Mike Gravel

In 1968 he ran against the 81-year-old incumbent Democratic Senator Ernest Gruening, a popular former governor of the Alaska Territory who was considered one of the fathers of Alaska's statehood,[19] for his party's nomination to the U.S. Senate. Gravel's campaign was primarily based on his youth rather than issue differences.[21][44] He hired Joseph Napolitan, the first self-described political consultant, in late 1966.[21] They spent over a year and a half planning a short, nine-day primary election campaign that featured the slogans "Alaska first" and "Let's do something about the state we're in", the distribution of a collection of essays titled Jobs and More Jobs, and the creation of a half-hour, well-produced, glamorized biographical film of Gravel, Man for Alaska.[2][19][21][45] The film was shown twice a day on every television station in Alaska, and carried by plane and shown on home projectors in hundreds of Alaska Native villages.[2][21][44] The heavy showings quickly reversed a 2–to–1 Gruening lead in polls into a Gravel lead.[21] Gravel visited many remote villages by seaplane and showed a thorough understanding of the needs of the bush country and the fishing and oil industries.[2][46] He also benefited by being deliberately ambiguous about his Vietnam policy.[46] Gruening had been one of only two Senators to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and his opposition to President Lyndon B. Johnson's war policies was harming him among the Democratic electorate;[47] according to Gravel, "all I had to do was stand up and not deal with the subject, and people would assume that I was to the right of Ernest Gruening, when in point of fact I was to the left of him".[19] In Man for Alaska, Gravel argued that "the liberals" would come to West Germany's defense if it was attacked, and that the same standard should apply to the United States' allies in Asia. During the campaign he also claimed that he was "more in the mainstream of American thought on Vietnam" than Gruening, despite the fact that he had written to Gruening to praise his antiwar stance four years earlier.[48]

Gravel beat Gruening in the primary by about 2,000 votes.[47][49] Gruening found "the unexpected defeat hard to take" and thought that some aspects of his opponent's biographical film had misled viewers.[44] In the general election, Gravel faced Republican Elmer E. Rasmuson, a banker and former mayor of Anchorage.[47] College students in the state implored Gruening to run a write-in campaign as an Independent, but legal battles prevented him from getting approval for it until only two weeks were left.[47] A late appearance by anti-war presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy did not offset Gruening's lack of funds and endorsements; meanwhile, Gravel and Rasmuson both saturated local media with their filmed biographies.[47] On November 5, 1968, Gravel won the general election with 45 percent of the vote to Rasmuson's 37 percent and Gruening's 18 percent.[47]

Senator Mike Gravel

When Gravel joined the Senate in January 1969, he requested and received a seat on the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, which had direct relevance to Alaskan issues.[46] He also got a spot on the Public Works Committee,[46] which he held throughout his time in the Senate.[50] Finally, he was a member of the Select Committee on Small Business.[51] In 1971 he became chair of the Public Works Committee's Subcommittee on Public Buildings and Grounds,[46] and by 1973 he was chair of its Subcommittee on Water Resources,[52] then later its Subcommittee on Environmental Pollution. Gravel was also initially named to the Joint Committee on Congressional Operations.[46] By 1973 Gravel was off the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee and the Select Small Business Committee and instead a member of the Finance Committee,[52] and by 1977 was chair of that body's Subcommittee on Energy and Foundations.[53] By 1973 he had also been on the ad hoc Special Committee to Study Secret and Confidential Government Documents.[52]

By his own admission, Gravel was too new and "too abrasive" to be effective in the Senate by the usual means of seniority-based committee assignments or negotiating deals with other senators,[21][54] and was sometimes seen as arrogant by the more senior members.[21] He instead relied on attention-getting gestures to achieve what he wanted, hoping national exposure would force other senators to listen to him.[54] As part of this he voted with Southern Democrats to keep the Senate filibuster rule in place,[21] and accordingly supported Russell Long and Robert Byrd but opposed Ted Kennedy in Senate leadership battles.[21] In retrospective assessment, University of Alaska Anchorage history professor Stephen Haycox said, "Loose cannon is a good description of Gravel's Senate career. He was an off-the-wall guy, and you weren't really ever sure what he would do."[55]

In the late 1960s and early 1970s the U.S. Department of Defense was in the process of performing tests for the nuclear warhead for the Spartan anti-ballistic missile. Two tests, the "Milrow" and "Cannikin" tests, were planned, involving the detonation of nuclear bombs under Amchitka Island in Alaska. The Milrow test would be a one-megaton calibration exercise for the second and larger five-megaton Cannikin test, which would measure the effectiveness of the warhead. Gravel opposed the tests. Before the Milrow test took place in October 1969, he wrote that there were significant risks of earthquakes and other adverse consequences and called for an independent national commission on nuclear and seismic safety;[56] he then made a personal appeal to President Nixon to stop the test.[57]

