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| Background |
Age: |
43 |
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| Marital Status: |
Married |
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| Religion: |
Church of Christ |
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| Education: |
BA Columbia Univ., 1983 |
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| Current Job: |
U.S Senator |
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| Previous Job: |
Attorney, Lecturer |
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| Previous Elected Office: |
IL Senate, 1996-present |
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| Military Experience: |
Unknown |
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| Financials (provided by
Center for Responsive Politics) |
Money Raised: |
$9,834,752 |
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| Money Spent: |
$6,671,641 |
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| % Money from PACs: |
6% |
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| Position on Issues |
Stance on Iraq: |
"On Iraq, on paper, there's not as much difference, I think, between the Bush administration and a Kerry administration as there would have been a year ago...There's not that much difference between my position and George Bush's position at this stage. The difference, in my mind, is who's in a position to execute" |
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| Abortion: |
Unknown |
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| Gun Control: |
Unknown |
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| Capital Punishment: |
During his seven years in the Illinois legislature, he championed reforms in the state's death-penalty laws that require police to videotape all interrogations and confessions in cases involving capital crimes. |
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| Same Sex Marriage: |
According to the gay advocacy group the Chicago Anti-bashing Network, Obama says he opposes the Federal Marriage Amendment, but also says he opposes gay marriage, contending that ‘civil union’ should be good enough for gays. |
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| Candidate Bio |
Barack Obama has spent a lifetime fighting effectively to empower working families and the poor - as community organizer, civil rights attorney and a leader in the Illinois Senate. He has brought new ideas and approaches in pursuit of traditional Democratic ideals to make a real difference for people -- from better schools to affordable health care to criminal justice reform.
Obama represents Illinois' 13th Senate District on Chicago's South Side. Recognized for his innovative, effective leadership, Obama is Chairman of the powerful Public Health and Welfare Committee. He also serves on the Judiciary and Revenue Committees. The Chicago Tribune has called him "one of the General Assembly's most impressive members." His legislative accomplishments include:
Education. Obama helped push through an expansion of early childhood education and accessible, high quality day care for working families.
He co-sponsored legislation that expands innovation through charter schools, increases accountability for all school districts, improves the recruitment, training and retention of a highly skilled teaching corps, and limits tuition increases and maintains scholarships to make higher education more accessible.
Health Care. Obama passed laws extending health coverage to children and families without insurance, co-sponsored legislation establishing a prescription drug discount for seniors, passed a Hospital Report Card that makes hospitals more accountable to consumers, championed increased funding for AIDS prevention and other public health initiatives, and sponsored legislation to move the state towards universal health care.
Jobs and Opportunity. Obama passed legislation to provide targeted tax breaks for investment in depressed areas and to hold corporations accountable for tax breaks they receive from the state.
Working with community colleges and area employers, he helped design and fund an innovative job-training program that has moved hundreds of unskilled, low-wage workers into high skill, high wage jobs. He was the driving force behind a state Earned Income Tax Credit, which has provided over $100 million in tax cuts to working families over three years.
Criminal Justice.
In the wake of a series of shocking exonerations of innocent persons on death row, Obama drafted and passed landmark legislation requiring the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases, and was chief co-sponsor of comprehensive reform of the death penalty system in Illinois. He has been a leader in reforming the juvenile justice system to keep more young people in school and out of prison, and has fought to increase penalties for domestic violence.
Civil Rights and Liberties. As a senior lecturer in constitutional law, Obama has been a leading voice in the Senate in protecting a woman's right to reproductive freedom.
He passed model legislation designed to curb the practice of racial profiling by law enforcement.
Ethics Reform. Working with former U.S. Senator Paul Simon, Obama was a chief architect and sponsor of the first state campaign finance reform legislation in 25 years, and has helped toughen rules governing government contracting and procurement.
Obama graduated from Columbia University with a degree in political science and a specialty in international relations. He worked as a community organizer in some of Chicago's toughest neighborhoods, helping church groups create job-training programs, reform area schools, and improve city services.
He went on to Harvard Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude and served as the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review.
After law school, Obama organized one of the largest voter registration drives in Chicago history to help Bill Clinton's election, and worked as a civil rights lawyer on cutting edge voting rights and employment discrimination cases in federal and state courts.
Currently a senior lecturer specializing in constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School, Obama has served on the boards of some of Chicago's leading foundations and chaired the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a $50 million philanthropic effort to reform the public schools.
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