Mike Gravel

Mike Gravel
Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives
In office January 25, 1965 – January 22, 1967
Preceded by	Bruce Kendall
Succeeded by	Bill Boardman
Member of the Alaska House of Representatives from the 8th district
In office January 23, 1963 – January 22, 1967
Preceded by	John S. Hellenthal
Succeeded by	Michael F. Beirne
Personal details
Born	Maurice Robert Gravel (1930-05-13)May 13, 1930 Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	June 26, 2021(2021-06-26) (aged 91) Seaside, California, U.S.
Resting place	Arlington National Cemetery
Political party	Democratic (before 2008, 2010–2021)
Other political affiliations	Libertarian (2008–2010)
Spouses	Rita Martin ​ ​ (m. 1959; div. 1981)​ Whitney Stewart ​ (m. 1984)​
Children	2
Education	Columbia University (BS)
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch/service	United States Army
Years of service	1951–1954
Rank	First Lieutenant

Maurice Robert "Mike" Gravel (/ɡrəˈvɛl/ grə-VELL; May 13, 1930 – June 26, 2021) was an American politician and writer who represented Alaska in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1981 as a member of the Democratic Party. He ran for president twice (U.S. presidential nominations).

Born and raised in

As a senator, Gravel became nationally known for his forceful, but unsuccessful, attempts to end

An advocate of

Seeing Alaska as a wide-open place with no political establishment or entrenched interests,[23] Gravel quickly became part of the civic scene there. By October 1957, he was a Division Chairman for Anchorage for the Democratic Central Committee in the territory,^[24] and by June 1958, he was president of the Alaska Young Democrats organization.^[25] He also became active in the United States Junior Chamber (Jaycees), and by early 1958, his duties included handing out awards for farmer of the year.^[26]

By early 1958, Gravel was running as Democratic Party primary candidate for a Third Division seat in House of Representatives of the territorial legislature.^[27] (This was one of the four administrative divisions into which Alaska was sectioned at the time.) Under the slogan "Gravel, the Roadbed to Prosperity", he lost.^[19][23] At the same time, he was also an advocate for Alaskan statehood.^[25]

Gravel went on a 44-state national speaking tour concerning

With the support of Alaska wholesale grocer Barney Gottstein and supermarket builder Larry Carr,^[2][21] Gravel ran for the Alaska House of Representatives representing Anchorage in 1962, initially assigned the 10th and then 8th districts.^{[nb 1]} Alaska had very crowded primaries that year: Gravel was one of 33 Democrats, along with 21 Republicans, who were running for the chance to compete for the 14 House seats allocated to the 8th district.^[36] Gravel made it through the primary, and in November eight Republicans and six Democrats were elected to the House from the district, with Gravel finishing eighth overall and third among with Democrats, with 8,174 votes.^[37] Gottstein became Gravel's main financial backer during most of his subsequent campaigns.^[38]

Gravel served in the Alaska House of Representatives from January 28, 1963, to January 22, 1967, winning reelection in 1964. In his first term, he served as a minority member on two House committees: Commerce, and Labor and Management.^[39] He co-authored and sponsored the act that created the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights.^[2] Gravel was the chief architect of the law that created a regional high school system for rural Alaska; this allowed Alaska Natives to attend schools near where they lived instead of having to go to schools run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the lower 48 states.^[2]

During the half-years that the legislature was not in session, Gravel resumed his real estate work.^[40] With Gottstein and Carr's backing, he became quite successful as a property developer on the Kenai Peninsula.^[2][16][41]

During 1965 and 1966, he served as the Speaker of the House, surprising observers by winning that post.

Gravel also benefited from maintaining a deliberately ambiguous posture about Vietnam policy.[47] Gruening had been one of only two senators to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and his opposition to President Lyndon B. Johnson's war policies was harming him among the Democratic electorate;^[48] according to Gravel, "all I had to do was stand up and not deal with the subject, and people would assume that I was to the right of Ernest Gruening, when in point of fact I was to the left of him".^[19] In A Man for Alaska, Gravel argued that "the liberals" would come to West Germany's defense if it was attacked, and that they "should apply the same rule to Asians".^[49] During the campaign he also claimed that he was "more in the mainstream of American thought on Vietnam" than Gruening, despite the fact that he had written to Gruening to praise his antiwar stance four years earlier. Decades later, Gravel conceded that "I said what I said [about Vietnam] to advance my career."^[45]

Gravel beat Gruening in the primary by about 2,000 votes.

