| James Lane Buckley | |
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| In office January 3, 1971–January 3, 1977 |
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| Preceded by | Charles Goodell (R) |
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| Succeeded by | Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D) |
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| Born | March 9, 1923 New York City |
| Nationality | American |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse(s) | Ann Cooley Buckley |
James Lane Buckley (born March 9, 1923 in New York City) is a former United States Senator from the state of New York as a member of the Conservative Party of New York. Buckley served from January 3, 1971 to January 3, 1977. Formerly, he was vice president and director of the Catawba Corporation from 1953 to 1970, and afterwards served as Undersecretary of State for Security Assistance 1981–1982, President of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Inc. 1982–1985, and as a federal judge 1985–2000.
He was also the lead petitioner in a landmark Supreme Court case, Buckley v. Valeo, in which he successfully challenged the constitutionality of a law limiting campaign spending in Congressional races.
In 1970, he was elected to the U.S. Senate as the nominee of the Conservative Party of New York, winning 38.7 percent of the vote in a six candidate race [1], and served from 1971 until 1977. To date he has been the only candidate of his party, and the last third party registrant, to be successfully nominated and elected to the U.S. Congress.[2]
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Early life, education and early career
Buckley was born in New York City to lawyer and businessman William Frank Buckley, Sr., of Irish-Catholic descent, and Aloise Steiner, a Southerner of Swiss-German descent. He is the older brother of conservative writer William F. Buckley, Jr. and the uncle of Christopher Taylor Buckley. He is also the uncle of Brent Bozell. A 1943 graduate of Yale University, where he was a member of Skull & Bones[3][4][5], Buckley enlisted in the United States Navy in 1942 and was discharged with the rank of lieutenant in 1946. After receiving his law degree from Yale Law School, he was admitted to the Connecticut bar in 1950 and practiced law until 1953, when he joined Catawba as vice president and director. Buckley is married to Ann Cooley Buckley and resides in Washington, D.C. and Sharon, Connecticut.
Senate career
In 1968, Buckley challenged liberal Republican Senator Jacob K. Javits for re-election. Javits won easily, but Buckley received a large number of votes from disaffected conservative Republicans. In 1970, he ran again for the U.S. Senate, this time against the liberal Republican incumbent Charles Goodell. Goodell had been appointed to the Senate by Governor Nelson Rockefeller following the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and had made a name for himself in the Senate as an opponent of the Vietnam War. Buckley's campaign slogan, plastered on billboards statewide, was "Isn't it time we had a Senator?"[6]
With Goodell and the Democratic nominee Richard Ottinger splitting the liberal vote, Buckley won by a plurality with 38 % of the vote, and entered the Senate in January 1971.
In 1974, he proposed a "human life" amendment, which defined the term "person" in the Fourteenth Amendment to include the embryo.
In his 1976 re-election bid, with Rockefeller's liberal GOP faction falling apart, Buckley received the Republican nomination. Initially, he was favored for re-election, because the frontrunner in the crowded Democratic field was Manhattan Congresswoman Bella Abzug, a liberal feminist reviled by the right. But when Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, made a late entrance into the Democratic primary and narrowly defeated Abzug, Buckley could no longer count on getting the votes of moderate Democrats. Moynihan went on to defeat Buckley 54% to 45%.
After his loss, Buckley moved to Connecticut, and in 1980 received the Republican nomination for the Senate seat being vacated by the retirement of Abraham Ribicoff. He lost the general election to Christopher Dodd, who still serves in the Senate.
1976 Republican National Convention
During the 1976 Republican National Convention, then-Senator Jesse Helms encouraged a "Draft Buckley" movement, as an effort to stop the nomination of Ronald Reagan for President. Reagan had announced that Pennsylvania Senator Richard Schweiker would be his running-mate if picked; Helms believed that Schweiker was too liberal. The "Draft Buckley" movement was mooted when President Gerald Ford very narrowly won the party's nomination on the first ballot.[7][8]
Judicial career
In the first Reagan administration, Buckley initially served as an undersecretary of State and then as President of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty from 1982 to 1985.
He was appointed in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He became a senior (semi-retired) judge of that Court in 1996.
References
- ^ [1]
- ^ While elected in 2006 on the "Connecticut for Lieberman" line, Joe Lieberman's voter registration was and is Democratic. Vermont independent Bernie Sanders is not registered as a member of any political party. Neither Vermont Independent Jim Jeffords nor Minnesota Independence Party's Dean Barkley ever faced election as an Independent.
- ^ Alexandra Robbins, Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power, Little, Brown and Company, 2002, page 168, 174
- ^ "People in the News", Associated Press, May 27, 1983
- ^ Bob Dart, "Skull and bones a secret shared by Bush, Kerry", The Gazette, March 7, 2004
- ^ Topic Galleries Chicago Tribune
- ^ World Almanac and Book of Facts 1977
- ^ http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/program.pl?ID=489475 Vanderbilt Television News Archive
Sources
- James L. Buckley at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
External links
Further reading
- Buckley, James Lane (1975). If Men Were Angels: A View From the Senate. New York: Putnam. ISBN 0-399-11589-7.
- Buckley, James Lane (2006). Gleanings from an Unplanned Life: An Annotated Oral History. Wilmington: Intercollegiate Studies institute. ISBN 978-1-933859-11-8.
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Daniel Patrick Moynihan |
Conservative nominee for United States Senator from New York (Class 1) 1968, 1970 |
Succeeded by Barbara Keating |
| Preceded by Charles Goodell |
Republican nominee for United States Senator from New York (Class 1) 1976 |
Succeeded by Florence M. Sullivan |
| Preceded by James Brannen |
Republican nominee for United States Senator from Connecticut (Class 3) 1980 |
Succeeded by Roger W. Eddy |
| United States Senate | ||
| Preceded by Charles Goodell |
United States Senator (Class 1) from New York 1971 – 1977 Served alongside: Jacob K. Javits |
Succeeded by Daniel Patrick Moynihan |
| Government offices | ||
| Preceded by Matthew Nimetz |
Under Secretaries of State for International Security Affairs 1981 - 1982 |
Succeeded by William Schneider, Jr. |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by Edward Allen Tamm |
Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit 1985 – 1996 |
Succeeded by John G. Roberts, Jr. |
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