, and earned a BA in business administration in 1971

After college, he went to work for Nickles Machine Corporation in Ponca City, a business started in 1918 by his grandfather, Clair Nickles. He rose to be the company's vice president and general manager. He also served in the United States National Guard from 1970 until 1976.

A formative experience was the distress his family suffered following his father's death in 1961, when Nickles was thirteen. They had to sell off part of the family business to raise cash to pay the estate tax that was due.

U.S. Senate

Elections

Encouraged by then-Senator Dewey F. Bartlett, Nickles ran for the Oklahoma State Senate in 1978 and won. After two years in the State Senate and displeased by the policies of the Carter Administration, Nickles ran for the United States Senate in 1980 to succeed Republican Henry Bellmon, who was retiring. As an unknown in a field crowded with business and political bigwigs, Nickles was not initially given much of a chance. Indeed, Bellmon even tried to convince him to wait and run for the House.

Utilizing personal contact and passing out unique "wooden nickel" campaign button novelties, Nickles unique ties to local Amway distributors throughout Oklahoma gave him an interpersonal network which proved helpful.[citation needed] His platform was based on cutting the size of government, strong support of tax cuts, and his appeal to the prevailing conservative views of Oklahomans proved popular. In 1982 the term Christian right was still unfamiliar, but the movement was active and growing. Nickles beat two well funded oil millionaires (Jack Zink and Ed Noble) in the primary and won the primary run-off against Zink, who was also well known as a race car driver. He was later swept into office in the general election against Oklahoma City Mayor Andy Coats on the shoulders of the "Reagan Revolution" of 1980. At the age of 32, Nickles was the youngest Republican ever elected to the United States Senate.

Tenure

He sponsored legislation to cut taxes, reduce government spending, promote national defense, and reduce what he believed to be official hostility to religion. He sponsored the Defense of Marriage Act which forbade states from recognizing same-sex marriages conducted in other states. As Republican Whip, Nickles called for the resignation of fellow Republican Trent Lott as Majority Leader after Lott made remarks toasting Strom Thurmond that seemed insensitive to the issue of racial segregation.

Senator Nickles was one of many Republican senators who in 1981 called into the White House to express his discontent over the nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor to the Supreme Court. Nickles said he and other socially conservative Republican senators would not support O'Connor because of her "presumed unwillingness" to overturn Roe v. Wade.

During a 1986 campaign rally at the University of Oklahoma, President Reagan accidentally called him Don Rickles. The president was later told about his mistake and found it very amusing.

Leadership

Nickles quickly rose in the Senate Republican leadership, serving as Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the 101st Congress; Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee in the 102nd, 103rd, and 104th Congresses; and Assistant Republican Leader from 1996 to 2003. After being term-limited out of the Assistant Leader position, Nickles served in the 108th Congress as Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. Nickles was also on Bob Dole's short list of vice presidential choices, before Dole finally decided on former New York Congressman Jack Kemp.

In December 2002, Nickles became embroiled in the controversy surrounding Republican Leader Trent Lott. At Senator Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party, Lott had made comments that some took to be racially insensitive. As the controversy grew, Nickles went on national television and became the first senator in the Republican leadership to say that Lott should step down. Nickles believed that the controversy over Lott's remarks would distract from the Republican Party's legislative agenda, and as he served as Lott's deputy in the Senate this statement was seen as the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back." Lott stepped down shortly thereafter. Declining to run for the position of Senate Majority Leader himself, Lott was succeeded by Tennessee Senator Bill Frist.

Nickles was re-elected in 1986, 1992 and 1998 and was the senior senator from Oklahoma from 1994 to 2005.

Post Senate career

On October 7, 2003, he announced that he would not run in the 2004 election. Republican Tom Coburn won the election to succeed Nickles.

Nickles went on to found The Nickles Group, a government consulting group in Washington, D.C.. He also serves on the board of directors of a number of public companies, such as Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy.

He was one of the politicians featured in the movie Traffic giving his opinion on the war on drugs.

Nickles and his wife, Linda, have 4 children and several grandchildren.