Don Nickles

Donald Lee Nickles
United States Senator from Oklahoma
In office January 5, 1981 – January 3, 2005
Preceded by	Henry Bellmon
Succeeded by	Tom Coburn
26th United States Senate Majority Whip
In office June 12, 1996 – January 3, 2001
Leader	Trent Lott
Preceded by	Trent Lott
Succeeded by	Harry Reid
28th United States Senate Majority Whip
In office January 20, 2001 – June 6, 2001
Leader	Trent Lott
Preceded by	Harry Reid
Succeeded by	Harry Reid
19th United States Senate Minority Whip
In office January 3, 2001 – January 20, 2001
Leader	Trent Lott
Preceded by	Harry Reid
Succeeded by	Harry Reid
21st United States Senate Minority Whip
In office June 6, 2001 – January 3, 2003
Leader	Trent Lott
Preceded by	Harry Reid
Succeeded by	Harry Reid
Personal details
Born	December 6, 1948 (1948-12-06) (age 62) Ponca City, Oklahoma
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	former Linda Lou Morrison
Religion	Roman Catholic

Donald Lee Nickles (born December 6, 1948) is an American businessman and politician who was a Republican United States Senator from Oklahoma from 1981 until 2005. He was a fiscal and social conservative.

Early life

Don Nickles was born and raised in Ponca City, Oklahoma, where he attended the public schools. To help pay for their education at Oklahoma State, he and his wife operated a janitorial service (Don Nickles Professional Cleaning Service) in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity at Oklahoma State University, and earned a BA in business administration in 1971

After college, he went to work for Nickles Machine Corporation in Ponca City, a business started in 1918 by his grandfather, Clair Nickles. He rose to be the company's vice president and general manager. He also served in the United States National Guard from 1970 until 1976.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

A formative experience was the distress his family suffered following his father's death in 1961, when Nickles was thirteen. They had to sell off part of the family business to raise cash to pay the estate tax that was due.^[6][7][8]

U.S. Senate

Elections

Encouraged by then-Senator Dewey F. Bartlett, Nickles ran for the Oklahoma State Senate in 1978 and won. After two years in the State Senate and displeased by the policies of the Carter Administration, Nickles ran for the United States Senate in 1980 to succeed Republican Henry Bellmon, who was retiring. As an unknown in a field crowded with business and political bigwigs, Nickles was not initially given much of a chance. Indeed, Bellmon even tried to convince him to wait and run for the House.

Utilizing personal contact and passing out unique "wooden nickel" campaign button novelties, Nickles unique ties to local Amway distributors throughout Oklahoma gave him an interpersonal network which proved helpful.^{[citation needed]} His platform was based on cutting the size of government, strong support of tax cuts, and his appeal to the prevailing conservative views of Oklahomans proved popular. In 1982 the term Christian right was still unfamiliar, but the movement was active and growing. Nickles beat two well funded oil millionaires (Jack Zink and Ed Noble) in the primary and won the primary run-off against Zink, who was also well-known as a race car driver. He was later swept into office in the general election against Oklahoma City Mayor Andy Coats on the shoulders of the "Reagan Revolution" of 1980. At the age of 32, Nickles was the youngest Republican ever elected to the United States Senate.

Tenure

He sponsored legislation to cut taxes, reduce government spending, promote national defense, and reduce what he believed to be official hostility to religion. He sponsored the Defense of Marriage Act which forbade states from recognizing same-sex marriages conducted in other states. As Republican Whip, Nickles called for the resignation of fellow Republican Trent Lott as Majority Leader after Lott made remarks toasting Strom Thurmond that seemed insensitive to the issue of racial segregation.

