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Frank Wolf

Frank Rudolph Wolf (born January 30, 1939) is a career politician and a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 1981. He represents Northern Virginia's . After three decades on the campaign trail, he is the most senior of Virginia's eleven Congressmen.

Early life

Wolf was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended Pennsylvania State University where he was a member of Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity and earned a degree in political science. He received a law degree from Georgetown University.

After graduating from college, Wolf joined the United States Army as a reservist and became a lawyer for the military. He got his start in politics when he became a legislative assistant to U.S. Representative Edward Biester, beginning in 1968. From 1971 to 1975, Wolf served as an assistant to Secretary of the Interior Rogers Morton.

Congressional career

Wolf first ran for Congress in 1976, losing in the Republican primary. He won the Republican nomination, but lost the election in 1978. In 1980, Wolf was finally elected to Congress by raising most of his money from outside Virginia and narrowly defeating Democrat Joseph L. Fisher.

The Tenth District has seen extensive changes since Wolf took office. Initially a purely Northern Virginia district covering Fairfax, Arlington, and Loudoun, the 1990 redistricting by a Democratic Virginia General Assembly moved the district away from Arlington to the west and south to allow for the creation of a new congressional district and also to gerrymander Wolf and Congressman George Allen into the same District. Allen chose not to challenge Wolf, instead running for and winning the Virginia Governorship in 1993. The Tenth kept approximately the same complexion after the 2000 apportionment by a Republican Virginia General Assembly, but lost territory in the outlying areas of the district to allow for population growth in Fairfax and Loudoun. Today (November 2006) the Fairfax portion of the district holds about 40% of the population, with Loudoun at 30% and the remainder of the district at 30%.

He is a member of the House Appropriations Committee. In his bid for re-election in 2006, he faced Democrat Judy Feder, and was once again re-elected 57%-41%.

Wolf has vocally criticized the human rights record of China. He was one of the leading congressman trying to stop the grant of MFN status to China in 1999.

Congressman Wolf's ratings from lobbying groups tend to be at the extreme ends of the scale, including a B+ from the National Rifle Association, a 0% from the American Civil Liberties Union, 0% from Clean Air Flow Energy, 100% from National Right to Life, 0% from the Human Rights Coalition, 17% from the National Educational Association, 5% from the League of Conservation Voters, 92% from the United States Border Control and 10% by the Alliance for Retired Americans. Rep. Wolf has voted consistently with President Bush's positions on national security. For example, Wolf voted in favor of military action in Iraq in 2002. He also voted to make the Patriot act permanent, opposed FISA warrants for wiretaps within the United States, and supported the president in restricting congressional oversight for CIA interrogations. In March 2006, Congress, at Wolf's suggestion, announced the creation of the Iraq Study Group to reassess the US strategy in Iraq.

On June 10, 2008, Wolf defeated Republican primary challenger Vern McKinley with 91.74% of the vote to McKinley's 8.25% , securing the 2008 Republican nomination for the 10th district House seat. He is opposed by Independent Neeraj Nigam and Democrat Judy Feder in the general election. He faced Democrat Judy Feder and Independent Neeraj Nigam in the general election whom he defeated in 2006.