After Milrow was conducted, there was continued pressure on the part of environmental groups against going forward with the Cannikin test, while the Federation of American Scientists claimed that the warhead being tested was already obsolete.[57] In May 1971 Gravel sent a letter to U.S. Atomic Energy Commission hearings held in Anchorage in which he said the risk of the test was not worth taking.[58] Eventually a group not involving Gravel took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to issue an injunction against it,[59] and the Cannikin test took place as scheduled in November 1971.[59] Gravel had failed to stop the tests (notwithstanding his later claims during his 2008 presidential campaign).[nb 2]

In 1971 Gravel voted against the Nixon administration's proposed anti-ballistic missile system, the Safeguard Program, having previously vacillated over the issue, suggesting that he might be willing to support it in exchange for federal lands in Alaska being opened up for private oil drilling. His vote alienated Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, who had raised funds for Gravel's primary campaign.[48][38]

Nuclear power was considered an environmentally clean alternative for commercial generation of electricity and was part of a popular national policy for the peaceful use of atomic energy in the 1950s and 1960s.[60] Gravel publicly opposed this policy; besides the dangers of nuclear testing, he was a vocal critic of the Atomic Energy Commission,[60] which oversaw American nuclear efforts, and of the powerful United States Congress Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, which had a stranglehold on nuclear policy and which Gravel tried to circumvent.[60] In 1971 Gravel sponsored a bill to impose a moratorium on nuclear power plant construction and to make power utilities liable for any nuclear accidents;[61] in 1975 he was still proposing similar moratoriums.[62] By 1974 Gravel was allied with Ralph Nader's organization in opposing nuclear power.[63]

Six months before U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's July 1971 secret mission to the People's Republic of China (P.R.C.), Gravel introduced legislation to recognize and normalize relations with China, including a proposal for unity talks between the P.R.C. and the Republic of China (Taiwan) regarding the Chinese seat on the U.N. Security Council.[64] He reiterated his position in favor of recognition, with four other senators in agreement, during Senate hearings in June 1971.[65]

Although he did not campaign against the Vietnam War during his first Senate campaign, by the end of 1970 Gravel was speaking out against United States policy in southeast Asia: in December of that year he persuaded William Fulbright to join him in a spontaneous two-day filibuster against a $155 million military aid package to Cambodia's Khmer Republic government in the Cambodian Civil War.[48][66]

President Richard Nixon had campaigned in 1968 on a promise to end the U.S. military draft,[67][68] a decision endorsed by the February 1970 report of the Gates Commission.[67][69] The existing draft law was scheduled to conclude at the end of June 1971, and the Senate faced a contentious debate about whether to extend it as the Vietnam War continued.[70] The Nixon administration announced in February 1971 that it wanted a two-year extension to June 1973, after which the draft would end;[71][72] Army planners had already been operating under the assumption of a two-year extension, after which an all-volunteer force would be in place.[69] Skeptics such as Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John Stennis thought this unrealistic and wanted a four-year extension,[71] but the two-year proposal is what went forward in Congress.[70] By early May 1971, Gravel had indicated his intention to filibuster the draft renewal legislation, halting conscription and thereby bringing U.S. involvement in the war to a rapid end.[73] During this period he also supported efforts to mobilize and influence public opinion against the war, endorsing the "Vietnam War Out Now" rallies in Washington D.C. and San Francisco on April 24, 1971,[74] and financing a broadcast campaign by the antiwar group War No More with a personal loan.[75] In June 1972 he escorted a group of over 100 antiwar protesters, including psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, actress Candice Bergen, theater producer and director Joseph Papp and medic Benjamin Spock, into the United States Capitol; the group was arrested after blocking a hallway outside the Senate chamber.[76]

By June 1971, some Democratic senators opposed to the war wanted to limit the renewal to a one-year extension, while others wanted to end it immediately;[70] Gravel reiterated that he was one of the latter, saying, "It's a senseless war, and one way to do away with it is to do away with the draft."[70] A Senate vote on June 4 indicated majority support for the two-year extension.[70] On June 18 Gravel announced again his intention to counteract that by filibustering the renewal legislation,[77] defending the practice against those who associated it only with blocking civil rights legislation.[77] The first filibuster attempt failed on June 23 when, by three votes, the Senate voted cloture for only the fifth time since 1927.[78]

Protracted negotiations took place over House conference negotiations on the bill, revolving in large part around Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield's eventually unsuccessful amendment to tie renewal to a troop withdrawal timetable from Vietnam; during this time the draft law expired and no more were conscripted.[79] On August 5, the Nixon administration pleaded for a renewal before the Senate went on recess, but Gravel blocked Stennis's attempt to limit debate, and no vote was held.[80] Finally on September 21, 1971, the Senate invoked cloture over Gravel's second filibuster attempt by one vote, and then passed the two-year draft extension.[79] Gravel's attempts to stop the draft had failed[54] (notwithstanding Gravel's later claims that he had stopped or shortened the draft, taken at face value in some media reports, during his 2008 presidential campaign).[nb 3]

Meanwhile, on June 13, 1971, The New York Times began printing large portions of the Pentagon Papers.[81] The papers were a large collection of secret government documents and studies pertaining to the Vietnam War, of which former Defense Department analyst Daniel Ellsberg had made unauthorized copies and was determined to make public.[82] Ellsberg had for a year and a half approached members of Congress – such as William Fulbright, George McGovern, Charles Mathias, and Pete McCloskey – about publishing the documents, on the grounds that the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution would give congressional members immunity from prosecution, but all had refused.[83] Instead, Ellsberg gave the documents to the Times.

