Chris Carney | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromPennsylvania's10th district | |
| In office January 3, 2007 – January 3, 2011 | |
| Preceded by | Don Sherwood |
| Succeeded by | Tom Marino |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1959-03-02)March 2, 1959 (age 66) Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Jennifer Carney |
| Residence(s) | Dimock Township, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Cornell College,University of Nebraska,University of Wyoming |
| Occupation | Commander in the U.S. Navy, College Professor |
| Awards | Defense Meritorious Service Medal Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal Joint Service Achievement Medal (3) Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal Naval Rifle Marksman Ribbon Naval Pistol Expert Medal |
| Military service | |
| Branch/service | United States Navy |
| Rank | Commander |
| Unit | Noble Eagle Defense Intelligence Agency The Pentagon (advisor) |
| Battles/wars | Operation Enduring Freedom |
Christopher Paul Carney[1] (born March 2, 1959) is an American politician who was theU.S. representative forPennsylvania's 10th congressional district from 2007 to 2011. He is a member of theDemocratic Party.
Carney is also an associate professor ofpolitical science atPenn State Worthington Scranton, where he has taught since 1992.
Carney grew up inCoggon, Iowa, and earned his bachelor's degree fromCornell College inMount Vernon, Iowa, received his master's from theUniversity of Wyoming, and completed hisPh.D inpolitical science at theUniversity of Nebraska-Lincoln.[2]
Carney has been an associate professor ofpolitical science atPenn State Worthington Scranton since 1992.[2]
From 2002 to 2004, Carney served as a counterterrorism analyst for the Bush administration, under Douglas Feith in theOffice of Special Plans and at theDefense Intelligence Agency, researching links betweenal Qaeda andSaddam Hussein.[3]
From 2013 to 2016, Carney was a commissioner for the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission (MCRMC).[4] He was selected by President Obama to serve as one of nine commissioners on this panel.
Carney worked as a senior intelligence specialist for the National Aviation Intelligence Integration Office (within the purview of the director of National Intelligence) from 2016 to 2017.[5]
In 2019, Carney joined Nossaman LLP's Washington, D.C. office, where he serves as a senior policy advisor.[6][7]
A commander in the United StatesNaval Reserve, Carney served multiple tours overseas and was activated for operationsEnduring Freedom andNoble Eagle. He was direct commissioned as anEnsign in 1995. He served as Senior Terrorism and Intelligence Advisor atthe Pentagon.[2]
He is the recipient of theDefense Meritorious Service Medal, threeJoint Service Achievement Medals, theNavy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, and the Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal. His awards also include the Naval Rifle Marksman ribbon and the Naval Pistol Expert Medal.[2]
In September 2007, Congressman Carney went on active duty with the Navy for his two weeks of service as a Lt. Commander in the reserve. On active duty, Carney worked on the "Predator" project near Norfolk, VA.[8]
In July 2008, Carney was promoted from lieutenant commander to commander in the Naval Reserve. He was one of just two members of the House to serve in the military reserve.[9]
During his unsuccessful 2010 re-election campaign Carney revealed that he had served as an interrogator at Guantanamo.[10][11]Carol Rosenberg, writing in theMiami Herald, wrote that although Carney had traveled with fellow Congressional Representatives on fact-finding trips to Guantanamo, he had never informed them that he himself had served there.
In January 2007, Carney was named chairman of the Homeland SecuritySubcommittee on Management, Investigations, and Oversight, a surprising achievement for a freshman congressman.[14][15]
While opposing proposals to privatizeSocial Security, he said he is open to the idea of adding private accounts in addition to (not at the expense of) traditional defined benefits.[16]
He supports federal investment instem cell research,[17] and is an advocate of universal healthcare.[16]
He supportsgun rights.[18]
In 2009, Carney voted for H.R 2187, the 21st Century Green Schools Act, to make grants to states for the modernization, renovation, or repair of public schools, including early learning facilities and charter schools, to make them safe, healthy, high-performing, and technologically up-to-date.[19]
Carney made change of direction in Iraq policy a cornerstone of his 2006 campaign, often decrying theBush Administration's war policies.[20] He voted to reauthorize funding for military action in Iraq with H.R. 2206. In 2007, he voted against H.R. 2956, which would have required the removal of all US personnel from Iraq within only 120 days.[21] He stated that since the US was already at war in Iraq, the top priority should be winning the war.[22]
Carney voted against theEmergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008[23] and voted for theAmerican Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.[24]
Congressman Carney also voted for theAffordable Health Care for America Act[25] as well as thePatient Protection and Affordable Care Act.[26]
When Carney entered the race for the 10th, he was initially considered an underdog againstRepublican incumbentDon Sherwood. The 10th had been in Republican hands since 1961. The four-term incumbent had barely defeated Democrat Patrick Casey in his bid to succeed popular 36-year incumbentJoe McDade in 1998, and narrowly defeated Casey in a 2000 rematch. In hopes of protecting Sherwood, the Republican-controlled state legislature made the 10th significantly more rural and Republican after the 2000 census, and the Democrats hadn't even put up a candidate in the last two elections.
