ninjapundit

Maurice Robert "Mike" Gravel (/ɡrəˈvɛl/; born May 13, 1930) is an American politician who was a Democratic United States Senator from Alaska from 1969 to 1981 and a candidate in the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

Born and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts, by French-Canadian immigrant parents, Gravel served in the U.S. Army in West Germany, and he later graduated from the Columbia University School of General Studies. He moved to Alaska in the late 1950s, becoming a real estate developer and entering politics. He served in the Alaska House of Representatives from 1963 to 1966 and also became Speaker of the Alaska House. Gravel was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1968.

As a Senator, Gravel became nationally known for his forceful but unsuccessful attempts to end the draft during the War in Vietnam and for putting the Pentagon Papers into the public record in 1971 at some risk to himself. He conducted an unusual campaign for the Democratic nomination in 1972 for Vice President of the United States, and then played a crucial role in getting Congressional approval for the Trans-Alaska pipeline in 1973. He was re-elected to the Senate in 1974, but gradually alienated most of his Alaskan constituencies and his bid for a third term was defeated in a primary election in 1980.

Gravel returned to business ventures and went through difficult times, suffering corporate and personal bankruptcies amid poor health. He has been an advocate of direct democracy and the National Initiative. In 2006, Gravel began a run for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States to promote those ideas. His campaign gained an Internet following and national attention due to forceful, humorous, and politically unorthodox debate appearances during 2007, but he found very little support in national polls or in 2008 caucuses and primaries. In March 2008, he announced that he was switching to the Libertarian Party to compete for its presidential nomination and the inclusion of the National Initiative into the Libertarian Platform. At the Libertarian National Convention of 2008 he failed on both counts, and he announced that his political electoral career had ended. He subsequently became an executive for a marijuana products company and continued to speak out on various political issues including Democratic Party politics.

Early life, military service, education[edit]

Gravel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, one of five children born to French-Canadian immigrant parents, Alphonse and Marie (née Bourassa) Gravel.^[1]^[2]^[3]

His parents were part of the Quebec diaspora,^[4] and he was raised in a working-class neighborhood^[5] during the Great Depression,^[3]speaking only French until he was seven years old.^[6] Calling him "Mike" from an early age,^[2] his father valued work above all else, while his mother stressed to him the importance of education.^[7]

Gravel was educated in parochial schools as a Roman Catholic.^[2] There he struggled – due to what he later said was undiagnosed dyslexia^[6]^[8] – and was left back in third grade.^[9] He completed elementary school in 1945^[10] and his class voted him "most charming personality".^[2] A summer job as a soda jerk led to Gravel handing out campaign fliers for local candidates on behalf of his boss; Gravel was immediately impressed with "the awesomeness of political office."^[2]^[6]

Gravel then boarded at Assumption Preparatory School in Worcester, Massachusetts,^[2] where his performance was initially mediocre.^[11] Then an English teacher, the Assumptionist Edgar Bourque, gave him personal attention, improving Gravel's language skills and instructing him in public speaking.^[11] Gravel's grades improved measurably in his final year,^[11] and he graduated in 1949.^[12]He has a sister, Marguerite, who became a Holy Cross nun,^[2] but Gravel himself struggled with the Catholic faith.^[13] He studied for one year at Assumption College, a Catholic school in Worcester, then transferred for his sophomore year to American International College in Springfield.^[2] Journalist I. F. Stone and philosopher Bertrand Russell strongly influenced Gravel in their willingness to challenge assumptions and oppose social convention and political authority.^[14]

Around May 1951, Gravel saw that he was about to be drafted and instead enlisted in the U.S. Army for a three-year term so that he could get into the Counterintelligence Corps.^[15] After basic training and counterintelligence school at Fort Holabird in Maryland and in South Carolina, he went to Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia.^[15] While he expected to be sent off to the Korean Warwhen he graduated as a second lieutenant in early 1952, he was instead assigned to Stuttgart, West Germany, as a Special Adjutant in the Army's Communications Intelligence Service.^[15] There he had an adventurous time moving around the country, conducting surveillance operations on civilians, and paying off spies.^[15] After about a year he transferred to Orléans, France, where his French language abilities (if not his Quebec-American accent) allowed him to infiltrate French communist rallies.^[15] He worked as a Special Agent in the Counterintelligence Corps until 1954,^[5] eventually becoming a first lieutenant.^[16]

Following his discharge, Gravel entered the Columbia University School of General Studies in New York City, where he studied economics and received a B.S. in 1956.^[17]^[18] He moved to New York "flat broke",^[16] and supported himself by working as a bar boy in a hotel,^[16] driving a taxicab,^[19] and working in the investment bond department at Bankers Trust.^[16] During this time he left the Catholic religion.^[13]

Move to Alaska[edit]

Gravel opened a small ground-floor real estate office on the north side (left) of Third Avenue in downtown Anchorage (center), opposite the Anchorage Westward (now HiltonAnchorage) Hotel (right).^[20] The Chugach Mountains are in the distance.

Gravel "decided to become a pioneer in a faraway place,"^[16] and moved to pre-statehood Alaska in August 1956, without funds or a job, looking for a place where someone without social or political connections could be a viable candidate for public office.^[6]^[19] Alaska's voting age of 19, less than most other states' 21, played a role in his decision,^[21] as did its newness^[6] and cooler climate.^[19] Broke when he arrived, he immediately found work in real estate sales until winter arrived.^[20] Gravel then was employed as a brakeman for the Alaska Railroad, working the snow-clearing train on the Anchorage-Fairbanks run.^[20] Subsequently, he opened a small real estate brokerage in Anchorage (the Territory of Alaska not requiring a license) and saved enough so as not to have to work the railroad again.^[20] Gravel joined the Anchorage Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, and would continue a sporadic relationship with the movement throughout his life.^[13]

Gravel married Rita Jeannette Martin, who had been Anchorage's "Miss Fur Rendezvous" of 1958, on April 29, 1959.^[22] They had two children, Martin Anthony Gravel and Lynne Denise Gravel,^[22] born c. 1960 and 1962 respectively.^[21]

Meanwhile, he went to Washington, D.C. in 1957 to campaign for Alaskan statehood via the "Tennessee Plan": dressed as Paul Revere, he rode with a petition to the steps of the U.S. Capitol.^[23] Seeing Alaska as a wide-open place with no political establishment or entrenched interests, and using the slogan "Gravel, the Roadbed to Prosperity", he ran for the territorial legislature in 1958 but lost.^[19]^[24] He went on a national speaking tour concerning tax reform in 1959, sponsored by the Jaycees.^[17] He ran without avail for the City Council in Anchorage in 1960.^[19] During this time, he had become a successful real estate agent; after the 1960 election, he became a property developer in a mobile home park on the outskirts of Anchorage.^[25] A partner ran into financial difficulty, however, and the project went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy and Gravel was forced out in 1962.^[25]

State legislator[edit]

The chambers of the Speaker of the House of Representatives in the Alaska State Capitol.

With the support of Alaska wholesale grocer Barney Gottstein and supermarket builder Larry Carr,^[2]^[21] Gravel ran for the Alaska House of Representatives representing Anchorage in 1962, initially assigned the 10th and then 8th districts, and won.^{[nb 1]} Gottstein would become Gravel's main financial backer during most of his subsequent political campaigns.^[26]

Gravel served in the Alaska House of Representatives from January 28, 1963 to January 22, 1967, winning re-election in 1964. In his first term, he served as a minority member on two House committees: Commerce, and Labor and Management.^[27]

He coauthored and sponsored the act that created the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights.^[2]Gravel was the chief architect of the law that created a regional high school system for rural Alaska; this allowed Alaska Natives to attend schools near where they lived, instead of having to go to schools run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the lower 48 states.^[2]

During the half-years that the legislature was not in session, Gravel resumed his real estate work.^[28]With Gottstein and Carr's backing, he became quite successful as a property developer on the Kenai Peninsula.^[2]^[16]^[29]

During 1965 and 1966, he served as the Speaker of the House, surprising observers by winning that post.^[21] Gravel convinced former Speaker Warren A. Taylor to not try for the position against him by promising Taylor chairmanship of the Rules Committee, then reneged on the promise.^[30] Gravel denied later press charges that he had promised but not delivered on other committee chairmanships.^[30]^[31]^[32] As Speaker he antagonized fellow lawmakers by imposing his will on the legislature's committees^[21] and feuded with Alaska State Senate president Robert J. McNealy.^[31]

Gravel did not run for re-election in 1966, instead choosing to run for Alaska's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, losing in a primary to four-term incumbent Democrat Ralph Rivers^[19] by 1,300 votes^[21] and splitting the Democratic party in the process.^[21]Rivers lost the general election that year to Republican state Senator Howard Wallace Pollock.

Following his defeat, Gravel returned to the real estate business in Anchorage.^[21]

U.S. Senator[edit]

Election to Senate in 1968[edit]

In 1968 he ran against the 81-year-old incumbent Democratic Senator Ernest Gruening, a popular former governor of the Alaska Territory who was considered one of the fathers of Alaska's statehood,^[19] for his party's nomination to the U.S. Senate. Gravel's campaign was primarily based on his youth rather than issue differences.^[21]^[32] He hired Joseph Napolitan, the first self-described political consultant, in late 1966.^[21] They spent over a year and a half planning a short, nine-day primary election campaign that featured the slogans "Alaska first" and "Let's do something about the state we're in", the distribution of a collection of essays entitled Jobs and More Jobs, and the creation of a half-hour, well-produced, glamorized biographical film of Gravel, Man for Alaska.^[2]^[19]^[21]^[33]The film was shown twice a day on every television station in Alaska and carried by plane and shown on home projectors in hundreds of Alaska Native villages.^[2]^[21]^[32] The heavy showings quickly reversed a 2–to–1 Gruening lead in polls into a Gravel lead.^[21] Gravel visited many remote villages by seaplane and showed a thorough understanding of the needs of the bush country and the fishing and oil industries.^[2]^[34] Gravel also benefited by being deliberately ambiguous about his Vietnam policy.^[34] Gruening had been one of only two Senators to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and his opposition to President Lyndon B. Johnson's war policies was harming him among the Democratic electorate;^[35] according to Gravel, "... all I had to do was stand up and not deal with the subject, and people would assume that I was to the right of Ernest Gruening, when in point of fact I was to the left of him."^[19]

Gravel beat Gruening in the primary in a tight result with a margin of about 2,000 votes.^[35]^[36] Gruening found "the unexpected defeat hard to take" and thought that some aspects of his opponent's biographical film had misled viewers.^[32] In the general election, Gravel faced Republican Elmer E. Rasmuson, a banker and former mayor of Anchorage.^[35] College students in the state implored Gruening to run a write-in campaign as an Independent, but legal battles prevented the senator from getting approval for it until only two weeks were left.^[35] A late appearance by anti-war presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy could not offset Gruening's lack of funds and endorsements; meanwhile, Gravel and Rasmuson both saturated local media with their filmed biographies.^[35] On November 5, 1968, Gravel won the general election, gaining 45 percent of the vote against 37 percent for Rasmuson and 18 percent for Gruening.^[35]

Senate assignments and style[edit]

Senator Mike Gravel

When Gravel joined the Senate in January 1969, he requested and received a seat on the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, which had direct relevance to Alaskan issues.^[34] He also got a spot on the Public Works Committee,^[34] which he held throughout his time in the Senate.^[37] Finally, he was a member of the Select Committee on Small Business.^[38] In 1971 he became chair of the Public Works Committee's Subcommittee on Public Buildings and Grounds,^[34] then by 1973 he was chair of its Subcommittee on Water Resources,^[39] then later its Subcommittee on Environmental Pollution. Gravel was also initially named to the Joint Committee on Congressional Operations.^[34] By 1973 Gravel was off the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee and the Select Small Business Committee and instead a member of the Finance Committee,^[39] and by 1977 was chair of that body's Subcommittee on Energy and Foundations.^[40] By 1973 he had also been on the ad hoc Special Committee to Study Secret and Confidential Government Documents.^[39]

