Al Gore Biography

Al Gore is the son of former Sen. Albert Gore Sr. of Tennessee and his wife Pauline (La Fon). Gore was born on March 31, 1948, while his father was serving his tenth year as a Democratic representative from Tennessee. Al Gore Sr. served four more years in the House and then won three consecutive terms as a senator. As a result, Al Gore Jr. grew up in the nation's capital. The Gores kept an apartment in the Fairfax Hotel, now the Ritz Carlton, in the city's Embassy Row section. Young Albert lived with his parents during the school year.

During the summers when he wasn't in school, Gore stayed at his family's farm in Carthage. A New York Times profile says Gore worked in the fields with the tenant farmers during the days and hunted with coon dogs at night.

He attended the private St. Albans Episcopal School for Boys in Washington, D.C., where he was a top student and played football and basketball. Gore enrolled at Harvard University, earning a B.A. degree in government in 1969 - graduating cum laude.

Gore opposed the Vietnam war and was active in the anti-war movement at Harvard. When, after graduating from Harvard, Gore was drafted for service in the military he considered going to Canada to avoid the draft, but eventually enlisted in the Army. A major consideration behind his decision was Gore's desire not to hurt his father, who was seeking a fourth term in the Senate in 1970. (The elder Gore, who was an outspoken critic of the Vietnam war, lost anyhow. He was defeated by William Brock by a margin of 46,000 votes.) Al Gore's friends say he also felt a sense of duty even though he opposed the war.

In the Army, Gore served as a reporter with the 20th Engineering Battalion, which was based about 30 miles south of Saigon. Gore was in Vietnam for six months but never saw combat. He sent stories home to his wife, who passed them on to the editors of the Tennessean, a Nashville newspaper. The Tennessean published some of his pieces and when Gore returned from Vietnam, he was offered a job as a reporter. Gore eventually was assigned to write about city politics as an investigative reporter. A series he wrote in 1974 led to two indictments and one conviction of local political figures for bribery and corruption. Gore also became a home builder and land developer with the Tanglewood Home Builders Company and farmer.

In 1971-1972, while working the night shift at the Tennessean, Gore studied at Vanderbilt University's Divinity School "to study the spiritual issues that were most important to me at the time," he said.

In 1974, Gore enrolled in Vanderbilt University's Law School and stayed until 1976. He took away no degrees, deciding abruptly in 1976 to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

PROFESSIONAL CAREER:

• Vice President of the United States, 1993-present
• U.S. Senator from Tennessee, 1985-199
• Author: Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit, 1992
• Candidate for the Democratic Nomination for President, 1987-1988
• U.S. Representative from Tennessee, 1977-1985
• Farmer, 1973-present
• Investigative Reporter, Editorial Writer, The Tennessean, 1971-1976
• Home builder and land developer, Tanglewood Home Builders Co., 1971-1976
• U.S. Army, 1969-1971

POLITICAL CAREER AND PERCENTAGE OF VOTE:

• Vice President of the United States, 1993-Present.
• Member, United States Senate, 1985-1993
• Candidate for the Democratic Nomination for President, 1987-88
• Member, U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 4th District, (later the 6th District) 1977-85

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Upon leaving the Army, Al and Tipper Gore settled in Tennessee, where his father's career provided a ready-made political base. But at first, Albert Jr. exhibited none of the political ambition he is said to have harbored as a boy. Gore has said he was uninterested in politics at that point largely because of his time in Vietnam and his father's defeat for reelection in 1970, a loss attributed largely to the elder Gore's opposition to the war.

Immediately after leaving the Army, Gore attended divinity school for a year, and from 1974-1976 attended law school (both at Vanderbilt University) taking no degrees.

At the end of February 1976, Democratic Representative Joe L. Evins (Gore's father's successor in the House) unexpectedly announced his retirement from Tennessee's fourth district seat. Gore immediately decided to run for the seat at the age of 28.

Competing against eight others in the Democratic primary, Gore emerged the victor largely because of name recognition. Gore campaigned for higher taxes on the rich, more public jobs and less defense spending. In the general election, he faced only minor opposition from an independent candidate, William McGlamery.

Once established in Congress, Gore's seat remained secure; he was elected to the House in 1976, 1978, 1980 and 1982. In 1978 he ran unopposed for a second term, and two years later was easily re-elected to a third term. As a result of redistricting in TN in 1982, Gore switched districts from the 4th to the 6th. In 1982, he again ran unopposed.

Gore's winning percentages:

1976      94%   (4th District)
1978      100%  (4th District)
1980      79%   (4th District)
1982      100%  (6th District)

Early in his congressional career, Gore campaigned strongly in favor of televising House floor proceedings -- and made the first televised speech on the floor in March 1979.

"He brought the skills and interests of a journalist with him to the House ... few there could match his ability to seize an issue, uncover a pattern of abuses, draw attention in the media and propose a solution," according to the 1992 version of "Politics in America."

