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Charles Ellis "Chuck" Schumer (born November 23, 1950) is the senior Senator from the state of New York and a member of the Democratic Party.
Schumer was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. He served in the New York Assembly from 1974 to 1980. He represented New York's ninth Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1980 to 1998. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1998, when he defeated three-term incumbent Republican Al D'Amato. In 2004 he was re-elected with more than 70 percent of the vote.
Schumer currently serves on the following Congressional committees:
Schumer is the subject of a quip from former Senator Bob Dole: "the most dangerous place in Washington is between Charles Schumer and a television camera."
Schumer has gained notoriety among gun owners for coauthoring the federal assault weapons ban in 1994 with California Senator Dianne Feinstein, and he is often criticized for not knowing much about guns. He once referred to a magazine as a "stock" and Tec-9 is misspelled on his web site [1] (http://www.google.com/search?q=tech-9+site:schumer.senate.gov&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&filter=0). He even once said that semi-automatic firearms have a rapid rate of fire and spray all over the room, traits of automatic firearms.
In 2004, Schumer handily won re-election against Republican Assemblyman Howard Mills of Middletown and Conservative Marilyn O'Grady. Schumer outpolled Mills, the second-place finisher, by 2.8 million votes and won reelection with 71% of the vote, the highest ever for a Senator's election in New York.
Schumer was mentioned as a potential candidate for both Governor of New York in 2006 and the post of Senate Minority Leader. A generally quiet consensus among Senate Democrats led Harry Reid of Nevada becoming minority leader. It was announced on November 15, 2004 that Schumer would become chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, part of the Democratic Senate Leadership and a post which precludes him from running for any elected office in 2006. This was a relief for New York Democrats, who thus avoided a potentially damaging primary election in 2006 between Schumer and Eliot Spitzer, New York's attorney general.
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