By his own admission, Gravel was too new and "too abrasive" to be effective in the Senate by the usual means of seniority-based committee assignments or negotiating deals with other senators,^[21]^[41] and was sometimes seen as arrogant by the more senior members.^[21] Gravel instead relied upon attention-getting gestures to achieve what he wanted, hoping national exposure would force other senators to listen to him.^[41] As part of this he voted with Southern Democrats to keep the Senate filibuster rule in place,^[21] and accordingly supported Russell Long and Robert Byrd but opposed Ted Kennedy in Senate leadership battles.^[21] In retrospective assessment, University of Alaska Anchorage history professor Stephen Haycox would say, "Loose cannon is a good description of Gravel's Senate career. He was an off-the-wall guy, and you weren't really ever sure what he would do."^[42]

Nuclear issues and the Cold War[edit]

In the late 1960s and early 1970s the U.S. Department of Defense was in the process of performing tests for the nuclear warhead for the Spartan anti-ballistic missile. Two tests, the "Milrow" and "Cannikin" tests, were planned, involving the detonation of nuclear bombsunder Amchitka Island in Alaska. The Milrow test would be a one megaton calibration exercise for the second, and larger five megaton, Cannikin test, which would measure the effectiveness of the warhead. Gravel opposed the tests in Congress. Before the Milrow test took place in October 1969, he wrote that there were significant risks of earthquakes and other adverse consequences, and called for an independent national commission on nuclear and seismic safety to be created;^[43] he then made a personal appeal to President Nixon to stop the test.^[44]

After Milrow was conducted, there was continued pressure on the part of environmental groups against going forward with the larger Cannikin test, while the Federation of American Scientists claimed that the warhead being tested was already obsolete.^[44] In May 1971, Gravel sent a letter to U.S. Atomic Energy Commission hearings held in Anchorage, in which he said the risk of the test was not worth taking.^[45] Eventually a group not involving Gravel took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to issue an injunction against it,^[46] and the Cannikin test took place as scheduled in November 1971.^[46] Gravel had failed to stop the tests (notwithstanding his later claims during his 2008 presidential campaign).^{[nb 2]}

Nuclear power was considered an environmentally clean alternative for the commercial generation of electricity and was part of a popular national policy for the peaceful use of atomic energy in the 1950s and 1960s.^[47] Gravel publicly opposed this policy; besides the dangers of nuclear testing, he was a vocal critic of the Atomic Energy Commission,^[47] which oversaw American nuclear efforts, and of the powerful United States Congress Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, which had a stranglehold on nuclear policy and which Gravel tried to circumvent.^[47] In 1971, Gravel sponsored a bill to impose a moratorium on nuclear power plant construction and to make power utilities liable for any nuclear accidents;^[48] in 1975, he was still proposing similar moratoriums.^[49] By 1974, Gravel was allied with Ralph Nader's organization in opposing nuclear power.^[50]

Six months before U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's secret mission to the People's Republic of China (P.R.C.) in July 1971, Gravel introduced legislation to recognize and normalize relations with China, including a proposal for unity talks between the P.R.C. and the Republic of China (Taiwan) regarding the Chinese seat on the U.N. Security Council.^[51] Gravel reiterated his position in favor of recognition, with four other senators in agreement, during Senate hearings in June 1971.^[52]

Vietnam War, the draft, and the Pentagon Papers[edit]

President Richard Nixon had campaigned in 1968 on a promise to end the U.S. military draft,^[53]^[54] a decision endorsed by the February 1970 report of the Gates Commission.^[53]^[55] The existing draft law was scheduled to conclude at the end of June 1971, and the Senate faced a contentious debate about whether to extend it as the Vietnam War continued.^[56] The Nixon administrationannounced in February 1971 that it wanted a two-year extension to June 1973, after which the draft would end;^[57]^[58] Army planners had already been operating under the assumption of a two-year extension, after which an all-volunteer force would be in place.^[55]Skeptics such as Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John Stennis thought this unrealistic and wanted a four-year extension,^[57] but the two-year proposal is what went forward in Congress.^[56] By early May 1971, Gravel had indicated his intention to filibuster the draft renewal legislation, halting conscription and thereby bringing U.S. involvement in the war to a rapid end.^[59]

By June 1971, some Democratic senators opposed to the war wanted to limit the renewal to a one-year extension, while others wanted to end it immediately;^[56] Gravel reiterated that he was one of the latter, saying, "It's a senseless war, and one way to do away with it is to do away with the draft."^[56] A Senate vote on June 4 indicated majority support for the two-year extension.^[56] On June 18 Gravel announced again his intention to counteract that by filibustering the renewal legislation,^[60] defending the practice against those who associated it only with blocking civil rights legislation.^[60] The first filibuster attempt failed on June 23 when, by three votes, the Senate voted cloture for only the fifth time since 1927.^[61]

Protracted negotiations took place over House conference negotiations on the bill, revolving in large part around Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield's eventually unsuccessful amendment to tie renewal to a troop withdrawal timetable from Vietnam; during this time the draft law expired and no more were conscripted.^[62] On August 5, the Nixon administration pleaded for a renewal before the Senate went on recess, but Gravel blocked Stennis's attempt to limit debate, and no vote was held.^[63] Finally on September 21, 1971, the Senate invoked cloture over Gravel's second filibuster attempt by one vote, and then passed the two-year draft extension.^[62]Gravel's attempts to stop the draft had failed^[41] (notwithstanding Gravel's later claims that he had stopped or shortened the draft, taken at face value in some media reports, during his 2008 presidential campaign).^{[nb 3]}

Meanwhile, on June 13, 1971, The New York Times began printing large portions of the Pentagon Papers.^[64] The papers were a large collection of secret government documents and studies pertaining to the Vietnam War, of which former Defense Department analyst Daniel Ellsberg had made unauthorized copies and was determined to make public.^[65] Ellsberg had for a year and a half approached members of Congress – such as William Fulbright, George McGovern, Charles Mathias, and Pete McCloskey – about publishing the documents, on the grounds that the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution would give congressional members immunity from prosecution, but all had refused.^[66] Instead, Ellsberg gave the documents to the Times.

The U.S. Justice Department immediately tried to halt publication, on the grounds that the information revealed within the papers harmed the national interest.^[65] Within the next two weeks, a federal court injunction halted publication in The Times; The Washington Post and several other newspapers began publishing parts of the documents, with some of them also being halted by injunctions; and the whole matter went to the U.S. Supreme Court for arguments.^[65] Looking for an alternate publication mechanism, Ellsberg returned to his idea of having a member of Congress read them, and chose Gravel based on the latter's efforts against the draft;^[6] Gravel agreed where previously others had not. Ellsberg arranged for the papers to be given to Gravel on June 26^[6] via an intermediary, Washington Post editor Ben Bagdikian.^[67] Gravel used his counter-intelligence experience to choose a midnight transfer in front of the Mayflower Hotel in the center of Washington.^[68]

On the night of June 29, 1971, Gravel attempted to read the papers on the floor of the Senate as part of his filibuster against the draft, but was thwarted when no quorum could be formed.^[69] Gravel instead convened a session of the Buildings and Grounds subcommittee that he chaired.^[69] He got New York Congressman John Dow to testify that the war had soaked up funding for public buildings, thus making discussion of the war relevant to the committee.^[70] He began reading from the papers with the press in attendance,^[69] omitting supporting documents that he felt might compromise national security,^[71] and declaring, "It is my constitutional obligation to protect the security of the people by fostering the free flow of information absolutely essential to their democratic decision-making."^[71]

He read until 1 a.m., until with tears and sobs he said that he could no longer physically continue,^[71] the previous three nights of sleeplessness and fear about the future having taken their toll.^[6] Gravel ended the session by, with no other senators present, establishing unanimous consent^[70] to insert 4,100 pages of the Papers into the Congressional Record of his subcommittee.^[41]^[65] The following day, the Supreme Court's New York Times Co. v. United States decision ruled in favor of the newspapers^[65] and publication in The Times and others resumed. In July 1971, Bantam Books published an inexpensive paperback edition of the papers containing the material The Times had published.^[72]

Gravel, too, wanted to privately publish the portion of the papers he had read into the record, believing that "immediate disclosure of the contents of these papers will change the policy that supports the war."^[67] After being turned down by many commercial publishers,^[67] on August 4 he reached agreement with Beacon Press,^[73] the publishing arm of the Unitarian Universalist Association, of which Gravel was a member.^[41] Announced on August 17^[72] and published on October 22, 1971,^[67] this four-volume, relatively expensive set^[72] became the "Senator Gravel Edition", which studies from Cornell University and the Annenberg Center for Communication have labeled as the most complete edition of the Pentagon Papers to be published.^[74]^[75] The "Gravel Edition" was edited and annotated by Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, and included an additional volume of analytical articles on the origins and progress of the war, also edited by Chomsky and Zinn.^[75] Beacon Press then was subjected to a FBI investigation;^[68] an outgrowth of this was the Gravel v. United States court case, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled upon in June 1972;^[68] it held that the Speech or Debate Clause did grant immunity to Gravel for his reading the papers in his subcommittee, did grant some immunity to Gravel's congressional aide, but granted no immunity to Beacon Press in relation to their publishing the same papers.^[76]

The events of 1971 changed Gravel in the months following from an obscure freshman senator in a far corner of the country to a nationally visible political figure.^[41] He became a sought-after speaker on the college circuit as well as at political fundraisers,^[41]opportunities he welcomed as lectures were "the one honest way a Senator has to supplement his income."^[41] The Democratic candidates for the 1972 presidential election sought out his endorsement.^[41] In January 1972, Gravel did endorse Maine Senator Ed Muskie,^[77] hoping that his support would help Muskie with the party's left wing and in ethnic French-Canadian areas during the first primary contest in New Hampshire^[41] (Muskie won, but not strongly, and his campaign faltered soon after). In April 1972, Gravel appeared on all three network nightly newscasts to decry the Nixon administration's reliance on Vietnamization by making reference to the secret National Security Study Memorandum 1 document, which stated it would take 8–13 years before the Army of the Republic of Vietnam could defend South Vietnam.^[78] Gravel made excerpts from the study public,^[79] but his attempt to read NSSM 1 into the Congressional Record was blocked by Senators Robert P. Griffin and William B. Saxbe.^[78]

Run for Vice President in 1972[edit]

Gravel actively campaigned for the office of Vice President of the United States during the 1972 presidential election, announcing on June 2, 1972, over a month before the 1972 Democratic National Convention began, that he was interested in running for the nomination should the choice be opened up to convention delegates.^[80] Towards this end he began soliciting delegates for their support in advance of the convention.^[81] He was not alone in this effort, as former Governor of Massachusetts Endicott Peabody had been running a quixotic campaign for the same post^[82] since the prior year. Likely presidential nominee George McGovern was in fact considering the unusual move of naming three or four acceptable vice-presidential candidates and letting the delegates choose.^[82]

At the convention's final day on July 14, 1972, presidential nominee McGovern selected and announced Senator Thomas Eagleton of Missouri as his vice-presidential choice.^[83] Eagleton was unknown to many delegates and the choice seemed to smack of traditional ticket balancing considerations.^[83]^[84] Thus, there were delegates willing to look elsewhere. Gravel was nominated by Bettye Fahrenkamp, the Democratic National Committeewoman from Alaska.^[85] He then seconded his own nomination, breaking down in tears at his own words^[86] and maybe trying to withdraw his nomination.^[86] In any case he won 226 delegate votes, coming in third behind Eagleton and Frances "Sissy" Farenthold of Texas, in chaotic balloting^[84]^[87] that included several other candidates as well.

For his efforts, Gravel attracted some attention: famed writer Norman Mailer would say he "provided considerable excitement" and was "good-looking enough to have played leads in B-films",^[88] while Rolling Stone correspondent Hunter S. Thompson said Gravel "probably said a few things that might have been worth hearing, under different circumstances ..."^[89] Yet, the whole process had been doubly disastrous for the Democrats. The time consumed with the nominating and seconding and other speeches of all the vice-presidential candidates had lost the attention of the delegates on the floor^[89] and pushed McGovern's speech until 3:30 a.m.^[89] The haste with which Eagleton had been selected led to surprise when his past mental health treatments were revealed; he withdrew from the ticket soon after the convention, to be replaced by Sargent Shriver.

