Sanford Bishop
Encyclopedia
Sanford Dixon Bishop Jr. (born February 4, 1947) is the U.S. Representative
for , serving since 1993. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
The district is located in the southwestern part of the state and includes Albany
, Thomasville
and most of Columbus
.
to Minnie B. Slade and Sanford Dixon Bishop, who was the first president of Bishop State Community College
. He was educated at Morehouse College
and Emory University School of Law
, and served in the United States Army
, entering the Reserve Officer Training Corps. While at Morehouse, he was a classmate of Herman Cain
. After receiving his honorable discharge, Bishop operated a law firm in Columbus, Georgia
, and was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives
in 1977, where he remained until being elected to the Georgia Senate
in 1990.
He has received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award
from the Boy Scouts of America
(BSA), given to Eagle Scouts
for distinguished career achievement. He is a member of BSA's Order of the Arrow
(OA) and as a youth was on the OA ceremonies team. He is a resident of Albany, Georgia
, where he is a member of the Mount Zion Baptist Church. Bishop is a Life Member of Kappa Alpha Psi
fraternity initiated at Morehouse College's Pi chapter. Bishop is a Shriner and 33° Mason.
He is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus
, as well as the Blue Dog Democrats, a group of moderate to conservative Democrats in Congress. Serving a primarily agricultural district, Bishop has fought to preserve the federal price supports for peanuts
, southwest Georgia's most important crop. In 2005, he caused considerable controversy within his own party by cosponsoring a bill by U.S. Representative Ernest Istook
(R-Oklahoma
) to introduce a constitutional amendment to protect religious expression on public property.
On October 10, 2002, Sanford Bishop was one of only four of 36 Congressional Black Caucus members who voted for the joint resolution
authorizing the Iraq War. The other three Congressional Black Caucus members who voted for the resolution authorizing the Iraq War are no longer members of Congress: Bill Jefferson
(D
-LA
), Albert Wynn
(D
-MD
), and Harold Ford, Jr.
(D
-TN
), now chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council
.
In September, 2010, the Associated Press
reported that Bishop had, in 2003, directed scholarships funded by the Congressional Black Caucus
to ineligible persons, including his stepdaughter, Aayesha Owens Reese and his niece Emmaundia J Whitaker. Tim Turner, the congressman's spokesman said the congressman would repay the scholarship fund for any awards he made in violation of the rules.
. Bishop finished second behind Hatcher in a crowded six-way primary, forcing Hatcher into a runoff. In the runoff, Bishop attacked Hatcher for bouncing 819 checks in the House banking scandal
. In addition, the 2nd had been reconfigured as a black-majority district during congressional apportionment following the 1990 Census
. He won handily in November, and was reelected with little difficulty in 1994.
In 1995, a 5-4 majority of the Supreme Court ruled that this redistricting violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
. However, in 1998, Bishop was able to beat Joseph F. McCormick
to win reelection in the newly redrawn district, which was 60 percent white. He has only faced one serious contest since then; in 2000 he narrowly fought off Republican
Dylan Glenn, a young black Republican who received strong backing from many national Republican leaders.
On September 10, 2007, Sanford Bishop endorsed Barack Obama
for President
and was co-chair of Georgia for Obama campaign; Bishop's wife, Vivian Creighton Bishop, a municipal court clerk in Columbus, was co-chair of the Georgia Women for Hillary
committee.
Mike Keown
. He won re-election.
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
for , serving since 1993. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
The district is located in the southwestern part of the state and includes Albany
Albany, Georgia
Albany is a city in and the county seat of Dougherty County, Georgia, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. It is the principal city of the Albany, Georgia metropolitan area and the southwest part of the state. The population was 77,434 at the 2010 U.S. Census, making it the...
, Thomasville
Thomasville, Georgia
Thomasville is the county seat of Thomas County, Georgia, United States. The city is the second largest in Southwest Georgia after Albany.The city deems itself the City of Roses and holds an annual Rose Festival. The town features plantations open to the public, a historic downtown, a large...
and most of Columbus
Columbus, Georgia
Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Muscogee County, Georgia, United States, with which it is consolidated. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 189,885. It is the principal city of the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area, which, in 2009, had an estimated population of 292,795...
.
Early life, career, and family
Bishop was born in Mobile, AlabamaMobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
to Minnie B. Slade and Sanford Dixon Bishop, who was the first president of Bishop State Community College
Bishop State Community College
Bishop State Community College, founded 1927, is a state-supported, two-year, public, historically black college located in Mobile, Alabama U.S.A.- History :...