By his own admission, Gravel was too new and "too abrasive" to be effective in the Senate by the usual means of seniority-based committee assignments or negotiating deals with other senators,[21]^[55] and was sometimes seen as arrogant or a nuisance by the more senior and tradition-oriented members.^[21][45] Gravel relied on attention-getting gestures to achieve what he wanted, hoping national exposure would force other senators to listen to him.^[55] But even senators who agreed with him on issues considered his methods to be showboating.^[56]

As part of this approach, Gravel voted with Southern Democrats to keep the Senate

In 1971, Gravel voted against the Nixon administration's proposed anti-ballistic missile system, the Safeguard Program, having previously vacillated over the issue, suggesting that he might be willing to support it in exchange for federal lands in Alaska being opened up for private oil drilling. His vote alienated Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, who had raised funds for Gravel's primary campaign.^[38]

President Richard Nixon had campaigned in 1968 on a promise to end the U.S. military draft,^[69][70] a decision endorsed by the February 1970 report of the Gates Commission.^[69][71] The existing draft law was scheduled to conclude at the end of June 1971, and the Senate faced a contentious debate about whether to extend it as the Vietnam War continued.

Protracted negotiations took place over House conference negotiations on the bill, revolving in large part around Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield's eventually unsuccessful amendment to tie renewal to a troop withdrawal timetable from Vietnam; during this time the draft law expired and no more were conscripted.^[81] On August 5, the Nixon administration pleaded for a renewal before the Senate went on recess, but Gravel blocked Stennis's attempt to limit debate, and no vote was held.^[82] Finally on September 21, 1971, the Senate invoked cloture over Gravel's second filibuster attempt by one vote, and then passed the two-year draft extension.^[81] Gravel's attempts to stop the draft had failed^[55] (notwithstanding Gravel's later claims that he had stopped or shortened the draft, taken at face value in some media reports, during his 2008 presidential campaign).^{[nb 3]}

Meanwhile, on June 13, 1971,

The

U.S. Supreme Court for arguments.^[84] Looking for an alternate publication mechanism, Ellsberg returned to his idea of having a member of Congress read them, and chose Gravel based on the latter's efforts against the draft;^[6] Gravel agreed where previously others had not. Ellsberg arranged for the papers to be given to Gravel on June 26^[6] via an intermediary, Post editor Ben Bagdikian.^[87] Gravel used his counter-intelligence experience to choose a midnight transfer in front of the Mayflower Hotel in the center of Washington, D.C.^[88]

Over the next several days, Gravel (who was dyslexic) was assisted by his congressional office staff in reading and analyzing the report.^[89] Worried his home might be raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Gravel smuggled the report (which filled two large suitcases) into his congressional office, which was then guarded by disabled Vietnam veterans.^[89]

On the night of June 29, 1971, Gravel attempted to read the papers on the floor of the Senate as part of his filibuster against the draft, but was thwarted when no quorum could be formed.^[90] Gravel instead convened a session of the Buildings and Grounds subcommittee that he chaired.^[90] He got New York Congressman John G. Dow to testify that the war had soaked up funding for public buildings, thus making discussion of the war relevant to the committee.^[91] He began reading from the papers with the press in attendance,^[90] omitting supporting documents that he felt might compromise national security,^[92] and declaring, "It is my constitutional obligation to protect the security of the people by fostering the free flow of information absolutely essential to their democratic decision-making."^[92]

He read until 1 a.m., culminating by saying "Arms are being severed. Metal is clashing through human bodies because of the public policy this government and all its branches continue to support."^[45] Then with tears and sobs he said that he could no longer physically continue,^[92] the previous three nights of sleeplessness and fear about the future having taken their toll.^[6] Gravel ended the session by, with no other senators present, establishing unanimous consent^[91] to insert 4,100 pages of the Papers into the Congressional Record of his subcommittee.^[55][84] The following day, the Supreme Court's New York Times Co. v. United States decision ruled in favor of the newspapers^[84] and publication in the Times and others resumed. In July 1971, Bantam Books published an inexpensive paperback edition of the papers containing the material the Times had published.^[93]

Gravel, too, wanted to privately publish the portion of the papers he had read into the record, believing that "immediate disclosure of the contents of these papers will change the policy that supports the war".