The U.S. Justice Department immediately tried to halt publication, on the grounds that the information revealed within the papers harmed the national interest.[82] Within the next two weeks, a federal court injunction halted publication in The Times; The Washington Post and several other newspapers began publishing parts of the documents, with some of them also being halted by injunctions; and the whole matter went to the U.S. Supreme Court for arguments.[82] Looking for an alternate publication mechanism, Ellsberg returned to his idea of having a member of Congress read them, and chose Gravel based on the latter's efforts against the draft;[6] Gravel agreed where previously others had not. Ellsberg arranged for the papers to be given to Gravel on June 26[6] via an intermediary, Washington Post editor Ben Bagdikian.[84] Gravel used his counter-intelligence experience to choose a midnight transfer in front of the Mayflower Hotel in the center of Washington.[85]

On the night of June 29, 1971, Gravel attempted to read the papers on the floor of the Senate as part of his filibuster against the draft, but was thwarted when no quorum could be formed.[86] Gravel instead convened a session of the Buildings and Grounds subcommittee that he chaired.[86] He got New York Congressman John G. Dow to testify that the war had soaked up funding for public buildings, thus making discussion of the war relevant to the committee.[87] He began reading from the papers with the press in attendance,[86] omitting supporting documents that he felt might compromise national security,[88] and declaring, "It is my constitutional obligation to protect the security of the people by fostering the free flow of information absolutely essential to their democratic decision-making."[88]

He read until 1 a.m., until with tears and sobs he said that he could no longer physically continue,[88] the previous three nights of sleeplessness and fear about the future having taken their toll.[6] Gravel ended the session by, with no other senators present, establishing unanimous consent[87] to insert 4,100 pages of the Papers into the Congressional Record of his subcommittee.[54][82] The following day, the Supreme Court's New York Times Co. v. United States decision ruled in favor of the newspapers[82] and publication in The Times and others resumed. In July 1971 Bantam Books published an inexpensive paperback edition of the papers containing the material The Times had published.[89]

Gravel, too, wanted to privately publish the portion of the papers he had read into the record, believing that "immediate disclosure of the contents of these papers will change the policy that supports the war".[84] After being turned down by many commercial publishers,[84] on August 4 he reached agreement with Beacon Press,[90] the publishing arm of the Unitarian Universalist Association, of which Gravel was a member.[54] Announced on August 17[89] and published on October 22, 1971,[84] this four-volume, relatively expensive set[89] became the "Senator Gravel Edition", which studies from Cornell University and the Annenberg Center for Communication have labeled as the most complete edition of the Pentagon Papers to be published.[91][92] The "Gravel Edition" was edited and annotated by Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, and included an additional volume of analytical articles on the origins and progress of the war, also edited by Chomsky and Zinn.[92] Beacon Press then was subjected to a FBI investigation;[85] an outgrowth of this was the Gravel v. United States court case, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled upon in June 1972;[85] it held that the Speech or Debate Clause did grant immunity to Gravel for his reading the papers in his subcommittee, did grant some immunity to Gravel's congressional aide, but granted no immunity to Beacon Press in relation to their publishing the same papers.[93] The Senate Democratic Caucus backed Gravel in the case, but due to Republican opposition it did not pay Gravel's legal fees, leaving him owing $25,000 (the equivalent of $150,000 in 2019, adjusted for inflation).[48]

The events of 1971 changed Gravel in the following months from an obscure freshman senator to a nationally visible political figure.[54] He became a sought-after speaker on the college circuit as well as at political fundraisers,[54] opportunities he welcomed as lectures were "the one honest way a Senator has to supplement his income".[54] But his speaking tours caused him to accrue one of the worst absentee records in the Senate.[48] The Democratic candidates for the 1972 presidential election sought his endorsement.[54] In January 1972 Gravel endorsed Maine Senator Ed Muskie,[94] hoping that his support would help Muskie with the party's left wing and in ethnic French-Canadian areas during the first primary contest in New Hampshire[54] (Muskie won, but not overwhelmingly, and his campaign faltered soon after). In April 1972 Gravel appeared on all three networks' nightly newscasts to decry the Nixon administration's reliance on Vietnamization by making reference to the secret National Security Study Memorandum 1 document, which stated it would take 8–13 years for the Army of the Republic of Vietnam to defend South Vietnam.[95] Gravel made excerpts from the study public,[96] but Senators Robert P. Griffin and William B. Saxbe blocked his attempt to read NSSM 1 into the Congressional Record.[95]

In 1970 Gravel co-sponsored legislation to establish a guaranteed minimum income, entitling poor families to up to $6,300 a year (the equivalent of $42,000 in 2019 after adjustment for inflation). He subsequently voted for a "work bonus" program, which would have entitled low-income working families with dependent children if they were paying Social Security or Railroad Retirement taxes to a non-taxable bonus of up to 10 percent of their wages.[48][97] Gravel also supported extending Social Security to all federal employees and introduced a campaign finance reform bill in 1971 that would have enacted full disclosure of campaign financing, placed limits on large donations, media spending and individual candidate spending.[48]

