Bob Packwood

Bob Packwood

Robert William "Bob" Packwood (born September 11, 1932 in Portland , Oregon ) is a former American politician ( Republican Party ) who represented the state of Oregon in the US Senate . He stepped down in 1995 after several women accused him of sexual harassment . The accusation grew into a month-long public scandal. The ethics committee had recommended Packwood's expulsion from the Senate before the latter voluntarily resigned.

Packwood studied at Willamette University in Salem until 1954 and then attended New York University School of Law . Since 1957 he worked as a lawyer in Portland. Between 1963 and 1968, Packwood was a member of the Oregon House of Representatives .

In 1968 he was able to prevail against Wayne Morse in the Senate election and defend his seat in the 1974, 1980, 1986 and 1992 elections. Between 1985 and 1987 he was chairman of the influential finance committee . For a Republican, Packwood voted very moderately in the Senate, continuing the tradition of the Oregon Senators of often voting against the party line. He campaigned vehemently for the right to abortion, which often earned him criticism from religious groups. He advocated gun control and supported minority programs. Packwood was one of only two Republicans to oppose Clarence Thomas's nomination as Supreme Court Justice . In 1993, he was the only senator to vote against the proposal that a third conviction for a violent crime should automatically result in life imprisonment.

His problems began in November 1992 when the Washington Post began compiling an extensive story of Packwood's alleged sexual misconduct. By threatening legal action, he managed to withhold the story from being published until he won the election that month. In the election he beat Les AuCoin, supported by the National Organization for Women (NOW), by a wafer-thin margin.

The NOW eventually represented the interests of at least 29 women who accused Packwood of sexually molesting and assaulting them. The allegations were gratefully received by the media, while other allegations, e.g. B. he would allow himself to be financially supported in a targeted manner by lobbyists in order to then vote in their interests and rewrite legal texts that were barely noticed. After an investigation began against him, allegations were made that he was trying to undermine it. During that time, Bob Dole's Political Action Committee gave him $ 10,000 to pay for his defense.

An important point of contention at the time was his diaries: the question of whether these were even admissible as evidence, the question of whether he blackmailed senators into publishing "unpleasant" details from his diaries for them, as well as the fact that he generously had pages from the diaries had removed. The Senate declined public hearings on the subject. The Senate Ethics Committee unanimously recommended removing him from his mandate. On September 7, 1995, he finally resigned voluntarily to forestall the trial in the Senate.

Shortly after he had given up his mandate, he founded the lobbying company Sunrise Research Corporation , which, among other things, played a key role in an initiative in 2001 to abolish property tax.

Web links

• Bob Packwood in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Text of the Senate resolution of May 17, 1995