Paul Sarbanes Explained

Paul Sarbanes
Office1:Chair of the Senate Banking Committee
Term Start1:January 3, 2001
Term End1:January 20, 2001
Predecessor1:Phil Gramm
Successor1:Phil Gramm
Term Start2:June 6, 2001
Term End2:January 3, 2003
Predecessor2:Phil Gramm
Successor2:Richard Shelby
Jr/Sr:United States Senator
State:Maryland
Term Start:January 3, 1977
Term End:January 3, 2007
Predecessor:J. Glenn Beall Jr.
Successor:Ben Cardin
Office3:Member of the
U.S. House of Representatives
from Maryland
Constituency3: (1971–1973)
(1973–1977)
Term Start3:January 3, 1971
Term End3:January 3, 1977
Predecessor3:George Hyde Fallon
Successor3:Barbara Mikulski
State Delegate4:Maryland
District4:2nd
Term Start4:January 18, 1967
Term End4:January 13, 1971
Birth Name:Paul Spyros Sarbanes
Birth Date:3 February 1933
Birth Place:Salisbury, Maryland, U.S.
Death Place:Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Party:Democratic
Children:3, including John
Education:Princeton University (BA)
Balliol College, Oxford (BA)
Harvard University (LLB)
Signature:Paul Sarbanes signature.gif

Paul Spyros Sarbanes (; February 3, 1933 – December 6, 2020) was an American politician and attorney. A member of the Democratic Party from Maryland, he served in both chambers of the United States Congress as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1971 to 1977 and as a member of the United States Senate from 1977 to 2007. Sarbanes was the longest-serving senator in the History of Maryland until he was surpassed by Barbara Mikulski by a single day when her term ended on January 3, 2017. He was the first Greek American senator.

Born in Salisbury, Maryland, Sarbanes was a graduate of Princeton University, Balliol College, Oxford, and Harvard Law School. Elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1966, he went on to serve two terms in the Maryland House from 1967 to 1971. In 1970, he won a seat in the United States House of Representatives, representing Maryland's 4th congressional district and later Maryland's 3rd congressional district from 1971 to 1977.

In 1976, he ran for the United States Senate, defeating Republican incumbent J. Glenn Beall Jr. with 59% of the vote. Sarbanes was re-elected four times, each time receiving no less than 59% of the vote. He did not seek re-election in 2006, when he was succeeded by fellow Democrat Ben Cardin. Sarbanes was known for his low-key style,[1] often shunning the limelight over his thirty-year Senate career. He was a coauthor of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which is generally noted as his most noteworthy piece of legislation.[2] [3]

Early life

Sarbanes was born on Maryland's Eastern Shore in the city of Salisbury to Greek immigrant parents, Matina (née Tsigounis) and Spyros P. Sarbanes, who had emigrated from Laconia, Greece and owned a Salisbury restaurant.[4] [5]

A graduate of Wicomico High School in Salisbury, Maryland, Sarbanes attended Princeton University, where (like the younger Bill Bradley) he played basketball[6] and earned a bachelor's degree in 1954[7] from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs after completing a senior thesis titled "The Smith Act: A Denial of American Freedoms".[8] At Princeton, Sarbanes was a member of the American Whig–Cliosophic Society. As a senior, he received the Moses Taylor Pyne Honor Prize, Princeton's highest undergraduate honor.[9] He also was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship that brought him to Balliol College of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England.[10] He graduated with a First Class degree in 1957.[10] Sarbanes then returned to the United States and attended Harvard Law School.[11]

After graduating in 1960, he clerked for Federal Judge Morris Ames Soper before entering private practice with two Baltimore law firms.[10]

Political career

State legislature

In 1966, Sarbanes ran for the Maryland House of Delegates in Baltimore and won.[12] During his four years as a State delegate in Annapolis, Maryland he served on both the Judiciary and the Ways and Means Committees.