In 1969, Gravel was the only Democratic Senator outside of the South to vote for Nixon's Supreme Court nominee Clement Haynsworth.[98] The following year Gravel would oppose Nixon's next pick, G. Harrold Carswell.[99]

Gravel actively campaigned for the office of Vice President of the United States during the 1972 presidential election, announcing on June 2, 1972, over a month before the 1972 Democratic National Convention began, that he was interested in the nomination should the choice be opened up to convention delegates.[100] Toward this end he began soliciting delegates for their support.[101] He was not alone in this effort, as former Governor of Massachusetts Endicott Peabody had been running a quixotic campaign for the same post[102] since the prior year. Likely presidential nominee George McGovern was in fact considering the unusual move of naming three or four acceptable vice-presidential candidates and letting the delegates choose.[102]

On the convention's final day, July 14, 1972, McGovern selected and announced Senator Thomas Eagleton of Missouri as his vice-presidential choice.[103] Eagleton was unknown to many delegates and the choice seemed to smack of traditional ticket balancing considerations.[103][104] Thus there were delegates willing to look elsewhere. Gravel was nominated by Bettye Fahrenkamp, the Democratic National Committeewoman from Alaska.[105] He then seconded his own nomination, breaking down in tears at his own words[106] and maybe trying to withdraw his nomination.[106] In any case he won 226 delegate votes, coming in third behind Eagleton and Frances "Sissy" Farenthold of Texas, in chaotic balloting[104][107] that included several other candidates.

Gravel attracted some attention for his efforts: writer Norman Mailer said he "provided considerable excitement" and was "good-looking enough to have played leads in B-films",[108] while Rolling Stone correspondent Hunter S. Thompson said Gravel "probably said a few things that might have been worth hearing, under different circumstances".[109] Yet the process was doubly disastrous for the Democrats. In the time consumed by nominating and seconding and all the vice-presidential candidates' speeches, the attention of the delegates on the floor was lost[109] and McGovern's speech was pushed to 3:30 a.m.[109] The haste with which Eagleton was selected led to surprise when his past mental health treatments were revealed; he withdrew from the ticket soon after the convention, to be replaced by Sargent Shriver.

C. R. Lewis in 1973. After eight years of representing Anchorage in the Alaska Senate, Lewis won the Republican nomination and challenged Gravel in the 1974 election.

Several years earlier, Alaska politicians had speculated that Gravel would have a hard time getting both renominated and elected when his first term expired,[54] given that he was originally elected without a base party organization and tended to focus on national rather than local issues.[54]

Nonetheless, after receiving support from national and local labor leaders, securing key earmarks, and producing another half-hour TV advertorial,[48] in 1974 Gravel was reelected to the Senate,[110] with 58 percent of the vote to 42 percent for Republican State Senator C. R. Lewis, who was a national officer of the John Birch Society.[111]

Gravel's reelection campaign left him $65,000-$75,000 in debt. In 1975 The Washington Post reported on a memo by his executive assistant laying out a fundraising strategy to tackle this, including raising funds from oil companies, meeting with previous donors and "inquir[ing] into the governmental priorities of these people and their groups in the coming session", as well as obtaining further speaking fees to reduce his personal debt. This was followed by a number of stories about links between Gravel, lobbyists and fundraisers, including one that was widely publicized in Alaska about his holding a share in a Colorado resort with two Washington lobbyists he was working with on land and energy legislation. Gravel had been open about the investment and had opposing views to one of the lobbyists on nuclear power. In 1980 the Wall Street Journal published details about his fundraising activities, including writing to individuals and PACs in the oil industry, pledging to kill off proposals for a windfall profits tax on the sector, and traveling in the Middle East with the business partner of one of his donors to sell Alaskan land to businessmen. Gravel suggested that critics of his fundraising were "naive".[48]

In 1975 Gravel introduced an amendment to cut the number of troops overseas by 200,000, but it was defeated on a voice vote.[112]

In September 1975 Gravel was named as one of several Congressional Advisers to the Seventh Special Session of the United Nations, which met to discuss problems related to economic development and international economic cooperation.[113]

In June 1976 Gravel was the focus of a federal investigation into allegations that he was involved in a sex-for-vote arrangement. Congressional staff clerk Elizabeth Ray (who had already been involved in a sex scandal that led to the downfall of Representative Wayne Hays) said that in August 1972 she had sex with Gravel aboard a houseboat on the Potomac River, under the instruction of Representative Kenneth J. Gray, her boss at the time.[114] Gray allegedly wanted to secure Gravel's support for further funding for construction of the National Visitor Center in Washington, a troubled project that was under the jurisdiction of subcommittees that both members chaired.[115][116] Another Congressional staffer said she witnessed the boat encounter, but Gravel said at the time that he had never met either of the women.[114][117] Gravel and Gray strongly denied that they had made any arrangement regarding legislation,[114] and neither was ever charged with any wrongdoing.[118] Decades later Gravel wrote that he had indeed had sex with Ray, but had not changed any votes because of it.[119]

