Profile of Sen. John Ashcroft
SCOTT CHARTON / AP 22dec00
[More on Ashcroft]
Age:
58
Born: May 9,
1942
Family: Ashcroft
married his wife Janet in 1967. She is a business-law professor
at Howard University; They have three children -- Jay, Andy and
Martha (husband Jim and son Jimmy)
Education: Graduated
from Springfield's Hillcrest High School in 1960, graduated from
Yale University in 1964, graduated from the University of Chicago
School of Law in 1967
Public Service Career:
1973-74 Auditor for Missouri; 1975-76 Missouri Assistant
Attorney General; 1976-85 - Attorney General for Missouri; 1985 -
1993 Governor for Missouri; 1994 - U.S. Senator for Missouri
Books: Co-authored
two college business-law text books with Janet Ashcroft and
authored Lessons from a Father to His Son about his
father.
Hobbies: Singing,
song writing, piano-playing, fishing, tennis, hiking, dirt-biking
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JEFFERSON CITY, MO - The son of a Pentecostal preacher, Missouri Sen.
John Ashcroft balances his public role with a personal passion for music and
gospel songs in particular.
President-elect George W. Bush's nominee for attorney general has served as a
lay speaker and singer in countless pulpits, spreading a message Ashcroft says
he has accepted since he was 12.
Reticent about discussing his faith with reporters, Ashcroft told The
Associated Press in November: "I believe it is against my religion to
impose my religion on others."
But Ashcroft's devotion to his faith - he is the highest-ranking elected
politician in his denomination, the Assemblies of God - is well-known in
Missouri.
Ashcroft, 58, had scored comfortable election victories until his last race,
losing Nov. 7 to the late Democratic Gov. Mel Carnahan in one of the nation's
most closely watched contests.
The two were tied in the poll when Carnahan was killed Oct. 16 in plane
crash. At first, Ashcroft suspended his public campaign activities, then crept
cautiously back into campaign mode.
Ashcroft lost to Carnahan by about 49,000 votes out of more than 2.3 million
cast. Carnahan's widow, Jean, was named to take the Senate seat.
Ashcroft served as Missouri attorney general from 1977 to 1985, when he
started the first of two consecutive terms as governor.
During his re-election campaign, Ashcroft was criticized for his role in
defeating the nomination for a federal judgeship of Missouri Supreme Court Judge
Ronnie White, the first black on the high court.
Ashcroft said he considered White's record to be soft on criminals. But black
leaders said they felt there were racist overtones in the defeat of White, and
pledged to work against Ashcroft's re-election.
Defending the senator's record, Ashcroft's allies pointed out he placed the
first woman on Missouri's highest court and the first black judge on the
Missouri Court of Appeals in Kansas City and in the Senate voted for dozens of
women and minority nominees.
Ashcroft can be stiff in formal settings, and even informal ones. "Some
politicians dominate a room; he fades into the wallpaper," the National
Review once observed.
He does not drink, smoke or dance. At his gubernatorial inaugural balls,
Ashcroft bypassed leading the traditional first dance, instead playing "The
Missouri Waltz" on the piano as his wife, Janet, watched and smiled.
Ashcroft can be a fierce partisan and is solidly conservative, opposing most
abortions, supporting allowing Missourians to carry concealed guns and backing
the death penalty.
His public life has been scandal-free. Perhaps the incident that gained him
the most notoriety while governor came when his wife had the state library
opened on Mother's Day, a state holiday, so their son could finish his homework.
Ashcroft can display a corny sense of humor, often cracking jokes at his own
expense. He loves performing. Last week in Columbia, Mo., Ashcroft jumped at an
invitation to play Christmas carols on the piano in a senior citizens apartment
complex, leading residents in singing "Jingle Bells."
A baritone, he is one of the Singing Senators quartet, which has produced a
CD and performed on the Grand Ole Opry and in Branson, Mo. Ashcroft has sung,
played piano and preached at Christian gatherings.
The Assemblies of God has its world headquarters next door to Central
Assembly of God, the downtown Springfield, Mo., congregation Ashcroft has
attended since he was 6. His late father, the Rev. J. Robert Ashcroft, traveled
as an evangelist and led three of the denomination's colleges.
Among U.S. Pentecostal groups, only the Church of God in Christ, a black
denomination, has more members than the Assemblies of God. Pentecostalism and
the similar Charismatic movement preach personalized commitment to Christ and a
second experience known as the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
In a 1998 interview with the AP, Ashcroft said he received that baptism but
he declined to say anything further about that aspect of his faith. He said that
at 12, "I made a decision that I wanted to accept Christ as my
savior."
When he was sworn in as governor and senator, Ashcroft asked for ritual
anointings with oil before his inaugurations. And in both offices, he was the
host at devotion sessions for staff members each morning before work started.
In Washington, the Ashcrofts joined 19 believers to start a new Assemblies
congregation near their Capitol Hill home. By December 1998, 175 typically
attended the congregation. Ashcroft has said he and his wife give 10 percent of
their income to their church, a Biblical practice called tithing.