U.S. House of Representatives

Sarbanes was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1970 from the fourth district of Maryland and was reelected in 1972 and 1974 from the third district.[10] While in the House, Sarbanes served on the Judiciary Committee, the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee, and the Select Committee on House Reorganization.[13]

As a member of the Judiciary Committee he participated in the impeachment process against Richard Nixon.[10] On July 26, 1974, he introduced the first articles of impeachment against President Nixon for obstruction of justice.[14]

U.S. Senate

Sarbanes was elected to the United States Senate in 1976 and re-elected in 1982, 1988, 1994, and 2000.[10] [12] In 2002, he was the United States Senate sponsor of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002, which reformed federal securities laws in the wake of the 2002 accounting scandals.[12]

Sarbanes served on the following Senate committees:[13]

By 1981, Sarbanes was noted as a frequent critic of military budgets. In spite of this, in May of that year, he voted in favor of approving a Reagan administration-backed $136.5 billion military authorization bill.[15] In December, he voted in favor[16] of an amendment to President Ronald Reagan's MX missiles proposal that would divert the silo system by $334 million as well as earmark further research for other methods that would allow giant missiles to be based. While the military authorization bill was seen as supporting the administration, the December vote was viewed as a rebuff of Reagan.[17] [18]

On March 11, 2005, Sarbanes, the longest-serving senator in Maryland history, announced at a news conference his decision not to seek re-election in 2006.[19] Colleagues of Sarbanes said that the reason for his retirement from the Senate was due to his annoyance with not having any leadership roles on committees.[20]

Sarbanes received the Foreign Language Advocacy Award in 2007 from the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages in recognition of his lifelong commitment to the values, languages, and cultures of the ancient world in service to the modern world.[21]

Personal life and death

In June 1960, Sarbanes married Christine Dunbar of Brighton, England; they had three children (John Sarbanes, Michael Anthony Sarbanes, and Janet Matina Sarbanes) and seven grandchildren.[10] Christine Sarbanes died of cancer on March 22, 2009.[22] Sarbanes held the highest lay office in the Greek Orthodox Church, "Order of St. Andrew, Archon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate"[23] and was a member of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation in Baltimore.[24]

His son, John Sarbanes, won the general election for Maryland's 3rd congressional district in 2006, the district that Paul Sarbanes represented prior to his election as senator.[12]

Paul Sarbanes died at his home in Baltimore on December 6, 2020, at the age of 87.[25] [26]

In April 2021, Wicomico Public Libraries announced that the library in downtown Salisbury would be renamed after Sarbanes.[27]

Election history

YearOffice soughtElectionSubjectPartyVotes%OpponentPartyVotes%
1970GeneralPaul SarbanesDemocratic align=right 93,09369.7%David FentressRepublican align=right 40,44230.3%
1972GeneralPaul SarbanesDemocratic align=right 93,21883.8%William MatthewsRepublican align=right 17,96716.2%
1974GeneralPaul SarbanesDemocratic align=right 54,93670.1%William H. MathewsRepublican align=right 23,49129.9%
1976U.S. Senator, Class 1GeneralPaul SarbanesDemocratic align=right 772,10159.3%John Glenn Beall, Jr. (incumbent)Republican align=right 530,43940.7%
1982U.S. Senator, Class 1GeneralPaul SarbanesDemocratic align=right 707,35663.5%Lawrence HoganRepublican align=right 407,33436.5%
1988U.S. Senator, Class 1GeneralPaul SarbanesDemocratic align=right 999,16661.8%Alan KeyesRepublican align=right 617,53738.2%
1994U.S. Senator, Class 1GeneralPaul SarbanesDemocratic align=right 809,12559.1%Bill BrockRepublican align=right 559,90840.9%
2000U.S. Senator, Class 1GeneralPaul SarbanesDemocratic align=right 1,230,01363.2%Paul RappaportRepublican align=right 715,17836.8%

