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Paul Spyros Sarbanes (/ˈsɑːrˌbeɪnz/; February 3, 1933 – December 6, 2020) was an American politician and attorney from Maryland. A member of the Democratic Party, 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.[a] He was the first Greek American senator.
Paul Sarbanes | |
|---|---|
 | |
| United States Senator from Maryland | |
| In office January 3, 1977 – January 3, 2007 | |
| Preceded by | J. Glenn Beall Jr. |
| Succeeded by | Ben Cardin |
| Chair of the Senate Banking Committee | |
| In office January 3, 2001 – January 20, 2001 | |
| Preceded by | Phil Gramm |
| Succeeded by | Phil Gramm |
| In office June 6, 2001 – January 3, 2003 | |
| Preceded by | Phil Gramm |
| Succeeded by | Richard Shelby |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland | |
| In office January 3, 1971 – January 3, 1977 | |
| Preceded by | George Hyde Fallon |
| Succeeded by | Barbara Mikulski |
| Constituency | 4th district (1971–1973) 3rd district (1973–1977) |
| Member of the Maryland House of Delegates from the 2nd district | |
| In office January 18, 1967 – January 13, 1971 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Paul Spyros Sarbanes February 3, 1933 Salisbury, Maryland, U.S. |
| Died | December 6, 2020 (aged 87) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse |
Christine Dunbar
(m. 1960; died 2009) |
| Children | 3, including John |
| Education | Princeton University (BA) Balliol College, Oxford (BA) Harvard University (LLB) |
| Signature |  |
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]
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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]
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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.[13]
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.[14]
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.[15]
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:[14]
- Ranking Member, Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs
- Ranking Member, Special Whitewater
- Senior Member, Foreign Relations
- Senior Member, Budget
- Senior Member, Joint Economic
By 1981, Sarbanes was noted as a frequent critic of military budgets.[16] 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.[16] In December, he voted in favor[17] 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.[18] While the military authorization bill was seen as supporting the administration,[16] the December vote was viewed as a rebuff of Reagan.[18][19]
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.[20] 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.[21]
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.[22]
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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.[23] Sarbanes held the highest lay office in the Greek Orthodox Church, "Order of St. Andrew, Archon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate"[24] and was a member of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation in Baltimore.[13]
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]
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| Year | Office sought | Election | Subject | Party | Votes | % | Opponent | Party | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | Maryland's 4th congressional district | General | Paul Sarbanes | Democratic | 93,093 | 69.7% | David Fentress | Republican | 40,442 | 30.3% | ||
| 1972 | Maryland's 3rd congressional district | General | Paul Sarbanes | Democratic | 93,218 | 83.8% | William Matthews | Republican | 17,967 | 16.2% | ||
| 1974 | Maryland's 3rd congressional district | General | Paul Sarbanes | Democratic | 54,936 | 70.1% | William H. Mathews | Republican | 23,491 | 29.9% | ||
| 1976 | U.S. Senator, Class 1 | General | Paul Sarbanes | Democratic | 772,101 | 59.3% | John Glenn Beall, Jr. (incumbent) | Republican | 530,439 | 40.7% | ||
| 1982 | U.S. Senator, Class 1 | General | Paul Sarbanes | Democratic | 707,356 | 63.5% | Lawrence Hogan | Republican | 407,334 | 36.5% | ||
| 1988 | U.S. Senator, Class 1 | General | Paul Sarbanes | Democratic | 999,166 | 61.8% | Alan Keyes | Republican | 617,537 | 38.2% | ||
| 1994 | U.S. Senator, Class 1 | General | Paul Sarbanes | Democratic | 809,125 | 59.1% | Bill Brock | Republican | 559,908 | 40.9% | ||
| 2000 | U.S. Senator, Class 1 | General | Paul Sarbanes | Democratic | 1,230,013 | 63.2% | Paul Rappaport | Republican | 715,178 | 36.8% |
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- Both Sarbanes and Mikulski served five terms (thirty years) in the Senate. However, due to a differing number of leap days over their tenures, Mikulski finished with 10,958 days of Senate service, to Sarbanes's 10,957 days.
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