Senator Nickles was one of many Republican senators who in 1981 called into the White House to express his discontent over the nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor to the Supreme Court. Nickles said he and other socially conservative Republican senators would not support O'Connor because of her "presumed unwillingness" to overturn Roe v. Wade.^[9]

During a 1986 campaign rally at the University of Oklahoma, President Reagan accidentally called him Don Rickles. The president was later told about his mistake and found it very amusing.^[10]

Leadership

Nickles quickly rose in the Senate Republican leadership, serving as Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the 101st Congress; Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee in the 102nd, 103rd, and 104th Congresses; and Assistant Republican Leader from 1996 to 2003. After being term-limited out of the Assistant Leader position, Nickles served in the 108th Congress as Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. Nickles was also on Bob Dole's short list of vice presidential choices, before Dole finally decided on former New York Congressman Jack Kemp.

In December 2002, Nickles became embroiled in the controversy surrounding Republican Leader Trent Lott. At Senator Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party, Lott had made comments that some took to be racially insensitive. As the controversy grew, Nickles went on national television and became the first senator in the Republican leadership to say that Lott should step down. Nickles believed that the controversy over Lott's remarks would distract from the Republican Party's legislative agenda, and as he served as Lott's deputy in the Senate this statement was seen as the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back." Lott stepped down shortly thereafter. Declining to run for the position of Senate Majority Leader himself, Lott was succeeded by Tennessee Senator Bill Frist.

Nickles was re-elected in 1986, 1992 and 1998 and was the senior senator from Oklahoma from 1994 to 2005.

Post Senate career

On October 7, 2003, he announced that he would not run in the 2004 election.^[11] Republican Tom Coburn won the election to succeed Nickles.

Nickles went on to found The Nickles Group, a government consulting group in Washington, D.C.. He also serves on the board of directors of a number of public companies, such as Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy.^[12]

He was one of the politicians featured in the movie Traffic giving his opinion on the war on drugs.

Nickles and his wife, Linda, have 4 children and several grandchildren.

References

1. ^ Everett, Dianna. "NICKLES, DONALD LEE (1948- )". Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society. http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/N/NI005.html. Retrieved 2008-07-03. 
2. ^ Nickles, Don (2004-11-18). "(speech at) 2004 Annual Dinner Awards" (PDF). Tax Foundation. http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/67thnationalconfdoc7.pdf. Retrieved 2008-07-03. "But we were self-employed and we had a little janitor service. Somebody found this in the phonebook and they circled it and it said Don Nickles Professional Cleaning Service. But we had that when we were going to school and we did quarterly estimated taxes and we were paying 40-some percent with this little janitor service. It was just my wife and I. She quit and it was a real small business. And the government was taking so much. Why should we keep growing that business if you're working half the time for government?" 
3. ^ "Don Nickles" (Fee). Biography Resource Center Online. Gale Group. 2004-04-27. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC?vrsn=149&OP=starts&locID=chan86036&srchtp=name&ca=2&c=1&AI=U13026317&NA=Nickles&ste=12&tbst=prp&tab=1&docNum=K1650002027&bConts=43. Retrieved 2008-07-03.  Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC Document Number: K1650002027
4. ^ "OSU Achieving Greatness: Annual Report 2003-2004" (PDF). OSU Foundation. 2004. http://www.osugiving.com/forms/AR_03-04.pdf. Retrieved 2008-07-03. 
5. ^ "Beta Theta Pi Quick Facts" (PDF). Beta Theta Pi fraternity. http://www.betathetapi.org/dmdocuments/beta-quick-facts.pdf. Retrieved 2008-07-03. "Senator Donald L. Nickles, Oklahoma State '71" 
6. ^ Holzinger, Albert G.; Alison A. Knocke (March 1989). "Business people in Congress". Nation's Business. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1154/is_n3_v77/ai_7358459. Retrieved 2008-07-04. "The impact of inheritance taxes on a family business played the decisive role in Don Nickles' decision to run for the Senate in 1980. In 1918, Nickles' grandfather founded Nickles Machine Corp. in Oklahoma. The business remained family-owned until 1961, when Nickles' father died and his mother had to sell part of the firm to pay inheritance taxes. This perceived inequity reinforced Nickles' already unfavorable opinion of the tax code, he says." 
7. ^ Barone, Michael; Grant Ujifusa (1998). The Almanac of American Politics. Washington, D.C.: National Journal. pp. 1154–1158. ISBN 0892340800. 
8. ^ Kyl, John (2004-11-18). "(speech at) 2004 Annual Dinner Awards" (PDF). Tax Foundation. http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/67thnationalconfdoc7.pdf. Retrieved 2008-07-03. "Don's family had to sell off part of the Nickles Machine to pay the death tax. And because of his efforts countless other families have avoided similar heart-wrenching decisions." 
9. ^ Greenburg, Jan Crawford. Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court.2007. Penguin Books. Page 222.
10. ^ Jim Kuhn (2004). Ronald Reagan in Private. New York: Penguin Group. p. 146. 1-59523-008-4. 
11. ^ Stolberg, Sheryl Gay (2003-10-08). "Oklahoma Republican Is Retiring From Senate". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9500E5DE1E3CF93BA35753C1A9659C8B63. Retrieved 2008-07-04. 
12. ^ "Fortress International Group Inc (FIGI.O) Officers". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/officerProfile?symbol=FIGI.O&officerId=772815. Retrieved 2008-07-03. "Donald L. Nickles has been a member of board of directors since February 2005 and currently serves as a member of the board of directors of Chesapeake Energy Corporation and Valero Energy Corporation. In 2005 after his retirement from the United States Senate, Senator Nickles founded and is currently Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Nickles Group, LLC, a consulting and business venture firm headquartered in Washington, D.C." 

