Bruce Braley

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Bruce Braley bigraphy, stories - American politician

Bruce Braley : biography

October 30, 1957 –

Bruce Lowell Braley (born October 30, 1957) is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district lies in northeastern Iowa and includes Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Marshalltown, and Dubuque. On February 7, 2013, Braley announced that he would be running for the Democratic nomination for the 2014 United States Senate election in Iowa.http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/02/07/iowa-rep-bruce-braley-to-run-for-senate/

Electoral history

2014 U.S. Senate election

In February 2013, Braley announced that he would seek the Senate seat held by retiring Senator Tom Harkin.http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2013/02/07/bruce-braley-will-run-for-harkins-senate-seat/article

Early life, education, and law career

Braley was born in Grinnell, Iowa, the son of Marcia L. (née Sherwood) and Byard C. Braley.http://www.legistorm.com/person/bio/51852/Bruce_Lowell_Braley.htmlhttp://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~battle/reps/braley.htm His family owned a farm in nearby Brooklyn, Iowa. Braley attended college at Iowa State University where he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Iowa College of Law. While in college, he worked in agribusiness and in highway maintenance. He was admitted to the bar and has served as a trial lawyer in Waterloo since 1983. Braley specialized in representing workers who had been injured on the job or were terminated unfairly. As an attorney, Braley served as president of the Iowa Trial Lawyers Association.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

Braley won an open seat battle in the 1st district after eight-term Republican congressman Jim Nussle stepped down to make an unsuccessful run for Governor in 2006. The 1st district had been in Republican hands since 1979. However, eastern Iowa has swung heavily to the Democrats since the 1990s. The district has supported the Democratic candidate for president in every election since 1988. The district, which was numbered as the 2nd District for most of the period from Iowa’s statehood until 2003, became even more Democratic when much of the Quad Cities area, including Davenport and Bettendorf was shifted into it from the old 1st District (now the 2nd).

2006

On July 8, 2006, Braley was chosen to deliver the Democrats’ weekly radio address. He spoke on the issue of Social Security.

In the 2006 midterm election, Braley defeated Republican opponent Mike Whalen, a Quad City businessman.

2008

Braley became the second member of Iowa’s congressional delegation to issue an endorsement in the 2008 presidential race, announcing his support on December 5, 2007, for former North Carolina Senator John Edwards in a press conference in Waterloo. On April 30, 2008, Braley threw his support behind Senator Barack Obama following Edwards’ withdrawal from the race.

2010

In 2010 Braley defeated GOP challenger Ben Lange, an attorney out of Independence, by only about 4,000 votes out of more than 215,000 cast. Ultimately, a 4,300 vote margin in Braley’s home county, Black Hawk County, allowed him to overcome coattails from Terry Branstad and Chuck Grassley and secure a third term. Grassley carried every county in the district; Branstad carried all but three.

2012

On April 3, 2012, Braley announced his reelection campaign in his hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa. Due to redistricting, Braley lost heavily Democratic Davenport but picked up equally Democratic Cedar Rapids and several other northeastern Iowa counties. Lange and Dubuque businessman Rod Blum announced their candidacy to run in a 1st District Republican primary to face Braley in a general election.

According to the non-profit, nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Braley led all Iowa Congressional candidates in out-of-state contributions. He has received about 3.5 times the amount of donations from out-of-state contributions as he has from in-state. During the course of the campaign, a Republican activist and Braley’s political opponent both filed House ethics complaints against Braley. The charges were found to be without merit. Braley raised an approximate total of $2.46 million for his re-election campaign, with nearly a third of this coming from lawyers and lobbyists. The sectors following two and three behind the lawyers and lobbyists were labor groups, and health groups, raising approximately $223,000 and $157,000 respectively. Braley spent approximately $2.11 million of what he raised being spent during the course of the campaign. Braley’s single biggest contributor was the law firm of Williams Kherker, which donated $19,900 on its own to his campaign.