Barack Obama in snippets (Part 2): State Legislature Experience

[berni_mccoy]

This is Part 2 in a series of posts to educate DU members about Senator Obama.

Part 1, about his early life, is here: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/berni_mccoy/223

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama#Early_life_and_career

In 1996, Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate to serve the state's 13th District in the South Side (Chicago) neighborhood of Hyde Park.<31>

In 2000, he made an unsuccessful Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives seat held by four-term incumbent candidate Bobby Rush.<32>

He was reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998 and 2002, officially resigning in November 2004 following his election to the U.S. Senate.<33>

As a state legislator, Obama gained bipartisan support for legislation reforming ethics and health care laws.<34>
He sponsored
- a law enhancing tax credits for low-income workers,
- negotiated welfare reform, and
- promoted increased subsidies for childcare.<35>

Obama also led the passage of legislation mandating videotaping of homicide interrogations, and a law to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they stopped.<35>

During his 2004 general election campaign for U.S. Senate, he won the endorsement of the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police, whose president credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms.<36>

He was criticized by rival pro-choice candidates in the Democratic primary and by his Republican pro-life opponent in the general election for a series of "present" or "no" votes on late-term abortion and parental notification issues.<37>

A note about his unwillingness to take a stance on the abortion issue: Like Obama, I too believe abortion should be a last resort and I would not choose it as an option if I had a say (which I wouldn't since I'm not a woman, and I believe it is a woman's choice), but there are cases where it serves a purpose and I do not think it should be solved with legislation. It is a known, proven fact that Abortion rates drop when there is sufficient economy, infrastructure, health-care and education for all. These are all social programs that Republicans love to destroy and then they expect a mother to be forced to have a kid in poverty with no resources or assistance to care for the child. I fully believe as Obama has stated, that he would continue to support appointment of judges that would preserve Roe-v-Wade.

Here is a link about Obama's stance on abortion:

http://www.ontheissues.org/Social/Barack_Obama_Abortion.htm

Here is NARAL's section on Obama's abortion stance:

http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/elections/statements/obama.html

He's scored 100 percent consistently with NARAL.

[Blue_In_AK]

1. Thank you, Berni_

This is very helpful for those of us with not a lot of time to read books.

[berni_mccoy]

2. You are welcome.

[miceelf]

3. small correction, but important

He didn't refuse to take a stance on abortion. He has a clear stance, as the NARAL link demonstrates. His "present" votes were intended to provide cover for OTHER politicians, and were part of a strategy orchestrated by pro-choice groups in the state, which he was working with.

The criticism by the rivals in the primary was as baseless then as it is now. Everyone in Illinois knew where he stood. That's why his rivals are where they are and he is where he is.

[berni_mccoy]

4. Excellent point, and I apologize I didn't capture it properly.

I am unable to edit the post unfortunately.