Re-election to Senate in 1974[edit]

C. R. Lewis in 1973. After eight years of representing Anchorage in the Alaska Senate, Lewis won the Republican nomination and challenged Gravel in the 1974 election.

Several years earlier, Alaska politicians had speculated that Gravel would have a hard time getting both renominated and elected when his first term expired,^[41] given that he was originally elected without a base party organization and tended to focus on national rather than local issues.^[41]

Nonetheless, in 1974 Gravel was re-elected to the Senate,^[90] winning 58 percent of the vote against 42 percent for Republican State Senator C. R. Lewis, who was a national officer of the John Birch Society.^[91]

Second term[edit]

In September 1975, Gravel was named as one of several Congressional Advisers to the Seventh Special Session of the United Nations, which met to discuss problems related to economic development and international economic cooperation.^[92]

In June 1976, Gravel was the focus of a federal investigation into allegations that he was involved in a sex-for-vote arrangement. Congressional staff clerk Elizabeth Ray (who was already the subject of a sex scandal that led to the downfall of Representative Wayne Hays) stated that in August 1972, she had sex with Gravel aboard a houseboat on the Potomac River, under the instruction of Representative Kenneth J. Gray, her boss at the time.^[93] Gray allegedly wanted to secure Gravel's support for further funding for construction of the National Visitor Center in Washington, a troubled project that was under the jurisdiction of subcommittees that both members chaired.^[94]^[95] Another Congressional staffer said she witnessed the boat encounter, but Gravel said at the time that he had never met either of the women.^[93]^[96] Both Gravel and Gray strongly denied that they had made any arrangement regarding legislation,^[93] and neither was ever charged with any wrongdoing.^[97] Decades later, Gravel wrote that he had indeed had sex with Ray, but had not changed any votes because of it.^[98]

Gravel and his main financial backer Gottstein had a falling out in 1978, during the Congressional debate over whether to allow a controversial sale of U.S. F-15 fighter aircraft to Saudi Arabia. Gottstein, an ardent backer of Israel, opposed the sale and requested that Gravel vote against it. But Gravel not only voted for it, but made an emotional speech attacking the anti-sale campaign.^[26] Gravel wrote in 2008 that it was the only time Gottstein had ever asked him for a favor, and the rupture resulted in them never speaking with each other again.^[99]

Alaskan issues[edit]

By 1971, Gravel was urging construction of the much-argued Trans-Alaska pipeline, addressing environmental concerns by saying that the pipeline's builders and operators should have "total and absolute" responsibility for any consequent environmental damage.^[100] Two years later, the debate over the pipeline came to a crux, with The New York Times describing it as "environmentalists [in] a holy war with the major oil companies."^[101] In February 1973 the U.S. Court of Appeals blocked the issuance of permits for construction;^[102] Gravel and fellow Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens reacted by urging Congress to pass legislation overturning the court's decision.^[103] Environmentalists opposed to the pipeline, such as the Environmental Defense Fund and the Sierra Club^[104] then sought to use the recently passed National Environmental Policy Act to their advantage;^[101] Gravel designed an amendment to the pipeline bill that would immunize the pipeline from any further court challenges under that law,^[101] and thus speed its construction. Passage of the amendment became the key battle regarding the pipeline. On July 17, 1973, in a dramatic roll call vote, the Gravel amendment was approved as a 49–49 tie was broken in favor by Vice President Spiro Agnew.^[104] The actual bill enabling the pipeline then passed easily;^[104] Gravel had triumphed.

Senator Gravel in 1973

In opposition to the Alaskan fishing industry, Gravel advocated American participation in the formation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. For two years he opposed legislation that established a 200-mile (320 km) Exclusive Economic Zone for marine resources. He was one of only 19 senators to vote against Senate approval for the expanded zone in 1976,^[105] saying it would undermine the U.S. position in Law of the Sea negotiations and that nations arbitrarily extending their fishing rights limits would "produce anarchy of the seas."^[105] The legislation was passed, and the United States has signed but never ratified the Law of the Sea treaty.

Gravel accumulated a complicated record on Indian affairs during his time in the Senate. During his first year in the Senate Gravel urged abolition of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.^[38] Later, he evolved past this view; in the early 1970s Gravel supported a demonstration project that established links between Alaskan villages and the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, for medical diagnostic communications. Gravel helped secure a private grant to facilitate the first Inuit Circumpolar Conference in 1977,^[106] attended by Inuit representatives from Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. These conferences now also include representatives from Russia. In 1977, Gravel helped lead an effort to have the U.S. Interior Department rename Mount McKinley to Denali;^[107] this eventually led to Denali National Park being so named. Subsequently, Gravel proposed a never-built "Denali City" development above the Tokositna River near the mountain, to consist of a giant Teflon dome enclosing hotels, golf courses, condominiums, and commercial buildings.^[108]

A key, emotional issue in the state at the time was "locking up Alaska", making reference to allocation of its vast, mostly uninhabited land.^[109] In 1978 Gravel blocked passage, via procedural delays^[109] such as walking out of House–Senate conference committeemeetings,^[110] of a complex bill which represented a compromise on land use policy. The bill would have put some of Alaska's vast federal land holdings under state control while preserving other portions for federal parks and refuges;^[19] the action would earn Gravel the enmity of fellow Alaska Senator Ted Stevens.^[19] In 1980, a new lands bill came up for consideration, that was less favorable to Alaskan interests and more liked by environmentalists; it set aside 127,000,000 acres (510,000 km²) of Alaska's 375,000,000 acres (1,520,000 km²) for national parks, conservation areas, and other restricted federal uses.^[111] Gravel blocked it, as not ensuring enough future development in the state.^[111] A new compromise version of the bill came forward, which reduced the land set aside to 104,000,000 acres (420,000 km²).^[109] Gravel, in representation of Alaskan interests, tried to stop the bill, including staging a filibuster.^[19] The Senate, however, voted cloture and then passed the bill.^[111]^[112] Frustrated, Gravel said "the legislation denies Alaska its rights as a state, and denies the U.S. crucial strategic resources,"^[111] and commented that the Senate was "a little bit like a tank of barracudas."^[109]

In 1978, Gravel authored and secured the passage into law of the General Stock Ownership Corporation, that became Subchapter U of the Tax Code under the Internal Revenue Code of 1954.^[113]^[114] While that was originally done as a prerequisite to a failed 1980 Alaskan ballot initiative that would have paid dividends to Alaskan citizens for pipeline-related revenue,^[114] it also turned out to be significant in the development of binary economics.^[113]^{[clarification needed]}

Loss of Senate seat in 1980[edit]

In 1980, Gravel was challenged for the Democratic Party's nomination by State Representative Clark Gruening, the grandson of the man Gravel had defeated in a primary 12 years earlier. Several factors made Gravel vulnerable. As an insurgent candidate in 1968, Gravel had never established a firm party base.^[36] Not liking to hunt or fish, he was also always culturally suspect in the state.^[115]^[116]A group of Democrats, including future governor Steve Cowper,^[117] led the campaign against Gravel, with Gravel's actions in respect to the 1978 and 1980 Alaskan lands bills a major issue,^[19]^[112] especially given that the latter's dénouement happened but a week before the primary.^[109] The sources of Gravel's campaign funds, some of which came from political action committees outside the state, also became an issue in the contest.^[112] Another factor may have been Alaska's blanket primary system of the time,^[118] which allowed unlimited voting across party lines and from its many independents;^[117] Republicans believed Gruening would be an easier candidate to defeat in the general election.^[112]

Gruening won the bitterly fought^[112] primary, with about 55 percent of the vote to Gravel's 44 percent.^[112] Gravel would later concede that by the time of his defeat, he had alienated "almost every constituency in Alaska."^[19]

Gruening lost the general election to Republican Frank Murkowski. Gravel was the last Democrat to represent Alaska in Congress for 28 years, until Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich defeated Stevens, by now an aged, iconic figure who had just been convicted of seven felonies for taking unreported gifts, in a very close and protracted election result in mid-November 2008.^[119] (Stevens's conviction was subsequently vacated due to prosecutorial misconduct.^[120])

Career after leaving the Senate[edit]

A difficult transition[edit]

Gravel took the 1980 defeat hard, recalling years later: "I had lost my career. I lost my marriage. I was in the doldrums for ten years after my defeat,"^[121] and "Nobody wanted to hire me for anything important. I felt like I was worthless. I didn't know what I could do."^[6]By his own later description, Gravel had been a womanizer while in the Senate, and in December 1980 he and his wife Rita separated.^[98]^[122]^[123] They filed for divorce in September 1981;^[123] she would later get all of his Senate pension income.^[19]

During the 1980s, Gravel was a real estate developer in Anchorage and Kenai, Alaska,^[124] a consultant, and a stockbroker.^[19] One of his real estate ventures, a condominium business, was forced to declare bankruptcy and a lawsuit ensued.^[19] During 1986, Gravel worked in partnership with Merrill Lynch Capital Markets to buy losses that financially troubled Alaska Native Corporations could not take as tax deductions and sell them to large national companies looking for tax writeoffs.^[125]

Gravel married his second wife, Whitney Stewart Gravel, a former administrative assistant for Senator Jacob Javits,^[6] in 1984.^[126]

Return to politics[edit]

Mike and Whitney Gravel with their dog Ginger

In 1989, Mike Gravel reentered politics.^[19] He founded and led The Democracy Foundation, which promotes direct democracy.^[127] He established the Philadelphia II corporation, which seeks to replicate the original 1787 Constitutional Convention in bringing direct democracy about.^[128]

Gravel led a quixotic effort to get a United States Constitutional amendment to allow voter-initiated federal legislation similar to state ballot initiatives.^[19]^[129] He argued that Americans are able to legislate responsibly, and that the Act and Amendment in the National Initiativewould allow American citizens to become "law makers".

In 2001, Gravel became director of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, where he admired institute co-founder Gregory Fossedal's work on direct democracy in Switzerland.^[128] By 2004, Gravel had become chair of the institute,^[130] and Fossedal (who in turn was a director of the Democracy Foundation) gave the introduction at Gravel's presidential announcement.^[131]

In 2003, Gravel gave a speech on direct democracy at a conference hosted by the American Free Press. The event was cosponsored by the Barnes Review,^[19] a journal that endorses Holocaust denial.^[132] After some controversy over his appearance, Gravel apologized, saying he did not realize the group's ties. Gravel has said repeatedly that he does not share the group's views on the Holocaust,^[133] stating, "You better believe I know that six million Jews were killed. I've been to the Holocaust Museum. I've seen the footage of General Eisenhower touring one of the camps. They're [referring to the Barnes Review and publisher Willis Carto] nutty as loons if they don't think it happened".^[134] The group invited Gravel to speak again, but he declined.^[133]

Mike and Whitney Gravel lived in Arlington County, Virginia, until 2010 and now reside in Burlingame, California.^[135] They have the two grown children from his first marriage, Martin Gravel and Lynne Gravel Mosier, and four grandchildren.^[136] Whitney Gravel's income has sustained the couple since 1998.^[6] In the 2000s, Gravel suffered poor health, requiring three surgeries in 2003 for back pain and neuropathy.^[19] Due to unreimbursed medical expenses and debts from his political causes, he declared personal bankruptcyin 2004.^[6]^[19] He began taking a salary from the non-profit organizations for which he was working; much of that income was lent to his presidential campaign. In 2007, he declared that he had "zero net worth".^[19]

2008 presidential campaign[edit]

Democratic Party primaries[edit]

Mike Gravel at the launch of his Presidential campaign in April 2006

At the start of 2006, Gravel decided the best way he could promote direct democracy and the National Initiative was to run for president.^[19] On April 17, 2006,^[137] Gravel became the first candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2008 election, announcing his run in a speech to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Short on campaign cash, he took public transportation to get to his announcement.^[138] (Gravel called for public financing of elections.^[139]) Other principal Gravel positions were the FairTax, withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq within 120 days, a single payer national health care system, and term limits.