FBI investigation;^[88] an outgrowth of this was the Gravel v. United States court case, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled upon in June 1972;^[88] in a 5-to-4 decision it held that the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution did grant immunity to Gravel for his reading the papers in his subcommittee; did grant some immunity to Gravel's congressional aide, but compelled the aide to testify before a grand jury about matters not directly related to the legislative process; and granted no immunity to Beacon Press in relation to their publishing the same papers.^[97]

The events of 1971 changed Gravel in the following months from an obscure freshman senator to a nationally visible political figure.

National Security Study Memorandum 1 document, which stated it would take 8–13 years for the Army of the Republic of Vietnam to defend South Vietnam.^[99] Gravel made excerpts from the study public,^[100] but senators Robert P. Griffin and William B. Saxbe blocked his attempt to read NSSM 1 into the Congressional Record.^[99]

Domestic policy

In 1970, Gravel co-sponsored legislation to establish a guaranteed minimum income, entitling poor families to up to $6,300 a year (the equivalent of $42,000 in 2019 after adjustment for inflation). He subsequently voted for a "work bonus" program, which would have entitled low-income working families with dependent children if they were paying Social Security or Railroad Retirement taxes to a non-taxable bonus of up to 10 percent of their wages.^[101]

In 1969, Gravel was the only Democratic Senator outside of the South to vote for Nixon's Supreme Court nominee Clement Haynsworth.^[102] The following year, Gravel opposed Nixon's next pick, G. Harrold Carswell.^[103]

Run for vice president in 1972

Gravel actively campaigned for the office of Vice President of the United States during the 1972 presidential election, announcing on June 2, 1972, over a month before the 1972 Democratic National Convention began, that he was interested in the nomination should the choice be opened up to convention delegates.^[104] Toward this end he began soliciting delegates for their support.^[105] He was not alone in this effort, as former Governor of Massachusetts Endicott Peabody had been running a quixotic campaign for the same post^[106] since the prior year. Likely presidential nominee George McGovern was in fact already considering the unusual move of naming three or four acceptable vice-presidential candidates and letting the delegates choose.^[106]

On the convention's final day, July 14, 1972, McGovern selected and announced Senator

ticket balancing considerations.^[107][108] Thus there were delegates willing to look elsewhere. Gravel was nominated by Bettye Fahrenkamp, the Democratic National Committeewoman from Alaska.^[109] He then seconded his own nomination, breaking down in tears at his own words^[110] and maybe trying to withdraw his nomination.^[110] In any case he won 226 delegate votes, coming in third behind Eagleton and Frances "Sissy" Farenthold of Texas, in chaotic balloting^[108][111]

that included several other candidates.

Gravel attracted some attention for his efforts: writer Norman Mailer said he "provided considerable excitement" and was "good-looking enough to have played leads in B-films",^[112] while Rolling Stone correspondent Hunter S. Thompson said Gravel "probably said a few things that might have been worth hearing, under different circumstances".^[113] Yet the process was doubly disastrous for the Democrats. In the time consumed by nominating and seconding and all the vice-presidential candidates' speeches, the attention of the delegates on the floor was lost^[113] and McGovern's speech was pushed to 3:30 a.m.^[113] The haste with which Eagleton was selected led to surprise when his past mental health treatments were revealed; he withdrew from the ticket soon after the convention, to be replaced by Sargent Shriver.

