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Bob Schaffer | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromColorado's4th district | |
| In office January 3, 1997 – January 3, 2003 | |
| Preceded by | Wayne Allard |
| Succeeded by | Marilyn Musgrave |
| Member of theColorado Senate from the 14th district | |
| In office 1987–1996 | |
| Preceded by | Jim Beatty |
| Succeeded by | Peggy Reeves |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Robert Warren Schaffer (1962-07-24)July 24, 1962 (age 63) Cincinnati,Ohio, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Maureen Schaffer |
| Education | University of Dayton (BA) |
Robert Warren Schaffer (born July 24, 1962) is an American businessman and a formerRepublican member of theUnited States House of Representatives from the State ofColorado in the105th Congress and the two succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1997 – January 3, 2003). Schaffer was co-chairman of theCongressional Ukrainian Caucus, and an outspoken leader in promoting American interests and human rights in Eastern Europe.[1]
Schaffer is currently Headmaster of Liberty Common High School inFort Collins, Colorado. Under Schaffer's leadership, twoclasses have broken the state's all-time record compositeACT andSAT scores, respectively.[2][3]
In 2004, Schaffer lost in theprimary election to be the Republican nominee for aU.S. Senate seat. He was the Republican nominee for Colorado's other Senate seat in the2008 election, which he lost to Democratic nomineeMark Udall.
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Schaffer was born inCincinnati, Ohio and raisedCatholic.[4] He attendedArchbishop Moeller High School.
The son of public-school teachers, Schaffer worked his way through college as a farm hand. In 1984, he graduated from theUniversity of Dayton with aB.A. in Political Science. He was later awarded an honorary doctorate in Management fromColorado Technical University.
Schaffer served for nine years as a ColoradoState Senator in theColorado General Assembly. Schaffer was only 25 years old in 1987 when he was appointed to finish Colorado State Senator Jim Beatty's term, making Schaffer the youngest to serve in Colorado's Senate. As a Colorado Senator, he was Chairman of the Finance Committee, the State Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, and the Local Government Committee. Schaffer also was the Vice-Chairman of the Senate Education Committee. Schaffer was awarded the "National Republican Legislator of the Year for 1995" by the National Republican Legislators Association.[citation needed]
In 1993, Schaffer made headlines when he removed a display from the Capitol—that was in clear view of visiting children—that contained pamphlets describing "unsafe sexual practices."[5]
Schaffer was first elected to theU.S. Congress in November 1996 representingColorado's 4th congressional district, succeedingWayne Allard andHank Brown.
Schaffer served three terms in Congress, fulfilling the three-term pledge he made during his first Congressional campaign.[6]
Schaffer upheld his pledge in spite of pleas from national Republicans and PresidentGeorge W. Bush to run for another term.[7] Schaffer led no fewer than four congressional delegations to Ukraine, and offered an ultimately unsuccessful balanced budget resolution and amendment. He was described as fiscally and socially conservative and to the right of the center of the party.[8]
His education policy work focused on school-choice and local control, and Schaffer was remembered for being able to help his Republican colleagues form their arguments when debating this issue.[8] He was succeeded byMarilyn Musgrave in January 2003. His congressional colleagues recount his tenure in congress as an education-policy expert.[citation needed]
Schaffer is of Ukrainian heritage, the son of a Ukrainian immigrant to the United States.[9] He has received multiple recognitions for his advocacy ofUkraine–United States relations, and for defense of Ukraine's territorial integrity under the1994 Budapest Memorandum.[10][11] Schaffer was co-founder and co-chair of the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus.[12] Schaffer served as anelection observer in Ukraine duringparliamentary election 2002 andpresidential election 2004 (“Orange Revolution”).[9]
TheAmerican Conservative Union gave him a 100% evaluation in 2001.
