People in the news

Jim Bunning

Former U.S. Senator (January 1999-2011)

(Melina Mara/TWP)

Why He Matters

Both in and out of his home state of Kentucky, Bunning is known for two things: his Hall of Fame career as a major-league baseball pitcher and his proclivity for bizarre behavior.

Despite seats on the Senate's Budget, Finance and Banking committees and criticism of the Federal Reserve, Bunning is more likely to be remembered for two slim wins in Senate races and the antics he displayed on the campaign trail. In 2004, he famously said his Italian-American opponent looked like a son of Saddam Hussein.

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: U.S. Representative (1986 to 1998); Kentucky State Senator (1979 to 1983); Fort Thomas City Councilman (1977 to 1979)
Birthday: October 23, 1931
Hometown: Southgate, Ky.
Alma Mater: Xavier University, B.S., 1953
Spouse: Mary
Religion: Catholic

Committees: Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs ; Budget; Energy & Natural Resources; Finance
DC Office: 316 Hart Senate Office BuildingWashington, DC 20510202.224.4343
State Offices: Ft. Wright, 859-341-2602; Hopkinsville 270.885.1212; Owensboro 270.689.9085; Louisville 502.582.5341; Hazard 606.435.2390; Lexington 859.219.2239
Email
Web site

Path to Power

James Paul David Bunning was born on Oct. 23,1931, in Campbell County in northern Kentucky, just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. He grew up attending Catholic schools and playing baseball. Bunning started playing in the minor leagues in 1950, but his father insisted that he attend college, so he graduated from Xavier University in 1953 with a degree in economics.

Bunning made it to the major leagues in 1956 and played primarily for the Detroit Tigers and the Philadelphia Phillies. He threw a no-hitter in 1958 and a perfect game in 1964. When he retired from baseball in 1971, he was second all-time in strikeouts and only the second pitcher in history, after the legendary Cy Young, to record 1,000 strikeouts and 100 wins in both the National and American leagues. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996.

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Bunning displayed a knack for politics even during his baseball days when he helped form the Major League Baseball Players Association in 1966.

Political Career

After retiring from baseball, Bunning returned to Kentucky and worked as an investment agent. In 1977, he won a seat on the Fort Thomas, Ky. City Council. He moved to the Kentucky Senate in 1979 and became its Republican leader. Bunning lost to Lt. Gov. Martha Layne Collins (D) in the 1983 governor's race, but bounced back in 1986 to win a seat in the U.S. House from Kentucky's 4th district.

Bunning ran for an open U.S. Senate seat in 1998, and faced then-Rep. Scotty Baesler (D-Ky.), a former basketball star at the University of Kentucky. With help from Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Bunning had the financial edge and used it to run an ad of actors thanking Baesler in Spanish and Chinese for voting for the North American Free Trade Agreement. Bunning won by a margin of 49.7 to 49.2 percent. The race was decided by just 6,766 votes.

2004 Reelection Race

Bunning faced state Sen. Daniel Mongiardo (D) in his 2004 reelection bid. From the outset, it looked like the incumbent would win easily. He outspent Mongiardo, a physician who is against abortion rights and gay marriage and in favor of gun rights, by roughly two-to-one. But Bunning hurt his cause with odd behavior, such as not giving the press advance notice of his appearances and traveling with a security guard, because, as he explained, "there may be strangers among us." During one event, Bunning said that Mongiardo looked like one of Saddam Hussein's sons.

In their only debate, held in October 2004, Bunning participated in a video feed from Washington and read his opening and closing statements from a teleprompter. Bunning accused Mongiardo's camp of spreading rumors about his health and Mongiardo accused Bunning of conduct "unbecoming of a U.S. senator" and "unbecoming of a Kentucky gentleman." The Louisville Courier-Journal asked afterward in an editorial: "Is [Bunning], as he ages, just becoming a more concentrated version of himself: more arrogant, more prickly? Certainly that would be a normal occurrence. Or is his increased belligerence an indication of something worse? Has Senator Bunning drifted into territory that indicates a serious health concern?"The race was nasty from both directions; at one point, the Republican state senate president accused Mongiardo of having a "limp wrist."

In late October 2004, when a reporter asked Bunning about Army reservists who refused their missions because of insufficiently armored vehicles in Iraq, the senator said, "Uh, what are you talking about? I don't know what you are talking about. I don't watch the news. And I have not read a newspaper in over six weeks. When I do watch some TV news, I watch Fox." On Election Day, George W. Bush carried Kentucky with 60 percent of the vote but Bunning won by just two points, 51 to 49 percent. Asked about whether he had made mistakes in the campaign, Bunning said, "Sure we made mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes. The only time I've ever been perfect was for about two hours and 10 minutes on June 21, 1964."

Time magazine declared Bunning one of the five worst senators in 2006, saying he "shows little interest in policy unless it involves baseball." (Bunning led the congressional charge against steroid use in baseball.) "His sharp questioning of former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on fiscal matters during hearings over the past couple of years suggest he has the smarts to be an effective Senator but doesn't put in the effort."

Bunning says on his web site that despite induction to the Hall of Fame and election to the U.S. Senate, the high point in his life was his marriage to Mary Catherine Theis. The pair have nine children and 35 grandchildren and live in Southgate, Ky.

Senate Retirement

Bunning announced in January 2009 that he would seek reelection to a third term in November 2010, but reversed course in July 2009 after opposition from Senate GOP leaders, most notably Senate minority leader and home-state colleague Mitch McConnell (R).

"To win a general election, a candidate has to be able to raise millions of dollars to get the message out to voters," Bunning said. "Over the past year, some of the leaders of the Republican Party in the Senate have done everything in their power to dry up my fundraising. The simple fact is that I have not raised the funds necessary to run an effective campaign for the U.S. Senate."

The 2010 open seat race will be competitive.

The Issues

Bunning is known as one of the Senate's most conservative members, but in recent years he has made notable breaks with his party. He was the only senator of either party to vote against President George W. Bush's nomination of Ben Bernanke for Federal Reserve chairman in 2006. He said that Bernanke was not independent enough from outgoing chairman Alan Greenspan and opposed Bernanke's plans to raise interest rates. Bunning also voted against the confirmation of Robert Gates as Defense secretary, saying he lacked solutions for Afghanistan and Iraq. Bunning and outgoing Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) were the only Republicans to oppose Gates' nomination.

Bunning voted with the majority of Republicans 86.5 percent of the time in the 110th Congress.

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The Network

Kentucky's senior senator, Mitch McConnell, may be a fair-weather friend. He supported Bunning's 1998 bid for the Senate and defended him when his mental acuity came under attack in his 2004 re-election race. In 2009, however, McConnell has not stood firmly behind his Kentucky colleague in his declared bid for 2010 re-election. Bunning, for his part, says he is not bothered by fickle Republican colleagues. "When you've dealt with Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra and Stan Musial, the people I'm dealing with now are kind of down the scale," he said.

The senator's Jim Bunning Foundation is run by a three-member board: Bunning's wife Mary, old friend and Cincinnati tire-dealer Bob Sumerel and Washington lobbyist and former Bunning aide Rick Robinson In December 2008, it was disclosed that 33 percent of the foundation's earnings -- mainly from Bunning's baseball autograph signings -- goes to Bunning as salary, while 27 percent goes to charities.

Additional Resources