Reelection to Senate in 1974

Several years earlier, Alaska politicians had speculated that Gravel would have a hard time getting both renominated and elected when his first term expired,^[55] given that he was originally elected without a base party organization and tended to focus on national rather than local issues.^[55]

Nonetheless, Gravel was reelected to the Senate in 1974,^[114] with 58 percent of the vote. His Republican opponent, State Senator C. R. Lewis, was a national officer of the John Birch Society, and earned 42 percent of the vote.^[115]

Second term

In 1975, Gravel introduced an amendment to cut the number of troops overseas by 200,000, but it was defeated on a voice vote.^[116]

In September 1975, Gravel was named as one of several Congressional Advisers to the

Seventh Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly, which met to discuss problems related to economic development and international economic cooperation.^[117]

In June 1976, Gravel was the focus of a federal investigation into allegations that he was involved in a sex-for-vote arrangement. Congressional staff clerk Elizabeth Ray (who had already been involved in a sex scandal that led to the downfall of Representative Wayne Hays) said that in August 1972 she had sex with Gravel aboard a houseboat on the Potomac River, under the instruction of Representative Kenneth J. Gray, her boss at the time.^[118] Gray allegedly wanted to secure Gravel's support for further funding for construction of the National Visitor Center in Washington, a troubled project that was under the jurisdiction of subcommittees that both members chaired.^[119][120] Another Congressional staffer said she witnessed the boat encounter, but Gravel said at the time that he had never met either of the women.^[118][121] Gravel and Gray strongly denied that they had made any arrangement regarding legislation,^[118] and neither was ever charged with any wrongdoing.^[122] Decades later, Gravel wrote that he had indeed had sex with Ray, but had not changed any votes because of it.^[123]

Gravel and his main financial backer, Gottstein, had a falling out in 1978, during the Congressional debate over whether to allow a controversial sale of U.S.

F-15 fighter aircraft to Saudi Arabia. An ardent backer of Israel, Gottstein opposed the sale and asked Gravel to vote against it. But Gravel not only voted for it but made an emotional speech attacking the anti-sale campaign.^[38] Gravel wrote in 2008 that it was the only time Gottstein had ever asked him for a favor, and the rupture resulted in their never speaking to each other again.^[124]

Alaskan issues

By 1971, Gravel was urging construction of the much-argued

U.S. Court of Appeals blocked the issuance of permits for construction;^[127] Gravel and fellow Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens reacted by urging Congress to pass legislation overturning the court's decision.^[128] Environmentalists opposed to the pipeline, such as the Environmental Defense Fund and the Sierra Club^[129] then sought to use the recently passed National Environmental Policy Act to their advantage;^[126] Gravel designed an amendment to the pipeline bill that would immunize the pipeline from any further court challenges under that law,^[126] and thus speed its construction. Passage of the amendment became the key battle regarding the pipeline. On July 17, 1973, in what the New York Times termed a "nip-and-tuck roll-call", the Gravel amendment was approved, as a 49–49 tie was broken in favor by Vice President Spiro Agnew.^[129] The actual bill enabling the pipeline then passed easily;^[129] Gravel had triumphed in what became perhaps his most lasting accomplishment as a senator.^[56]

In opposition to the Alaskan

Exclusive Economic Zone for marine resources. He was one of only 19 senators to vote against Senate approval for the expanded zone in 1976,^[130] saying it would undermine the U.S. position in Law of the Sea negotiations and that nations arbitrarily extending their fishing rights limits would "produce anarchy of the seas".^[130] The legislation was passed, and the United States has signed but never ratified

the Law of the Sea treaty.

Gravel accumulated a complicated record on Indian affairs during his time in the Senate. During his first year in the Senate Gravel urged abolition of the

Teflon dome enclosing hotels, golf courses, condominiums, and commercial buildings.^[134] A related idea of his to build a high-speed rail line to Denali also failed to gain traction.^[135]

A key, emotional issue in the state at the time was "locking up Alaska", making reference to allocation of its vast, mostly uninhabited land.[136] President Jimmy Carter desired to put large portions of this land under federal protection against development, a move that some Alaskans vociferously opposed.^[137] In 1978 Gravel blocked passage, via procedural delays

Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980, was signed by President Carter shortly before leaving the White House, and led to millions of acres being set aside in the state for national parks, wildlife refuges, and other kinds of areas under protection.^[137]

