Democrat Erskine Bowles, a former investment banker and
two-time U.S. Senate candidate, first entered politics in 1993 when
President Bill Clinton appointed him to direct the Small Business
Association. He became White House chief of staff in  1996
and was praised in 1997 for negotiating with Congress to bring about
the first balanced federal budget in 30 years.
In 2002, in his
first run for senate, Bowles, 59, opposed Elizabeth Dole, the polished
former head of the U.S. Red Cross and well-spoken wife of Republican
Sen. Bob Dole, for the seat vacated by five-term North Carolina Republican
Sen. Jesse Helms.
Despite an infusion
of millions of dollars of his own money, Bowles lost the race by 9 points.
At that time, critics joshed him for being stiff and aloof and portrayed
him as a wealthy, upper crust politician with little understanding of
the North Carolina voter.
Bowles now seeks
the seat of senator and vice presidential Democratic candidate John
Edwards, who in 2003 announced he would not run for a second term. According
to analysts, Bowles has since learned from the mistakes of that first
campaign and in his current race has campaigned on a populist message,
urging voters to choose a candidate who will work as an "advocate"
for North Carolina.
"It's going
to remain your seat, the people's seat, for the next six years,"
Bowles said, during an August campaign rally in Greenville, N.C.
Unlike Edwards who
has drawn praise for his boyish good looks and charm, Bowles' oversized,
thick-lensed glasses, not his winning smile or toothy grin, are his
trademark.
Bowles considers
himself a fiscal conservative, and has promised to work with Republicans
to lower taxes. On health care, Bowles, who lost both his father and
sister to Lou Gehrig's Disease and whose two sons suffer from juvenile
diabetes, is a staunch advocate of health care for all American children.
"Seeing loved
ones in pain is tough, it's real tough," Bowles says in one of
his campaign commercials. "But I know it's even harder for folks
who can't afford health insurance."
"Millions of people in North Carolina have trouble paying for health
insurance, or they can't get it at all," he says. "That's
morally wrong, and I want to change it."
Bowles supports President Bush's No Child Left Behind education plan,
but has criticized the president and Republicans for not fully funding
the initiative.
Under Bowles' jobs
plan -- the No. 1 issue in North Carolina where thousands of manufacturing
jobs have been lost to outsourcing -- he proposes repealing subsidies
for companies that send jobs overseas and supporting tax credit initiatives
for companies to create jobs at home.
Bowles' critics
have accused him of "flip-flopping" on the issues and have
questioned his role in a 2002 lawsuit filed against Bowles' former investment
firm Forstmann Little by the state of Connecticut for $100 million in
missing state worker pension funds. Though Bowles was a general partner
in the firm during the time the funds went missing, Connecticut authorities
never named him in the suit.
Bowles is a graduate
of the University of North Carolina and Columbia Business School. He
was born in Greensboro and lives in Charlotte with his wife of 33 years,
Crandall. He is the former president of the national Juvenile Diabetes
Research Foundation and together with his wife founded the ALS center
in Charlotte.
Polls have given
Bowles a lead in the race, but any edge may dwindle as Republican
Rep. Richard Burr begins airing campaign commercials and gaining
name recognition. The National Republican Senatorial Committee
has also reserved more than $5 million in advertising dollars
to help push Burr ahead, according to the Charlotte Observer.
--
Compiled
for the Online NewsHour by Kristina
Nwazota
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