. He was educated at Morehouse College
Morehouse College
Morehouse College is a private, all-male, liberal arts, historically black college located in Atlanta, Georgia. Along with Hampden-Sydney College and Wabash College, Morehouse is one of three remaining traditional men's colleges in the United States....
and Emory University School of Law
Emory University School of Law
Emory University School of Law is a first-tier US law school that is part of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. It is ranked #30 among ABA-approved law schools by the 2012 U.S. News & World Report...
, and served in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
, entering the Reserve Officer Training Corps. While at Morehouse, he was a classmate of Herman Cain
Herman Cain
Herman Cain is a candidate for the 2012 U.S. Republican Party presidential nomination.Cain has a background as a business executive, syndicated columnist, and radio host from Georgia. He served as chairman and CEO of Godfather's Pizza from 1986 to 1996...
. After receiving his honorable discharge, Bishop operated a law firm in Columbus, Georgia
Columbus, Georgia
Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Muscogee County, Georgia, United States, with which it is consolidated. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 189,885. It is the principal city of the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area, which, in 2009, had an estimated population of 292,795...
, and was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives
Georgia House of Representatives
The Georgia House of Representatives is the lower house of the Georgia General Assembly of the U.S. state of Georgia.-Composition:...
in 1977, where he remained until being elected to the Georgia Senate
Georgia Senate
The Georgia State Senate is the upper house of the Georgia General Assembly .-Composition:According to the state constitution of 1983, this body is to be composed of no more than 56 members elected for two-year terms. Current state law provides for 56 members...
in 1990.
He has received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award
Distinguished Eagle Scout Award
The Distinguished Eagle Scout Award is a distinguished service award of the Boy Scouts of America . It is awarded to an Eagle Scout for distinguished service in his profession and to his community for a period of at least 25 years after attaining the level of Eagle Scout...
from the Boy Scouts of America
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...
(BSA), given to Eagle Scouts
Eagle Scout (Boy Scouts of America)
Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America . A Scout who attains this rank is called an Eagle Scout or Eagle. Since its introduction in 1911, the Eagle Scout rank has been earned by more than 2 million young men...
for distinguished career achievement. He is a member of BSA's Order of the Arrow
Order of the Arrow
The Order of the Arrow is the national honor society of the Boy Scouts of America . It uses American Indian-styled traditions and ceremonies to bestow recognition on scouts selected by their peers as best exemplifying the ideals of Scouting. The society was created by E. Urner Goodman, with the...
(OA) and as a youth was on the OA ceremonies team. He is a resident of Albany, Georgia
Albany, Georgia
Albany is a city in and the county seat of Dougherty County, Georgia, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. It is the principal city of the Albany, Georgia metropolitan area and the southwest part of the state. The population was 77,434 at the 2010 U.S. Census, making it the...
, where he is a member of the Mount Zion Baptist Church. Bishop is a Life Member of Kappa Alpha Psi
Kappa Alpha Psi
Kappa Alpha Psi is a collegiate Greek-letter fraternity with a predominantly African American membership. Since the fraternity's founding on January 5, 1911 at Indiana University Bloomington, the fraternity has never limited membership based on color, creed or national origin...
fraternity initiated at Morehouse College's Pi chapter. Bishop is a Shriner and 33° Mason.
Committee assignments
- Committee on AppropriationsUnited States House Committee on AppropriationsThe Committee on Appropriations is a committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is in charge of setting the specific expenditures of money by the government of the United States...
- Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies
- Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies (Ranking Member)
Caucus memberships
- Congressional Black Caucus
- Congressional Diabetes Caucus
- International Conservation CaucusUnited States Congressional International Conservation CaucusThe U.S. Congressional International Conservation Caucus is a bipartisan congressional organization that was founded in September 2003 with the conviction that “the United States of America has the opportunity, the obligation and the interests to advance the conservation of natural resources for...
- Sportsmen's Caucus
He is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus
Congressional Black Caucus
The Congressional Black Caucus is an organization representing the black members of the United States Congress. Membership is exclusive to blacks, and its chair in the 112th Congress is Representative Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri.-Aims:...
, as well as the Blue Dog Democrats, a group of moderate to conservative Democrats in Congress. Serving a primarily agricultural district, Bishop has fought to preserve the federal price supports for peanuts
Peanuts
Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...
, southwest Georgia's most important crop. In 2005, he caused considerable controversy within his own party by cosponsoring a bill by U.S. Representative Ernest Istook
Ernest Istook
Ernest James Istook Jr. is a former Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Oklahoma's 5th congressional district. He held his congressional seat for 14 years, completing seven terms in the House...
(R-Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
) to introduce a constitutional amendment to protect religious expression on public property.
