Max Baucus

Senior Senator from Montana

Sensing an opportunistic moment, Senate Democrats will try to drive a wedge between business interests and the GOP leadership by pushing through a round of corporate tax breaks when they return to Washington this fall.  The strategy is two fold:  the legislature would stimulate the economy while forcing Republican leaders to either endorse the Democratic agenda or block proposals popular amongst their support base.  One expected aspect of the plan involves legislation to make permanent the research and development tax credit from Senate Finance Committee Chair, and our Member of the Week, Max Baucus.

Born into a wealthy ranching family in Helena, Montana on December 11, 1941, Max Baucus is the fifth-generation heir to a ranching fortune.  His great-grandfather, Henry Sieben, started the 125,000-acre Sieben ranch, featured in the film A River Runs Through It, and Sieben is in the Cowboy Hall of Fame.  After transferring to Stanford University from Carleton College, Baucus went on to receive both a B.A. in economics in 1964 and a law degree in 1967.  While a student at a Stanford University program in France, Baucus hitchhiked around the world, during which he met with Prime Minister Nehru of India.

His love of the outdoors has remained throughout his life.  In 1995 and 1996, Baucus walked the entire length of Montana.  He has also completed a 50-mile ultra-marathon in 12 hours in 2003.

After receiving his juris doctorate, Baucus worked briefly for the Civil Aeronautics Board in Washington before leaving the post to take a job for three years as a legal assistant at the Securities and Exchange Commission.  He moved back to Montana in 1971 to serve as the executive director of the state’s Constitutional Convention, also opening a law office in the process.  Within a year, he was elected to the Montana House, following up this initial electoral success in 1974, when, at the age of 36, he ran for Congress.  Despite it being a difficult year for Republicans post-Watergate, Baucus worked hard for his eventual victory.  He walked 600 miles along the highways in his district to meet his constituents.  Re-election in the pro-Democrat district was all but guaranteed in 1978.

Baucus’s Senate career started in 1978.  Giving up his safe House seat, he challenged Democratic Senator Paul Hatfield in a primary.  He won easily and, after Hatfield resigned, was subsequently appointed to the seat by Montana’s Democratic Governor Thomas Lee Judge on December 15, 1978.  His early years were characterized by a low profile.  He helped chair the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearings of U.W. Clemon as the first black federal judge in Alabama.  Moreover, he investigated claims that President Carter’s brother, Bill, had improper relationships with Libya, and helped negotiate a free-trade agreement with Canada.

He rose to prominence in 2000 after Daniel Patrick Moynihan retired.  With Moynihan out, Baucus became the ranking minority member of the Senate Finance Committee.  He became chair for a year-and-a-half from mid-2001 to 2003 after Senator Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party.  In 2007, he became chairman again.

Despite being one of the most powerful Democrats in the Senate, Baucus is an unreliable Democratic vote, and his party has often been disappointed at some of his fiscal proposals.  He was vital in the reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, but was also a major influence in the passage of President Bush’s $1 trillion tax cuts in 2001 and the 2003 Medicare prescription-drug benefit.  His behavior as a moderate has been criticized throughout the years.  Mainly focusing on his ties to the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries, his critics have been quick to point out that from 2003 to 2008, Baucus received $3,973,485 from the health sector, including $852,813 from pharmaceutical companies, $851,141 from health professionals, $784,185 from the insurance industry and $465,750 from HMOs/health services.  Furthermore, a 2006 study found that between 1999 and 2005 Baucus, along with former Senate majority leader Bill Frist, took in the most special-interest money of any senator.  In addition to financial contributions, Baucus has at least two-dozen former staffers working as lobbyists on K Street.  Only three senators have more former staffers working in this sector.

A blue-dog Democrat through-and-through, Senator Baucus remains a highly influential voice in a political environment where moderation is punished.  His ideas and leadership in the upcoming session will ring true of his ideologies.  In a Congress where battle lines are more pronounced than ever, his ability to conjure support from across the isle may prove vital.

–Amendment202

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