Colonel William A. Phillips

Barbara Lynn Cubin (née Turner; born November 30, 1946) is an American politician who was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, Wyoming's sole member of that body. She was the first woman elected to Congress from Wyoming.

Early life, education

Cubin was born in Salinas, California. She grew up in Casper, Wyoming, and graduated from high school there. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.

Cubin worked as a substitute science and math teacher, and was employed full-time as a social worker for senior citizens and disabled adults.^[1] She later worked for the state Labor Department and Ironworkers' Union to train minorities and Vietnam War veterans to become iron workers.^{[citation needed]}

In 1974, Cubin joined the Wyoming Machinery Company as a chemist, and in 1975, began managing the office of her husband, Fritz Cubin, a physician.

Personal

Cubin and her husband Fritz married in 1975 and had two children. Fritz Cubin, who was a doctor, died in 2010 after a decade of serious health problems.^[2]

In past elections, Cubin fended off attacks on missed floor votes, which she attributed to her husband's severe health problems.^[3][4] Cubin also has had health issues of her own. In 1993 and 1995, she had surgeries related to her gall bladder. In July 2005, she suffered a mild heart attack and underwent surgery to place a stent in an artery that was 70 percent blocked.^[5]

Early political career

Cubin began her political career in November 1986, when she was elected to the Wyoming House of Representatives from Natrona County, Wyoming. She served there for six years. During the 1992 session, she was the primary sponsor of legislation that put on the ballot an initiative that would create the sentence of life without parole.

In November 1992, Cubin was elected to the Wyoming Senate, representing part of Casper, Wyoming. She served there for two years before being elected to the U.S. House.

U.S. House of Representatives

1994 election

In November 1994, Cubin ran for Wyoming's U.S. House seat, to succeed Republican Craig Thomas, who was running for (and would be elected to) the United States Senate. Cubin defeated eight other Republicans in the primary, then won the general election against Bob Schuster, a wealthy Jackson attorney and then-partner of prominent trial attorney Gerry Spence.

Cubin's first race was very close by Wyoming standards (Wyoming is one of the most Republican states in the nation), with Cubin getting 53% of the vote. It was also the most expensive campaign in state history.

Cubin became the first woman to win an election for federal office in the state of Wyoming.

Subsequent elections

In 1996, Cubin was re-elected with 55 percent. Subsequent races were less close, until 2004, when she again won with 55% of the vote. By contrast, George W. Bush won the state with 69 percent of the vote. In 2006, Cubin won her seat again, but barely, registering 48 percent of the vote to her Democratic opponent Gary Trauner's 48 percent.

Committees

Early in her House tenure, she served on the House Science Committee.^[1] In her last terms in office, she was a member of the House Resources Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee. In the wake of the Democratic takeover of Congress in the 2006 elections, Cubin served only on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, as a Member of both the Health and Telecommunications Subcommittees.

Political positions

Cubin's voting record is conservative: the American Conservative Union gave her 2005 voting record a rating of 96 points out of 100.

An opponent of abortion in any form, Cubin consistently voted for restrictions on abortion and against funding of family planning groups that provide abortion services, counseling or advocacy.^[6]

In 2006, Cubin was listed as cosponsoring legislation that would sell off some federal land to help pay for Hurricane Katrina and other disaster relief. Cubin maintains she never signed on to the legislation, saying there must have been a clerical error. About 42 percent of Wyoming's land is owned by the federal government, including Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.^[7]

Relatedly, she focused much of her attention on the mining and land use issues important to Wyoming. She cofounded the Congressional Mining Caucus and introduced legislation to allow mining companies operating on federal lands to pay taxes in minerals rather than dollars.^[1][8]

With regard to global warming, Cubin has stated that "there still exists broad disagreement within the scientific community on the extent to which humans actually contribute to the Earth's temperature changes."^[9]

The League of Conservation Voters, a nonpartisan PAC, gave Cubin a lifetime rating of 3 on a scale of 0 to 100. In 2006, she scored a 0.^[10]

In 2000, she was appointed to be a member of the National Rifle Association of America Board of Directors.^[1]

During her time in the House, Cubin rose into the ranks of Republican leadership, holding the posts of Deputy Majority Whip, Conference Secretary, and member of the Steering Committee.^[1]

Cubin was a supporter of impeaching President Bill Clinton. In November 1997, Cubin was one of eighteen House Republicans to co-sponsor a resolution by Bob Barr that sought to launch an impeachment inquiry against President Clinton.^[11] The resolution did not specify any charges or allegations.^[12] This was an early effort to impeach Clinton, predating the eruption of the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal. The eruption of that scandal would ultimately lead to a more serious effort to impeach Clinton in 1998.^[13] On October 8, 1998, Cubin voted in favor of legislation that was passed to open an impeachment inquiry.^[14] On December 19, 1998, Cubin voted in favor of all four proposed articles of impeachment against Clinton (only two of which received the majority of votes needed to be adopted).^{[15][16][17][18]}

Controversies

Racial comment

On April 9, 2003, Cubin said on the House floor, "My sons are 25 and 30. They are blond-haired and blue-eyed. One amendment today said we could not sell guns to anybody under drug treatment. So does that mean if you go into a black community, you cannot sell a gun to any black person, or does that mean because my …" Representative Melvin Watt, (D-N.C.), who is black, interrupted and demanded that Cubin retract the statement. Cubin said that she did not mean to offend her "neighbors" on the Democratic side, and maintained that her comment was within House rules.^[19]

On the motion from Watt to strike Cubin's words, the motion was defeated along mostly party lines of 227 to 195, with 4 Democrats voting with the Republicans.^[20][21]

Slap

On October 22, 2006, after a televised debate with Democratic candidate Gary Trauner and Libertarian candidate Thomas Rankin, Cubin approached Rankin, who has multiple sclerosis and is a wheelchair user. Rankin states that Cubin said, "If you weren't sitting in that chair, I'd slap you across the face." Rankin called her comment an inappropriate slur to the disabled. Rankin maintains he said nothing to Cubin before her remark.^[22]

ARMPAC

The Wyoming Democratic Party has repeatedly called for Cubin to return the $22,520 she received from Tom DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority political action committee (ARMPAC).^[23]

On July 23, 2006 the Casper Star-Tribune reported Cubin "will keep the money she received from former Rep. Tom DeLay's fundraising committee even though the organization has been fined for campaign finance violations and is shutting down." ARMPAC agreed to pay a fine to the Federal Election Commission for "misstatements of financial activity, failure to report debts and obligations and failure to properly allocate expenses between federal and non-federal accounts.""^[23] Later in 2006, Cubin said she would return the money if DeLay was convicted.^[24] DeLay was convicted, though his conviction was reversed on appeal in 2013 by Texas Republican judges.^[25]

2008 retirement

Cubin announced in 2008 that she would not be a candidate for re-election that year. Former Wyoming State Treasurer Cynthia Lummis became the Republican nominee for Wyoming's At-Large U.S. House District. After her victory in the general election, Lummis succeeded Cubin in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Electoral history

See also

• Women in the United States House of Representatives

References

External links

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Barbara Cubin papers at the American Heritage Center