Gravel and his main financial backer, Gottstein, had a falling out in 1978, during the Congressional debate over whether to allow a controversial sale of U.S. F-15 fighter aircraft to Saudi Arabia. An ardent backer of Israel, Gottstein opposed the sale and asked Gravel to vote against it. But Gravel not only voted for it but made an emotional speech attacking the anti-sale campaign.[38] Gravel wrote in 2008 that it was the only time Gottstein had ever asked him for a favor, and the rupture resulted in their never speaking to each other again.[120]

By 1971 Gravel was urging construction of the much-argued Trans-Alaska pipeline, addressing environmental concerns by saying that the pipeline's builders and operators should have "total and absolute" responsibility for any consequent environmental damage.[121] Two years later the debate over the pipeline came to a crux, with The New York Times describing it as "environmentalists [in] a holy war with the major oil companies".[122] In February 1973 the U.S. Court of Appeals blocked the issuance of permits for construction;[123] Gravel and fellow Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens reacted by urging Congress to pass legislation overturning the court's decision.[124] Environmentalists opposed to the pipeline, such as the Environmental Defense Fund and the Sierra Club[125] then sought to use the recently passed National Environmental Policy Act to their advantage;[122] Gravel designed an amendment to the pipeline bill that would immunize the pipeline from any further court challenges under that law,[122] and thus speed its construction. Passage of the amendment became the key battle regarding the pipeline. On July 17, 1973, in a dramatic roll-call vote, the Gravel amendment was approved as a 49–49 tie was broken in favor by Vice President Spiro Agnew.[125] The actual bill enabling the pipeline then passed easily;[125] Gravel had triumphed.

Senator Gravel in 1973

In opposition to the Alaskan fishing industry, Gravel advocated American participation in the formation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. For two years he opposed legislation that established a 200-mile (320 km) Exclusive Economic Zone for marine resources. He was one of only 19 senators to vote against Senate approval for the expanded zone in 1976,[126] saying it would undermine the U.S. position in Law of the Sea negotiations and that nations arbitrarily extending their fishing rights limits would "produce anarchy of the seas".[126] The legislation was passed, and the United States has signed but never ratified the Law of the Sea treaty.

Gravel accumulated a complicated record on Indian affairs during his time in the Senate. During his first year in the Senate Gravel urged abolition of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, criticizing the agency for the pace of development of schools in Alaska, its paternalistic attitudes and the culturally inappropriate nature of its education, and advocating greater shared decision-making between the federal government and native communities in Alaska.[51][127] Later, his views changed; in the early 1970s Gravel supported a demonstration project that established links between Alaskan villages and the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, for medical diagnostic communications. In 1971, he fended off accusations from Alaskan natives that he was not spending enough time working on their land claims.[48] Gravel helped secure a private grant to facilitate the first Inuit Circumpolar Conference in 1977,[128] attended by Inuit representatives from Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. These conferences now also include representatives from Russia. In 1977, Gravel helped lead an effort to have the U.S. Interior Department rename Mount McKinley to Denali;[129] this eventually led to Denali National Park being so named. Subsequently, Gravel proposed a never-built "Denali City" development above the Tokositna River near the mountain, to consist of a giant Teflon dome enclosing hotels, golf courses, condominiums, and commercial buildings.[130]

A key, emotional issue in the state at the time was "locking up Alaska", making reference to allocation of its vast, mostly uninhabited land.[131] In 1978 Gravel blocked passage, via procedural delays[131] such as walking out of House–Senate conference committee meetings,[132] of a complex bill which represented a compromise on land use policy. The bill would have put some of Alaska's vast federal land holdings under state control while preserving other portions for federal parks and refuges;[19] the action would earn Gravel the enmity of fellow Alaska Senator Ted Stevens.[19] In 1980, a new lands bill came up for consideration, that was less favorable to Alaskan interests and more liked by environmentalists; it set aside 127,000,000 acres (510,000 km²) of Alaska's 375,000,000 acres (1,520,000 km²) for national parks, conservation areas, and other restricted federal uses.[133] Gravel blocked it, as not ensuring enough future development in the state.[133] A new compromise version of the bill came forward, which reduced the land set aside to 104,000,000 acres (420,000 km²).[131] Representing Alaskan interests, Gravel tried to stop the bill, including by filibuster.[19] But the Senate voted for cloture and passed the bill.[133][134] Frustrated, Gravel said, "the legislation denies Alaska its rights as a state, and denies the U.S. crucial strategic resources,"[133] and opined that the Senate was "a little bit like a tank of barracudas".[131]

In 1978 Gravel authored and secured the passage into law of the General Stock Ownership Corporation, that became Subchapter U of the Tax Code under the Internal Revenue Code of 1954.[135][136] While that was originally done as a prerequisite to a failed 1980 Alaskan ballot initiative that would have paid dividends to Alaskan citizens for pipeline-related revenue,[136] it also turned out to be significant in the development of binary economics.[135]