In 1978 Gravel authored and secured the passage into federal law of the General Stock Ownership Corporation, that became Subchapter U of the Tax Code under the

Internal Revenue Code of 1954.^[141][142] This gave states the ability to create corporations that would invest in for-profit enterprises, with all citizens within the state owning shares in the corporation.^[142] Gravel's attempt to convince the Alaska state legislature to create such a corporation failed, as did a 1980 state ballot initiative towards the same end, but nevertheless the creation of the General Stock Ownership Corporation in federal law turned out to be significant in the development of binary economics.^[141][142]

Loss of Senate seat in 1980

Main article: 1980 United States Senate election in Alaska

In 1980, Gravel was challenged for the Democratic Party's nomination by State Representative Clark Gruening, the grandson of the man Gravel had defeated in a primary 12 years earlier. One of Gruening's supporters was Gravel's former backer Gottstein.^[38] Several factors made Gravel vulnerable. As an insurgent candidate in 1968, Gravel had never established a firm party base.^[50] Not liking to hunt or fish, he was also always culturally suspect in the state.^[143][144]

The primary campaign was bitterly fought.^[140] A group of Democrats, including future governor Steve Cowper,^[145] led the campaign against Gravel, with Gravel's actions in respect to the 1978 and 1980 Alaskan lands bills a major issue.^{[19][140][146]} This was especially so given that the 1980 bill's dénouement happened but a week before the primary.^[136] The sources of Gravel's campaign funds, some of which Gravel readily acknowledged came from political action committees outside the state, also became an issue in the contest.^{[140][56][146]} Gruening had pledged that he would not take special interest group money, but Gravel said that Gruening was "dishonest" in accepting individual contributors from Jewish donors living outside the state because to him such contributors comprised "a special interest group ... that seeks to influence the foreign policy of the U.S."^[146][56]

Gruening decisively won the primary with about 55 percent of the vote to Gravel's 44 percent.^[140] Gravel later conceded that by the time of his defeat, he had alienated "almost every constituency in Alaska".^[19] Another factor may have been Alaska's blanket primary system of the time,^[147] which allowed unlimited voting across party lines and from its many independents;^[145] Republicans believed Gruening would be an easier candidate to defeat in the general election.^[140]

Gruening lost the general election to Republican banker Frank Murkowski. Gravel was the last Democrat to represent Alaska in Congress for 28 years.^[148]

Career after leaving the Senate

Of his 1980 defeat, Gravel later recalled: "I had lost my career. I lost my marriage. I was in the doldrums for ten years after my defeat,"^[149] and "Nobody wanted to hire me for anything important. I felt like I was worthless. I didn't know what I could do."^[6] By his own later description, Gravel was a womanizer, and had an affair while in the Senate, and he and his wife Rita separated in December 1980.^{[123][150][151]} They filed for divorce in September 1981;^[151] she later received all of his Senate pension income.^[19]

During the 1980s, Gravel was a real estate developer in

Alaska Native Corporations could not take as tax deductions and sell them to large national companies looking for tax write-offs.^[153] Gravel also learned computer programming at some point but never practiced it.^[154]

In 1984, Gravel married his second wife, Whitney Stewart Gravel, who had been an administrative assistant for U.S. Senator from New York Jacob Javits.^[6][155]

Return to politics

In 1989, Gravel reentered politics.

National Initiative would allow American citizens to become "law makers". However such efforts met with little success.^[45]

In 2001, Gravel became director of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, where he admired institute co-founder Gregory Fossedal's work on direct democracy in Switzerland.^[157] By 2004, Gravel had become chair of the institute,^[159] and Fossedal (who in turn was a director of the Democracy Foundation) gave the introduction at Gravel's presidential announcement.^[160]

In 2003, Gravel gave a speech on direct democracy at a conference hosted by the American Free Press. The event was cosponsored by The Barnes Review,^[19] a journal that endorses Holocaust denial.^[161] After some controversy over his appearance, Gravel apologized, saying he did not realize the group's ties. Gravel said repeatedly that he did not share the group's views on the Holocaust,^[162] stating, "You better believe I know that six million Jews were killed. [The Barnes Review publishers] are nutty as loons if they don't think it happened".^[163] The group invited Gravel to speak again, but he declined.^[162]

