Ken Buck


Kenneth Robert Buck is an American politician who represents Colorado's 4th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives as a Republican. He previously served as District Attorney for Weld County, Colorado. Buck ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate in 2010, losing to Democrat Michael Bennet. Buck was elected Chair of the Colorado Republican Party on March 30, 2019, replacing Jeff Hays.

Early life and education

Buck was born in Ossining, New York in 1959. He and his two brothers were encouraged by their parents, both New York lawyers, to attend Ivy League colleges, and Buck earned his B.A. in politics from Princeton University in 1981, having completed a 75-page long senior thesis titled "Saudi Arabia: Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place". Buck later said that the Princeton degree was "more important to than me". Buck played four years of football at Princeton, one year as a defensive back/punter/kicker and three years as a punter, earning All-Ivy League honors as a punter his senior year.
After college Buck moved west and worked in Wyoming at the state legislative services office and received a J.D. degree from the University of Wyoming College of Law in 1985. He was also an instructor at the University of Denver Law School and for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy in Colorado.

Career

U.S. Attorney's Office

In 1986, he was hired by Congressman Dick Cheney to work on the Iran-Contra investigation. Following that assignment, he worked as a prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington D.C.
In 1990 Buck joined the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado where he became Chief of the Criminal Division. Buck was formally reprimanded and required to take ethics classes in 2001 for a meeting he had with defense attorneys about a felony case he thought should not be pursued. Only one of the three men initially indicted on felony charges was convicted, for a misdemeanor offense. Buck said he is "not proud" of the incident that effectively ended his career with the Justice Department, but says he felt it was "unethical" to prosecute such a "weak" case against the three men. One of the three men donated $700 to Buck's 2010 Senate campaign.

Weld County District Attorney

Buck was elected the District Attorney for Weld County, Colorado in 2004. When he suspected that Social Security numbers were being stolen by undocumented immigrants, he raided a tax service in Greeley, Colorado and seized more than 5,000 tax files. The American Civil Liberties Union sued Buck's office for violating the privacy of the service's clients and after an appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court, costing the county approximately $150,000, the raid was deemed unconstitutional. Buck has said that his time enforcing laws for the Justice Department and Weld County stoked his desire to become a lawmaker himself.

Rape case controversy

During the 2010 Senate race, The Colorado Independent ran an article entitled "Suspect in 2005 Buck rape case said he knew it was rape,". The article, about a case Buck refused to prosecute in 2006, included a complete transcript of a tape between the victim and her attacker, including the following dialogue:
Victim: "You do realize that … it’s rape."
Suspect: "Yeah, I do."
Victim: "Like in a number of different ways, because I didn’t want to do it and because I was intoxicated and because I was afraid."
Suspect: "Yes I do. I know."

Attempted falsification of 2020 Colorado Assembly District 10 GOP Primary

On May 6, 2020, The Denver Post published a recording of a conference call between Buck and local Republican party official Eli Bremer, who confirmed the authenticity of the recording.
In the recording, Buck first asked Bremer if he understood "the order of the executive committee and the central committee" to put activist David Stiver "on the ballot" in the November 2020 election for the District 10 state senate seat. Stiver had not qualified for the November ballot because he only received 24% of votes from Republicans in the district, short of the 30% qualifying mark. Bremer replied: "Uh, yes, sir, I understand the central committee has adopted a resolution that requires me to sign a false affidavit to the state". Buck continued: "And will you do so?" Bremer replied: "I will seek legal counsel as I am being asked to sign an affidavit that states Mr. Stiver received 30% of the vote. I need to seek legal counsel to find out if I am putting myself in jeopardy of a misdemeanor for doing that." Buck lastly asked: "And you understand that it is the order of the central committee that you do so?", to which Bremer acknowledged he understood, and reiterated he would seek legal advice.
Buck told The Denver Post on May 6 that Colorado political party committees traditionally made such decisions. The primary between Stiver and his opponent had been "unfair" due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Colorado, claimed Buck. He further claimed that he was not asking Bremer "to commit fraud", but asking "if he understood the decision of the central committee and if he was willing to follow the request of the Republican central committee". Buck also claimed he had no "personal stake in the process". Meanwhile, Bremer decried that the Republican Party he belonged to was "for the rule of law except when it applies to us".

