Olympia Snowe Senator

Introduction

Part I

Olympia Jean Bouchles was born on February 21, 1947, in Augusta, Maine, the daughter of immigrants from Greece. When both her parents died before she was 10, her aunt and uncle, who worked in a textile mill, raised her. Snowe graduated from St. Basil's Academy in Garrison, New York, in 1962 and completed her secondary education at Edward Little High School in Auburn, Maine. She graduated with a degree in political science from the University of Maine at Orono in 1969. Shortly after her graduation, she married Peter Snowe, a Republican State Legislator.

In 1973, Peter Snowe was killed in a car accident, and Olympia Snowe was appointed to his seat. She was reelected in 1974 and then was elected to the Maine Senate in 1976. In the senate, she chaired the Joint Standing Committee on Health and Institutional Services, where she gained selective recognition for her work on health care issues.

In 1978, Snowe was elected to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives and became the youngest Republican woman ever elected to the House. While serving as a representative, she married John McKernan, then the governor of Maine, in 1989; she thus served concurrently as both a U.S. representative and as first lady of Maine from 1989 to 1995. She was reelected to her House seat seven times before deciding to run for the U.S. Senate in 1994 following the retirement of Senator George Mitchell. She won, and in 2001, Senator Snowe became the first Republican woman ever to secure a full-term seat on the Senate Finance Committee, as well as only the third woman in history to join the panel. The Finance Committee is considered one of the most powerful in Congress (Abarbanell, 105).

In 2005, Snowe was among the Gang of 14, a group of moderate senators who brokered a compromise on the use of the judicial filibuster against judicial nominees. The White House Project has named Snowe one of "8 in '08," indicating that she is a credible female candidate for the presidency in 2008. Snowe lists among her top legislative priorities several areas of interest to women: contraceptive coverage, prescription drug coverage, and child care funding. Senator Snowe was reelected in 2006 with 74 percent of the vote. Olympia Snowe was elected as a congressional representative from Maine in 1978 and to the U.S. Senate in 1994. She is the fourth woman in history to be elected to both houses of Congress (Abarbanell, 105).

Olympia Jean Boucles was born on February 21, 1947, in Augusta, Maine, to Georgia Goranites Boucles and George Boucles. Her father was a native of Mytilene, Greece. Her maternal grandparents had immigrated to America from Sparta, Greece. After the death of her parents, Snowe was raised by her maternal uncle and his wife. She attended St. Basil's Academy in Garrison, New York, in 1962. She graduated from Edward Little High School in Auburn, Maine, in 1965, and completed a bachelors's degree in political science from the University of Maine, Orono, in ...