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Undergraduate education: Harvard University

Jay Rockefeller was born in New York, N.Y., and resides in Charleston, W.Va.

He earned a bachelor's degree in Far Eastern languages and history from Harvard University in 1961. He also studied Japanese in Tokyo and Chinese at Yale University.

Before entering state government, Rockefeller was special assistant to the director of the Peace Corps. In 1964 he moved to Emmons as a VISTA anti-poverty volunteer and never left the state.

He served in the West Virginia House from 1967 to 1969 and as West Virginia secretary of state from 1969 to 1973.

He was the Democratic Party's gubernatorial nominee in 1972, but lost the election to Republican Gov. Arch A. Moore Jr.

Rockefeller then served as president of West Virginia Wesleyan College from 1973 to 1976. Rockefeller was elected governor in 1976 and took office in 1977. He was re-elected to a second four-year term and served until 1984.

Rockefeller was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1984.

Rockefeller and his wife, Sharon Percy, have four children.

Profile

Jay Rockefeller is a multimillionaire senator and great-grandson of oil baron and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller. But in recent campaigns, he has downplayed his personal wealth in one of the nation's poorest states, focusing instead on issues such as health care and commerce.

Rockefeller, who chaired the Senate Intelligence committee until 2009, has said he regrets his vote to authorize a war against Iraq in 2002.

"The decision got made before there was a whole bunch of intelligence," Rockefeller said. "I think the intelligence was shaped. And I think the interpretation of the intelligence was shaped.

He now chairs Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. As chairman, Rockefeller authored legislation to delay the nation's switch from analog to digital television broadcasting. Rockefeller said delaying the switch to June 2009 was the right thing to do because the country wasn't ready for the switch.

Rockefeller also questioned New Hampshire Republican Sen. Judd Gregg's decision to first accept, then reject President Barak Obama's appointment to be the administration's commerce secretary. Rockefeller said he wished Gregg "had thought through the implications of his nomination more thoroughly before accepting this post."

Rockefeller's entry to West Virginia was in 1964 when he moved to the town of Emmons as a VISTA anti-poverty volunteer.

"No doctor had been there in five years. Kids didn't brush their teeth. There was no running water. The school was 45 minutes away," Rockefeller said.

He meant to stay in West Virginia a year, but he didn't leave. Within two years, Rockefeller had abandoned his family's Republican politics and won election to the state Legislature as a Democrat. He also served as secretary of state and two terms as governor.

It was a continuation of his family's name in politics. His uncle, Nelson Rockefeller, was a former vice president and New York governor. Another uncle, Winthrop Rockefeller, was Arkansas governor.

Rockefeller first was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1984, spending $12 million of his own money and winning by just 30,000 votes.

After moving to Washington, he focused on his adopted state's poor, elderly and veterans. In 1992, he won a fight to protect health care benefits for retired coal miners, calling the victory the proudest moment of his career. He worked to pass a law in 1996 that prohibited companies from denying insurance coverage based on pre-existing conditions. In 2001, he secured a three-year deal to prevent cuts in miners' health benefits.

In 1997, he co-authored legislation creating the Children's Health Insurance Program, which has provided health care coverage to uninsured children.

In 1996, Rockefeller and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, sponsored an amendment to the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that helped schools and libraries connect to the Internet. He continues to push for high-speed Internet access for rural areas, saying it should become a national priority, such as the development of the railroads and interest highway systems were in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Rockefeller used his familiarity with the Far East to attract Toyota Motor Manufacturing to West Virginia. Toyota initially invested $400 million in the Putnam County factory and employed 300 people. It has since expanded several times, bringing the total investment to $1 billion and creating 1,000 jobs.

Rockefeller has led several trade missions, introducing West Virginia businesses to Japan and Taiwan and attempting to open markets for West Virginia products.

Rockefeller helped bring Wheeling-Nisshin Steel to the northern panhandle, NGK Sparkplugs to Pocatalico, Sino Swearingen Aircraft to Martinsburg, Tiger Aircraft to the eastern panhandle, KS of West Virginia to Jackson County and Okuno to Wayne County.Committee Assignments: Commerce, Science, and Transportation (chairman); Finance; Select Intelligence; Veterans' Affairs; Joint Taxation 2008 American Conservative Union Rating: 0 points out of 1002008 Americans for Democratic Action Rating: 85 points out of 100

Campaigns

Jay Rockefeller was elected to the Senate in 1984, narrowly defeating another wealthy businessman, Republican John Raese.

He was re-elected in 1990, defeating Republican John Yoder with 68 percent of the vote and in 1996 with 77 percent of the vote over Republican Betty Burks. Rockefeller defeated Republican Jay Wolfe in 2002 with 63 percent of the vote.

In 2008, Rockefeller won his fifth six-year term. He defeated Wolfe once more with 64 percent of the vote.

Rockefeller came to West Virginia as a 27-year-old VISTA volunteer in 1964, and by 1966 he had entered state politics, being elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates.

In 1968, he was elected the state's Secretary of State.

In 1976, he was elected to the first of two terms as governor.

(Last updated by Brian Farkas on April 6, 2009.)