Publications

External links

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Notes and References

  1. Web site: Cerebral Sarbanes Aloof to Limelight . washingtonpost.com . Charles Babington . March 12, 2005.
  2. Web site: The men behind the Sarbanes–Oxley Act . usatoday.com . Greg Farrell . July 30, 2007.
  3. Web site: An Interview with Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes Sarbanes–Oxley Act Revisited . Dick Carozza . fraud-magazine.com.
  4. Web site: Paul S. Sarbanes, U. S. Senator (bio) . . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100528074116/http://www.cc.nih.gov//ccc/crc/pdf/sarbanes_bio.pdf . May 28, 2010.
  5. Web site: Paul Sarbanes, Greek-American Senator, dies at 87. Elathimerini. December 7, 2020.
  6. McPhee . John . 2023-10-09 . Under the Carpetbag . en-US . The New Yorker . 2023-12-17 . 0028-792X.
  7. Web site: Stevens . Ruth . November 16, 2006 . Sarbanes and Coles to Be Honored with Alumni Awards . December 17, 2023 . Princeton University News . en-US.
  8. bachelor's . Sarbanes . Paul Spyros . 1954 . The Smith Act: A Denial of American Freedoms . Princeton University.
  9. Web site: February 23, 1954. Sophs receive study honors. October 14, 2020. The Daily Princetonian.
  10. News: Paul Sarbanes, senator from Maryland who led overhaul of corporate accounting rules, dies at 87. The Washington Post. December 6, 2020.
  11. Web site: Former U.S. Senator and anti-fraud law co-sponsor Paul Sarbanes dies at 87. Reuters. December 6, 2020.
  12. Web site: Paul Sarbanes, longtime U.S. senator from Maryland who championed protection of Chesapeake Bay, dies at 87. Baltimore Sun. December 6, 2020.
  13. Web site: PAUL SPYROS SARBANES (Democrat). Maryland.gov. December 6, 2020.
  14. News: How a Fragile Centrist Bloc Emerged As House Panel Weighed Impeachment. Naughton. James M.. Based on reporting by the author, R. W. Apple. Jr., Diane Henry, Marjorie Hunter and David E. Rosenbaum. August 5, 1974. 49. The New York Times. January 11, 2020.
  15. News: Senate Votes Military Funds in Victory for Reagan. May 15, 1981. New York Times.
  16. News: The 90–4 vote by which the Senate approved the .... December 3, 1981. UPI.
  17. News: Senators Reject Plan for Placing MX Missile in Silos. Steven V.. Roberts. December 3, 1981. New York Times.
  18. News: Reagan scorns Senate rejection of silo-based MX missile plan. Stephen. Webbe. The Christian Science Monitor. December 4, 1981.
  19. News: Kirkpatrick . David K. . Senator Sarbanes, Maryland Democrat, Will Retire in '06 . . March 12, 2005.
  20. News: Kirkpatrick. David. Senator Sarbanes, Maryland Democrat, Will Retire in '06. October 8, 2014. New York Times. March 12, 2005.
  21. Web site: The James W. Dodge Foreign Language Advocate Award . Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages . August 28, 2014 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140821193635/http://www.nectfl.org/awards-james-w-dodge-foreign-language-advocate-award . August 21, 2014.
  22. Web site: Christine Sarbanes. March 24, 2009 . December 6, 2020. Baltimore Sun.
  23. Web site: Archbishop Demetrios presides at Investiture of Twenty-Two New Archons | Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle – Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate . Archons.org . October 26, 2008 . August 11, 2013.
  24. Web site: Paul S. Sarbanes, U.S. Senator (Maryland) . Msa.md.gov . August 11, 2013.
  25. News: Paul Sarbanes, U.S. Senator Who Co-Wrote Anti-Fraud Law, Dies at 87. Bloomberg News. December 6, 2020. December 6, 2020. subscription.
  26. News: Paul Sarbanes, Longtime Senator From Maryland And Financial Reformer, Dies At 87. NPR. December 8, 2020. April 22, 2022. Dwyer. Colin.
  27. Web site: Library Branch Renaming Planned. Hooper . Bethany . The Dispatch. October 28, 2021. April 8, 2021.
  28. Web site: Sen. Paul Sarbanes. Gov Track.us. December 7, 2020.
  29. Web site: Paul S. Sarbanes. Harvard University. December 6, 2020.
  30. Web site: SARBANES, Paul Spyros (1933-). Bio Guide Retro. December 6, 2020.