Chris Gibson (New York politician)

Chris Gibson
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 20th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2011
Preceded by	Scott Murphy
Personal details
Born	May 13, 1964 (1964-05-13) (age 47) Rockville Centre, New York
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Mary Jo Gibson
Residence	Kinderhook, New York
Alma mater	Siena College and Cornell University
Profession	United States Army officer Professor
Religion	Roman Catholic
Website	Official House Website Campaign Website
Military service
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1986–2010
Rank	Colonel
Commands	2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division
Battles/wars	Operation Iraqi Freedom
Awards	Legion of Merit (2); Bronze Star (4); Purple Heart; other awards

Christopher P. "Chris" Gibson (born May 13, 1964) is an American politician and former officer in the United States Army. He is currently the Congressman (R) for New York's 20th congressional district. He is a retired Army Colonel and holds a Ph.D in government from Cornell University, among other degrees. He is a lifelong resident of Kinderhook, New York.

Gibson joined the United States Army in 1986 after graduating from Siena College. He served tours in the First Gulf War, Kosovo, and Iraq. He later taught American politics at West Point and was a national security affairs fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He has received four Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart, among other awards while in the military.

In 2008, he published his first book, Securing the State, which offered his overview on national security decision-making. He retired from the army at the rank of colonel in 2010 to run for congress, where he successfully beat incumbent Scott Murphy with 55% of the vote. Gibson is married to Mary Jo Gibson, and the couple have three children.

Early life, education, and academic career

Gibson was born in Rockville Centre, New York to Robert and Barbara Gibson, and moved to Kinderhook at a young age. He attended Ichabod Crane High School where he was point guard and co-captain of the basketball team. He attended Siena College, earning his ROTC Commission and graduating magna cum laude with a BA in history.^[1][2]

Gibson took his commission with the United States Army after graduating from Siena. While in the Army Gibson rose to the rank of Colonel, serving seven tours including four combat tours in Iraq, as well as separate tours in Kosovo, the American Southwest in counter-narcotics interdiction and most recently deploying to Haiti after the earthquake where he led the 82nd Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team during the opening month of the humanitarian effort there.^[2]

Throughout his career Gibson earned a number of military decorations, including a Purple Heart, 4 Bronze Stars, 2 Legions of Merit, the Master Parachutist Badge, the Combat Infantryman’s Badge with Star and the Ranger tab. His units have also won awards, for their actions in Mosul in support of the first Iraqi national elections his Battalion Task Force earned the Valorous Unit Award. Later in Tal Afar his battalion and the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment were recognized for excellence by the President and earned a 2nd Valorous Unit Award.^{[3][not in citation given]}. Gibson was selected as the General George C. Marshall Award winner at the top graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth.^{[citation needed]}

Gibson earned an MPA, as well as an MA and PhD in government, from Cornell University.^[4] He then became a Professor of American Politics at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He was a National Security fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University where he wrote a book on Civil-Military relations titled "Securing the State".^[3]

U.S. House of Representatives

2010 election

See also: United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 2010#District 20*

External media
Images
	Gibson Campaign Flickr photostream
Videos
	Gibson-Murphy debate, WMHT, October 21, 2010

Gibson challenged Democratic incumbent Scott Murphy for the 20th Congressional district seat in the House of Representatives and won on November 4, 2010.

While there were initially four candidates for the GOP nomination, the other three all dropped their bid, with one of them, Patrick Ziegler, joining Gibson’s staff as his campaign manager.^[5][6] The uncontested Republican and Conservative candidate, Gibson outraised Murphy in his first full quarter in the campaign, and is a GOP Young Gun.^[7][8]

Beginning in September, Gibson saw a steady rise in polling numbers: he started behind at 37% compared to Murphy's 54%. However by October 26, Gibson had risen to 51% and Murphy had fallen to 42%, numbers that more closely reflected the actual outcome.^{[citation needed]} Newsweek described Gibson's win as a combination of running as a Republican in "perhaps the most conservative [district] in the state"^{[Note 1]} and Murphy having supported "the two biggest items on Nancy Pelosi’s agenda", regardless of the fact that "the National Journal had characterized his voting record as one of the 10 most moderate in the House".^[10]

Gibson took part in a televised debate with Murphy on October 21, presented by the local PBS station, WMHT.^[11] Gibson began the campaign at 17 points behind in the polls but ended up winning the election with 55% of the vote.^[12]

Tenure

Along with nearly all other Republican members of the US House of Representatives, Mr. Gibson voted to support the budget put forward by U.S. Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI). This vote is controversial, and has already led to election problems for Republicans, because it makes substantial changes to Medicare (a very popular healthcare program for American retirees).