Other sources

• "Nickles, McCaleb Try to Sabotage Oklahoma Amtrak Service, Opt for Yugo Rather Than Cadillac." Oklahoma State Senate. Communications Division, State Capitol. May 24, 1999.
• Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1996. Alexandria, Va.: CQ Staff Directories, 1997.
• "Donald Nickles." Research Division, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Okla.
• Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-1989. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989.
• Congressional Directory, 106th Congress, 1999-2000. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1999.
• Congressional Quarterly's Politics in America 2000, The 106th Congress. Philip D. Duncan and Brian Nutting, eds. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1999.
• Who's Who in American Politics, 1997- 1998. Marquis Who's Who, 1997.

External links

• Don Nickles at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Don Nickles at the Internet Movie Database

United States Senate
Preceded by Henry Bellmon	United States Senator (Class 3) from Oklahoma 1981–2005 Served alongside: David L. Boren, James Inhofe	Succeeded by Tom Coburn
Party political offices
Preceded by Henry Bellmon	Republican nominee for United States Senator from Oklahoma (Class 3) 1980, 1986, 1992, 1998	Succeeded by Tom Coburn
Preceded by Rudy Boschwitz Minnesota	Chairman of National Republican Senatorial Committee 1989–1991	Succeeded by Phil Gramm Texas
Preceded by William L. Armstrong Colorado	Chairman of Senate Republican Policy Committee 1991–1996	Succeeded by Larry Craig Idaho
Preceded by Trent Lott Mississippi	Senate Republican Whip 1996–2003	Succeeded by Mitch McConnell Kentucky
Political offices
Preceded by Trent Lott Mississippi	Senate Majority Whip 1996–2001	Succeeded by Harry Reid Nevada
Preceded by Harry Reid Nevada	Senate Minority Whip 2001–2003	Succeeded by Harry Reid Nevada
Preceded by Kent Conrad North Dakota	Chairman of Senate Budget Committee 2003–2005	Succeeded by Judd Gregg New Hampshire
Honorary titles
Preceded by Bill Bradley	Youngest Member of the United States Senate 1981-1993	Succeeded by Russ Feingold

Persondata
Name	Nickles, Don
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	December 6, 1948
Place of birth	Ponca City, Oklahoma
Date of death
Place of death