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In 2010, Schaffer was appointedprincipal of Liberty Common High School, acollege-preparatorycharter school in thePoudre School District inFort Collins, Colorado. During his time at Liberty Common, the first four graduating classes posted the highest average compositeACT score in Colorado, with the class of 2015 breaking the state record.[2] In 2017, Schaffer was appointed headmaster of both Liberty Common High School and Liberty Common School, its elementary counterpart.[13]
In May 2019, Liberty Common High School banned fourseniors from attending graduation. The seniors had bought condoms and distributed them in lockers across the school; they claimed this action was a statement against Schaffer's criticism of Colorado House Bill 19-1032, which would mandatecomprehensive sex education in Colorado schools.[14] Schaffer condemned the distribution of condoms as "sexual bullying."[15] The incident was covered in statewide news and generated minor controversy in the school community. In 2019, Liberty Common High School was granted a waiver from the sex education bill.[16]
Schaffer was vice-president for business development atAspect Energy, LLC., where he was involved in a variety of energy, mining and education projects, working primarily in wind energy. He was also a board member on the National Alternative Fuels Foundation,[17] but environmental groups released attack ads during the 2008 U.S. Senate race highlighting Shcaffer's congressional vote which gave $2.5 billion to alternative energy research and a much larger amount to traditional energy research and tax credits.[18]
Schaffer served as president of the Parental Alliance for Choice in Education, anon-profit corporation promotingschool choice reform in Colorado'spublic education system, and is active in the state's transformation to a market-driven education system.
Schaffer has been chairman of the Leadership Program of the Rockies, a nonprofit corporation that provides economic education and civic-leadership training in Colorado.[19] Schaffer is a regular columnist for the Fort Collins Coloradoan daily newspaper.[20] Schaffer was also an opinion columnist for the now-defunctNorthern Colorado Courier.
Since 2003, Schaffer has been chairman of Leadership Program of the Rockies, a nonprofit organization providing economic education and civic-leadership training in Colorado.[21]
In March 2005, Schaffer was electedRepublican National Committeeman for Colorado.
Schaffer was appointed to fill a vacancy on theColorado State Board of Education by a party vacancy committee, representing a district that is coterminous with the state'sFourth Congressional District. He successfully ran for the seat in 2006, againstDemocrat Tom Griggs. In January, 2009, Schaffer was made chairman of the Colorado State Board of Education with a unanimous decision of the four Republican and three Democratic board members.[22] Fellow board members elected Schaffer to continue his chairmanship in 2011.[23]
As Chairman of the Colorado State Board of Education, Schaffer borrowed ideas from Singapore and Finland when working to create new forward-thinking standards that are both internationally benchmarked and designed to grow students’ strategic thinking capabilities over fact memorization.[24]
Citing the importance of letting parents know if someone proximal to their children has been arrested, Schaffer took a leadership role in the effort to require parent notification if a school employee is arrested or charged with a serious crime. The measure went into effect in April 2011 despite strong opposition from the Colorado Education Association, the state-based teachers' unions.[25][26]
Schaffer maintained the position throughout the debating of the measure that parents are in the best position to make decisions about their children's safety. He voted against adopting Common Core standards, but the federal standards passed on a 4-3 vote. Adopting the standards were a keystone factor to the Colorado's application for $175 million inRace to the Top funds. In early 2011, Schaffer took heat from Democratic State Board of Education member Mary Johnson. The disagreement was over Schaffer's inviting William Maloney, Colorado education commissioner under both parties from 1997 to 2007, who spoke on “three incontestable realities concerning which America has been in denial for decades,” regarding America's education performance on a global scale, the unsustainable costs of education, and the availability of better models for the path forward.[27]
Under Schaffer's chairmanship tenure, unanimous charter school guidelines were adopted. The new concrete rules adopted best practices for charter school authorization.[28]
He is the Colorado Chairman of theJudicial Confirmation Network.[citation needed] In 2006, Schaffer founded Dreamsoft Colorado, LLC,[29] a firm that creates high-end interactive websites for business and political clients. He is also the President of AMDG LLC. As a member of the Fort Collins, Colorado community, he owned a small business.[10]
In 2004, Schaffer contended for the Republican nomination to theU.S. Senate after incumbent RepublicanBen Nighthorse Campbell chose not to run for re-election. Brewing magnatePete Coors opposed Schaffer. Coors entered the bitterprimary battle after Schaffer faced down potential contenders such as David Liniger, founder ofReMax. The nomination battle concluded when Coors won theRepublican nomination over Schaffer with 61% of the vote. Coors went on to lose to Democratic nomineeKen Salazar in the2004 general election.[30]
Schaffer was the Republican nominee for the open seat of retiring SenatorWayne Allard. He lost toMark Udall, the Democratic nominee.