In 1980 Gravel was challenged for the Democratic Party's nomination by State Representative Clark Gruening, the grandson of the man Gravel had defeated in a primary 12 years earlier. One of Gruening's supporters was Gravel's former backer Gottstein.[38] Several factors made Gravel vulnerable. As an insurgent candidate in 1968 Gravel had never established a firm party base.[49] Not liking to hunt or fish, he was also always culturally suspect in the state.[137][138] A group of Democrats, including future governor Steve Cowper,[139] led the campaign against Gravel, with Gravel's actions in respect to the 1978 and 1980 Alaskan lands bills a major issue,[19][134] especially given that the latter's dénouement happened but a week before the primary.[131] The sources of Gravel's campaign funds, some of which came from political action committees outside the state, also became an issue in the contest.[134] Another factor may have been Alaska's blanket primary system of the time,[140] which allowed unlimited voting across party lines and from its many independents;[139] Republicans believed Gruening would be an easier candidate to defeat in the general election.[134]

Gruening won the bitterly fought[134] primary with about 55 percent of the vote to Gravel's 44 percent.[134] Gravel later conceded that by the time of his defeat, he had alienated "almost every constituency in Alaska".[19]

Gruening lost the general election to Republican Frank Murkowski. Gravel was the last Democrat to represent Alaska in Congress for 28 years, until Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich defeated Stevens, by then an aged, iconic figure who had just been convicted of seven felonies for taking unreported gifts, in a very close and protracted election result in mid-November 2008.[141] Stevens's conviction was subsequently vacated due to prosecutorial misconduct.[142]

Mike and Whitney Gravel with their dog Ginger

In 1989 Gravel reentered politics.[19] He founded and led The Democracy Foundation, which promotes direct democracy.[150] He established the Philadelphia II corporation, which seeks to replicate the original 1787 Constitutional Convention in bringing direct democracy about.[151]

Gravel led an effort to get a United States Constitutional amendment to allow voter-initiated federal legislation similar to state ballot initiatives.[19][152] He argued that Americans are able to legislate responsibly, and that the Act and Amendment in the National Initiative would allow American citizens to become "law makers".

In 2001, Gravel became director of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, where he admired institute co-founder Gregory Fossedal's work on direct democracy in Switzerland.[151] By 2004, Gravel had become chair of the institute,[153] and Fossedal (who in turn was a director of the Democracy Foundation) gave the introduction at Gravel's presidential announcement.[154]

In 2003 Gravel gave a speech on direct democracy at a conference hosted by the American Free Press. The event was cosponsored by the Barnes Review,[19] a journal that endorses Holocaust denial.[155] After some controversy over his appearance, Gravel apologized, saying he did not realize the group's ties. Gravel has said repeatedly that he does not share the group's views on the Holocaust,[156] stating, "You better believe I know that six million Jews were killed. I've been to the Holocaust Museum. I've seen the footage of General Eisenhower touring one of the camps. They're [referring to the Barnes Review and publisher Willis Carto] nutty as loons if they don't think it happened".[157] The group invited Gravel to speak again, but he declined.[156]

Mike and Whitney Gravel lived in Arlington County, Virginia, until 2010 and now reside in Burlingame, California.[158] They have the two grown children from his first marriage, Martin Gravel and Lynne Gravel Mosier, and four grandchildren.[159] Whitney Gravel's income has sustained the couple since 1998.[6] In the 2000s, Gravel suffered poor health, requiring three surgeries in 2003 for back pain and neuropathy.[19] Due to unreimbursed medical expenses and debts from his political causes, he declared personal bankruptcy in 2004.[6][19] He began taking a salary from the non-profit organizations for which he was working; much of that income was lent to his presidential campaign. In 2007, he declared that he had "zero net worth".[19]

Mike Gravel at the launch of his presidential campaign in April 2006

At the start of 2006 Gravel decided the best way he could promote direct democracy and the National Initiative was to run for president.[19] On April 17, 2006,[160] Gravel became the first candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2008 election, announcing his run in a speech to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Short on campaign cash, he took public transportation to get to his announcement.[161] (Gravel called for public financing of elections.[162]) Other principal Gravel positions were the FairTax, withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq within 120 days, a single payer national health care system, and term limits.

Gravel had opposed the Iraq War from the beginning,[163][164] and in 2006 said that U.S. troops in Iraq, as in Vietnam, had "died in vain".[163][165] He also favored a regional peace initiative, as well as reparation payments for Iraqis.[163][164] Gravel also called for a "U.S. corporate withdrawal from Iraq", with reconstruction contracts held by U.S. companies to be turned over to Iraqi firms.[163][164]

Gravel campaigned almost full-time in New Hampshire, the first primary state, following his announcement. Opinion polls of contenders for the Democratic nomination showed Gravel with 1 percent or less support. By the end of March 2007, Gravel's campaign had less than $500 in cash on hand against debts of nearly $90,000.[166]

Gravel (far left) at an August 2007 candidates' forum; frontrunners Edwards, Clinton, and Obama are to the immediate right of the moderator

