Alan Grayson

Alan Grayson
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 8th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2009
Preceded by	Ric Keller
Personal details
Political party	Democratic Party
Spouse	Lolita Grayson
Residence	Orlando, Florida
Alma mater	Harvard College (A.B.) John F. Kennedy School of Government (M.P.P.) Harvard Law School (J.D.)
Profession	Attorney
Website	www.Grayson.House.gov

Alan Mark Grayson (born March 13, 1958) is an American attorney and businessman who is currently serving as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 8th congressional district. A progressive Democrat, Grayson defeated Ric Keller, a four-term incumbent Republican in the 2008 congressional election.

Early life and education

Grayson was born in the Bronx, New York and grew up in the tenements. He graduated from Bronx High School of Science and worked his way through Harvard University graduating summa cum laude in three years. He was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He worked as an economist for two years and returned to Harvard for graduate studies. Within four years, he earned a law degree with honors from Harvard Law School, a masters in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government and completed the course work and passed the general exams for a Ph.D. in government.

Career

Grayson was employed as a law clerk at the Colorado Supreme Court in 1983, and at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals from 1984 to 1985, where he worked with such judges as Abner Mikva, Robert Bork, and two judges who later joined the U.S. Supreme Court: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia. He was an associate at the Washington D.C. firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson for five years, where he specialized in contract law.

Grayson wrote his masters thesis on gerontology and in 1986 founded the Alliance for Aging Research (AAR), and served as an officer of the organization for more than twenty years. AAR is a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. that was founded to promote medical research to improve the human experience of aging.

In 1991 he founded the law firm Grayson, Kubli which concentrated on government contract law. He was a lecturer at the George Washington University government contracts program and a frequent speaker on the topic. Grayson also was the first President of IDT Corporation, a publicly traded billion-dollar telecommunications company. Grayson was ranked as the 12th-wealthiest member of Congress based on financial disclosure forms with a minimum net worth of $31.12 million, according to Roll Call.

In recent years, as a plaintiffs' attorney, Grayson specialized in whistleblower fraud cases aimed at Iraq war contractors. One contractor, Custer Battles, employed individuals who were found guilty of making fraudulent statements and submitting fraudulent invoices on two contracts in 2003 the company had with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. On behalf of his clients, Grayson filed suit under the False Claims Act and its qui tam provisions. Grayson disclosed his attorney fees and costs for the case exceeded $4 million.

While pursuing the whistleblower cases, Grayson worked from a home office in Orlando where he lived with his wife and five children. In 2006, a Wall Street Journal reporter described Grayson as "waging a one-man war against contractor fraud in Iraq" and as a "fierce critic of the war in Iraq" whose car was "emblazoned" with bumper stickers such as "Bush lied, people died".

Electoral history

In 2006 Grayson his first entered into electoral politics losing the 2006 Democratic primary for Florida's 8th Congressional District to Charlie Stuart, a prominent local businessman and center-right Democrat. Stuart went on to lose the general election to incumbent Republican Congressman Ric Keller.

In late 2007, Grayson announced that he would run again for the 8th District seat, and again faced Stuart in the primary. During the primary, his campaign retained the services of Bill Hillsman, an advertising executive whose previous political clients include the U.S. Senate campaigns of Democrats Paul Wellstone and Ned Lamont, the gubernatorial campaigns of Independents Jesse Ventura and Kinky Friedman, and the 2000 presidential campaign of Ralph Nader. Hillsman's first ad for Grayson, entitled “Case Closed”, focused on Grayson's fight against military contractor fraud, dramatizing the amounts of money involved with a suitcase containing $1 million in cash and an airplane hangar that could be filled with the $9 billion in taxpayer dollars allegedly stolen by contractor fraud in Iraq. The ad spread over the Internet via various liberal blogs, including the widely-read FireDogLake and The Huffington Post, a second ad, "Empty", also referenced contractor fraud, this time listing faulty products, such as empty fire extinguishers and defective parachutes, that were sold to the government. Other ads produced by Hillsman for the campaign included "Important Part" in which Grayson blasted Keller for voting against an appropriation for prosthetic limbs for veterans; and “Taxpayer Robbery”, which likened the loosening of regulations on the financial industry and the resulting 2008 bank bailout to an armed robbery.

In the August 26, 2008 Democratic primary, Grayson prevailed, receiving 48.5% of the vote. Stuart trailed with 27.5%, with three other candidates splitting the remaining 24%. During the general election campaign, Grayson maintained a consistent lead over Keller, who had barely eked out renomination in the Republican primary over attorney Todd Long after breaking a voluntary term limits pledge. On Election Day, he received 172,854 votes, or 52%, to Keller's 159,490 votes, or 48%. Although Keller won three out of four counties in the district, Grayson won by a margin of 55% to 45% in Orange County, home to Orlando and by far the largest county in the district.