However, revelations of Sherwood's five-year-long extramarital affair with a woman more than 30 years his junior, along with allegations of abuse, severely hampered Sherwood's reelection chances in the 10th, which has a strong social conservative tint. Carney also garnered the endorsement of 30 labor unions.[27]
During the campaign, Carney raised money with a wide variety of supporters, including Sen.Barack Obama, SenJoe Biden,[28] Rep.Jay Inslee,[29] Rep.Jack Murtha,[30] andRichard Perle, former chairman of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee[31]Douglas Feith, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, congratulated Carney on Election Night.[22]
Carney faced Republican staffing executive Chris Hackett in his bid for a second term. On paper, Carney was one of the few incumbent Democrats to be rated vulnerable in this election cycle, because he was a freshman running in a strongly Republican district (itsCook Partisan Voting Index was R+8). TheNational Republican Congressional Committee advertised for Hackett, while theService Employees International Union andDemocratic Congressional Campaign Committee—which were among those organizations identifying Carney as especially vulnerable—advertised on his behalf, placing special emphasis on his vote for an increase in the federalminimum wage to $7.25 by 2009, a measure passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by Bush on May 24, 2007.
Since the summer of 2007, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report and a number of other political analysts listed Carney's District as "slightly" leaning Democratic in 2008, and according to the FEC Carney has raised over $500,000 towards his re-election in the first six months of 2007. Public opinion polls conducted in January 2008 indicated a lead over Hackett (then a candidate in the GOP primary), by significant double-digit margins and even a majority of registered Republicans, 53 percent, approve of Carney's job performance. The candidates differed overSocial Security. Carney opposedBush's plan for privatization, while Hackett supported it.[32]
Chris Carney was asuperdelegate to the2008 Democratic National Convention. He vowed that he would "wait and see how his district votes", hinting that he would likely issue an endorsement after the April 22 Pennsylvania primary for the candidate that wins by a "landslide"—if a huge victory by either occurs—in his overwhelmingly conservative district in which registered Democrats are few compared to Republicans. Another northeastern Pennsylvania Congressman,Paul Kanjorski, had long endorsed and actively campaigned for Clinton, alongside a number of other Democratic politicians in the state, including GovernorEd Rendell, while U.S. senatorBob Casey, Jr. was Obama's most significant supporter. Carney endorsed Clinton on May 9 after she carried his district in the Democratic primary by a whopping 70%-30% margin.
On November 4, 2008, Carney defeated Chris Hackett 56% to 44%.[33]
Carney was challenged by Republican nominee and former U. S. AttorneyTom Marino. In the 2010 election, Marino defeated Carney, 55–45%. Proving just how Republican this district still was, the Democrats have not crossed the 40 percent mark in the district, since renumbered as the12th District, since Carney left office. Indeed, Carney is the only Democrat to cross the 40 percent mark sinceScranton was drawn out of the district after the 2000 census.
In 2011, he was appointed as director of homeland security and policy strategy forBAE Systems.[34]
Carney is a board member for theAmerican Edge Project, an advocacy organization for the technology industry.[35]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Chris Carney | 110,115 | 52.9 | |
| Republican | Don Sherwood | 97,862 | 47.1 | |
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Christopher Carney (incumbent) | 160,837 | 56.33 | ||
| Republican | Chris Hackett | 124,681 | 43.67 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Tom Marino | 110,599 | 55.2 | |
| Democratic | Chris Carney | 89,846 | 44.8 | |
| Total votes | 200,445 | 100 | ||
So it came as a surprise last month when a Pennsylvania congressman seeking reelection campaigned as the only member of the U.S. Congress to have interrogated a Guantánamo detainee.
He said he is the only member of Congress to have personally interrogated a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, he's been to the Mexico/U.S. border to see how the border surveillance system operates and he has participated in Predator and Reaper drone missions.
Media related toChris Carney at Wikimedia Commons
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromPennsylvania's 10th congressional district 2007–2011 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former US Representative | Order of precedence of the United States as Former US Representative | Succeeded byas Former US Representative |
