Sam Graves (R-Mo.)

In the Missouri Senate, Graves initially maintained a low profile, proposing bills to reform auto-inspection rules and to increase prisoner-work requirements. But that reputation changed in 1998, when he surprised his colleagues by staging a five-hour, old-fashioned filibuster to protest a desegregation bill that he criticized as unfair to rural schools.

Holding the chamber floor well into the evening on the penultimate day of the legislative session, Graves stood at his desk reading academic papers and lists of graduating seniors from the school rolls. The filibuster was unsuccessful as the bill eventually passed, but Graves' performance, considered out of character for a lawmaker described as soft-spoken, drew notice. "The only time he ever stood up to speak was to introduce a guest," a fellow senator, David Klarich, said at the time.

Run for Congress

Graves' first run for Congress in 2000 began abruptly. In late May, incumbent Rep. Pat Danner (D-Mo.) quit the race just 22 minutes before the withdrawal deadline

After scrambling to enter the race in an extended filing window, Graves picked up the support of then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), then-Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas), and other top Republicans who had chosen him over a more moderate Republican,Teresa Loar.

Campaigning as a conservative,Graves used a steep fundraising advantage to defeat Loar in a hard-fought primary. He faced the incumbent's son, Steve Danner, in the general election, and attacked him as a "tax-and-spend liberal" despite Danner's effort to run as a conservative Democrat. Graves held off Danner in November, winning 51 percent to 47 percent.

Campaign Tactics

Though described as genial personally, Graves has drawn criticism for his hard-hitting campaign tactics from a long line of former opponents. At the center of these charges is Graves' former chief of staff and political consultant, Jeffrey Roe, who took credit for having campaign staffers sift through an opponent's trash for an unpaid hospital bill and authored a television ad that said another opponent "worked for Penthouse" based on the fact that she sold ads for the company that owned the pornographic magazine. Roe defended his work - "Politics ain't beanbag," he told a newspaper - and Graves defended his aide, calling him in 2007 "my No. 1 person."

U.S. Attorney Scandal

Roe's reputation also put Graves in the crossfire in a political spat between the offices of Todd Graves, the congressman's brother and a former U.S. attorney in Missouri, and Christopher "Kit" Bond, then the state's Republican senior senator.

In January 2006, Todd Graves was abruptly fired as a federal prosecutor, and a report by the Justice Department's inspector general two years later found that Bond's office had pushed for his ouster. The effort to have Todd Graves fired was, according to the report, at least in part in retaliation for the U.S. attorney's refusal to persuade Rep. Graves, himself embroiled in a dispute with Bond, to fire Roe.

The inspector general report concluded that it "appears that no one considered whether Graves was an effective U.S. attorney before seeking his removal." The flap was part of the broader U.S. attorney firings scandal that was linked to political interference by the White House in the Justice Department. In October 2008, Bond apologized to Graves for his office's role in the firing, though he denied any personal involvement.

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