Committee assignments

Following his swearing in, Gibson became a member of the following House committees:^[13]

• Committee on Agriculture
  • Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management
  • Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry
• Committee on Armed Services
  • Subcommittee on Readiness
  • Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities

He is a member of both the Conservative Republican Study Committee and the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership

Personal life

Gibson lives in Kinderhook with his wife, Mary Jo, and their three children. The family is Roman Catholic and attends St. John's Catholic Church in Valatie.^[14]

Written works

• Gibson, Christopher P. (2008). Securing the State: Reforming the National Security Decisionmaking Process at the Civil-Military Nexus. Burlington, Vermont: Hanover Institution. ISBN 978-0-7546-7290-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=sXat2yg9KooC&source=gbs_navlinks_s. 
• Gibson, Christopher P. (1998). Countervailing Forces: Enhancing Civilian Control and National Security Through Madisonian Concepts (PhD thesis). Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. OCLC 64748644. 
• Gibson, Christopher P.; Don M. Snider (1997). "Explaining Post-Cold War Civil-Military Relations: a New Institutionalist Approach". Working Papers Series: U.S. Post-Cold War Civil-Military Relations (Harvard University John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies) 08. OCLC 37535789. http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/olin/publications/workingpapers/civil_military/list.htm. 

Notes

1. ^ The New York State Board of Elections reported that Republicans outnumbered Democrats in the district by more than 60,000 on November 1, 2010 (187,780 registered Republicans versus 126,774 registered Democrats).^[9] After redistricting in 2002, then-Congressman John E. Sweeney was quoted as saying that “no Republican can ever lose” the district.^[10]

References

1. ^ Zeller, Shawn (November 6, 2010). "112th Congress: Chris Gibson, R-N.Y. (20th District)". Congressional Quarterly. http://news.yahoo.com/s/cq/20101106/pl_cq_politics/politics000003759318. Retrieved November 11, 2010. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Robert Lachman (March 7, 2010). "Kinderhook Republican to challenge Murphy for House seat". Hudson-Catskill Newspapers. http://www.registerstar.com/articles/2010/03/07/news/doc4b9334038da60507063369.txt. Retrieved 14 September 2010. 
3. ^ ^{a b} The Hoover Institute (2010). "Colonel Chris Gibson". The Hoover Institute. http://www.hoover.org/fellows/9756. Retrieved 14 September 2010. 
4. ^ Lowery, George (2010-11-08). "Nine alumni run for – and mostly win – national offices". Cornell Chronicle. Cornell University. http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Nov10/alumniRaces.html. Retrieved 2010-11-14. 
5. ^ Maury Thompson (March 26, 2010). "Chris Gibson has lock on GOP endorsement in 20th district". The Post Star. http://poststar.com/news/local/article_711229b2-3918-11df-a4ac-001cc4c002e0.html. Retrieved 14 September 2010. 
6. ^ Jimmy Vielkind (April 5, 2010). "Gibson hires Ziegler, who has endorsed Gibson". The Times Union. http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/24483/gibson-hires-ziegler-who-has-endorsed-gibson. Retrieved 14 September 2010. 
7. ^ Jimmy Vielkind (July 13, 2010). "Gibson outraises Murphy, Murphy has way more cash (updated)". The Times Union. http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/29459/gibson-outraises-murphy-murphy-has-way-more-cash. Retrieved 14 September 2010. 
8. ^ Jeremy P. Jacobs (August 31, 2010). "NRCC Names 6 New Young Guns". National Journal. http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2010/08/nrcc_names_6_ne.php. Retrieved 14 September 2010. 
9. ^ "NYSVoter Enrollment by Congressional District, Party Affiliation and Status" (PDF). New York State Board of Elections. 2010-11-01. p. 9. http://www.elections.state.ny.us/NYSBOE/enrollment/congress/congress_nov10.pdf. Retrieved 2010-11-14. 
10. ^ ^{a b} Roske, Tim. "Murphy's Law: One Democrat's defeat explains how the party lost the House". Newsweek. http://www.newsweek.com/2010/11/03/the-anatomy-of-one-democrat-s-loss.html#. Retrieved 2010-11-14. 
11. ^ New York's 20th Congressional District Debate. North Greenbush, New York: WMHT. 2010-10-21. http://video.wmht.org/video/1621878042. Retrieved 2010-11-14. 
12. ^ Leigh Hornbeck and Dennis Yusko (3 November 2010). "Gibson defeats Murphy in 20th". The Albany Times-Union. http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Gibson-defeats-Murphy-in-20th-792716.php. Retrieved 3 November 2010. 
13. ^ Vielkind, Jimmy. "Riding the Republican Wave". Times Union (Albany) (Hearst Newspapers). http://albarchive.merlinone.net/mweb/wmsql.wm.request?oneimage&imageid=13072637. Retrieved 2010-12-23. 
14. ^ Chris Gibson for Congress (2010). "About". Chris Gibson for Congress. http://www.chrisgibsonforcongress.com/about.html. Retrieved 2010-11-14. 

External links

• U.S. Congressman Chris Gibson official U.S. House site
• Chris Gibson for Congress official campaign site
• Biography at WhoRunsGov.com at The Washington Post
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Congressional profile at GovTrack
• Congressional profile at OpenCongress
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
• Staff salaries, trips and personal finance at LegiStorm.com
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Appearances on C-SPAN programs
• Works by or about Chris Gibson (New York politician) in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Scott Murphy	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 20th congressional district January 3, 2011 – present	Succeeded by Incumbent
United States order of precedence
Preceded by Bob Gibbs R-Ohio	United States Representatives by seniority 370th	Succeeded by Paul Gosar R-Arizona

Persondata
Name	Gibson, Chris
Alternative names
Short description	New York politician; retired Colonel in the United States Army
Date of birth	May 13, 1964
Place of birth	Rockville Centre, New York, U.S.
Date of death
Place of death