Mike and Whitney Gravel lived in

neuropathy.^[19] Due to unreimbursed medical expenses and debts from his political causes, he declared personal bankruptcy in 2004.^[6][19] He began taking a salary from the non-profit organizations for which he was working; much of that income was lent to his presidential campaign. In 2007, he declared that he had "zero net worth".^[19]

2008 presidential campaign

Main article: Mike Gravel 2008 presidential campaign

Democratic Party primaries

At the start of 2006, Gravel decided the best way he could promote

single payer national health care system.^[170]

Gravel had opposed the Iraq War, and President George W. Bush's rationale for it, from the beginning,^[170][171] and in 2006 said that U.S. troops in Iraq, as in Vietnam, had "died in vain".^[170][172] He also favored a regional peace initiative, as well as reparation payments for Iraqis.^[170][171] Gravel also called for a "U.S. corporate withdrawal from Iraq", with reconstruction contracts held by U.S. companies to be turned over to Iraqi firms.^[170][171]

Gravel campaigned almost full-time in

Opinion polls of contenders for the Democratic nomination showed Gravel with 1 percent or less support. By the end of March 2007, Gravel's campaign had less than $500 in cash on hand against debts of nearly $90,000.^[173]

Because of his time in the Senate, Gravel was invited to many of the early Democratic presidential debates. During the initial one at

preemptive nuclear war. He stated that the Iraq War had the effect of creating more terrorists and that the "war was lost the day that George Bush invaded Iraq on a fraudulent basis".^[174] Regarding his fellow candidates, he said, "I got to tell you, after standing up with them, some of these people frighten me – they frighten me."^[174] In one such exchange, Gravel said, "Tell me, Barack, who do you want to nuke?" to which Obama responded, "I'm not planning to nuke anybody right now, Mike, I promise."^[45][135]

Media stories said that Gravel was responsible for much of whatever "heat" and "flashpoints" had taken place during the Democratic debates.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

All this did not improve his performance in the polls; a May 2007 CNN poll showed him with less than 0.5 percent support among Democrats.^[182] Gravel was in the next several debates, in one case after CNN reversed a decision to exclude him.^[183] Like some of the other second-tier candidates, Gravel did not get as much time as the leaders; during the June 2, 2007, New Hampshire debate, which lasted two hours, he was asked 10 questions and allowed to speak for five minutes and 37 seconds.^[184]

During the July 23, 2007,

On March 25, 2008, Gravel announced that he would leave the Democrats and join the

As a Libertarian candidate, Gravel faced resistance to his past support of big government initiatives and his unorthodox positions around direct democracy.[213] Nevertheless, he garnered more support than he had as a Democrat, placing second and third in two April 2008 straw polls.^[214] In the May 25 balloting at the 2008 Libertarian National Convention in Denver, Gravel finished fourth out of eight candidates on the initial ballot, with 71 votes out of a total 618; he trailed former Congressman and eventual winner Bob Barr, author Mary Ruwart, and businessman Wayne Allyn Root.^[215] Gravel's position did not subsequently improve and he was eliminated on the fourth ballot.^[215] Afterwards he stated, "I just ended my political career", but he vowed to continue promoting his positions as a writer and lecturer.^[216]

2008–early 2019

In June 2008, Gravel endorsed the NYC 9/11 Ballot Initiative, saying the measure would create a "citizens commission rather than a government commission" with subpoena power against top U.S. officials to "make a true investigation as to what happened" regarding the September 11 attacks.^[217][218] He later said, "Individuals in and out of government may certainly have participated with the obviously known perpetrators of this dastardly act. Suspicions abound over the analysis presented by government. Obviously an act that has triggered three wars, Afghan, Iraqi and the continuing War on Terror, should be extensively investigated which was not done and which the government avoids addressing."^[219]

In August 2008, Gravel was speaking to a crowd of supporters of

Gravel defended Alaska Governor Sarah Palin after she was chosen as Republican presidential nominee John McCain's running mate in September 2008. He praised Palin's record in standing up to corruption among Alaskan Republicans, thought her national inexperience was an asset rather than a detriment, and predicted that the "Troopergate" investigation into whether she improperly fired a state official would "come out in her favor".^[224] Gravel made clear he would not support or vote for either McCain–Palin or Obama–Biden in the general election.^[224] The following year Gravel said that Palin's politics were "terrible, but that doesn't detract from the fact that she's a very talented person". He predicted that Palin would run for president in 2012 and that "she's going to surprise a lot of people".^[144] Palin did not run, but Gravel's prediction about "TrooperGate" was accurate as Palin was found not to have violated ethics laws.