2010 United States Senate campaign

Republican primary

Angered by what he later called the nation's "lurch to the left," Buck announced his plans to run for U.S. senator on April 28, 2009. In his first run for state-wide office, Buck frequently referenced national issues in defining his goals as a U.S. senator. Among these were his opposition to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Troubled Asset Relief Program and the role of federal policy czars. Buck also stressed mounting governmental debt, an issue to which he was to frequently return throughout the primary campaign. Buck, contrasting himself to what he argued was the "top down" style of early Republican favorite Lieutenant Governor Jane Norton, also pledged a "bottom-up" campaign that would include visits to each of Colorado's 64 counties.
Initially Norton was seen to have had a nearly insurmountable advantage against "a band of underfunded unknowns" that included Buck, who early in the primary season was called "a dead-in-the-water Republican U.S. Senate candidate with laughable fundraising totals and little establishment GOP support". Norton's staff at the beginning of the campaign was twice the size of Buck's. He attempted to make a virtue of his meager war chest by positioning "himself as the small-money underdog" in an election cycle that saw a "populist push for outsider candidates to upset the Washington establishment".
After receiving nearly $600,000 in a television advertising support from Americans for Job Security and a victory in March at the state party's caucuses, Buck began to receive endorsements and notice. By late spring of 2010, Colorado had highly competitive Republican and Democratic primaries.
Although Buck positioned himself as the candidate for the Tea Party movement during the Republican primary, he stirred controversy at times with remarks critical of former Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Tea Party favorite, and the statement "Will you tell those dumbasses at the Tea Party to stop asking questions about birth certificates while I'm on the camera?" – a reference to those suspicious of President Barack Obama's place of birth. Buck blamed the comments on his exhaustion and frustration after months of campaigning, and on his exasperation that it was difficult to keep campaign debate focused on the issue of mounting governmental debt. Tea Party leader Lu Busse criticized Buck's "choice of words" and inclination to treat all Tea Party adherents as a uniform group.
Buck again stirred controversy by suggesting voters should cast their votes for him over Norton because, unlike his female competitor, "I do not wear high heels." Buck later stated that he was responding to Norton's television ad claiming he was not "man enough" to attack her himself.
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Making reference to Buck's mandatory ethics classes, Norton argued that she "didn't need an ethics class to know what's right.... Ken broke the rules, and the facts speak for themselves." After Buck's former supervisor, then-U.S. Attorney John Suthers, endorsed Norton, the Colorado Democratic Party Chair called for Buck's resignation from his Weld County post because of his "career bypassing justice and ethics to reward political allies and campaign contributors".
On August 10, Buck defeated Norton in the Republican primary election by a 52% to 48% margin, the end of "a bitterly contested primary that saw him go from an obscure and cash-starved underdog to a gaffe-prone mascot for anti-establishment conservatives and nationally."

Senate general election

In the November general election, Buck was defeated by appointed Senator Michael Bennet, a Democrat by a margin of 48.1% to 46.4%.

U.S. House of Representatives

2014 election

On August 19, 2013, Buck emailed supporters and announced that the lymphoma he had been diagnosed with was in remission following treatment and he would run against Senator Mark Udall in 2014. He had already filed to run on August 7, 2013, before he sent out the email. In March 2014, Buck withdrew from the race following the entrance of Rep. Cory Gardner, and decided instead to run for Gardner's seat in Colorado's 4th congressional district.
Buck won the Republican primary, defeating three other candidates, with 44% of the vote and proceeded to win the general election, defeating Democratic nominee Vic Meyers with 65% of the vote.

Tenure

Buck voted in favor of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Buck believes the bill is "fairer for American families" and that it will "keep more jobs in America." He also says that it will simplify the tax code, when the process has been recognized as not being simpler than current tax filing processes.
In March 2020, Buck was one of two Representatives to vote against an $8.3 billion emergency aid package meant to help the United States respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Committee assignments

Education

Buck supports a revamp of the Department of Education and questions the department's constitutionality.

Guns

Buck opposes gun control and is endorsed by Gun Owners of America. He stated that he would "oppose any federal legislation to compile a database of gun owners or to further proscribe Americans' freedoms under the Second Amendment".

Environment

Buck rejects scientific consensus on climate change. In an October 2010 meeting with supporters in Fort Collins, Colorado, Buck endorsed the views of Senator James Inhofe, saying "Sen. Inhofe was the first person to stand up and say this global warming is the greatest hoax that has been perpetrated. The evidence just keeps supporting his view, and more and more people's view, of what's going on." According to a Buck spokesman, "Ken believes there is global warming but thinks the evidence points to it being natural rather than man-made."

Healthcare

He opposes the health care reform laws that were enacted in 2010. He instead favors free market-based reforms. His campaign website states, "We need to let the market work, make people responsible for their own insurance, and restore Americans' freedom to decide for themselves whether and how much insurance to buy." He supported a state constitutional amendment that would give rights to unborn fetuses, but then later withdrew his support reportedly after he found out that the measure would have restricted certain fertility and contraception procedures.

Veterans health

Buck proposed privatizing Veterans Administration hospitals so they would "be better run". Three months later, Buck changed positions and his campaign said, "... while Buck does indeed believe that private sector providers might do a better job than the VA in delivering health care to veterans, he is not in favor of fully privatizing health care for veterans."

LGBT rights

Buck supports the U.S. military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy. He said, "I do not support the repeal of don't ask don't tell. I think it is a policy that makes a lot of sense." Buck believes that being gay is a choice. He said, "I think birth has an influence over it, like alcoholism... but I think that basically you have a choice." The Log Cabin Republicans have rebuked him for this comment.

Net neutrality

Buck signed his support for Ajit Pai's motion to abolish Net-Neutrality, alongside 106 other Republican representatives. When asked about Pai's work to unravel net neutrality rules, Buck said: "I support Chairman Pai's efforts to free internet providers from burdensome regulations that stifle innovation and increase costs for Coloradans."

Abortion

Buck opposes abortion, including in cases of rape and incest, but makes exceptions if the mother's life is in danger.

Personal life

Buck has two children from his first marriage. Son Cody is a 2011 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York. In 2017, Buck authored the book Drain the Swamp: How Washington Corruption is Worse Than You Think. Buck and his second wife, Perry, announced their divorce on November 9, 2018, three days after the midterm election.