Robert C. Smith

Infobox Congressman
name =Robert C. Smith


imagesize =175px
jr/sr =United States Senator
state =New Hampshire
term_start =December 7, 1990
term_end =January 3, 2003
preceded =Gordon J. Humphrey
succeeded =John E. Sununu
state2 =New Hampshire
district2 =1st
term_start2 =January 3, 1985
term_end2 =December 7, 1990
preceded2 =Norman D'Amours
succeeded2 =Bill Zeliff Vacant until following January
order3 = Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
term_start3 = October 1999
term_end3 = January 3, 2001
preceded3 = John Chafee
succeeded3 = Harry Reid
term_start4 = January 20
term_end4 = June 6, 2001
preceded4 = Harry Reid
succeeded4 = Jim Jeffords
order5 = Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics
term_start5 = January 7, 1997
term_end5 = October 1999
preceded5 = Mitch McConnell
succeeded5 = Pat Roberts
birth_date =birth date and age|1941|03|30
birth_place =Trenton, New Jersey
death_date =
death_place =
nationality =
party =Republican
otherparty =
spouse =Mary Jo Hutchinson
relations =
children =Jennifer, Robert, Jason
residence =
alma_mater =
occupation =
profession =
religion =Roman Catholic


website =
footnotes =

Robert C. "Bob" Smith (born March 30, 1941) is an American politician who has served in both the United States House of Representatives and the Senate. He is a member of the Republican Party. Smith stands 6' 6" (1.98m) tall.

Smith was born in Trenton, New Jersey. He obtained a bachelor's degree from Lafayette College in 1965 and served in the United States Navy from 1965 to 1967, including a year of duty in Vietnam. Smith then taught history and English and got into the real estate business. He and his wife Mary Jo have three children.

He had by 1982 relocated to New Hampshire, and unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in that year. However, he ran again two years later, and won election, going on to represent New Hampshire's 1st congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1985 to December 1990. He was elected to the Senate in 1990 to succeed the retiring Republican Senator Gordon J. Humphrey. He began to serve in December 1990 because he was appointed to the position early following Humphrey's resignation. He helped create, and served as vice-chairman of, the 1991–1993 Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs. Smith was reelected in 1996 and served until 2003. In his 1996 reelection campaign he defeated Democrat Dick Swett with 49% of the vote. Smith had established himself as the most conservative Senator from the Northeast, and Bill Clinton's coattails nearly caused his defeat. The campaign's most famous incident occurred on election night when several networks (most notably Dan Rather on CBS) claimed that Swett had won, and were then forced to admit their mistake later.

In January 1999, Smith announced that he was a candidate for the Republican nomination for president (at the time the front-runner was Texas Gov. George W. Bush). In July, after failing to gain any ground in the presidential race, Smith announced he was leaving the Republican Party and would seek the nomination of the U.S. Taxpayers Party for president. One month later, Smith swore off the Taxpayers Party and announced as an independent. He withdrew completely from the race in October and endorsed Bush.

In the meantime, Sen. John Chafee (R-R.I.) had died and thus the chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works had reopened. Smith recanted his repudiation of the Republican party, claiming it had been "a mistake" and claiming that since he had never officially changed his voting registration that he had never left the party. Smith then was appointed as Chafee's successor to the chairmanship.

In 2002, Smith was denied re-nomination and was defeated in the Republican primary by John E. Sununu. He moved to Sarasota, Florida, after his defeat to sell real estate.

In 2004, Smith endorsed John Kerry for president, citing the growing federal deficit and Kerry's plan to balance the federal budget. He considered running for the Florida Senate seat now held by Mel Martinez, but dropped out after raising little money [http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/state/florida/2004-04-15-smith-florida_x.htm] and receiving less than 1% support in Republican polls.

Less than a month before the election, Smith wrote an op-ed for the "Concord Monitor" in which he denounced the lack of Republican outrage over phone jamming on Election Day 2002. [http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041019/REPOSITORY/410190316/1037/NEWS04] Republican operatives allegedly jammed phone banks used by the Democrats to contact Democratic voters and get them to the polls. He implied that this action may have made the difference in Shaheen's narrow loss to Sununu.

On December 21, 2007, Smith endorsed Congressman Duncan Hunter of California for the Republican presidential nomination.

In January 2008, Smith began writing editorials on the web page of the Constitution Party, which began to fuel speculation that Smith may intend to seek the party's presidential nomination. But the nomination went to Chuck Baldwin, a Baptist pastor.

External links

* [http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S000606 Biographical Directory of the US Congress: Robert C. Smith]
* [http://www.seacoastonline.com/1999news/7_13b.htm "Portsmouth Herald" — "Smith makes break, leaves GOP"]