In 2013, by the invitation of Hamed Ghashghavi, the secretary for international affairs of the 3rd

In December 2014, Gravel was announced as the new CEO of KUSH, a company which makes marijuana-infused products for medicinal and recreational use, and a subsidiary of Cannabis Sativa, Inc.[229] He also became an Independent Director of Cannabis Sativa.^[230]

During the

In 2016, Gravel said in relation to the September 11 attacks: "We killed 58,000 American servicemen in the Vietnam War and all they did was die in vain. What's so unusual about killing 3,000 more in order to develop the grist for the mill to empower into infinity the military industrial complex?" and "There's no question in my mind that 9/11 was an inside job". The remarks were later disavowed by even Gravel supporters.^[232]

By 2019, Gravel was living in

On March 19, 2019, Gravel announced that he was considering running in the

Gravel's initial stated goal was merely to qualify for debates by getting the required 65,000 small donors.

On June 13, 2019, the Democratic Party announced the 20 major candidates who qualified for the first debate later that month. Gravel was one of the four who missed out (the others were Montana Governor Steve Bullock, U.S. Representative Seth Moulton, and Miramar, Florida, Mayor Wayne Messam).^[246] Gravel had been unable to get the requisite number of donations, or to score one percent or better in enough polls (many polls did not even include him).^[247] Nevertheless, Gravel said he would not drop out and would try to qualify for the July debate.^[248] In early July, however, Gravel's campaign said it was still 10,000 contributions short of the 65,000-donor threshold and that it was "nearing its conclusion". It solicited suggestions for where to donate $100,000 to $150,000 of leftover campaign funds.^[249] Gravel added that he had always planned on ending the campaign before the teenagers in charge of it needed to return to school.^[249] A few days later, the campaign became the first to run an attack ad against Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden, using the text "Is this the best our party has to offer?"^[250]

Gravel's campaign crossed the threshold of 65,000 donors on July 12, 2019, meeting the qualification mark for that month's debate.^[251] But because 20 other candidates, the maximum allowed to participate, had already met at least the polling criterion, which takes priority over the donor criterion,^[252] Gravel was not invited.^[253]

The campaign officially came to a close on August 6, 2019, with Gravel endorsing both Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard for president.^[254][255] Gravel's campaign later stated on Twitter that they never wanted to win but saw the campaign as an "intimately democratic" project and expressed honor at working with Gravel.^[256] Gravel said he would divide remaining campaign funds between charity and a new think tank which would espouse his ideas.^[240]

The Gravel Institute

Gravel used some of the funds remaining from his 2020 presidential campaign to found an eponymous progressive think tank called The Gravel Institute in 2019. As noted by Vice magazine, the Institute aimed to do battle with PragerU from a left-wing perspective.^[257] Launched in September 2020, the new entity said it would "carry on the life's work of former U.S Senator Mike Gravel in fighting for global peace and democracy. Its mission is to promote bold and forward-looking ideas about a more peaceful and egalitarian world, and to build a robust movement of young people to win it".^[258] Contributors to the Institute included Cornel West and Slavoj Žižek.^[257] The Institute was largely centered around the creation of videos and a website. The last of the videos was put up in 2022;^[259] the website was shuttered in 2023 for lack of payment.^[260]

Death

Gravel died of multiple myeloma at his home in Seaside, California, on June 26, 2021, at age 91.^{[137][56][45]} As a result on the delay in burials induced by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Gravel was later laid to rest on June 20, 2023 at Arlington National Cemetery where his cremated remains were buried. While given a military burial, a gun salute was not given at his request as he remained steadfast with his anti-violence stance.^[261]

