(born 1932), U.S. public official. In 1976 Richard Lugar of Indiana, the former mayor of Indianapolis, was elected to the United States Senate. Over the next two decades he influenced United States foreign policy in the Philippines, South Africa, the Persian Gulf region, and the former Soviet Union. On April 19, 1995, the mild-mannered, health-conscious Republican declared himself a candidate for president. Richard Green Lugar was born on April 4, 1932, in Indianapolis, where his family had manufactured farm and food machinery since the 1890s. His father had a 600-acre (240-hectare) farm in the nearby countryside. Dick helped on the farm, became an Eagle Scout, and made straight As in high school and at Denison University. He and Charlene Smeltzer were copresidents of the Denison student government. Lugar graduated in 1954, spent two years in England as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, and then came back and married Charlene. They had four sons. After three years in the United States Navy as an intelligence officer, Lugar worked at his family's manufacturing company in Indianapolis and managed the family farm. He was elected in 1964 to his first public office, a seat on the Indianapolis school board. In 1968 he became mayor of Indianapolis, a position he held for seven years. Lugar reorganized the government of Indianapolis to consolidate the city with the suburbs and farms in the surrounding county. In 1970–71 he was president of the National League of Cities. Lugar left Indianapolis for Washington, D.C., after his election to the Senate. As chairman of the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, he worked to reduce farm subsidies. His concern about agricultural exports heightened his interest in foreign policy. As chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Lugar persuaded President Ronald Reagan to recognize Corazon Aquino as president of the Philippines and abandon the corrupt former president, Ferdinand Marcos. Lugar worked to override Reagan's veto of sanctions against South Africa. He pressed for United States involvement in the Persian Gulf in 1991 and in Bosnia in 1995. He joined Senator Sam Nunn in a bipartisan effort to dismantle nuclear weapons in the former Soviet Union. Lugar's name arose several times as a possible Republican candidate for vice-president; however, Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush all passed him over in favor of other running mates. In 1995 Lugar announced that he would run for president, as the only major Republican candidate with foreign policy experience. In domestic policy, he proposed abolishing income taxes in favor of a federal sales tax and eliminating most regulations affecting small businesses. |