In particular, he had opposed the Iraq War from the beginning,^[140]^[141] and in 2006 Gravel said that U.S. troops in Iraq, as in Vietnam, had "died in vain".^[140]^[142] He also favored a regional peace initiative, as well as reparation payments for Iraqis.^[140]^[141] Gravel also called for a "U.S. corporate withdrawal from Iraq", with reconstruction contracts held by U.S. companies to be turned over to Iraqi firms.^[140]^[141]

Gravel campaigned almost full-time in New Hampshire, the first primary state, following his announcement. Opinion polls of contenders for the Democratic nomination showed Gravel with 1 percent or less support. By the end of March 2007, Gravel's campaign had less than $500 in cash on hand against debts of nearly $90,000.^[143]

Gravel (far left) at an August 2007 candidates' forum; frontrunners Edwards, Clinton, and Obama are to the immediate right of the moderator

Because of his time in the Senate, Gravel was invited to many of the early Democratic presidential debates. During the initial one at South Carolina State University on April 26, 2007, he suggested a bill requiring the president to withdraw from Iraq on pain of criminal penalties. He also advocated positions such as opposing preemptive nuclear war. He stated that the Iraq War had the effect of creating more terrorists and that the "war was lost the day that George Bush invaded Iraq on a fraudulent basis."^[144] Regarding his fellow candidates, he said, "I got to tell you, after standing up with them, some of these people frighten me – they frighten me."^[144] Media stories said that Gravel was responsible for much of whatever "heat" and "flashpoints" had taken place.^[144]^[145]^[146] Gravel gained considerable publicity by shaking up the normally staid multiple-candidate format; The New York Times' media critic said that what Gravel had done was "steal a debate with outrageous, curmudgeonly statements."^[147] The Internet was a benefit: a YouTube video of his responses in the debate was viewed more than 225,892 times, ranking seventeenth in most views for week and first among news and politics clips;^{[nb 4]} his name became the fifteenth most searched-for in the blogosphere;^[148] and his website garnered more traffic than those of frontrunners Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, or John Edwards.^[19] Gravel appeared on the popular Colbert Report on television on May 2,^[19] and his campaign and career were profiled in national publications such as Salon.^[19] Two wordless, Warholesque campaign videos, "Rock" and "Fire", were released on YouTube in late May and became hits,^[149] and eventually gained over 760,000 and 185,000 views respectively.^[150]^[151] "Rock," in turn, was given airtime during an episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Some thirty-five years after he first achieved the national spotlight, he had found it again.

Gravel's fundraising efforts for the first three quarters of 2007.

All this did not improve his performance in the polls; a May 2007 CNN poll showed him with less than 0.5 percent support among Democrats.^[152] Gravel was in the next several debates, in one case after CNN reversed a decision to exclude him.^[153] Gravel, as with some of the other second-tier candidates, did not get as much time as the leaders; during the June 2, 2007, New Hampshire debate, which lasted two hours, he was asked 10 questions and allowed to speak for five minutes and 37 seconds.^[154]

During the July 23, 2007, CNN-YouTube presidential debate, Gravel responded to audience applause when he had complained of a lack of airtime and said: "Thank you. Has it been fair thus far?"^[155] Detractors began to liken him to "the cranky uncle who lives in the attic,"^[156] or "the angry old guy that just seemed to want to become angrier."^[157] Berkeley political scientist David Terr found that moderator George Stephanopoulos directed roughly five percent of his questions to Gravel;^[158] in a poll asking who did the best in the debate, Gravel placed seventh among the eight candidates.^[159]National opinion polls of contenders for the Democratic nomination continued to show Gravel with one percent or zero percent numbers. By the end of the third-quarter 2007, Gravel had about $17,500 in cash on hand, had collected a total of about $380,000 so far during the 2008 election cycle,^[160] and was continuing to run a threadbare campaign with minimal staff.^[6]

Gravel in Manchester, New Hampshire, two days before the January 8, 2008 Democratic primary there.

Beginning with the October 30, 2007, Philadelphia event, Gravel was excluded from most of the debates, with the debate sponsors or the Democratic National Committee saying Gravel's campaign had not met fund-raising, polling, or local campaign organizational thresholds.^[161]^[162]^[163] For the Philadelphia exclusion, Gravel blamed corporate censorship on the part of sponsor owner and alleged military-industrial complex member General Electric for his exclusion^[164]^[165] and mounted a counter-gathering and debate against a video screen a short distance away,^[166] but he had lost his easiest publicity. In reaction, supporters organized "mass donation days" to try to help the campaign gain momentum and funds, such as on December 5, 2007, the anniversary of the Repeal of Prohibition.^[167]

Gravel did not compete in the initial 2008 vote, the Iowa caucuses,^[168] but was still subjected to a false report from MSNBC that he had pulled out of the race afterward.^[169] Gravel did focus his attention on the second 2008 vote, the New Hampshire primary. There he received about 400 votes out of some 280,000 cast, or 0.14 percent,^[170] before taking time off to improve his health.^[171] He resumed campaigning, but fared no better in subsequent states. By the end of January 2008, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Gravel were the only remaining Democrats from the initial debates still running;^[172] Gravel vowed to stay in the presidential campaign until November.^[173]^[174] On March 11, 2008, Gravel continued to remain in the Democratic race but additionally endorsed a Green Party candidate for president, Jesse Johnson,^[175] saying he wanted to help Johnson prevail against Green Party rivals Cynthia McKinney and Ralph Nader.^[176] By late March, Gravel had almost no fundraising and was only on the ballot in one of the next ten Democratic primaries.^[177]

Switch to Libertarian Party[edit]

Gravel (second from left) participating in a candidates debate at the 2008 Libertarian Party National Convention (eventual winner Barr is left of him)

On March 25, 2008, Gravel announced that he would leave the Democrats and join the Libertarian Party,^[178]^[179] saying: "My libertarian views, as well as my strong stance against war, the military industrial complex and American imperialism, seem not to be tolerated by Democratic Party elites who are out of touch with the average American; elites that reject the empowerment of American citizens I offered to the Democratic Party at the beginning of this presidential campaign with the National Initiative for Democracy."^[178] The following day Gravel entered the race for the 2008 Libertarian presidential nomination,^[180] saying that he would have run as a third-party candidate all along except that he needed the public exposure that came from being in the earlier Democratic debates.^[180] Gravel's initial notion of running as a fusion candidate with other parties was met with skepticism^[181] and not pursued.

As a Libertarian candidate, Gravel faced resistance to his liberal past and unorthodox positions;^[182] nevertheless, he garnered more support than he had as a Democrat, placing second and third in two April 2008 straw polls.^[183] In the May 25 balloting at the 2008 Libertarian National Convention in Denver, Gravel finished fourth out of eight candidates on the initial ballot, with 71 votes out of a total 618; he trailed former Congressman and eventual winner Bob Barr, author Mary Ruwart, and businessman Wayne Allyn Root.^[184] Gravel's position did not subsequently improve and he was eliminated on the fourth ballot.^[184] Afterwards he stated that "I just ended my political career," but he vowed to continue promoting his positions as a writer and lecturer.^[185]

Subsequent activities[edit]

2008–2016[edit]

Gravel speaking about the National Initiative at Ball State University in February 2010.

In June 2008, Gravel endorsed the NYC 9/11 Ballot Initiative, saying the measure would create a "citizens commission rather than a government commission" with subpoena power against top U.S. officials to "make a true investigation as to what happened" regarding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.^[186]^[187] Gravel subsequently said that, "Individuals in and out of government may certainly have participated with the obviously known perpetrators of this dastardly act. Suspicions abound over the analysis presented by government. Obviously an act that has triggered three wars, Afghan, Iraqi and the continuing War on Terror, should be extensively investigated which was not done and which the government avoids addressing."^[188]

In August 2008, Gravel was speaking to a crowd of supporters of Sami Al-Arian (who two years earlier had pleaded guilty and been sentenced to prison for a charge of conspiracy in helping Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a "specially designated terrorist" organization)^[189]^[190] when he was caught on tape saying of Al-Arian's prosecutor, "Find out where he lives, find out where his kids go to school, find out where his office is: picket him all the time. Call him a racist in signs if you see him. Call him an injustice. Call him whatever you want to call him, but in his face all the time."^[191]Gravel was criticized for potentially involving the children of the prosecutor, and Al-Arian's family disavowed the sentiments.^[191]^[192]

Gravel defended Alaska Governor Sarah Palin after she was chosen as Republican presidential nominee John McCain's running mate in September 2008. He praised Palin's record in standing up to corruption among Alaskan Republicans, thought her national inexperience was an asset not a detriment, and predicted that the "Troopergate" investigation into whether she improperly fired a state official would "come out in her favor."^[193] Gravel made clear he would not support or vote for either McCain-Palin or Obama-Biden in the general election.^[193] The following year, Gravel said that Palin's politics were "terrible, but that doesn't detract from the fact that she's a very talented person". He predicted that Palin would run for president in 2012 and that "she's going to surprise a lot of people"^[116] Palin did not run, but Gravel's prediction about "TrooperGate" was accurate as Palin was found not to have violated ethics laws.

From mid-2008 through October 2009 Gravel gave several lectures at South Korean universities about the Korean National Initiative, a Korean adaption of the National Initiative Gravel has proposed in the United States.

In December 2010, Gravel praised WikiLeaks, in the news during the year for the Afghan War documents leak, Iraq War documents leak, and United States diplomatic cables leak, as the "most significant effort to save democracy (which is slowly being eclipsed by the Military Industrial Complex) since the release of the Pentagon Papers".^[188] Gravel indicated in December 2010 that he might run for president again and possibly challenge President Obama for the Democratic nomination for the 2012 presidential election,^[188] but he did not.

In 2013, Gravel attended the International Conference on Hollywoodism in Tehran, Iran, an Iranian government-organized anti-Hollywood conference.^[194] Gravel noted that the conference was attended by "various elements of extremes" but said it was necessary to discuss how the U.S. film industry portrayed Iran in order to prevent "an insane war" between the two nations.^[195]

In May 2013, Gravel was one of several former members of Congress to accept $20,000 from the Paradigm Research Group, an advocacy group for UFO disclosure, as part of holding what they termed a Citizen Hearing on Disclosure, modeled after congressional hearings, regarding supposed U.S. government suppression of evidence concerning UFOs.^[196] Gravel said, "Something is monitoring the planet, and they are monitoring it very cautiously, because we are a very warlike planet,"^[197] and, "What we're faced with here is, in areas of the media, and the government too, an effort to marginalize and ridicule people who have specific knowledge."^[196]

In December 2014, he was announced as the new CEO of KUSH, a company which makes marijuana-infused products for medicinal and recreational use, and a subsidiary of Cannabis Sativa, Inc.^[198] He also became an Independent Director of Cannabis Sativa.^[199]

During the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries, Gravel praised Bernie Sanders and his campaign, saying "Bernie is one of the most gifted politicians I have ever observed. He's a person of great integrity and very clever." Gravel predicted that Sanders would be elected president but would be unable to get his key reforms through Congress, and thus that Sanders and his supporters should back some of the proposals of the National Initiative.^[200]

2020 presidential campaign[edit]

On March 19, 2019, Gravel announced that he is considering running in the 2020 Democratic primaries. He said, "The goal will not be to win, but to bring a critique of American imperialism to the Democratic debate stage. A "Mike Gravel for President Exploratory Committee" has also been formed, with the group filing a statement of organization with the Federal Election Commission on that same day.^[201]^{[nb 5]} The filing was the idea of a group of Millennials, and done with Gravel's consent, but without his involvement.^[202]Intrigued by the group's commitment to amplifying his long-held policy goals, Gravel (who would be 90 years, 8 months old on Inauguration Day in 2021) plans to meet with them in April, and to discuss a 2020 White House run with his wife.^[203]

Political positions[edit]

Mike Gravel with campaign finance reform activist and friend Ethel "Granny D" Haddock

Alan Abramowitz and Jeffrey Allan Segal described Gravel as "a maverick, if not an eccentric, in the Senate."^[204]^[205] His Americans for Democratic Action "Liberal Quotient" scores ranged from 81 out of 100 (1971) to 39 out of 100 (1980),^[204] with an average of around 61.^[206] His American Conservative Union scores ranged from 0 out of 100 (several years, including 1971 and 1972) to 38 out of 100 (1979), with an average of 14.^[207] Abramowitz and Segal note that Gravel's lowest ADA ratings coincided with his two Senate re-election bids,^[204] and for the most part his highest ACU ratings followed the same pattern.