The New York Times's obituary for Gravel characterized him as "an unabashed attention-getter" who later become known for "mounting long-shot presidential runs".^[56] The obituary in The Washington Post was similar, saying that Gravel was "an Alaska Democrat with a flair for the theatrical who rose from obscurity to brief renown" and later "ran quixotic campaigns for the presidency".^[45] The Anchorage Daily News quoted Gravel as saying of himself in 1989, "I'm an independent kind of guy. A rough and ready kind of guy. My glands work in a certain way that make me stand up, foolishly sometimes, and fight."^[135]

Political positions

Alan Abramowitz and Jeffrey Allan Segal described Gravel as "a maverick, if not an eccentric, in the Senate."^[262][263] His Americans for Democratic Action "Liberal Quotient" scores ranged from 81 out of 100 (1971) to 39 out of 100 (1980),^[262] with an average of around 61.^[264] His American Conservative Union scores ranged from 0 out of 100 (several years, including 1971 and 1972) to 38 out of 100 (1979), with an average of 14.^[265] Abramowitz and Segal note that Gravel's lowest ADA ratings coincided with his two Senate re-election bids,^[262] and for the most part his highest ACU ratings followed the same pattern.

In 1972, as a young senator, Gravel published

Later in life, Gravel described himself as a critic of American imperialism.^[168]

Gravel firmly opposed U.S. military action against Iran and Syria.

As a senator from Alaska, Gravel favored drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but opposed it during his 2008 campaign.^[170] In 2008, Gravel supported a carbon tax to combat climate change.^[170]

Gravel spoke in favor of net neutrality during his presidential campaign.^[279]

Education and health care

Gravel called for the cost of college tuition to be borne by the federal government, rather than students.

In 2008, Gravel received the Columbia University School of General Studies' first annual Isaac Asimov Lifetime Achievement Award.^[281]

Electoral history

Writings

• Gravel, Mike. Jobs and More Jobs. Mt. McKinley Publishers, 1968.
• Gravel, Mike.
  ISBN 0-03-091465-5
  .
  • revised and reissued as
    ISBN 1-4343-4315-4
    .
• Gravel, Mike and Lauria, Joe. A Political Odyssey: The Rise of American Militarism and One Man's Fight to Stop It.
  ISBN 1-58322-826-8
  .
• Gravel, Mike and
  ISBN 1-59777-586-X
  .
• Gravel, Mike. Voice of a Maverick: The Speeches and Writings of Senator Mike Gravel. Brandywine House, 2008.
• Gravel, Mike. Foreword to Poisoned Power: The Case Against Nuclear Power Plants. John W. Goffman & Arthur R. Tamplin, Rodale Press, Inc., Emmaus, PA, June 1971.
• Gravel, Mike. The Failure of Representative Government and the Solution: A Legislature of the People.
  ISBN 1-7283-3929-4

General references

• The Pentagon Papers Senator Gravel Edition. Vol. Five: Critical Essays. Boston: Beacon Press, 1972. 341p. plus 72p. of Index to Vol. I–IV of the Papers; Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, editors.
• Moritz, Charles, ed. (1973).
  Current Biography Yearbook 1972. New York: H. W. Wilson Company
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mike Gravel.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Mike Gravel.

Wikinews has news related to:

Mike Gravel

• Mike Gravel official website
• United States Congress. "Mike Gravel (id: g000388)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Mike Gravel at
  Curlie
• The Gravel Institute

Alaska House of Representatives
Preceded by John S. Hellenthal	Member of the Alaska House of Representatives from the 8th district 1963–1967	Succeeded by Michael F. Beirne
Political offices
Preceded by Bruce Kendall	Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives 1965–1967	Succeeded by Bill Boardman
Party political offices
Preceded by Ernest Gruening	Class 3) 1968, 1974	Succeeded by Clark Gruening
U.S. Senate
Preceded by Ernest Gruening	U.S. Senator (Class 3) from Alaska 1969–1981 Served alongside: Ted Stevens	Succeeded by Frank Murkowski