Background

A two term Democratic Senator for Alaska from 1969 to 1981, Mike Gravel is best known for his efforts to end the draft following the Vietnam War and his publicizing of the Pentagon Papers in 1971. He is married to his wife Whitney Stewart and is a real estate developer and author. Gravel is currently campaign for the Democratic Convention's nomination for President in 2008.

Early Life

Mauric Robert "Mike" Gravel was born on May 13, 1930 to his French-Canadian immigrant parents Marie Bourassa and Alphonse Gravel. Gravel was raised a Roman Catholic in a working class neighborhood in Springfield, Massachusetts. There, he attended parochial schools and later attended Assumption College Preparator School. His sister, Marguerite, became a nun. Studying one year at the American International College in Springfield, Gravel enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1951 and served in West Germany as a Special Adjutant in the Communication and Intelligent Services and as a Special Agent in the Counter Intelligence Corps until 1954. Though struggling with dyslexia, Gravel attended Columbia University's School of General Studies in New York City, studying economics, driving a cab to pay his way, and receiving a B.S. in 1956. That same year Gravel moved to Alaska in search of a career in public office. In 1959, after holding several temporary jobs, Gravel married Rita Jeannette Martin. They had two children, Martin in 1960 and Lynne in 1962.

Entrance into Politics

In 1958 Gravel ran unsuccessfuly for territorial legislature in Alaska. In 1959 he toured the nation as a speaker concerning tax reform. A year later he ran, again unsuccessfully, for the Anchorage City Council. In 1962 he ran, and won, a seat in the Alaska House of Representatives representing Anchorage from 1963 to 1966. In 1966, rather than seeking re-election, Gravel sought the Alaskan seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, losing to incumbent Democrat Ralph Rivers. In 1968, Gravel ran against 81-year old popular Democratic incumbent Senator Ernest Gruening for the Democrat's nomination to the U.S. Senate. Garnering a suprising 45% of the vote, Gravel won the Senate seat. In the Senate, Gravel sat on the Environment and Public Works Committee (for all of his Senate years), the Finance and Interior Committees, and chaired the Energy, Water Resources and Environmental Pollution subcommittees.

Gravel was extremely vocal on the issue of nuclear weapons during his time in the Senate. When the Pentagon began its Cannikin tests, which detonated nuclear bombs under the Alaskan seabed, Gravel drew attention to its environmental problems. After the second test, the Pentagon stopped the program.

In 1971 Gravel was pivotal in the release of the Vietnam War secret papers known as the Pentagon Papers. He inserted 4,100 pages of the Papers into the Congressional Record of his Senate Subcommittee on Buildings and Grounds; the papers were later published by the Beacon Press as the "Senator Gravel Edition" and was later edited and annotated by Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn. In 1971, Gravel began a one man filibuster against legislation that would have renewed the military draft. His move effectively blocked the bill for five months, forcing President Nixon and Republicans to agree to the drafts planned expiration in 1973. In early 1971 Gravel introduced legislation to recognize and normalize relations with the People's Republic of China, six months before Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's secret mission.

Concerning his home state of Alaska, Gravel, in 1973, proposed an amendment to empower Congress to make a decision concerning the construction of the Alaska Pipeline. The amendment passed the Senate by one vote and the pipe has since been responsible for 20% of the U.S. oil supply.

In 1972 Gravel campaigned for the office of Vice President of the United States. He won 226 delegate votes, coming in third and failing to be named by the Presidential nominee George McGovern. In 1974 Gravel was re-elected to the Senate, garnering 58% of the vote. Challenged in 1980 by the Democratic Party's nomination Clark Gruening, Gravel, who had never established a firm Democratic base, lost his part support in the primary and as a result lost his Senate seat.

A Genuine Populist

Losing his 1980 Senate seat was extremely difficult for Gravel. He lost his career, soon his marriage to Rita, and all of his Senate pension income to her through the divorce. In the 1980s Gravel was a real estate developer in Anchorage and Kenai in Alaska, a consultant and a stockbroker. Entering politics again in 1989, Gravel took a much more Populist platform. Founding The Democracy Foundation, which promotes direct democracy, Gravel led an effort to get a U.S. Constitutional amendment to allow voter-initiated federal legislation, an idea that allows each individual citizen to actively participate in democracy. In 1984 married his second and current wife Whitney. In 2003 Gravel went through surgeries for back pain and neuropathy and a year later declared personal bankruptcy. He began taking a salary from his non-profit Democracy Foundation, putting much into his current presidential campaign, and in 2007 he declared he has "zero net worth." (Source: Salon.com). His political views as of today stem back to his pro-Populist 1972 book Citizen Power.

2008 Presidential Campaign

On April 17, 2006 Gravel announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination. His platform consists primarily of: support for direct democracy (National Initiative), support for national sales tax, abolition of the IRS, immediate withdrawal from the war in Iraq and a single payer national health care system. Gravel's campaign is fiscally plagued; by the end of March 2007 his campaign had a war chest of less than $500 and debts of nearly $90,000. (Source: FEC)(FEC) Gravel's effect on the 2008 has yet to be truly seen. With lack of funds and a truly Populist ideology, one wonders if the Democrats will allow him to even minutely alter party platform.

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