During President Ronald Reagan's first term, Gore sometimes found himself between the administration and the majority of his party on national security issues.

With a number of other Southern Democrats, he backed aid to the Nicaraguan Contras. Gore was one of the moderate Democrats in the House who supported limited production of MX nuclear missiles in exchange for promises from Reagan to be flexible in arms control talks with the Soviet Union and to develop the single-warhead Midgetman missile as an MX alternative.

SENATE

General Election Results:
-------------------------
1984  Gore             61%
      Victor Ashe      34%
      Ed McAteer        5%

1990  Gore             68%
      William Hawkins  30%

When Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker Jr. (R-TN) announced his retirement in 1984, Gore quickly became a candidate and won. Gore began his campaign almost two years before the election and was able to build momentum in doing so. The GOP candidate, a wealthy Knoxville lawyer by the name of Victor Ashe, was no match for Gore. Gore won with 61% of the vote.

In the Senate, Gore maintained his interest in defense, especially arms control, while serving on the Armed Services Committee. And after the Challenger disaster, he dug up proof NASA had cut back on "quality monitoring." He studied the hole in the ozone layer. He went to Brazil to examine the destruction of rain forests. Gore advocated requiring wrapping materials to be biodegradable. Overall, Gore supported traditional Democratic positions on economics, took a harder line than most Democrats on international policy and developed an interest in science and the environment which, together with his articulateness, made him a popular vice presidential candidate.

1988 PRIMARIES

Four years after entering the Senate, Gore unsuccessfully sought the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination. When he announced his campaign June 29, 1987 in Carthage, he was still younger than 40. The high point of the campaign came on March 8, 1988 - Super Tuesday - when Gore won 5 of the day's Southern primaries: Arkansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Tennessee. He won a larger share of the total vote in the Super Tuesday states than any other democrat. Only Jesse Jackson won more delegates. Gore also won two caucuses that day.

But Gore couldn't sustain his momentum outside the South. He struggled in Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. His last stand came in New York. Gore made an alliance with mayor Ed Koch but found himself in the middle of a war of words between Koch and Jesse Jackson. Gore got only 10% of the vote on primary day, and dropped out of the race.

His campaign established Gore as a leading contender for the 1992 Democratic presidential field. But after his son, Albert III, was hit by a car as the two left a Baltimore Orioles baseball game, Gore decided to sit out 1992.

VICE PRESIDENT

President Clinton announced he'd chosen then-Senator Gore to be his running mate on July 9, 1992. He was formally nominated one week later at the Democratic National Convention in New York. It was said that Clinton put Gore on the ticket because "he delivered what Clinton needed: a military-service record, a foreign-policy resume, a private life thoroughly vetted by the press in 1988, and his appeal in Southern and border states crucial to the Democratic win in 1992." (Source: NEWSWEEK July 20, 1992)

Gore was inaugurated as the 45th Vice President of the United States on January 20, 1993. Gore's discipline, focus and oriented decision-making are traits used to describe his governing style since the Administration took control of the Executive Office. Gore also has a high standing and close relationship with the president. Both are close in age -- Gore is 48, Clinton turns 50 on August 19. Both are said to be "ideologically and generational similar" and that is the reason their relationship has "endured and surmounted the normal ideological, political and staff tensions between presidents and their vice presidents. White House aides insist Clinton has made no decision on a significant issue without seriously engaging Gore in a debate over it." (Source: Washington Post, Feb. 18, 1995)

"Gore's agenda has included technology, science, space, the environment, federal regulation and state and local issues, such as grants and enterprise zones. But his most prominent assignment was the administration's 'Reinventing Government' effort. After the Democrats 1994 defeat in congress...Gore took over the framing of the 1996 budget with the examination of what departments or agencies could be cut, reshaped, merged or otherwise shrunk." (Source: Washington Post, Feb. 18, 1995) "As a testament to their close and successful relationship, President Clinton has stocked the White House, and his political team, with people close to Gore, who can turn their attention to the V.P. after November." (Bob Squier - Gore's media adviser and Peter Knight - gore's fund-raiser are both working for the Clinton campaign) (Source: New York Times, April 22, 1996)

If President Clinton and Gore get reelected in 1996, Gore will be the "unquestioned front-runner for the Democratic nomination in the year 2000, and he will have four more years to tap the advantages of incumbency to prepare for a (presidential) run. The most obvious sign of Gore's preparations for a White House bid is his schedule. He has bounced around the country from one event to another, appearing at 45 in the first three months of this year alone, collecting money for local Democratic candidates and earning I.O.U's in return. ... And he has tended to crucial Democratic constituencies like labor, becoming an expected speaker at the annual convention of the AFL-CIO.."

(Source: New York Times, April 22, 1996)

TIDBITS:

Gore's parents are still alive, living in Carthage, Tennessee. Albert Gore Senior is 88. Pauline Gore is 83. Albert Gore Sr. served seven terms in the House and three in the Senate.