In 1972, as a young senator, Gravel published Citizen Power: A People's Platform, a manifesto outlining his populist reform proposals.^[208]

Social issues[edit]

On drug policy, Gravel said in 2007 that he favors decriminalization and treating addiction as a public health matter.^[139]^[209]^[210] During his 2008 presidential candidacy, Gravel condemned the War on Drugs as a failure, saying that it did "nothing but savage our inner cities and put our children at risk."^[210] Gravel called for abolition of the capital punishment in his book Citizen Power, and adhered to this position during his 2008 run for president.^[140] Gravel favors abortion rights.^[140]^[141]^[142]

During the 2008 campaign, Gravel was a strong supporter of LGBT rights. He supported same-sex marriage and opposed the Defense of Marriage Act and the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.^[140]^[141] He wrote in 2008 that "depriving gays and lesbians of equal rights is immoral."^[140]

Foreign policy and defense issues[edit]

Gravel is a critic of American imperialism.^[139]

Gravel firmly opposes U.S. military action against Iran and Syria.^[141] He voiced opposition to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, the Military Commissions Act of 2006, the use of torture, indefinite detention, and what he called "flagrant ignorance" of the Geneva Convention.^[141] In 2014, Gravel called for the release of the full, unredacted Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture.^[211]

Gravel opposes the use of international sanctions as a policy tool and blamed the ones against Iraq under Saddam Hussein for the deaths of a half-million children in that country.^[140] In 2013, Gravel said that sanctions against Iran were "illegal".^[212]

During his 2008 candidacy, Gravel called for a cut in military spending, variously reported to be 15 percent^[140] or 50 percent.^[142] He called for the savings to boost public education spending.^[140] To spur international nuclear nonproliferation efforts, Gravel called for unilateral reductions in the U.S. nuclear arsenal.^[139]

In 2008, Gravel criticized the decision of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to not pursue the efforts to impeach George W. Bush and the attempted impeachment of Dick Cheney, saying also that Bush and Cheney has committed crimes and deserved "to be prosecuted" at The Hague.^[213] In 2013, Gravel expressed disdain for President Obama, calling him "a total fraud" and saying that both Bush and Obama should be tried "for the crimes and murders they've committed" in the International Court of Justice.^[214] Gravel specifically condemned Obama for the drone strikes in Pakistan and elsewhere.^[214]

Economy, immigration, and environment[edit]

During his 2008 candidacy, Gravel favored a progressive FairTax scheme, which would abolish the Internal Revenue Service, eliminate the federal income tax (which Gravel referred to as "corrupt"^[139]), and impose a national sales tax.^[141]^[215]^[216] To offset the new sales taxes on essential goods, Gravel's plan called for monthly government rebate payments to individuals and families.^[141]^[215]

Gravel opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) during his 2008 candidacy, calling it unfair and economically harmful and needing renegotiation.^[140]^[141] Gravel believed that NAFTA was the "root cause" of illegal migration to the U.S.^[141] He favored a guest worker program and "setting up naturalization procedures that would fairly bring immigrants into legal status."^[141] In a 2007 interview, Gravel identified himself as "very much of a globalist" who believed in open markets and open borders and condemned the scapegoating of undocumented immigrants.^[217] Gravel also said that he favored eliminating the cap on H1B visas.^[217]

As a senator from Alaska, Gravel favored drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but during his 2008 campaign opposed it.^[140]In 2008, Gravel supported a carbon tax to combat climate change.^[140]

Gravel spoke in favor of net neutrality during his presidential campaign.^[217]

Education and healthcare[edit]

Gravel called for the cost of college tuition to be borne by the federal government, rather than students.^[140] In his 2008 campaign, he called the No Child Left Behind Act "a failure"^[139] and called for it to be "reformed and fully funded".^[141] He expressed support for universal pre-kindergarten and the expansion of the Head Start program; and expressed an openness to charter schools.^[141]

Gravel also called for publicly funded universal health care to replace the current employer-sponsored health insurancesystem.^[140]^[141] He supported "full funding" of the VA system.^[141] When asked in 2007 about naturopathy, homeopathy, and acupuncture, Gravel said that he was "totally" in favor and was "very very much in favor" of holistic health care.^[139]

Awards and honors[edit]

In 2008, Gravel received the Columbia University School of General Studies' first annual Isaac Asimov Lifetime Achievement Award.^[218]

Electoral history[edit]

Writings[edit]

Gravel, Mike. Jobs and More Jobs. Mt. McKinley Publishers, 1968.
Gravel, Mike. Citizen Power: A People's Platform. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972. ISBN 0-03-091465-5.
- revised and reissued as Citizen Power: A Mandate for Change, AuthorHouse, 2008. ISBN 1-4343-4315-4.
Gravel, Mike and Lauria, Joe. A Political Odyssey: The Rise of American Militarism and One Man's Fight to Stop It. Seven Stories Press, 2008. ISBN 1-58322-826-8.
Gravel, Mike and Eisenbach, David. The Kingmakers: How the Media Threatens Our Security and Our Democracy. Phoenix Books, 2008. ISBN 1-59777-586-X.
Gravel, Mike. Voice of a Maverick: The Speeches and Writings of Senator Mike Gravel. Brandywine House, 2008.
Gravel, Mike. Foreword to "Poisoned Power: The Case Against Nuclear Power Plants." [John W. Goffman & Arthur R. Tamplin, Rodale Press, Inc., Emmaus, PA, June 1971].

Notes[edit]

^ The Alaska Constitution as ratified in 1956 had originally placed Anchorage in District 10, and given the community eight seats in the House based upon the 1950 United States Census. The reapportionment and redistricting proclamation of Governor William A. Egan, dated December 7, 1961, placed Anchorage into District 8 (due to the elimination of two districts earlier in the order), and given the community 14 seats in the House based upon the 1960 United States Census. See Mitchell, Elaine B., ed. (1973). "Constitution of the State of Alaska". Alaska Blue Book(First ed.). Juneau: Alaska Department of Education, Division of State Libraries. pp. 201–203. This change occurred immediately prior to Gravel's election to the House. These districts were without designated seats. Therefore, it is impossible to determine a direct predecessor or successor, especially with the higher turnover of legislative seats which existed at the time. Gravel served from District 8 with: William H. Sanders (1963–1964); Bennie Leonard, Keith H. Miller, James C. Parsons, Jack H. White, William C. Wiggins (1963–1965); Homer Moseley (1963–1966); Earl D. Hillstrand, Joseph P. Josephson, Bruce B. Kendall, Carl L. Lottsfeldt, John L. Rader, Harold D. Strandberg (1963–1967); George M. Sullivan (1964–1965); Carl F. Brady, Bernard J. "Pop" Carr, Sr., Gene Guess, M. Daniel Plotnick, Charles J. Sassara, Jr., Ted Stevens (1965–1967); William J. Moran (1966–1967). See Alaska Legislature Roster of Members 1913–2010(PDF).
^ Gravel claimed during his 2008 presidential campaign that "the Pentagon was performing five calibration tests ... [Gravel] succeeded in halting the program after the second test, limiting the expansion of this threat to the marine environment of the North Pacific." See "Mike Gravel's Legislative Accomplishments". Mike Gravel for President 2008. Archived from the original on December 26, 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-30.In reality, the Milrow and Cannikin tests were the only ones planned and both of them were carried out. See "Round 2 at Amchitka". Time. 1971-07-17. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
^ During Gravel's 2008 presidential campaign, he would claim that, "In 1971, Senator Mike Gravel (D-Alaska), by waging a lone five-month filibuster, singlehandedly ended the draft in The United States thereby saving thousands of lives." See "Mike Gravel and the Draft". Mike Gravel for President 2008. Archived from the original on January 17, 2008. Retrieved 2007-12-30. A 2006 article in The Nation stated that "It was Gravel who in 1971, against the advice of Democratic leaders in the Senate, launched a one-man filibuster to end the peacetime military draft, forcing the administration to cut a deal that allowed the draft to expire in 1973." See John Nichols (2006-04-15). "Pentagon Papers Figure Bids for Presidency". The Nation. Archived from the originalon January 17, 2008. Retrieved 2007-12-20. Neither of these assessments is correct. From the beginning of the draft review process in February 1971, the Nixon administration wanted a two-year extension to June 1973, followed by a shift to an all-volunteer force – see David E. Rosenbaum (1971-02-03). "Stennis Favors 4-Year Draft Extension, but Laird Asks 2 Years" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-30.; for confirmation, see "Once More, "Greetings"". Time. 1971-10-04. Retrieved 2008-02-02. – and this is what the September 1971 Senate vote gave them. Gravel's goal had been to block the renewal of the draft completely, thereby ending conscription past June 1971. See Mike Gravel (1971-06-22). "Filibustering the Draft" (fee required). The New York Times. Letters to the Editor. Retrieved 2007-12-29. In Gravel's 2008 memoir, he conceded that he failed to bring about the immediate end of the war that he wanted, and that Nixon had gotten the two-year extension he had originally asked for. However, Gravel wrote that he had never trusted Nixon's pledge to only extend the draft for two years, and that when Nixon let the draft expire in 1973 it was the threat of a renewed filibuster that caused him to stick to the pledge. See Gravel and Lauria, A Political Odyssey, p. 180. No other accounts support this interpretation; in fact, Nixon had first become interested in the idea of an all-volunteer army during his time out of office, and he saw ending the draft as an effective way to undermine the anti-Vietnam war movement, since he believed affluent youths would stop protesting the war once their own possibility of having to fight in it was gone. See Glass, Andrew (January 27, 2012). "U.S. military draft ends, Jan. 27, 1973". Politico. Retrieved 2019-03-19. and Ambrose, Nixon, Volume Two: The Triumph of a Politician, pp. 264–266.
^ "p. Mike Gravel at the Democratic Debate". This video has been removed due to terms of use violation. YouTube. Archived from the original on 2007-05-18. Retrieved 2007-05-04. The YouTube debate clip was also ranked #7 top rated (for week), #23 top favored (for week), #25 most discussed (for week), #4 most linked (for week), and #1 top rated – news and politics (for week).
^ 1. Mike Gravel for President Exploratory Committee. 2. Date: 03/19/2019. 3. FEC Committee ID #: C00699637 This committee is a Principal Campaign Committee. Candidate: Mike Gravel. Party: Democratic Party. Office Sought: President. Signed: Elijah Emery. Date Signed: 03/19/2019. Official Committee URL: mikegravel.org. See: "FEC Form 1 · Statement of Organization · Filing FEC-1320193". docquery.fec.gov. Washington, D.C.: Federal Election Commission. Retrieved March 27, 2019.

