As an ex"'officio member of the New Hampshire Ballot Law Commission, Rudman became embroiled in a controversy involving the 1974 reelection of United States Senator John A. Durkin. Rudman and his commission colleagues declared Republican Congressman Louis C. Wyman [1917-2002] the winner by just two votes. Wyman served in the upper chamber for precisely four days before the Senate declared the seat vacant. Durkin [1936- ], a Democrat, then secured the right to a new election, which he won. When President Gerald Ford nominated Rudman to chair the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1976, Durkin used his influence to delay confirmation. Rudman eventually withdrew his name for consideration. It looked as if Durkin had successfully exacted his revenge; however, if he had permitted Rudman's confirmation, it is unlikely that Rudman would ever have become a United States Senator.
In 1980, after practicing law for four years with the Manchester firm of Phinney, Bass and Green, Warren B. Rudman entered an eleven"'candidate Republican primary race for the United States Senate. Topping the field with 20%, Rudman named the second"'place finisher, John Sununu [1939-], his campaign manager. Greatly aided by Ronald Reagan's sweeping victory over President Jimmy Carter, Rudman defeated his old nemesis Durkin 52%-48%, thereby becoming the first Jew ever elected to Congress from New Hampshire. [In 2006, Paul Hodes became the second New Hampshire Jew elected to Congress. After two terms, he gave up his seat in order to run for the United States Senate; he was defeated by New Hampshire's Republican Attorney General, Kelly Ayotte.]
Entering the Senate as a member of the majority, Senator Rudman quickly went to work learning the ropes. His first successful piece of legislation, co"'authored with Connecticut Senator Lowell Weicker, Jr., was passed less than six months from the day he first took the oath of office. Called, the "Small Business Innovation Research Act of 1981" -- which the editorial writers on the Washington Star termed "one of the most ingenious acts of the 97th Congress" -- this "invention" granted research and development firms as much as $400 million a year without adding a cent to the federal budget. The bill simply required that federal agencies with an R & D budget in excess of $100 million set aside 1 percent for small business. In arguing for the bill's enactment, Rudman noted that small businesses produced up to twenty"'four times more innovation per R & D dollar than larger ones. Armed with a welter of facts and data, Rudman was able to attract no fewer than seventy"'nine co"'sponsors for his bill, running the political gamut from Senator Edward Kennedy on the left to Senator Jesse Helms on the right.
In 1982, Senator Rudman went to war against the American Medical Association. The issue raising Rudman's dander was a measure that would effectively wipe out the Federal Trade Commission's power to pursue violations of antitrust and consumer protection laws by health professionals. As one of the few members of Congress [and the only Senator] who refused financial support from political action committees [PACs], Rudman was in a unique position. He successfully inserted less-sweeping language into the proposed bill, thereby preserving the FTC's ability to go after doctors when they were in violation of antitrust standards.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Rudman sarcastically noted, "For the first time in 20 years, doctors are making house calls. They made house calls in the Dirksen Building, [and] in the Russell Building . . . . I do not get excited by my own rhetoric. I get excited when I see someone attempting to perform a frontal lobotomy on the free"'enterprise system, which is precisely what is going on here."
Rudman's ameliorative language was passed by a vote of 59-37. Suddenly the junior Senator from New Hampshire was big news.
A vocal hawk on defense matters, Rudman nonetheless stunned the Pentagon by convincing the Senate to kill off the $1.5 billion VIPER -- a shoulder"'fired antitank weapon -- which he proved was both ineffective and cost-prohibitive. Moreover, Rudman got Congress to agree to a highly unusual step: forcing the military to competitively test various weapons systems, including those made by foreign manufacturers. This took a great degree of political courage, considering that the technical components for the VIPER were manufactured in Nashua, Rudman's hometown. Rudman also got the Senate to scrap the ill"'fated "Sergeant York" gun, which he said should have been called the "Sergeant Bilko." For his efforts, Rudman won the respect of his Senate colleagues -- and the enmity of the military brass.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan was elected on a platform which promised to balance the budget, dramatically increase military spending, and lower taxes. The theory behind the platform was given the name "supply"'side economics." The Fourth Estate called it "Reaganomics." George Bush called it "voodoo economics." Rudman, charmed by Reagan's ability to state his case, voted in favor of the president's 1981 budget proposal. Although he prayed that all the figures were correct and that Reaganomics would work, Rudman feared that it was all an illusion.
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