Election 2010: U.S. Congressman Urges College Students to Vote in 2010 Midterm Election
September 30, 2010 No CommentsBy the campaign of U.S. Congressman Jim Cooper (TN-5)
U.S. Congressman Jim Cooper (TN-5), who represents Vanderbilt’s campus as well as the surrounding Nashville community in the United States House of Representatives, is encouraging members of the Vanderbilt student body to exercise their right to vote this midterm election. With Election Day on Tuesday, November 2, now is the time to start researching candidates and making plans to hit the polls.
“We need a big student vote because students have the most at stake in this election,” Congressman Cooper said. “Young people are not only the future, they are the present… if they show up to vote. Lots of elections have been decided recently by a handful of votes, so your vote could literally make the difference!”
In accordance with his encouragement of young voters, Cooper has been particularly focused on developing student talents. His office has the largest and best intern program on Capitol Hill (he tries to spend an hour a day with his interns), and he has authored an Intern Handbook to help college students become higher achievers. Vanderbilt students are welcome to apply.
Cooper has a fiscally-conservative, socially-moderate voting record that puts him almost exactly in the ideological middle of the 435-person U.S. House of Representatives. Roughly 200 members are more “liberal” that Cooper is, and another 200 are more “conservative.” A Blue Dog Democrat, Cooper is known for working across party lines to achieve practical solutions for America’s policy problems, particularly regarding deficit reduction and strong national defense. As the intellectual leader of the Blue Dogs, Cooper has often opposed Democratic leadership. His polite, well-informed style makes a strong impression. Speaker Pelosi’s top-ten list of her least-favorite people included Cooper at #5, just behind the Republican leader.
Cooper has represented the Nashville area for eight years, during which time he has authored legislation on several of America’s most important issues, such as creating a bipartisan entitlement reform commission, reforming America’s health care system, and strengthening internal management of every federal agency. He is leading the fight to get the federal government to use the same type of accounting that every business uses so that America can track its finances, especially the national credit card. Cooper’s committee work focuses on the U.S. military.
Cooper is also known for his excellent constituent service, notably the flood recovery efforts after the 2010 Nashville Flood. Vanderbilt students have often relied on his office to obtain passports and cut through red tape on student loans and other federal programs.
Cooper authored the first market-based controls for acid rain, a reform that is now taught worldwide as one of the most successful types of government regulation. Cooper’s articles on the military are now part of the curriculum of the Army War College and National Defense University. Cooper’s 2007 speech on Separation of Powers won first prize from the American Bar Association as the best Law Day address in America. Cooper also wrote a recent law review article on electric utility regulation for the Harvard Journal on Legislation. His interest in foster care and adoption has resulted in a 120-page book on reforming child welfare laws.
Cooper has strong ties to Vanderbilt, having taught a popular class on Health Policy at the Owen School of Management for the last thirteen years. He will be teaching again this winter. Cooper also appears frequently on campus for numerous events. Although Cooper is a Nashville native, he was a Morehead Scholar at UNC-Chapel Hill, a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and a graduate of Harvard Law School. He and his wife Martha and three children live in Green Hills.
The Vanderbilt Political Review would like to thank the campaign of Congressman Jim Cooper for providing this article. Congressman Cooper is up for reelection against David Hall, the Republican nominee for the 5th congressional district, this year.
The Vanderbilt Political Review is hosting the Election 2010 Series as a service to the Vanderbilt Community. Neither The Vanderbilt Political Review, Vanderbilt Student Communications, nor Vanderbilt University necessarily endorse or support the content of these articles.
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