People in the news

Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)

U.S. Senator (since January 2005)

(Richard A. Lipski/TWP)

Why He Matters

A doctor and former businessman-turned-congressman, Coburn is the junior senator from Oklahoma. He is known for his willingness to take on his own party and express his socially-conservative views in blunt terms.

First elected to the House in 1994, Coburn was a member of that year's group of ambitious Republican lawmakers. His willingness to criticize the ways of Washington and a series of controversial statements quickly got him noticed. Those statements included: "I favor the death penalty for abortionists and other people who take life," and his assertion that "the gay community has infiltrated the very centers of power. They are the greatest threat, that agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom we face today."

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: Practicing physician (1983 to 2004); U.S. House (1994 to 2000); Manager, Coburn Optical Industries (1970 to 1978)
Birthday: March 14, 1948
Hometown: Muskogee, Okla.
Alma Mater: Oklahoma State University, B.S. 1970; Oklahoma University, M.D. 1983
Spouse: Carolyn
Religion: Southern Baptist
Committees: Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs ; Judiciary ; Finance
DC Office: 172 Russell Senate Office Bldg., 202-224-5754

State Office: Tulsa, 918-581-7651; Oklahoma City, 405-231-4941
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Path to Power

Coburn is a true Okie from Muskogee. Born and raised in the small Oklahoma town, Coburn was the third child of O.W. and Joy Coburn. He grew up in a religious family and was always known as a good, if rambunctious, kid. His penchant to get in mischief led his uncle to nickname him "Stinkweed."

Coburn attended Oklahoma State University and graduated in 1970 with a degree in accounting. He returned home with his wife Carolyn, 1967's Miss Oklahoma, and went to work for his father's company, Coburn Optical Services.

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When his father packed the business up and moved it to Virginia, Tom and Carolyn moved along with it. Before long Coburn become the head of the lens division and increased sales from $100,000 to $40 million, helping the business capture 35% of the U.S. market. In 1975 Revlon bought the company, but Coburn quickly tired of traveling back and forth to the new headquarters in New York and dealing with managers who "didn't know what they were talking about."

Also in 1975, Coburn was diagnosed with melanoma, an ordeal that would lead him to attending University of Oklahoma's medical school and opening his own medical practice.

1994 House Race

In 1994, Coburn decided to challenge Democratic Rep. Mike Synar for the chance to represent Oklahoma's 2nd district. After Synar lost the Democratic runoff, Coburn went on to defeat 71-year-old retired teacher Virgil Cooper for the House seat.

In 1994, Coburn entered Congress as part of a new class of fervently conservative Republicans. He spent much of his six years in the House working on health-related legislation, including laws that required AIDS counseling for pregnant women and labels on condoms disclosing that they don't prevent infections that lead to cervical cancer. He also continued to practice medicine while in the House, delivering more than 500 children during his six years there.

2004 Senate Race

In 2000, Coburn kept his pledge to serve only three terms in office and returned to Muskogee to practice medicine. But four years later, he couldn't deny the call to return to Washington. In 2003, Coburn even drafted a press release announcing that he wouldn't be running Senate, but the next day he changed his mind and entered the race - months after his opponents.

Coburn's closest primary competitor for the seat was Oklahoma City Mayor Kirk Humphreys (R). While Humphreys had the support of the state's Republican leaders, Coburn had a reputation as a cultural and fiscal conservative which eventually won out. The senator secured the primary with 61% of the vote and went on to face then-Rep. Brad Carson (D-Okla.) who had succeeded Coburn in his House seat in 2000, in the general election.

The race between Coburn and Carson, a moderate Democrat, was close. The national Democratic Party raised large sums of money for Carson, who said of Coburn, he's "already made us a laughingstock all across not only the country but the whole globe."

Carson was referring to Coburn's conservative social views, including his support for the death penalty for people who perform abortions, and his criticism of "rampant" lesbianism in East Oklahoma. The senator overcame these issues to win reelection 53 percent to 41 percent.

Once in the Senate, Coburn set to fight wasteful spending; he often found himself the only senator opposing appropriations bills. He has challenged party leaders and asserted himself on health care, all while fighting to change Senate ethics rules so he could continue to practice medicine.

The Issues

Coburn initially focused on health-care issues when elected to the House in 1994. He was also a consistent opponent of wasteful government spending and a reliable ally to the anti-abortion rights community.