On October 10, 2002, Sanford Bishop was one of only four of 36 Congressional Black Caucus members who voted for the joint resolution
Iraq Resolution
The Iraq Resolution or the Iraq War Resolution is a joint resolution passed by the United States Congress in October 2002 as Public Law No: 107-243, authorizing military action against Iraq.-Contents:The resolution cited many factors to justify the use of military force against...
authorizing the Iraq War. The other three Congressional Black Caucus members who voted for the resolution authorizing the Iraq War are no longer members of Congress: Bill Jefferson
William J. Jefferson
William Jennings "Bill" Jefferson is a former American politician, and a published author from the U.S. state of Louisiana. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for nine terms from 1991 to 2009 as a member of the Democratic Party. He represented , which includes much of the...
(D
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
-LA
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
), Albert Wynn
Albert Wynn
Albert Russell "Al" Wynn is a former Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives. He represented the 4th district of Maryland from 1993 to 2008...
(D
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
-MD
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
), and Harold Ford, Jr.
Harold Ford, Jr.
Harold Eugene Ford, Jr. is an American politician and was the last chairman of the now-defunct Democratic Leadership Council . He was a Democratic Party member of the United States House of Representatives from , centered in Memphis, from 1997 to 2007...
(D
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
-TN
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
), now chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council
Democratic Leadership Council
The Democratic Leadership Council was a non-profit 501 corporation that, upon its formation, argued the United States Democratic Party should shift away from the leftward turn it took in the late 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s...
.
In September, 2010, the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
reported that Bishop had, in 2003, directed scholarships funded by the Congressional Black Caucus
Congressional Black Caucus
The Congressional Black Caucus is an organization representing the black members of the United States Congress. Membership is exclusive to blacks, and its chair in the 112th Congress is Representative Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri.-Aims:...
to ineligible persons, including his stepdaughter, Aayesha Owens Reese and his niece Emmaundia J Whitaker. Tim Turner, the congressman's spokesman said the congressman would repay the scholarship fund for any awards he made in violation of the rules.
Political campaigns
After only one term in the Georgia State Senate, he ran for the Democratic nomination in the 2nd District, which was held by six-term Democrat Charles HatcherCharles Floyd Hatcher
Charles Floyd Hatcher is an American politician and lawyer. He served in Congress as a Democrat.-Biography:Hatcher was born in Doerun, Georgia and served in the United States Air Force from 1958 until 1962. After his military service, he attended Georgia Southern College in Statesboro in 1965 and...
. Bishop finished second behind Hatcher in a crowded six-way primary, forcing Hatcher into a runoff. In the runoff, Bishop attacked Hatcher for bouncing 819 checks in the House banking scandal
House banking scandal
The House banking scandal broke in early 1992, when it was revealed that the United States House of Representatives allowed members to overdraw their House checking accounts without risk of being penalized by the House bank ....
. In addition, the 2nd had been reconfigured as a black-majority district during congressional apportionment following the 1990 Census
United States Census, 1990
The Twenty-first United States Census, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States to be 248,709,873, an increase of 9.8 percent over the 226,545,805 persons enumerated during the 1980 Census....
. He won handily in November, and was reelected with little difficulty in 1994.
In 1995, a 5-4 majority of the Supreme Court ruled that this redistricting violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the Dred Scott v...
. However, in 1998, Bishop was able to beat Joseph F. McCormick
Joseph F. McCormick
-Early Life:Born to an aerospace engineer father, his mother was a nurse, McCormick was raised in Pawling, New York. He moved to Albany, Georgia in 1994.-Career:...
to win reelection in the newly redrawn district, which was 60 percent white. He has only faced one serious contest since then; in 2000 he narrowly fought off Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
Dylan Glenn, a young black Republican who received strong backing from many national Republican leaders.
On September 10, 2007, Sanford Bishop endorsed Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
for President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
and was co-chair of Georgia for Obama campaign; Bishop's wife, Vivian Creighton Bishop, a municipal court clerk in Columbus, was co-chair of the Georgia Women for Hillary
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
committee.
2010
Sanford was challenged by Republican nominee state RepresentativeGeorgia House of Representatives
The Georgia House of Representatives is the lower house of the Georgia General Assembly of the U.S. state of Georgia.-Composition:...
Mike Keown
Mike Keown
Michael Huel 'Mike' Keown is an American and a Republican member of the Georgia House of Representatives from District 173, first elected in 2004. He is the 2010 Republican nominee in the 2010 U.S. House of Representatives elections, 2nd District...
. He won re-election.
External links
- U.S. Congressman Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. official U.S. House site
- Sanford Bishop for Congress official campaign site