[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 16] [Senate] [Pages 22417-22419] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]TRIBUTE TO DAVID LEWIS WILLIAMS Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise today to offer a tribute to Kentucky State Senator David Williams, as sincere congratulations for 15 years of service in the General Assembly and as encouragement for many more years of accomplishments and victories still to come. David is one of the sharpest politicians and smartest people I know. His long-time passion for politics and desire to serve Kentucky is evidenced in his hard work in the Kentucky Senate--and in his perseverance getting there. David's strong convictions about issues and principles important to Kentuckians have helped him become a prominent figure in the State legislature, but his climb to the top was not an easy one. David lost his first campaign for public office when he ran for county judge-executive, and has often faced tough opposition in the Senate. To his credit, David has remained committed to his constituents and to the values they elected him to represent. [[Page 22418]] When he was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives 15 years ago, David was a country lawyer from Burkesville, Kentucky. His sharp mind and peerless rhetorical skills were evident right from the start, and helped David eventually come to lead the now-Republican Majority in the Senate. As a fellow public servant, I know first-hand the kinds of commitments and sacrifices that have to be made in order to effectively serve a constituency. Clearly, David has demonstrated his willingness to take on that responsibility, and has been an example through his ability to handle the daily demands of being a Senate leader. Additionally, he is a great family man. David's wife Elaine has surely been a great support and encouragement to him, and deserves commendation for her tireless work in the field of education, as the instructional supervisor for Cumberland County Schools. David is also devoted to his parents, Lewis and Flossie Williams, of Cumberland County. David's father served as Cumberland County clerk for nine consecutive terms, and was a high school principal and basketball coach when David was growing up. His parents' work in education and politics gave David a solid background that has prepared him well for his current leadership role in the State Senate, and will certainly continue to inspire him in future endeavors. David, on behalf of my colleagues and myself, thank you for your fifteen years of service to the 16th district and to the people of Kentucky. I have every confidence in your ability to lead the State Senate, and know that your best days are yet to come. Mr. President, I ask that an article which ran in the Louisville Courier-Journal on September 5, 1999, be printed in the Record. The article follows: [From the Louisville Courier-Journal, Sept. 5, 1999] Williams Gets Closer to Senate Peak (By Tom Loftus) Burkesville, KY.--David Williams began learning hard political lessons at a young age. In the second grade he lost an election ``for some kind of class favorite'' by a single vote. ``At that time I was chivalrous enough to vote for my opponent,'' Williams said. ``I decided I wasn't going to do that again.'' It wasn't the last election Williams would lose, yet come away a bit the wiser--and with his passion for a career in elective office undiminished. Today, after serving 15 years in the General Assembly--many of those years in a minority faction of the minority Republican Party--David Williams stands as perhaps the most powerful member of the General Assembly. This summer's defections of two Democratic senators to the GOP gives the Republicans a majority in the Senate for the first time ever--making Minority Leader Williams into Majority Leader Williams, and likely Senate President Williams. So when the legislature convenes in January, the Senate will be led by this 46-year-old lawyer from Burkesville, a man described as smart and articulate by some, cocky or condescending by others. Williams calls himself a compassionate conservative. Many Democrats consider him their favorite Republican senator. At his core, he's a man who lives government and politics. ``We can't get him out to golf; he really doesn't have any time-consuming hobbies.'' said Cumberland District Judge Steve Hurt. ``He has always been fascinated by the political process. He's the kind of guy who sits up at night watching `Hardball with Christ Matthews' and C-SPAN.'' In January, Williams plans to play a little hardball of his own. Last week he said he'd exercise the majority's rightful power to bounce Louisville Democrat Larry Saunders as Senate president. ``I want the majority of the members of the Kentucky state Senate to choose the president they feel most comfortable with,'' Williams said. ``And if it happens to be David Williams, I would be most proud to serve in that position.'' political aspirations run in the family Williams runs a one-man law practice in his hometown of Burkesville, county seat of the predominantly Republican Cumberland County. He and his wife, Elaine, who is instructional supervisor for the Cumberland County schools, live in a house valued on tax rolls at $225,000. They have no children. Williams is the only child of Lewis and Flossie Williams, who still live in the house where David grew up. The family regularly attended Burkesville United Methodist Church, and Williams' parents put a high value on the importance of a good education. Lewis Williams was a principal and basketball coach who, after losing his first campaign for county clerk, won nine consecutive elections for that office without opposition. ``We went to Lincoln Day dinners when I was a small boy. I heard (U.S. Sen.) John Sherman Cooper, (Fifth District Congressman) Tim Lee Carter, (U.S. Sen.) Thruston Morton and all those folks,'' Williams said. ``I grew up in the courthouse. After school and on Saturdays I'd hang out there when I was a kid. And I was actively involved in the local party when I was 15 or 16 years old.'' At Cumberland County High School, Williams was the senior class president, lettered in baseball, and was captain of the football team. His quotation next to his photo in the 1971 yearbook is: ``The scales of justice can only be balanced by the weight