The senator is a staunch social conservative, but hasn't sided with the Republican Party nearly as often as some of his GOP colleagues. In the 110th Congress, Coburn voted with his party only 79.7% of the time.

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But Coburn's conservative politics have prompted him to take some unusual stands. He opposed a resolution to honor environmentalist Rachel Carson on her 100th birthday and has called climate change "crap."

The Economy

Given Coburn's reputation as a fiscal conservative, it may come as a surprise that he voted for the government's $700 billion bailout of the financial industry. But he explained the vote in medical terms. "I voted for the rescue package because I believed it was more important to prevent a potentially fatal heart attack or stroke than to teach the patient a lessonI believe this was a necessary step," he wrote. Coburn blamed the financial crisis not on Wall Street but on Congress' failure to closely monitor the devastating activities of home lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Some six weeks after voting for the bailout, Coburn began to have reservations about the way Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was using the bailout money. He wrote a letter expressing his concerns about the program's evolving mission since the law was signed. Congress never intended the program "to be a blank check that could be spent with unlimited discretion," the letter said.

Earmarks

Coburn's opposition to wasteful government spending hasn't won him many friends in Washington. He's annoyed many senators, Republicans and Democrats, because of his preferred tactics of filibustering and stalling bills if he thinks they're too wasteful.

The senator is one of seven to sit on the Fiscal Watch Team, a group led by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that aims to combat excessive spending.

He has a long history of fighting earmarks, even those favored by fellow Republicans. The senator is the man responsible for the fame of Alaska's "Bridge to Nowhere." He tried to reallocate the money to fix a bridge that had been damaged in Hurricane Katrina. But when then-Sen. Stevens threatened to quit the Senate if the money was diverted from Alaska, Coburn's amendment was defeated. "I don't care about the next election. I don't care about getting reelected. We have to change the process," he says of earmarks.

In late 2006, Coburn teamed up with fellow Sen. Barack Obama to pass a law creating USASpending.gov, a searchable online database that allows voters to track government spending. The goal was to hold the government accountable for its spending. The website went live on Dec. 13, 2007.

Health Care

As a doctor, health care is an issue that hits close to home for Coburn. While in the House, he wrote and passed legislation expanding access to health care for seniors and allowing Americans access to cheaper prescription drugs from Canada.

Coburn also focused intently on AIDS prevention, writing laws that required AIDS counseling for pregnant woman and HIV tests for children born to mothers who hadn't undergone the test.

Most recently, Coburn held up increased funding to President Bush's programs fighting HIV/AIDS. His argument was that most of the money should be put toward treatment, not prevention. "[Treatment is] the No. 1 prevention protocol we have," he said.

But he opposed President Barack Obama's March 2010 health-va

The Network

Coburn's network reads like a who's who of far-right heroes, starting with a Senate endorsement he received from Dr. James Dobson, the evangelical founder of Focus on the Family. Dobson called Coburn "the single best leader I ever worked with on the critical moral and family issues that have been at the heart of my own work."

Coburn endorsed Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) during the primaries of the 2008 presidential election. "It's not about being aligned with him 100 percent of the time. It's about whether he's going to act on the courage of his convictions," Coburn said at the time, alluding to differences the senators have on immigration and climate change. They have been strong allies on cutting earmarks.

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Additional Resources

http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=LatestNews.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=daa3b24e-4528-4075-890a-8cc09a28c4e8&Issue_id=
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/50_43/news/7149-1.html?type=printer_friendly
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1190071,00.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/22/AR2007052201574.html
http://www.forbes.com/2008/10/21/senate-bailout-vote-oped-cx_tc_1022coburn.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9898884/
http://www.durantdemocrat.com/articles/2008/11/14/news/doc491da709a0d23097161477.txt
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/10987.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/12/AR2007121202701.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14759-2004Dec20.html
http://www.nationaljournal.com/almanac/2008/people/ok/oks2.php
http://dir.salon.com/story/news/wire/2004/10/11/lesbianism/index.html
http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=AboutSenatorCoburn.Biography, http://www.nationaljournal.com/almanac/2008/people/ok/oks2.php
http://newsok.com/coburn-defends-backing-bailout/article/3313755
http://www.coburnforsenate.com/dobsonletter.shtml
http://newsok.com/article/3193649/1200548636
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A58361-2004Dec11?language=printer
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/c000560/
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=20080221_1_a1_spanc13621