Daschle: Rise of a would-be Senate leader

By Thom Patterson
CNN.com writer

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Tom Daschle, the presumptive new Senate majority leader, has a reputation as a hard-working legislator who -- despite a small constituency -- rose to power by a series of razor-thin victories.

• Born December 9, 1947, in Aberdeen, South Dakota  • Graduated with a political science degree from South Dakota State University in 1969  • Served three years as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command  • Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978  • Won his first Senate race in 1986  • Became the Senate Democratic leader in January 1995  • Married, father of three children

Daschle's Midwestern background has molded him into an advocate for agricultural industry, especially family farmers. He also has worked in the past to protect Social Security and to pass rural development legislation.

He's an old-fashioned, hands-on politician in the way he deals with constituents. For example, during his annual solo road tour of his home state, he stops to meet with voters and speak at local functions.

Despite a soft-spoken demeanor, Daschle is known on the other side of the aisle as a tough fighter and opponent to President Bush.

"Daschle is a very bright and very capable senator, but he is the leader of a party determined to stop the president's agenda," Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, told The Associated Press. "He's made it very clear, in the harshest rhetoric, that he's against almost everything the president wants done."

Daschle, 53, was born and raised in South Dakota, a state with so few residents that it has only one U.S. representative.

The future Senate leader grew up in a working-class family as the eldest of four brothers, going on to become the first person in his family to graduate college, according to Daschle's Web site.

The father of three children, Daschle divorced in 1983. He married a Washington lobbyist a year later.

While South Dakota's then-senator, George McGovern, was running for president in 1972, Daschle served for three years as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command. Later he spent five years cutting his political teeth as a Washington aide to then-Sen. James Abourezk of South Dakota.

Daschle's first election to national office came by a slim margin. When Daschle ran for the U.S. House in 1978, he won by just 139 votes, according to the Almanac of American Politics.

In fact, Daschle's entire rise to political power in the Senate was fueled by winning tight races.

Daschle survived another close election in 1982 when, because of its dwindling population, South Dakota lost one of its House seats, forcing Daschle to run against the state's other representative. Daschle won by a margin of four percentage points, according to the Almanac of American Politics.

In an important 1986 victory that helped to return control of the Senate to the Democrats for eight years, Daschle was first elected to the Senate by a four-percentage-point margin.

Daschle's ascent to lead Senate Democrats also was won by a close margin. When then-Democratic Senate Leader George Mitchell announced his retirement in 1994, Daschle campaigned for the post, defeating Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Connecticut, by a single vote, 24-23.

According to the Almanac of American Politics, Daschle's victories as Democratic leader included passage of a health care portability bill and a minimum wage increase.

But a major failure came in 1996, when he was unable to block passage of a bill that was very unpopular in his agricultural home state, a measure that phased out farm subsidies for most crops.

Had the Democrats not lost control of the Senate in 1994, Daschle would not have had to wait seven years to become majority leader.

In a Thursday news conference on Capitol Hill, Daschle acknowledged the challenge ahead to lead a Senate that is split 50-49, with one Independent -- James Jeffords, the senator from Vermont whose defection from the GOP has paved the way for Daschle's ascent to the Senate leadership post.

"We can make this closely divided Senate work for the American people," Daschle said. "(We Democrats) are determined to work with the president, with (Senate Republican Leader) Sen. (Trent) Lott and with every member of this body, Democrat, Republican and Independent to see that it does."

Daschle also hinted at the expected changes in the Senate agenda under Democratic leadership.

"My expectation is that the first important issue to be taken up will be education. We'll complete that bill. The second bill will be the patient's bill of rights."