Indiana: Dan Coats

Daniel Ray "Dan" Coats (born May 16, 1943) is an American lawyer, politician, lobbyist, and diplomat. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a United States Senator from Indiana from 1989 to 1999. Coats was appointed to fill the seat vacated by Dan Quayle following his election as Vice President of the United States in 1988. He won the 1990 special election to serve the remainder of Quayle's unexpired term, as well as the 1992 election for his own full six-year term. He did not seek re-election in 1998. In the 2010 election, Coats won his second chance at being Indiana's junior senator again by defeating Democrat Brad Ellsworth.

Prior to his service in the U.S. Senate, Coats was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Indiana's 4th congressional district from 1981 to 1989. After retiring from the Senate Coats served as U.S. Ambassador to Germany from 2001 to 2005.

On February 10, 2010, Coats announced that he would relocate to Indiana to seek the US Senate seat held by Evan Bayh in the 2010 U.S. Senate election. On February 15, Bayh revealed that he will not be running for reelection. Coats was selected as the Republican nominee in the May 4, 2010 Indiana primary.

Early life
Coats was born in Jackson, Michigan, to Edward R. and Vera E. Coats. He attended local public schools, and graduated from Jackson High School in 1961. He then studied at Wheaton College in Illinois, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1965. At Wheaton, he was an active student athlete on the soccer team. He served in the United States Army from 1966 to 1968, and earned a Juris Doctor from Indiana University School of Law at Indianapolis in 1971. He also served as assistant vice president of a Fort Wayne life insurance company.

U.S. Congress
From 1976 to 1980, Coats worked for then-U.S. Representative Dan Quayle, a Republican from Indiana's 4th congressional district, as Quayle's district representative. When Quayle decided to challenge three-term Democratic incumbent Birch Bayh in the 1980 U.S. Senate election, Coats ran for and won Quayle's seat in the U.S. House. When Quayle resigned from the Senate after being elected Vice President of the United States in 1988, Coats was appointed to Quayle’s former seat. Coats served in the Senate until January 1999. He is also affiliated with the group the Fellowship, a Christian fundamentalist group.

On multiple occasions, Senator Coats supported gun control measures. In 1991, he voted in favor of Biden-Thurmond Violent Crime Control Act of 1991. This act, which did not become law, would have created a waiting period for handgun purchases and placed a ban on semi-automatic firearms. Subsequently, he supported the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act that President Clinton signed into law in 1993.

The legislation imposed a waiting period before a handgun could be transferred to an individual by a licensed dealer, importer, or manufacturer. This waiting period ended when the computerized instant check system came online. Coats also supported Feinstein Amendment 1152 to the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1993. The purpose of the Feinstein Amendment was to "restrict the manufacture, transfer, and possession of certain semiautomatic assault weapons and large capacity ammunition feeding devices."

In 1993, Senator Coats emerged as an opponent of President Clinton's effort to allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the armed forces. In 1995 Senator Coats introduced S. 568: Family, Investment, Retirement, Savings, and Tax Fairness Act which would provide "family tax credits, increase national savings through individual retirement plus accounts, indexing for inflation the income thresholds for taxing social security benefits, etc". The bill did not become law.

Senator Coats cosponsored, with Democratic Senators Edward M. Kennedy and Christopher Dodd and then-Republican Senator James Jeffords, S.2206: Coats Human Services Reauthorization Act of 1998. This bill, which was enacted into law, “amended the Head Start Act, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Act of 1981, and the Community Services Block Grant Act . . . in order to provide an opportunity for persons with limited means to accumulate assets.”

In 1996, Senator Coats cosponsored the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 which President Clinton signed into law. The bill allowed the President to "rewrit[e] legislation by vetoing single items of spending or specific tax breaks approved by Congress." The Supreme Court of the United States declared the law unconstitutional in Clinton v. City of New York in a 6-3 decision.

Coats made headlines in August 1998, when he publicly questioned the timing of President Bill Clinton’s attack on terrorist bases in Afghanistan and Sudan, suggesting it might be linked to the Lewinsky scandal.

“While there is clearly much more we need to learn about this attack and why it was ordered today, given the president’s personal difficulties this week, it is legitimate to question the timing of this action.”

After Congress
Coats worked as Special Counsel member in the firm Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand in 2000 and 2001.

In 2001, Coats was reportedly one of George W. Bush’s top choices to be Defense Secretary, a job eventually given to Donald Rumsfeld, who had previously served as United States Secretary of Defense.

From August 15, 2001 to February 28, 2005, Coats was the United States Ambassador to Germany. As ambassador during the lead up to the Iraq war, he pressured the German government not to oppose the war, threatening worsened US relations with Germany. As Ambassador he also played a critical role in establishing robust relations with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and in the construction of a new United States Embassy in the heart of Berlin next to the Brandenburg Gate.

In 2005, Coats drew attention when he was chosen by President George W. Bush to shepherd Harriet Miers' failed nomination to the Supreme Court through the Senate. Echoing Senator Roman Hruska's famous 1970 speech in defense of Harrold Carswell, Coats said to CNN regarding the nomination:

"If [being a] great intellectual powerhouse is a qualification to be a member of the court and represent the American people and the wishes of the American people and to interpret the Constitution, then I think we have a court so skewed on the intellectual side that we may not be getting representation of America as a whole."

2010 U.S. Senate campaign
On February 10, 2010, Coats confirmed that he would relocate to Indiana to run for the US Senate seat held by incumbent Evan Bayh in the 2010 United States Senate election. Bayh announced on February 15, 2010, he will not be running for reelection. Brad Ellsworth a current Congressman is running as the Democratic candidate for the Senate seat. On May 4, 2010, Coats won a primary over state Sen. Marlin Stutzman and former Indiana Republican Congressman John Hostettler in the primary for the Republican nomination.

Coats has described himself as a conservative who stands for “limited government, lower taxes, a balanced budget, [and] strong defense.” Coats said, "We need to get the economy back on track. . .that ought to be our priority and not the huge spending going on in Washington.