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Robert Ruhl Simmons (born February 11, 1943), American politician, was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2007, representing the 2nd Congressional District of Connecticut. He was defeated by Democratic challenger Joe Courtney in the 2006 elections by a razor-thin margin of 83 votes.
Born in New York City, Simmons was educated at Haverford College and served in the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency. In the Army, after leaving active duty, he led the 434th Military Intelligence Detachment associated with Yale University, and in this capacity led the writing of the first-ever "Open Source Intelligence Guide for the Military Intelligence Officer." This achievement in the 1990s led to the nomination, and selection, of his unit as the best small unit in the U.S. Army Reserve, and his promotion to full Colonel. In 1973 he earned a Master of Public Administration from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
In 1979 he became a staff member for Senator John Chafee of Rhode Island, and then in 1981 the Staff Director for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) then under the Chairmanship of Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ), during which time he learned a great deal about Senate oversight of illegal intelligence activities. Leaving the Senate staff, he became both a teacher of political science at the college level, and a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives before entering the House, defeating ten-term Democratic incumbent Sam Gejdenson by only 2,000 votes. Despite being in the most Democratic GOP-held seat in the nation and being targeted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee as a possible pickup in 2002, Simmons fought off a challenge from Democrat Joe Courtney, a former state representative from Vernon, winning 54%-46%.
In 2004, Simmons defeated his Democratic challenger, Norwich First Selectman Jim Sullivan, by a margin of 54% to 46%.
In 2005, the NRCC listed Simmons as one of their most vulnerable members and his seat was widely seen as a possible Democratic pickup in 2006. Courtney was once again the Democratic nominee in 2006 and the race was considered a toss-up.
On election night Simmons trailed his challenger, Joe Courtney, by 167 votes out of over 242,000 votes cast. This margin was small enough to trigger an automatic recount under Connecticut law. During this recount, elections officials discovered several errors in the original vote. The recount concluded on November 14 giving Courtney an 82 vote victory over Simmons.As Simmons fared far better than other defeated Republican incumbents it was speculated he would try for a political comeback in 2008, which he did not rule out in conceding the 2006 election to Courtney. However, on March 4, 2007, on an episode of Face the State, he stated that he would not challenge Joe Courtney in 2008.
On February 26, 2007, Rob Simmons was nominated by Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell to become the State's first Business Advocate.The Office of the Business Advocate was established as part of the Governor's 2006 "Jobs for the 21st Century" Act (PA 06-83), for the purpose of providing centralized assistance to businesses in the state, and to pro-actively provide assistance to businesses of broader economic significance to the State.The office was originally intended to be a part of the Office of Policy and Management, but is now slated to be relocated into the Department of Economic and Community Development, for administrative purposes only, as part of the Governor's Fiscal Year 2008–2009 Proposed Budget.
Simmons was a member of the House Armed Services Committee and was involved in issues concerning the district's major defense presence at the Electric Boat submarine shipyard in Groton and the nearby Naval Submarine Base New London. In 2005, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) targeted the U.S. Navy's New London submarine base for closure. Simmons was among the many Connecticut politicians who urged the BRAC to reverse their proposal to close the base, which the BRAC did on August 24, 2005.
Simmons also served on the House Homeland Security Committee. While Chairman of the Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing, and Terrorism Risk Assessment, he was an advocate of improved intelligence-sharing between federal, state, and local authorities through free open source software modeled after STRONG ANGEL (the program to create the same free tools for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) who must share unclassified information with U.S. forces in the transition to and from hostilities). Simmons was also the champion for Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) on the Hill, and sponsored hearings that have led to the draft Smart Nation Act that he developed in consultation with various OSINT authorities.
Simmons is a member of various liberal/moderate Republican organizations such as The Republican Main Street Partnership, Republicans for Choice, The Republican Majority For Choice, Republicans for Environmental Protection and It's My Party Too. He was endorsed for re-election by Planned Parenthood. In 2003, he voted with the House Democrats to oppose Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. The bill was passed by a large 281-142 majority on October 2, 2003.
Simmons is married to the former Edith Heidi Paffard. They have a son Robert and a daughter Jane.
On March 15, 2009, Simmons announced his intention to challenge Senator Christopher Dodd for the United States Senate in 2010.
From Wikipedia 3/24/09