References[edit]

^ Mike Gravel genealogy, Wargs.
^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Current Biography Yearbook 1972, p. 182.
^ Jump up to:a b Gravel and Lauria, A Political Odyssey, pp. 69–70.
^ Thernstrom, Stephan, ed. (1980). Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-37512-3. pp. 392, 398.
^ Jump up to:a b Moriarty, Jo-Ann (February 19, 2007). "Springfield native has sights set on top job". The Republican. Springfield. Retrieved July 7, 2007.
^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m Leahy, Michael (2007-09-09). "Last". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
^ Gravel and Lauria, A Political Odyssey, p. 74.
^ "How the Pentagon Papers Came to be Published by the Beacon Press: A Remarkable Story Told by Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, Dem Presidential Candidate Mike Gravel and Unitarian Leader Robert West". Democracy Now!. July 2, 2007. Archived from the original on July 3, 2007.
^ Gravel and Lauria, A Political Odyssey, p. 83.
^ Gravel and Lauria, A Political Odyssey, p. 81.
^ Jump up to:a b c Dudar, Helen (July 3, 1971). "unknown". New York Post.
^ Gravel and Lauria, A Political Odyssey, pp. 105, 128.
^ Jump up to:a b c Mike Gravel's Unitarian Universalism, by Doug Muder, UUWorld, December 10, 2007. Accessed December 19, 2007.
^ Gravel and Lauria, A Political Odyssey, pp. 105, 107–108.
^ Jump up to:a b c d e Gravel and Lauria, A Political Odyssey, pp. 108–110.
^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Martin Tolchin (1976-02-27). "Senators From Hinterlands Recall Early Years in City; U.S. Senators Recall Their Early Years in City" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-11.
^ Jump up to:a b Stephen Haycox, Gravel entry in American Legislative Leaders in the West, 1911–1994, Greenwood Press, 1997, p. 126; ISBN 0-313-30212-X.
^ "Notable Alumni". Columbia University. Retrieved 2014-07-14.
^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa Alex Koppelman (May 7, 2007). "Don't worry, be Mike Gravel". salon.com. Archived from the original on 2009-06-27. Retrieved July 4,2007.
^ Jump up to:a b c d Gravel and Lauria, A Political Odyssey, pp. 134–135.
^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Warren Weaver, Jr. (1971-07-02). "Impetuous Senator: Maurice Robert Gravel" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-24.
^ Jump up to:a b Current Biography Yearbook 1972, p. 184.
^ Hugh G. (Jerry) Wade (2009-01-05). "In territorial Juneau, statehood fans were a minority". Anchorage Daily News. Archived from the original on 2012-07-19. Retrieved 2009-01-16.
^ Gravel and Lauria, A Political Odyssey, p. 136.
^ Jump up to:a b Gravel and Lauria, A Political Odyssey, pp. 142–143.
^ Jump up to:a b Lehmann, Nicholas (1979-09-30). "The Great Alaska Feud". The Washington Post. Also available as "Senatorial Feud Overshadows Alaska Lands Bill Fight", The Hartford Courant, 1979-10-05.
^ "State Officials". Session Laws of Alaska, 1963. Juneau: Office of the Alaska Secretary of State. 1963. p. viii.
^ Gravel and Lauria, A Political Odyssey, pp. 143–144, 149.
^ Democracy in Action (April 17, 2007). "Interview with Former U.S. Sen. Mike Gravel". National Press Club. Retrieved 2007-04-29.
^ Jump up to:a b Gravel and Lauria, A Political Odyssey, pp. 145–146.
^ Jump up to:a b Zelnick, C. Robert (June 27, 1971). "What Makes Mike Gravel Run?". The Washington Post. p. B1.
^ Jump up to:a b c d Gruening, Ernest (1973). Many Battles: The Autobiography of Ernest Gruening. New York: Liveright. pp. 510–511. ISBN 978-0-87140-565-4.
^ Ron Faucheux (June 1993). "Great slogans: reading between the lines of America's best political rhymes and mottos". Campaigns & Elections. Archived from the original (fee required)on 2011-05-11. Retrieved 2008-02-02.
^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Current Biography Yearbook 1972, p. 183.
^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Chinn, Ronald E. (September 1969). "The 1968 Election in Alaska". The Western Political Quarterly. 22 (3): 456–461. doi:10.2307/446336. JSTOR 446336.
^ Jump up to:a b Johnson, Robert KC (August 7, 2006). "Not Many Senators Have Found Themselves in Joe Lieberman's Predicament". History News Network. Retrieved July 7, 2007.
^ Congressional Quarterly Almanac 96th Congress 1st Session 1979. 34. Congressional Quarterly. 1980.
^ Jump up to:a b Congressional Quarterly Almanac 91st Congress 1st Session 1969. 25. Congressional Quarterly. 1970. pp. 52–55, 587.
^ Jump up to:a b c Congressional Quarterly Almanac 93rd Congress 1st Session 1973. 29. Congressional Quarterly. 1974. pp. 42–44.
^ Congressional Quarterly Almanac 95th Congress 1st Session 1977. 32. Congressional Quarterly. 1978.
^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k l David E. Rosenbaum (1971-10-26). "Fame Travels With Senator Gravel, the Man Who Read Pentagon Papers Into the Record" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-24.
^ David Westphal (2008-01-13). "Gravel the Firebrand". The Miami Herald. Archived from the original on July 4, 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-16.
^ Gravel, Mike (1969-07-31). "Risks in Alaska Tests" (fee required). The New York Times. Letters to the Editor. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
^ Jump up to:a b Richard D. Lyons (1971-08-23). "Underground A-Test Is Still Set For Aleutians but Is Not Final" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
^ "Witnesses Oppose Aleutian H-Blast" (fee required). The New York Times. 1971-05-30. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
^ Jump up to:a b "The Amchitka Bomb Goes Off". Time. 1971-11-15. Retrieved 2006-10-09.
^ Jump up to:a b c Anthony Ripley (1970-07-16). "Atomic Power: A Bitter Controversy; Atomic Power: A Bitter and Growing Controversy"(fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
^ "Senator Seeks to Block Atom Plants" (fee required). The New York Times. 1971-02-17. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
^ Gladwin Hill (1975-07-29). "Nuclear Power Development Encounters Rising Resistance With Curbs Sought in a Number of States" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
^ "Nuclear Neighbor" (fee required). Cedar Rapids Gazette. 1974-01-20.
^ "Sen. Gravel Urges U.S. to Back Taiwan-Red China Unity Talks". The Washington Post. 1971-01-29. Archived from the original (fee required) on January 12, 2008. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
^ Terence Smith (1971-06-24). "5 SENATORS BACK PEKING SEAT IN U.N.; 4 Urge Admission Even at Cost of Ousting Taiwan" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-23.
^ Jump up to:a b Thomas W. Evans (Summer 1993). "The All-Volunteer Army After Twenty Years: Recruiting in the Modern Era". Sam Houston State University. Archived from the original on 2013-08-08. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
^ Ambrose, Stephen (1989). Nixon, Volume Two: The Triumph of a Politician. Simon & Schuster. pp. 264–266.
^ Jump up to:a b Griffith, Robert K., Jr. (1997). U.S. Army's Transition to the All-volunteer Force, 1868–1974. DIANE Publishing. pp. 40–41, 51. ISBN 978-0-7881-7864-1.
^ Jump up to:a b c d e David E. Rosenbaum (1971-06-05). "Senators Reject Limits on Draft; 2-Year Plan Gains" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
^ Jump up to:a b David E. Rosenbaum (1971-02-03). "Stennis Favors 4-Year Draft Extension, but Laird Asks 2 Years" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
^ Robert C. Maynard (1971-02-03). "Laird Briefs Hill On Volunteer Army" (fee required). The Washington Post. p. A12. Retrieved 2008-02-09.
^ John W. Finney (1971-05-09). "Congress vs. President" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
^ Jump up to:a b Mike Gravel (1971-06-22). "Filibustering the Draft" (fee required). The New York Times. Letters to the Editor. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
^ David E. Rosenbaum (1971-06-24). "Senate Votes Closure in Draft Debate, 65 to 27" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
^ Jump up to:a b David E. Rosenbaum (1971-09-22). "Senate Approves Draft Bill, 55–30; President to Sign" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
^ "'72 Draft Lottery Assigns No. 1 to Those Born Dec. 4" (fee required). The New York Times. 1971-08-06. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
^ Neil Sheehan (1971-06-13). "Vietnam Archive: Pentagon Study Traces 3 Decades of Growing U. S. Involvement" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
^ Jump up to:a b c d e "Timeline". Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers. Annenberg Center for Communication at University of Southern California. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
^ Rudenstine, David (1996). The Day the Presses Stopped: A History of the Pentagon Papers Case. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-21382-1. pp. 46, 391.
^ Jump up to:a b c d "Beacon Press & the Pentagon Papers: History". Beacon Press. 2006-10-22. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
^ Jump up to:a b c Warren R. Ross (September–October 2001). "A courageous press confronts a deceptive government". UU World. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
^ Jump up to:a b c David E. Rosenbaum (1971-06-30). "Gravel Speaks 3 Hours; Senator Reading Study to Press" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
^ Jump up to:a b Prados, John; Porter, Margaret Pratt, eds. (2004). Inside the Pentagon Papers. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-7006-1325-0.
^ Jump up to:a b c John W. Finney (1971-07-01). "Action by Gravel Vexes Many Senators" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
^ Jump up to:a b c "Church Plans 4-Book Version of Pentagon Study" (fee required). The New York Times. 1971-08-18. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
^ "Letter from Gravel to Beacon Press". Beacon Press. 1971-08-04. Archived from the original on 2008-01-09. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
^ Kahn, George McT. (June 1975). "The Pentagon Papers: A Critical Evaluation". American Political Science Review. 69 (2): 675–684. doi:10.2307/1959096. JSTOR 1959096.
^ Jump up to:a b "Resources". Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers. Annenberg Center for Communication at University of Southern California. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
^ "Gravel v. United States". Jrank.org. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
^ "More Muskie Support" (fee required). The New York Times. 1972-01-15. Retrieved 2007-12-24.
^ Jump up to:a b Oudes, Bruce (1989). From the President: Richard Nixon's Secret Files. Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0-06-091621-3. p. 428.
^ Tad Szulc (1972-04-26). "1969 Study Shows War Policy Split"(fee required). The New York Times.
^ "Senator Gravel to Seek Vice-Presidential Spot" (fee required). The New York Times. Associated Press. 1972-06-03. Retrieved 2007-12-23.
^ Steven V. Roberts (1972-06-28). "Uncommitted Delegate in the Spotlight" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-23.
^ Jump up to:a b James M. Naughton (1972-07-09). "The Air Went Out Of the Whoopee Cushions" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-23.
^ Jump up to:a b Max Frankel (1972-07-14). "Impassioned Plea: Dakotan Urges Party to Lead the Nation in Healing Itself McGovern Names Eagleton Running Mate; Calls Nixon 'Fundamental Issue'" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-23.
^ Jump up to:a b "The Foregone Convention". The Nation. July 24, 1972. Archived from the original on June 14, 2006.
^ Sheila Hixson; Ruth Rose, eds. (1972). The Official Proceedings of the Democratic National Convention, 1972. Democratic National Committee. p. 8.
^ Jump up to:a b David S. Broder (1987-09-06). "Filling Nostalgia Gap with Democratic Stars of the Past 20 Years". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2011-05-11. Retrieved 2008-02-02.
^ Ken Rudin (2004-09-27). "The Worst Acceptance Speech?". Political Junkie. NPR. Retrieved 2007-11-19.
^ Mailer, Norman (1983). St. George and the Godfather. Arbor House. ISBN 978-0-87795-563-4.
^ Jump up to:a b c Thompson, Hunter S. (1973). Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72. New York: Popular Library. pp. 319–320.
^ Wallace Turner (1974-11-07). "Alaska Governor's Contest in Doubt" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-23.
^ "John Birch Official Seeks to Replace Gravel in Alaska" (fee required). The New York Times. United Press International. 1974-01-11. Retrieved 2007-12-23.
^ Report by Congressional Advisers to the Seventh Special Session of the United Nations. United States Congress. 1976. p. 6.
^ Jump up to:a b c Crewdson, John M. (1976-06-12). "U.S. Studies Charge Of Sex-for-Vote Bid". The New York Times.
^ "Miss Ray Said to Link Tryst to Building Project". The New York Times. Associated Press. 1976-06-13.
^ Maureen Dowd (1982-10-25). "In Washington, D.C.: Last Stop for Union Station". Time.
^ Oelsner, Lesley (1976-06-14). "Rep. Howe Held on Sex Charge in Utah; Gravel Denies Sex on Boat With Miss Ray". The New York Times.
^ Steven Rattner (1978-05-08). "Now Washington Wants Its Station Back". The New York Times.
^ Jump up to:a b Gravel and Lauria, A Political Odyssey, pp. 196–197.
^ Gravel and Lauria, A Political Odyssey, pp. 144, 202.
^ "Senator Supports Pipeline; Would Make Operator Liable"(fee required). The New York Times. United Press International. 1971-02-18. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
^ Jump up to:a b c Edward Cowan (1973-07-14). "Senate, 61–29, Blocks Bid to Delay Alaska Pipeline" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
^ "U.S. Court Blocks Permits to Build Alaskan Pipeline" (fee required). The New York Times. Reuters. 1973-02-10. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
^ "Morton Hints Congress Bid To Clear Alaskan Pipeline" (fee required). The New York Times. United Press International. 1973-02-16. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
^ Jump up to:a b c Edward Cowan (1973-07-18). "Senate, 77–20, Votes For Alaska Pipeline; Court Test Barred, With 49-to-49 Tie Broken by Agnew" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
^ Jump up to:a b David Binder (1976-01-29). "Senate Approves a 200-Mile Limit on Fishing Rights" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
^ Eben Hopson (1976-10-22). "Speech Before the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention". ebenhopson.com. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
^ "Pique over the Continent's Tallest Peak". Time. 1977-11-07. Retrieved 2008-02-02.
^ Joel Connelly (2002-09-13). "In Alaska, Big Schemes Often Yield Empty Dreams". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Archived from the original (fee required) on 2011-05-11. Retrieved 2008-02-02.
^ Jump up to:a b c d e Wallace Turner (1980-08-26). "Polls Indicate Gravel Is in Trouble In Alaska's Senate Primary Today" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-11.
^ "Birth and Death In the Night". Time. 1978-10-30. Retrieved 2008-02-02.
^ Jump up to:a b c d "Ah, Wilderness! Ah, Development!". Time. 1980-11-24. Retrieved 2002-02-02.
^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Wallace Turner (1980-08-28). "Gravel Loses a Bitter Fight In Senate Primary in Alaska" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
