Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Meet The New Members of United States Senate


FreshmanSenators
Originally uploaded by Randuwa
Meet the freshmen class of United States Senators for the 111th congress.

13 men and women are joining this august body of legislators. All but 1 are Democrats. (You may recall in 2006 the freshmen in the Senate of the 110th congress, ushered in 11 new members with again only 1 Republican.) Demographically the Senate goes from 16% female to 17% female, from 3% Hispanic to 2% Hispanic, and remains 1% African American and 2% Asian American.

From Top to Bottom and Left to Right in Alphabetically order the new Senators are:

MarK Begich, 46, of ALASKA ~ Formerly the Mayor of Anchorage

Michael Bennet, 43, of COLORADO ~ Formerly the Superintendent of the Denver Public Schools

Roland Burris, 71, of ILLINOIS ~ Formerly the Attorney General of Illinois

Al Franken, 57, of MINNESOTA ~ Formerly syndicated radio talk show host

Kirsten Gillibrand, 42, of NEW YORK ~ Formerly Congress woman from the 24th House Seat from the state of New York

Kay Hagan, 55, of NORTH CAROLINA ~ Formerly North Carolina state Senator from the 27th senatorial district

Mike Johanns, 58, of NEBRASKA ~ Formerly the 28th United States Secretary of Agriculture

Ted Kaufman, 69, of DELAWARE ~ Formerly a longtime advisor to his predecessor, Senator Joseph Biden

Jeff Merkley, 52, of OREGON ~ Formerly the Speaker of the Oregon state House of Representatives from the 47th district

Jeanne Shaheen, 62 (as of tomorrow!), of NEW HAMPSHIRE ~ Formerly the Governor of New Hampshire

Mark Udall, 58, of COLORADO ~ Formerly Congress man from the 2nd House Seat from the state of Colorado

Tom Udall, 60, of NEW MEXICO ~ Formerly Congress man from the 3rd House Seat from the state of New Mexico

Mark Warner, 54, of VIRGINIA ~ Formerly the Governor of Virginia

3 comments:

Chris said...

While it's likely that Al Franken will be seated, it's not yet official, I believe. We've had hoofers, actors, and now a comedian in the US Senate. What next, a politician?

Randuwa said...

Hey Chris!

I included Al as simply inevitable. Unlike others who have come to politics via entertainment--Senator Franken is a Harvard educated, deeply invested progressive thinker, who just happens to be funny (at times). Reagan, Sonny Bono, "The Gopher," and Fred Thompson never gave Harvard so much as a thought, let alone a hope....

Randuwa said...

p.s. So what do you think of the other freshmen members? Any thoughts about Burris?