On May 9, 2007, Schaffer filed his official statement of candidacy with the Federal Elections Commission. On May 12, 2007, he made an official announcement in Boulder that he would run for the Senate to a group of over 150 Republicans attending a fundraising event.[31]
On September 28, 2008, Udall and Schaffer appeared onMeet the Press'sSenate Debate series, discussing theproposed bailout of the U.S. financial system.[32]
In 2008, the League of Conservation Voters named Schaffer a member of its "Dirty Dozen" because of an anti-environmental record during his tenure in Congress.[33]
In 2001, then-congressman Schaffer voted for President Bush's energy plan that Democrats argued was a $33 billion gift to the oil corporations.[34] Republicans argued that the bill would help reduce America's dependence on foreign oil.[35]
Schaffer was allegedly linked to theMariana Islands worker abuse scandal by his association with theTraditional Values Coalition. The organization was used byJack Abramoff to pay for the trip of the then-Congressman to visit the island. TheDenver Post reported that the TVC paid the $13,000 travel bill for the trip, organized by Abramoff's lobbying firm.[38] Schaffer criticized the Denver Post's reporting, asserting that he had no contact with the individuals in the report, including Jack Abramoff.[39]
Schaffer claimed that he spoke with local clergy who denied there was a problem of forced abortions in the Northern Marianas,[40] the only area of the United States where abortion is banned by their local constitution.[41][42] After his return from the islands, Schaffer used his position on the Resources Committee to attack reports of abuses on the islands.[43]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Bob Schaffer | 137,012 | 56.14 | |
| Democratic | Guy Kelley | 92,837 | 38.04 | |
| American | Wesley Paul "Wes" McKinley | 7,428 | 3.04 | |
| Natural Law | Cynthia Parker | 6,790 | 2.78 | |
| Total votes | 244,067 | 100.0 | ||
| Republicanhold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Bob Schaffer (Incumbent) | 131,318 | 59.34 | |
| Democratic | Susan Kirkpatrick | 89,973 | 40.66 | |
| Total votes | 221,291 | 100.0 | ||
| Republicanhold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Bob Schaffer (Incumbent) | 209,078 | 79.50 | |
| Natural Law | Dan Sewell Ward | 19,721 | 7.50 | |
| Libertarian | Kordon L. Baker | 19,713 | 7.50 | |
| Constitution | Leslie J. Hanks | 9,955 | 3.77 | |
| Write-in | 4,539 | 1.73 | ||
| Total votes | 263,006 | 100.0 | ||
| Republicanhold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Pete Coors | 203,157 | 60.57% | |
| Republican | Bob Schaffer | 132,274 | 39.43% | |
| Total votes | 335,431 | 100.00% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Mark Udall | 1,231,049 | 52.80% | +7.03% | |
| Republican | Bob Schaffer | 990,784 | 42.49% | −8.20% | |
| Constitution | Douglas Campbell | 59,736 | 2.56% | +1.04% | |
| Green | Bob Kinsey | 50,008 | 2.14% | N/A | |
| Write-in | 135 | 0.01% | N/A | ||
| Total votes | 2,331,712 | 100.00% | N/A | ||
| Democraticgain fromRepublican | |||||
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromColorado's 4th congressional district 1997–2003 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Wayne Allard | Republican nominee forU.S. Senator fromColorado (Class 2) 2008 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former U.S. Representative | Order of precedence of the United States as Former U.S. Representative | Succeeded byas Former U.S. Representative |
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