^ Jump up to:a b "Important Dates in the History of Binary Economics". Kelso Institute. 2000. Archived from the original on 2008-01-08. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
^ Jump up to:a b Gauche, Jerry N. (2000). "Binary Economic Modes for the Privatization of Public Assets" (PDF). Journal of Socio-Economics. 27 (3): 445–459. doi:10.1016/S1053-5357(99)80098-5. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
^ Gravel and Lauria, A Political Odyssey, p. 192.
^ Jump up to:a b Martin, Jonathan (2009-12-11). "Mike Gravel says Sarah Palin will run for president". The Politico. Retrieved 2009-12-12.
^ Jump up to:a b Wallace Turner, "Side Issues Figure in Tricky Alaska Primary", The New York Times, July 6, 1982. Retrieved July 7, 2007.
^ "Alaska's Primary Election History" (PDF). Alaska Division of Elections. 2009-09-01. Retrieved 2011-03-21.
^ Kane, Paul (2008-11-19). "Ted Stevens Loses Battle For Alaska Senate Seat". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-11-19.
^ Berger, Judson (2009-04-03). "Special 'Rerun' Alaska Senate Election Highly Unlikely". Fox News. Archived from the original on 2009-04-05. Retrieved 2009-04-05.
^ Politics1, "P2008: An Interview With Presidential Candidate Mike Gravel" Archived 2008-01-02 at the Wayback Machineby Ron Gunzburger, April 17, 2006.
^ Leonard Jacobs (2008-07-08). "Q&A: Mike Gravel". Metromix. Retrieved 2008-07-20.
^ Jump up to:a b "People in the News". Lewiston Journal. Associated Press. September 12, 1981. p. 14.
^ Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, Mike Gravel profile
^ Swardson, Anne (October 22, 1986). "Native corporations offer tax loopholes". The Washington Post for the Anchorage Daily News. p. C–4.
^ Gravel and Lauria, A Political Odyssey, p. 243.
^ "First Democrat to Announce Candidacy for President on Monday" Archived 2006-11-22 at the Wayback Machine, Joe Lauria, CommonDreams New Centre, Published April 13, 2006.
^ Jump up to:a b "Direct Democracy in Switzerland: A Review". National Initiative for Democracy. Archived from the original on 2011-05-11. Retrieved 2010-11-13.
^ Jonathan Stein (2007-06-29). "Power to the People: The Democracy Foundation's Plan to Create a Fourth Branch of Government". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2012-11-25.
^ "Contacting the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution". Alexis de Tocqueville Institution. Archived from the original on October 29, 2004.
^ "Former U.S. Sen. Mike Gravel Announces His Campaign". Democracy in Action. April 17, 2006.
^ Alex Grobman, Rafael Medoff. "Holocaust Denial: A Global Survey – 2003". David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies. Retrieved 2009-12-29.
^ Jump up to:a b Alan Tuttle (August 2007). "Interview with Senator Mike Gravel". Philadelphia Jewish Voice. Retrieved 2008-01-01.
^ Ron Gunzburger (2006-04-17). "An Interview with Presidential Candidate Mike Gravel". Politics1.com. Archived from the original on 2008-01-02. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
^ "National Contacts". MikeGravel.us. Retrieved 2013-03-18.
^ "Mike Gravel Biography". Mike Gravel for President 2008. Archived from the original on 2007-12-27. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
^ "Washington: A 'Maverick' For President". The New York Times. 2006-04-18. Retrieved 2007-12-24.
^ Elliot, Philip (April 17, 2006). "Ex-Alaska Sen. Gravel Runs for President". Associated Press. Archived from the original (fee required) on May 11, 2011. Retrieved 2010-08-28.
^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g The Candidates: Sen. Mike Gravel: Democratic Candidate for President, Former U.S. Sen. (D-Alaska), Washington Post (October 16, 2007).
^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Religion and Politics '08: Mike Gravel, Pew Research Center (November 4, 2008).
^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p How Mike Stands on the Issues Archived 2016-09-17 at the Wayback Machine, MikeGravel.us (accessed September 7, 2016).
^ Jump up to:a b c Richard Kim, Mike Gravel: An inconvenient truth-teller, The Nation (November 8, 2007).
^ "FEC Form 3P for Mike Gravel". Federal Election Commission. 2007-04-15. Archived from the original on 2008-11-20. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
^ Jump up to:a b c No Breakout Candidate at Democratic Debate, ABC News, April 26, 2007
^ "Clinton edges ahead after first Democratic debate", The Times, April 27, 2007.
^ Hillary Clinton shines in Democratic candidates' debate, Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian, April 27, 2007.
^ Alessandra Stanley (2007-05-04). "A Show Where Candidates Are More Prop Than Player". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-28.
^ Mark Memmott, Jill Lawrence (2007-04-30). "Mike Gravel, soon to be a household name". USA Today. Archived from the original on October 24, 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-28.
^ Lisa Tozzi (2007-06-18). "Mike Gravel: Behind the Music". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-02-15.
^ Mike Gravel – Rock. YouTube. 2007-05-27. Retrieved 2008-02-15.
^ Mike Gravel – Fire. YouTube. 2007-05-28. Retrieved 2008-02-15.
^ Bill Schneider (2007-05-07). "Poll: Liberals moving toward Clinton; GOP race tightens". CNN.com. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
^ "Gravel Dismisses CNN, WMUR-TV And Union Leader Statement" (Press release). Mike Gravel for President 2008. 2007-03-19. Archived from the original on 2007-12-27. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
^ "The Mainstream Media Has Gone Underground ..." (Press release). Mike Gravel for President 2008. 2007-06-05. Archived from the original on 2008-01-15. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
^ "Part I: CNN/YouTube Democratic presidential debate transcript". CNN.com. 2007-07-24. Retrieved 2007-12-28.
^ Rick Pearson (2008-01-07). "Mike Gravel to teens: Say 'yes' to drugs". Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on 2008-01-09. Retrieved 2008-01-09.
^ Dan Harrie (2008-01-22). "Democratic hopeful Gravel visits Park City". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 2008-02-01.
^ "ABC News Debate – Unfair for Kucinich and Gravel". USA Election Polls. August 23, 2007. Archived from the original on November 3, 2008. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
^ "ABC News Poll" August 19, 2007, ABC News
^ "Report for Mike Gravel for President 2008". Federal Election Commission. 2007-10-17. Archived from the original on 2007-11-12. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
^ Alex Johnson (2007-10-31). "Democratic rivals target Clinton's vote on Iran". MSNBC.com. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
^ "CNN keeps Gravel out of Democratic debate in Las Vegas". Las Vegas Sun. Associated Press. 2007-11-07. Archived from the original on 2008-01-10. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
^ "Kucinich booted from Iowa debate". The Hill. December 12, 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
^ Mike Gravel (2007-10-30). "Corporate Censorship!". Mike Gravel for President 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-01-14. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
^ Sarah Wheaton (2007-10-30). "Gravel vs. MSNBC". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
^ Larry Eichel (2007-10-30). "The debate is on. Here. Tonight". philly.com. Archived from the original on January 7, 2008. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
^ "December 5 Is "Mass Donation Day" For Mike Gravel". The Presidential Candidates. 2007-12-04. Archived from the originalon 2012-09-17. Retrieved 2008-01-04.
^ "Second-Tier Dems Hope for Caucus Boost". WHO-TV. 2008-01-03. Archived from the original on January 12, 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-04.
^ J. Skyler McKinley (2008-01-04). "We're Still in the Race!". Mike Gravel for President 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-01-05. Retrieved 2008-01-04.
^ "Election Center 2008: Primary Results for New Hampshire". CNN. 2008-01-09. Retrieved 2008-01-09.
^ "Mike Gravel to campaign on". Associated Press. 2008-01-08. Archived from the original on January 5, 2009. Retrieved 2008-01-08.
^ Sarah Morrison (2008-02-07). "Candidate Speaks to Political Science Class". The Daily Californian. Archived from the original on February 17, 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-07.
^ Isaac Arnsdorf (2008-02-13). "Gravel urges direct democracy at YPU". Yale Daily News. Archived from the original on February 16, 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-15.
^ Joel Stein (2008-03-04). "The Third Democrat in the Race". Time. Retrieved 2008-03-09.
^ "Mike Gravel endorses Jesse Johnson (Green Party) for President". Third Party Watch. 2008-03-11. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
^ David Weigel (2008-03-18). "Several Minutes with Mike Gravel". Reason. Retrieved 2008-03-24.
^ Amy Hollyfield (2008-03-27). "Mike Gravel has gone from long shot to no shot for presidency". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
^ Jump up to:a b "Former U.S. Senator Mike Gravel joins Libertarian Party ranks". Libertarian Party. 2008-03-25. Archived from the original on March 26, 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-25.
^ Mike Gravel (2008-03-26). "A Personal Message from Mike". Mike Gravel for President 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-03-26. Retrieved 2008-03-26.
^ Jump up to:a b Sarah Elkins (2008-03-31). "Maverick Mike". Newsweek. Archived from the original on May 6, 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
^ Josh Gerstein (2008-03-27). "Barr, Gravel Eye Libertarian Nod for President". The New York Sun. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
^ Philip Klein (2008-05-21). "Will the Real Libertarian Please Stand Up?". The American Spectator. Archived from the original on 2008-05-26. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
^ "Straw Poll Results". Mike Gravel for President 2008. 2008-04-08. Archived from the original on 2008-04-09. Retrieved 2008-04-08.
^ Jump up to:a b "Press Releases: Presidential and VP Vote Totals – Updated Live!". LP.org. 2008-05-25. Archived from the original on May 28, 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
^ "Libertarians Pick Barr as Presidential Nominee". Fox News. 2008-05-25. Archived from the original on May 28, 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
^ Jefferson Siegel (June 18–24, 2008). "'Pentagon Papers senator' calls for new 9/11 probe". The Villager. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
^ Amy Goodman (2008-06-17). "Former Senator Mike Gravel Calls for Independent 9/11 Investigation and Prosecution of President Bush and Vice President Cheney". Democracy Now!. Pacifica Radio. Retrieved 2008-06-22.
^ Jump up to:a b c Rahn, Will (2010-12-09). "Gravel Says He Might Challenge Obama". The Daily Caller. Retrieved 2010-12-09.
^ "Plea Agreement; U.S. v. Al-Arian" (PDF). 2006-02-28. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-01. Retrieved 2010-03-08.
^ Meg Laughlin (2006-04-23). "In his plea deal, what did Sami Al-Arian admit to?". St. Petersberg Times. Archived from the original on 2012-10-21.
^ Jump up to:a b "'Find Out Where He Lives'". Fox News. 2009-12-22. Retrieved 2010-08-28.
^ Barakat, Matthew (2008-08-08). "Al-Arian trial postponed as judge questions case". Fox News. Retrieved 2008-08-18.
^ Jump up to:a b "Interview with Mike Gravel". 2008 Election Center. Pacifica Radio. 2008-09-01. Archived from the original on April 16, 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-02.
^ Keating, Joshua (February 22, 2013). "Mike Gravel on movies, sanctions, and what we can learn from Iran". Foreign Policy.
^ Erdbrink, Thomas (2013-02-18). "Stung by 'Argo,' Iran Backs Conference Denouncing 'Hollywoodism'". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-03-01.
^ Jump up to:a b "Out there: Former Sen. Mike Gravel says White House suppressing evidence of ETs". Yahoo! News/ABC News. 2013-05-03. Retrieved 2013-05-04.
^ Siddons, Andrews (2013-05-03). "Visitors From Outer Space, Real or Not, Are Focus of Discussion in Washington". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-05-04.
^ Kendall Breitman (December 30, 2014). "Mike Gravel to helm pot products company". Politico. Retrieved December 31, 2014.
^ "The Team". Cannabis Sativa, Inc. Archived from the original on 2016-03-16. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
^ Gravel, Mike (February 21, 2016). "This is the key to Bernie Sanders' political revolution: Here's how we beat GOP obstruction". Salon.
^ Bort, Ryan (March 20, 2019). "88-Year-Old Mike Gravel Is the Latest Teen Sensation". Rolling Stone. Retrieved March 27,2019.
^ Montellaro, Zach (March 20, 2019). "'Do you know how old I am?': Teens draft Gravel to run for president". Politico. Retrieved March 27, 2019.
^ Kamisar, Ben (March 20, 2019). "Mike Gravel explains his viral moment". Retrieved March 27, 2019.
^ Jump up to:a b c Alan Abramowitz & Jeffrey Allan Segal, Senate Elections(University of Michigan Press: 1992), p. 75: "Gravel was a maverick, if not an eccentric, in the Senate."
^ Phil Williams, The Senate and U.S. Troops in Europe(Macmillan, 1985) p. 255: "Not only was Gravel one of the Senate's mavericks or outsiders who lacked the status, prestige and influence of someone like Mansfield ..."
^ "Voting Records". Americans for Democratic Action. Retrieved November 5, 2016. Gravel's ADA scores for 1969 through 1980 are 72, 75, 81, 75, 65, 43, ?, 45, 55, 70, 47, 39. (The ADA site's 1975 report is missing some pages, including the one for Senators from Alaska.) His lower scores from 1974 on are partly a reflection of a change in ADA methodology regarding how they treat absences and paired absences from votes.
^ "Federal Legislative Ratings". American Conservative Union. Retrieved November 5, 2016. Gravel's ACU scores for 1971 (when ACU began its ratings) through 1980 are 0, 0, 5, 36, 23, 12, 20, 6, 38, 0.
^ Review: Citizen Power: A People's Platform, Kirkus Reviews(June 26, 1972).
^ George W. Grayson, Mexico: Narco-Violence and a Failed State? (Transaction, 2011), p. 260.
^ Jump up to:a b Transcript of the Third Democratic Primary Presidential Debate, PBS (June 28, 2007), transcript provided by the New York Times.
^ Mike Gravel to Senator Mark Udall: Make Full Torture Probe Public Like I Did with Pentagon Papers, Democracy Now!(interview with Amy Goodman) (December 16, 2014).
^ Joshua Keating, Mike Gravel on movies, sanctions, and what we can learn from Iran (February 22, 2013).
^ Former Senator Mike Gravel Calls for Independent 9/11 Investigation and Prosecution of President Bush and Vice President Cheney, Democracy Now! (June 17, 2008).
^ Jump up to:a b Steven Nelson, Former Sen. Gravel: NSA Leaks Should Have Come From Senators, U.S. News & World Report (July 9, 2013).
^ Jump up to:a b 2008 Elections: Caucus Guide: Mike Gravel on Taxes, Las Vegas Sun (accessed September 7, 2016).
^ The Fair Tax has its moment in the sun. Could there be more to come?, Time (January 4, 2008).
^ Jump up to:a b c Michael Arrington, Presidential Candidate Mike Gravel Does Things A Little Differently, TechCrunch (December 8, 2007).
^ Pianin, Alix (2008-03-03). "GS Honors Students, Alum at Annual Gala". Columbia Daily Spectator. Retrieved 2014-10-10.