Because of his time in the Senate, Gravel was invited to many of the early Democratic presidential debates. During the initial one at South Carolina State University on April 26, 2007, he suggested a bill requiring the president to withdraw from Iraq on pain of criminal penalties. He also advocated positions such as opposing preemptive nuclear war. He stated that the Iraq War had the effect of creating more terrorists and that the "war was lost the day that George Bush invaded Iraq on a fraudulent basis".[167] Regarding his fellow candidates, he said, "I got to tell you, after standing up with them, some of these people frighten me – they frighten me."[167] Media stories said that Gravel was responsible for much of whatever "heat" and "flashpoints" had taken place.[167][168][169] Gravel gained considerable publicity by shaking up the normally staid multiple-candidate format; The New York Times' media critic said that what Gravel had done was "steal a debate with outrageous, curmudgeonly statements".[170] The Internet was a benefit: a YouTube video of his responses in the debate was viewed more than 225,892 times, ranking seventeenth in most views for week and first among news and politics clips;[nb 4] his name became the fifteenth most searched-for in the blogosphere;[171] and his website garnered more traffic than those of frontrunners Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, or John Edwards.[19] Gravel appeared on the popular Colbert Report on television on May 2,[19] and his campaign and career were profiled in national publications such as Salon.[19] Two wordless, Warholesque campaign videos, "Rock" and "Fire", were released on YouTube in late May and became hits,[172] and eventually gained over 760,000 and 185,000 views respectively.[173][174] "Rock", in turn, was given airtime during an episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Some thirty-five years after he first achieved the national spotlight, he had found it again.

Gravel's fundraising efforts for the first three quarters of 2007

All this did not improve his performance in the polls; a May 2007 CNN poll showed him with less than 0.5 percent support among Democrats.[175] Gravel was in the next several debates, in one case after CNN reversed a decision to exclude him.[176] Like some of the other second-tier candidates, Gravel did not get as much time as the leaders; during the June 2, 2007, New Hampshire debate, which lasted two hours, he was asked 10 questions and allowed to speak for five minutes and 37 seconds.[177]

During the July 23, 2007, CNN-YouTube presidential debate, Gravel responded to audience applause when he had complained of a lack of airtime and said: "Thank you. Has it been fair thus far?"[178] Detractors began to liken him to "the cranky uncle who lives in the attic,"[179] or "the angry old guy that just seemed to want to become angrier".[180] Berkeley political scientist David Terr found that moderator George Stephanopoulos directed roughly five percent of his questions to Gravel;[181] in a poll asking who did the best in the debate, Gravel placed seventh among the eight candidates.[182] National opinion polls of contenders for the Democratic nomination continued to show Gravel with one percent or zero percent numbers. By the end of the third-quarter 2007, Gravel had about $17,500 in cash on hand, had collected a total of about $380,000 during the 2008 election cycle,[183] and was continuing to run a threadbare campaign with minimal staff.[6]

Gravel in Manchester, New Hampshire on January 6, 2008, two days before the state's Democratic primary

Beginning with the October 30, 2007, Philadelphia event, Gravel was excluded from most of the debates, with the debate sponsors or the Democratic National Committee saying Gravel's campaign had not met fund-raising, polling, or local campaign organizational thresholds.[184][185][186] For the Philadelphia exclusion, Gravel blamed corporate censorship on the part of sponsor owner and alleged military-industrial complex member General Electric for his exclusion[187][188] and mounted a counter-gathering and debate against a video screen a short distance away,[189] but he had lost his easiest publicity. In reaction, supporters organized "mass donation days" to try to help the campaign gain momentum and funds, such as on December 5, 2007, the anniversary of the Repeal of Prohibition.[190]

Gravel did not compete in the initial 2008 vote, the Iowa caucuses,[191] but was still subjected to a false report from MSNBC that he had pulled out of the race afterward.[192] Gravel did focus his attention on the second 2008 vote, the New Hampshire primary. There he received about 400 votes out of some 280,000 cast, or 0.14 percent,[193] before taking time off to improve his health.[194] He resumed campaigning, but fared no better in subsequent states. By the end of January 2008, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Gravel were the only remaining Democrats from the initial debates still running;[195] Gravel vowed to stay in the presidential campaign until November.[196][197] On March 11, 2008, Gravel continued to remain in the Democratic race but additionally endorsed a Green Party candidate for president, Jesse Johnson,[198] saying he wanted to help Johnson prevail against Green Party rivals Cynthia McKinney and Ralph Nader.[199] By late March, Gravel had almost no fundraising and was only on the ballot in one of the next ten Democratic primaries.[200]

Gravel (second from left) participating in a candidates debate at the 2008 Libertarian Party National Convention (eventual winner Barr is left of him)

On March 25, 2008, Gravel announced that he would leave the Democrats and join the Libertarian Party,[201][202] saying: "My libertarian views, as well as my strong stance against war, the military industrial complex and American imperialism, seem not to be tolerated by Democratic Party elites who are out of touch with the average American; elites that reject the empowerment of American citizens I offered to the Democratic Party at the beginning of this presidential campaign with the National Initiative for Democracy."[201] The following day Gravel entered the race for the 2008 Libertarian presidential nomination,[203] saying that he would have run as a third-party candidate all along except that he needed the public exposure that came from being in the earlier Democratic debates.[203] Gravel's initial notion of running as a fusion candidate with other parties was met with skepticism[204] and not pursued.