Grayson is only the second Democrat to represent his district since its formation after the 1970 census. Although the Florida 8th district was historically a Republican district, Grayson was elected as a progressive Democrat, and is a Vice Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus..

Congressional career

Federal Reserve transparency

During his first term in office, Ron Paul's Audit the Fed movement served as a great influence for Alan Grayson. While he directly opposes most of Ron Paul's libertarian ideals, Grayson learned about the need for transparency concerning the Federal Reserve's central planning of credit markets. Grayson gained attention for an exchange with Federal Reserve System Vice Chairman Donald Kohn on the disposition of the $1.2 trillion that the Fed had lent as part of the 2008 bank bailout, during which Grayson said (to Kohn), “...Have people ever said we won't take your $150 billion because people might find out about it?” and questioned the authority of the Fed in funds dispersal. After the exchange received attention from various national media outlets, Grayson was the subject of an interview on the subject by Salon.com writer Glenn Greenwald. A later hearing, during which Grayson had an exchange with Elizabeth A. Coleman about spending by the Federal Reserve, became widely reviewed on YouTube, receiving nearly 3,000,000 views in the first few months after posting.

In March 2009, following the AIG bonus payments controversy, Grayson joined with fellow freshman Democrat Jim Himes of Connecticut to introduce the Grayson-Himes Pay for Performance Act, legislation to require that all bonuses paid by companies that had received funds under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 to be "based on performance". The bill was co-sponsored by eight other members of the House. On March 26, the bill was approved by the House Financial Services Committee by a vote of 38-22 and pm April 1, the bill was passed by the full House of Representatives by a vote of 247-171.

Grayson is a co-sponsor of the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009, which would audit the Federal Reserve.

On a September 2009 Alex Jones Show segment Grayson was commenting on former lobbyist Linda Robertson's comments about the bill to audit the Federal Reserve. He stated, in part, "I am the only member of Congress who actually worked as an economist, and this lobbyist, this K-Street whore, is trying to teach me about economics!" Grayson's use of "whore" was widely criticized as inappropriate including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer who called it "unfair" while it was also noted that making outrageous statements is used by both political parties to draw attention to issues. Grayson's congressional spokesman, Todd Jurkowski, clarified that the comment "was on her professional career, not her personal life" and Grayson subsequently apologized.

2009 Health care comments

In September 2009, during the debates leading to the passage of the Affordable Health Care for America Act, which passed two months later, Grayson quipped during a speech that, "The Republican health care plan is this: 'Don't get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly.'" His remarks were widely condemned by Republican politicians and, according to Grayson, resulted in positive emails from constituents which outweighed negative ones four to one and over five thousand supporting campaign contributions; the comments also generated funds from the DNC towards his upcoming 2010 campaign race. Grayson raised $347,000 for his reelection campaign during the third quarter, much of it attributed to his remarks.

He defended his comment and in a House Floor speech stated, “I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven't voted sooner to end this holocaust in America." He cited a September 2009 peer-reviewed Harvard study that found 44,789 Americans die each year due to being uninsured. Grayson, who is Jewish by birth, apologized to the Anti-defamation League for those offended by his generic use of "holocaust". He also maintained that Congressional Republicans have failed to offer a feasible plan. In October 2009 he launched www.NamesOfTheDead.com, a website to "memorialize Americans who die because they don’t have health insurance." He subsequently read stories of the dead submitted through the Names of the Dead site on the House floor.

Civil Rights

Grayson voted in support of the Hate Crimes Expansion Act, which expands the definition of hate crimes and strengthens enforcement of hate crime laws. He also voted for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which redefines unlawful employment laws and provides a fairer workplace for employees. Grayson supported the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill that allows victims of wage discrimination to sue for punitive damages.

Crime Issues

Grayson voted for the 2009-2010 Defense Appropriations, which authorizes $681.02 billion of appropriations for the Department of Defense. He also supported 2009-2010 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Authorizations

Committee assignments

• Committee on Financial Services
  • Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government-Sponsored Enterprises
• Committee on Science and Technology
  • Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight
  • Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics

See also

• United States House of Representatives elections in Florida, 2008#District 8

External links

• Congressman Alan Grayson Official U.S. House website
• Alan Grayson for U.S. Congress Official campaign website
• Congressman with Guts
• Names of the Dead
• Alan Grayson on YouTube
• Alan Grayson on twitter
• Alan Grayson campaign on YouTube
• Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
• Grayson's Voting record on GovTrack.us