The Pentagon Papers Senator Gravel Edition. Vol. Five. Critical Essays. Boston. Beacon Press, 1972. 341p. plus 72p. of Index to Vol. I–IV of the Papers, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, editors.
Moritz, Charles, ed. (1973). Current Biography Yearbook 1972. New York: H. W. Wilson Company.

External links[edit]

Mike Gravel official website
United States Congress. "Mike Gravel (id: g000388)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Appearances on C-SPAN
Mike Gravel at Curlie

Political offices
Preceded by Bruce Kendall	Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives 1965–1967	Succeeded by Bill Boardman
Party political offices
Preceded by Ernest Gruening	Democratic nominee for U.S. Senator from Alaska (Class 3) 1968, 1974	Succeeded by Clark Gruening
U.S. Senate
Preceded by Ernest Gruening	U.S. Senator (Class 3) from Alaska 1969–1981 Served alongside: Ted Stevens	Succeeded by Frank Murkowski

[26] The Alaska Constitution as ratified in 1956 had originally placed Anchorage in District 10, and given the community eight seats in the House based upon the 1950 United States Census. The reapportionment and redistricting proclamation of Governor William A. Egan, dated December 7, 1961, placed Anchorage into District 8 (due to the elimination of two districts earlier in the order), and given the community 14 seats in the House based upon the 1960 United States Census. See Mitchell, Elaine B., ed. (1973). "Constitution of the State of Alaska". Alaska Blue Book(First ed.). Juneau: Alaska Department of Education, Division of State Libraries. pp. 201–203. This change occurred immediately prior to Gravel's election to the House. These districts were without designated seats. Therefore, it is impossible to determine a direct predecessor or successor, especially with the higher turnover of legislative seats which existed at the time. Gravel served from District 8 with: William H. Sanders (1963–1964); Bennie Leonard, Keith H. Miller, James C. Parsons, Jack H. White, William C. Wiggins (1963–1965); Homer Moseley (1963–1966); Earl D. Hillstrand, Joseph P. Josephson, Bruce B. Kendall, Carl L. Lottsfeldt, John L. Rader, Harold D. Strandberg (1963–1967); George M. Sullivan (1964–1965); Carl F. Brady, Bernard J. "Pop" Carr, Sr., Gene Guess, M. Daniel Plotnick, Charles J. Sassara, Jr., Ted Stevens (1965–1967); William J. Moran (1966–1967). See Alaska Legislature Roster of Members 1913–2010(PDF).

[48] Gravel claimed during his 2008 presidential campaign that "the Pentagon was performing five calibration tests ... [Gravel] succeeded in halting the program after the second test, limiting the expansion of this threat to the marine environment of the North Pacific." See "Mike Gravel's Legislative Accomplishments". Mike Gravel for President 2008. Archived from the original on December 26, 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-30.In reality, the Milrow and Cannikin tests were the only ones planned and both of them were carried out. See "Round 2 at Amchitka". Time. 1971-07-17. Retrieved 2007-12-30.

[66] During Gravel's 2008 presidential campaign, he would claim that, "In 1971, Senator Mike Gravel (D-Alaska), by waging a lone five-month filibuster, singlehandedly ended the draft in The United States thereby saving thousands of lives." See "Mike Gravel and the Draft". Mike Gravel for President 2008. Archived from the original on January 17, 2008. Retrieved 2007-12-30. A 2006 article in The Nation stated that "It was Gravel who in 1971, against the advice of Democratic leaders in the Senate, launched a one-man filibuster to end the peacetime military draft, forcing the administration to cut a deal that allowed the draft to expire in 1973." See John Nichols (2006-04-15). "Pentagon Papers Figure Bids for Presidency". The Nation. Archived from the originalon January 17, 2008. Retrieved 2007-12-20. Neither of these assessments is correct. From the beginning of the draft review process in February 1971, the Nixon administration wanted a two-year extension to June 1973, followed by a shift to an all-volunteer force – see David E. Rosenbaum (1971-02-03). "Stennis Favors 4-Year Draft Extension, but Laird Asks 2 Years" (fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-30.; for confirmation, see "Once More, "Greetings"". Time. 1971-10-04. Retrieved 2008-02-02. – and this is what the September 1971 Senate vote gave them. Gravel's goal had been to block the renewal of the draft completely, thereby ending conscription past June 1971. See Mike Gravel (1971-06-22). "Filibustering the Draft" (fee required). The New York Times. Letters to the Editor. Retrieved 2007-12-29. In Gravel's 2008 memoir, he conceded that he failed to bring about the immediate end of the war that he wanted, and that Nixon had gotten the two-year extension he had originally asked for. However, Gravel wrote that he had never trusted Nixon's pledge to only extend the draft for two years, and that when Nixon let the draft expire in 1973 it was the threat of a renewed filibuster that caused him to stick to the pledge. See Gravel and Lauria, A Political Odyssey, p. 180. No other accounts support this interpretation; in fact, Nixon had first become interested in the idea of an all-volunteer army during his time out of office, and he saw ending the draft as an effective way to undermine the anti-Vietnam war movement, since he believed affluent youths would stop protesting the war once their own possibility of having to fight in it was gone. See Glass, Andrew (January 27, 2012). "U.S. military draft ends, Jan. 27, 1973". Politico. Retrieved 2019-03-19. and Ambrose, Nixon, Volume Two: The Triumph of a Politician, pp. 264–266.

[151] "p. Mike Gravel at the Democratic Debate". This video has been removed due to terms of use violation. YouTube. Archived from the original on 2007-05-18. Retrieved 2007-05-04. The YouTube debate clip was also ranked #7 top rated (for week), #23 top favored (for week), #25 most discussed (for week), #4 most linked (for week), and #1 top rated – news and politics (for week).

[206] 1. Mike Gravel for President Exploratory Committee. 2. Date: 03/19/2019. 3. FEC Committee ID #: C00699637 This committee is a Principal Campaign Committee. Candidate: Mike Gravel. Party: Democratic Party. Office Sought: President. Signed: Elijah Emery. Date Signed: 03/19/2019. Official Committee URL: mikegravel.org. See: "FEC Form 1 · Statement of Organization · Filing FEC-1320193". docquery.fec.gov. Washington, D.C.: Federal Election Commission. Retrieved March 27, 2019.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21]

[22]

[23]

[24]

[25]

[nb 1]

[26]

[27]

[28]

[29]

[30]

[31]

[32]

[33]

[34]

[35]

[36]

[37]

[38]

[39]

[40]

[41]

[42]

[43]

[44]

[45]

[46]

[nb 2]

[47]

[48]

[49]

[50]

[51]

[52]

[53]

[54]

[55]

[56]

[57]

[58]

[59]

[60]

[61]

[62]

[63]

[nb 3]

[64]

[65]

[66]

[67]

[68]

[69]

[70]

[71]

[72]

[73]

[74]

[75]

[76]

[77]

[78]

[79]

[80]

[81]

[82]

[83]

[84]

[85]

[86]

[87]

[88]

[89]

[90]

[91]

[92]

[93]

[94]

[95]

[96]

[97]

Pages

Thursday, March 28, 2019

About Mike Gravel

Contents