Mark Kennedy (politician)

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Mark Kennedy
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota's 6th district
In office 2001–2007
Preceded by	Bill Luther
Succeeded by	Michele Bachmann
Born	April 11, 1957 (1957-04-11) (age 51) Benson, Minnesota
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Debbie Kennedy
Religion	Roman Catholic

Mark Raymond Kennedy (born April 11, 1957 in Benson, Minnesota), is an American politician. Kennedy was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2007. He represented Minnesota's 2nd congressional district during the 107th Congress (2001–2003). The reapportionment following the 2000 Census resulted in Kennedy running for and winning the 6th district seat in 2003; he served there in the 108th and 109th congresses; the district is one of eight congressional districts in Minnesota. Kennedy vacated his congressional seat in January 2007 because he unsuccessfully ran for the United States Senate in Minnesota to replace retiring Senator Mark Dayton. Michele Bachmann, also a conservative Republican, replaced him.

Contents 1 Biography 2 House races 3 Political views 3.1 Abortion 4 2006 U.S. Senate campaign 4.1 CPA controversy 4.2 Senate television ads 5 Taxpayer Funded Mailings 6 Electoral history 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Biography

Kennedy graduated from Pequot Lakes High School in 1974, and went on to receive his B.A. at St. John's University in 1979 and his M.B.A. from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business in 1983.

Kennedy and his wife Debbie, a former public school educator, met as State 4-H Ambassadors and recently celebrated their 25th anniversary. They reside in Watertown, Minnesota and have four children: one college graduate, two children in college, and one in high school.^[1] Kennedy has prominently featured his family in his campaign advertisements. As a Republican congressman, Mark Kennedy has a 96% voting record in support of Republican legislation. As of July 2004, Kennedy also had two nephews serving in the military, with one serving in Afghanistan. Kennedy accused Michael Moore of deliberately excluding this information from the film Fahrenheit 9/11 after asking Kennedy if he had a family link to the War in Iraq, a claim that Moore contests.^[2]

[edit] House races

In 2000, Kennedy won the Republican nomination for the 2nd district and faced four-term Democrat David Minge. He had never run for political office before. In the closest congressional race of that cycle, Kennedy defeated Minge by 155 votes.

In 2002, although Minnesota did not gain or lose any congressional districts, Kennedy's 2nd district--a monstrous 26-county district stretching from the southwestern corner of the state to the fringes of the Twin Cities--was dismantled. Its territory was split up among four neighboring districts. Kennedy's home in Watertown wound up just inside the reconfigured 6th district, in the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities. He initially expected to face the 6th's three-term incumbent Democrat, Bill Luther. However, the new 6th was somewhat more conservative (especially on social issues) than its predecessor, and Luther opted to move to the reconfigured 2nd District where he lost to John Kline. Instead, Kennedy faced Janet Robert, a lawyer and longtime Democratic activist whose pro-life stance was thought to be a better fit for the district. In one of the most expensive congressional races in Minnesota history, Kennedy was reelected with 57 percent of the vote.

In 2004, Kennedy faced child safety advocate Patty Wetterling. Despite the Heavy Republican tilt of the district, Kennedy was held to only 54 percent to Wetterling's 46 percent.

[edit] Political views

Kennedy has been a strong supporter of American policy in Iraq and President George W. Bush.^[3] Kennedy voted for President George W. Bush's position more often than any other Minnesota representative in 2001, 2002, and 2004.^{[citation needed]} Kennedy's voted with the Bush Administration's policy 98% of the time in 2004 and 87% in 2005.^[4] He has introduced legislation to amend the U.S. Constitution to allow the President of the United States a line-item veto.^[5] He supports keeping American troops in Iraq until the war on terrorism is over.^[6] He declined to provide any responses to the 2004 National Political Awareness Test run by Project Vote Smart. Kennedy is considered to be the second most conservative member of the Minnesota delegation in the 109^th Congress, scoring 96% conservative by a conservative group^[7] and 6% progressive by a liberal group.^[8] Minnesota Congressional Districts shows the scores for the entire delegation.