As a Libertarian candidate, Gravel faced resistance to his liberal past and unorthodox positions;[205] nevertheless, he garnered more support than he had as a Democrat, placing second and third in two April 2008 straw polls.[206] In the May 25 balloting at the 2008 Libertarian National Convention in Denver, Gravel finished fourth out of eight candidates on the initial ballot, with 71 votes out of a total 618; he trailed former Congressman and eventual winner Bob Barr, author Mary Ruwart, and businessman Wayne Allyn Root.[207] Gravel's position did not subsequently improve and he was eliminated on the fourth ballot.[207] Afterwards he stated that "I just ended my political career," but he vowed to continue promoting his positions as a writer and lecturer.[208]

On drug policy, Gravel said in 2007 that he favors decriminalization and treating addiction as a public health matter.[162][258][259] During his 2008 presidential candidacy he condemned the War on Drugs as a failure, saying that it did "nothing but savage our inner cities and put our children at risk".[259] Gravel called for abolition of capital punishment in his book Citizen Power, and adhered to this position during his 2008 run for president.[163] He supports abortion rights.[163][164][165]

During the 2008 campaign Gravel was a strong supporter of LGBT rights. He supported same-sex marriage and opposed the Defense of Marriage Act and the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.[163][164] He wrote in 2008 that "depriving gays and lesbians of equal rights is immoral".[163]

Gravel is a critic of American imperialism.[162]

Gravel firmly opposes U.S. military action against Iran and Syria.[164] He voiced opposition to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, the Military Commissions Act of 2006, the use of torture, indefinite detention, and what he called "flagrant ignorance" of the Geneva Convention.[164] In 2014 Gravel called for the release of the full, unredacted Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture.[260]

Gravel opposes the use of international sanctions as a policy tool and blamed the ones against Iraq under Saddam Hussein for the deaths of a half-million children in that country.[163] In 2013 Gravel said that sanctions against Iran were "illegal".[261]

During his 2008 candidacy, Gravel called for a cut in military spending, variously reported to be 15 percent[163] or 50 percent.[165] He called for the savings to boost public education spending.[163] To spur international nuclear nonproliferation efforts, Gravel called for unilateral reductions in the U.S. nuclear arsenal.[162]

In 2008 Gravel criticized the decision of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to not pursue the efforts to impeach George W. Bush and the attempted impeachment of Dick Cheney, saying also that Bush and Cheney had committed crimes and deserved "to be prosecuted" at The Hague.[262] In 2013 he expressed disdain for President Obama, calling him "a total fraud" and saying that both Bush and Obama should be tried "for the crimes and murders they've committed" in the International Court of Justice.[263] Gravel specifically condemned Obama for the drone strikes in Pakistan and elsewhere.[263]

During his 2008 candidacy Gravel favored a FairTax scheme, which would abolish the Internal Revenue Service, eliminate the federal income tax (which Gravel called "corrupt"),[162] and impose a national sales tax.[164][264][265] While Gravel described FairTax as "progressive",[266] others have criticized it as "regressive", disproportionately benefiting the wealthiest Americans.[267][268][269] To offset the new sales taxes on essential goods, Gravel's plan called for monthly government rebate payments to individuals and families.[164][264] During his 2020 campaign Gravel also voiced support for a third legislative body that would give the people direct control of the budget as well as the implementation of a land value tax.[270]

Gravel opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) during his 2008 candidacy, calling it unfair and economically harmful and needing renegotiation.[163][164] Gravel believed that NAFTA was the "root cause" of illegal migration to the U.S.[164] He favored a guest worker program and "setting up naturalization procedures that would fairly bring immigrants into legal status".[164] In a 2007 interview, Gravel identified himself as "very much of a globalist" who believed in open markets and open borders and condemned the scapegoating of undocumented immigrants.[271] Gravel also said that he favored eliminating the cap on H1B visas.[271]

As a senator from Alaska, Gravel favored drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but opposed it during his 2008 campaign.[163] In 2008, Gravel supported a carbon tax to combat climate change.[163]

Gravel spoke in favor of net neutrality during his presidential campaign.[271]

Gravel called for the cost of college tuition to be borne by the federal government, rather than students.[163] In his 2008 campaign, he called the No Child Left Behind Act "a failure"[162] and called for it to be "reformed and fully funded".[164] He expressed support for universal pre-kindergarten and the expansion of the Head Start program; and expressed an openness to charter schools[164] and school vouchers. He also suggested extending the school day and the school year, and supported merit pay for teachers.[272]

Gravel also called for publicly funded universal health care to replace the current employer-sponsored health insurance system.[163][164] He supported "full funding" of the VA system.[164] When asked in 2007 about naturopathy, homeopathy, and acupuncture, Gravel said that he was "totally" in favor and was "very very much in favor" of holistic health care.[162]