of involvement.'' Williams said he particularly liked playing football. He was a center on offense and a tackle on defense. ``If I had been a step quicker I could have played college ball,'' he said. (Hurt, who quarterbacked the 1971 Cumberland County team, suggested Williams would have to have been a bit more than one step quicker.) In fact, though he and his wife like to fish and keep a pontoon boat on Dale Hollow Lake, their favorite pastime is college sports. As a legislator he takes advantage of the chance to buy two tickets to University of Kentucky and University of Louisville football and basketball games. He travels to most UK football games on the road and attends postseason basketball tournaments when UK plays. ``The football season is something I really enjoy,'' he said. ``I usually try to catch U of L when I can. I'm one of those rare people who like both UK and U of L.'' Williams is a graduate of both. After high school, he and his then-girlfriend Elaine Grubbs, went on to UK. They dated off-and-on through college. At UK Williams was true to his high school yearbook quotation. Among other things he was in the student senate and ran for student body president--the clean-shaven frat boy who ran against an opponent he describes as ``long-haired and hippie-ish.'' Williams lost. After graduation, Williams enrolled at the U of L Law School. He married Grubbs after his first year there. Williams said he could have studied law at UK but wanted to broaden his experience. And he liked Louisville. ``My closest relatives live in Louisville--aunts and uncles on my father's side of the family--and I visited Louisville often as a boy,'' Williams said. ``I lived in Louisville during some of the summers when I was growing up because when my dad was a teacher, he would go to Louisville and roof houses on construction crews and make good money in the summer. . . . We would go up and live with relatives.'' Lessons learned through setbacks After law school, Williams returned to Burkesville to practice law and--at age 25--ran for county judge-executive. His opponent was incumbent Harold E. ``Barney'' Barnes--a Democrat who had been appointed by Gov. Julian Carroll when the elected judge died in office. Williams lost. ``It taught me some interesting political lessons about incumbency,'' Williams recalled. ``When the governor and the local judge have an unlimited amount of blacktop and things like that, it can have a big effect.'' But in 1984 Williams ousted state Rep. Richard Fryman of Albany, a fellow Republican. Two years later he succeeded retiring Sen. Doug Moseley of Columbia and has been re- elected to the state Senate three times since--the last two times without opposition. During his Senate tenure, though, Williams was twice rejected by the voters in years when his Senate seat was not up for re-election. In 1992 he won a Republican primary for the U.S. Senate but was drubbed in the general election by popular incumbent Democrat Wendell Ford, who won with 64 percent of the vote. But perhaps the nadir of Williams' political career came the following year. While stewing in a minority faction of the Senate Republican caucus, Williams decided to try to be a prosecutor and ran for commonwealth's attorney in his home four-county district. He lost. But he never considered dropping out of politics. ``I didn't think any of the losses were due to my lack of ability or people not liking me,'' he said. ``I'm no Lincoln, but even Lincoln got beat two or three times.'' Longstanding alliances within the small Senate Republican caucus had largely kept Williams out of a leadership position there. But the number of Senate Republicans grew during the 1990s. During the 1998 session, after the Republican minority had grown to 18 senators, Williams was part of (but he insists did not lead) an attempt to oust Sen. Dan Kelly's Republican leadership team--a coup that failed when Republican senators voted 9-9. After the 1998 elections changed the make-up of the caucus, Williams finally had the [[Page 22419]] votes he needed to win election as Senate Republican leader. And defections of two Democratic senators to the GOP mean he's likely to become Senate president. A mix of attorney and preacher Williams said Kentuckians can expect him to take generally conservative stands on most issues. ``But I don't hate government,'' he said. ``I'm not a person who is afraid to use government to effect change. . . . I come from an area of the state that has needs. I've grown up and lived with people who have needs. I've grown up in areas that needed roads, that needed schools.'' In fact, in 1990 Williams was one of only three Senate Republicans who voted for the Kentucky Education Reform Act, which included a massive tax increase. ``I voted for it because the school districts in rural Kentucky did not have adequate resources, the students there did not have adequate opportunity,'' Williams said. ``I'm not unalterably wed to every aspect of the Kentucky Education Reform Act. . . . But I still feel like I cast the right vote.'' Besides his support of KERA, Williams is known in the legislature for his long fight to win funding for a resort lodge at Dale Hollow, his advocacy of workers' compensation law reform (which Gov. Paul Patton pushed through in 1996), and helping to increase state spending on adult education. Williams is better-known, though, for his skill as a debater. ``David Williams is and has always been one of the most articulate members of the Senate,'' said Senate Democratic Leader David Karem of Louisville. ``There's a wonderful mix of the courtroom attorney and the traditional Kentucky preacher in the way he delivers his speeches from the floor.'' Williams said Republicans are inclined to oppose two ideas Patton has floated this year as ways of raising state revenue--raising the gas tax and expanding legal gambling. But he said he's not prepared yet to slam the door on either idea. ``We haven't seen a bill yet,'' he said. And if Williams succeeds in leading the Senate, might he make another race for statewide office? Williams said he has no plans to seek higher office, though he's not ruling out the possibility. Sen. Tom Buford, R-Nicholasville, said Williams could be a strong candidate for governor in 2003. ``He hasn't said anything,'' Buford said. ``But I would watch that.'' ____________________