[edit] Abortion

Mark Kennedy refers to himself as "One hundred percent pro-life."^[9] He voted in favor of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, and the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act. He voted against the Overseas Military Facilities Abortion Amendment, and both opposed and voted to sustain President Bush's veto on the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005.^[10]

[edit] 2006 U.S. Senate campaign

See also: Minnesota U.S. Senate election, 2006

Kennedy ran for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democratic-Farmer-Labor Senator Mark Dayton. Kennedy won the Republican primary on 12 September 2006 and faced-off against Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidate and Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar. All public polling right before the election showed Kennedy trailing Klobuchar in their Election Day match-up, usually by double-digit margins. Also in the race were Independence Party candidate Robert Fitzgerald and Green Party candidate Michael Cavlan. Kennedy eventually lost to Klobuchar in the election by a double-digit margin, losing all but eight of Minnesota's 87 counties.

[edit] CPA controversy

One of Kennedy's recurring campaign themes was that if elected, he'd be the only Certified Public Accountant serving in the United States Senate.^[11] On 18 August 2006, the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party released copies of an affidavit Kennedy signed annually while serving in Congress stating that he would not use the designation of CPA that could "lead a person to believe" that he holds an active certificate in Minnesota, and agreed to use the word "inactive" adjacent to his CPA title.^[12] No legal charges have been filed against Kennedy, but the title "CPA" is regulated by the Minnesota Board of Accountancy when used within the state. Kennedy began working as a CPA in 1979 but became inactive shortly thereafter.

[edit] Senate television ads

Kennedy hired media consultant Scott Howell to produce television advertisements for his campaigns. Howell was consulting to three Midwestern U.S. Senate races where his clients are conservative Republican men opposing Democratic women endorsed by EMILY's List (Minnesota, Michigan and Missouri).^[13][14]

Between 26 July and 25 September 2006, Kennedy aired 12 television ads in Minnesota media markets. Their subjects ranged from his support for the line-item veto, his votes in Congress on pension plans, his opposition to No Child Left Behind, gas prices, being a CPA, his "political independence", and his family. Most of his early ads were positive in nature, heavily featured his family, and used some self-deprecating humor.^[15] On 16 September 2006, Kennedy "began running one of the first major negative television advertising campaigns of the season", launching a second attack ad on 25 September 2006.^[16][17][18] The Kennedy campaign spent significant energy "working the referee" during the election campaign, frequently accusing the Star Tribune newspaper of bias toward Klobuchar, who is the daughter of a former staff member of the aforementioned paper. Star Tribune staff consistently denied any such bias, and pointed to similar reporting regarding Kennedy from the crosstown rival St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper.

[edit] Taxpayer Funded Mailings

Former Representative Mark Kennedy spent $152,000 in taxpayer-funded mailings 2006, more than any other House member from Minnesota. Kennedy was 13th of all House members in mailing expenses, according to an Associated Press review of public records.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Electoral history

• 2006 Race for U.S. Senate
  • Amy Klobuchar (D), 58%
  • Mark Kennedy (R), 38%
  • Robert Fitzgerald (I), 3%

• 2004 Race for U.S. House of Representatives — 6th District
  • Mark Kennedy (R) (inc.), 54%
  • Patty Wetterling (DFL), 46%
• 2002 Race for U.S. House of Representatives — 6th District
  • Mark Kennedy (R) (inc.), 57%
  • Janet Robert (DFL), 35%
  • Dan Becker (I), 7%
• 2000 Race for U.S. House of Representatives — 2nd District
  • Mark Kennedy (R), 48%
  • David Minge (DFL) (inc.), 48%

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Mark Kennedy (politician) at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Senate Campaign Website
• OnTheIssues
• 2006 Minnesota CD 6 Candidate List from VIS
• record maintained by the Washington Post

Preceded by David Minge	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota's 2nd congressional district 2001–2003	Succeeded by John Kline
Preceded by Bill Luther	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota's 6th congressional district 2003–2007	Succeeded by Michele Bachmann