Judd Alan Gregg (born February 14, 1947) is an American politician, businessman and attorney who served as the 76th governor of New Hampshire from 1989 to 1993 and a United States senator from New Hampshire from 1993 to 2011 where he was Chairman of the Health Committee and the Budget Committee. He also served in the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 1989 and the New Hampshire Executive Council from 1979 to 1981.
A member of the Republican Party, he was a businessman and attorney in Nashua before entering politics. Gregg currently serves as the Chair of the Public Advisory Board at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College.
Gregg was nominated for Secretary of Commerce in the Cabinet by President Barack Obama, but withdrew his name on February 12, 2009. He chose not to run for reelection to the Senate in 2010; former State Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, also a Republican, was elected to succeed him.
On May 27, 2011, Goldman Sachs announced that Gregg had been named an international advisor to the firm. In May 2013, Gregg was named the CEO of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, a Wall Street lobbying group. He later stepped down as CEO in December 2013 and became a senior adviser.
Born in Nashua, New Hampshire, he is the son of Catherine Gregg (née Warner) and Hugh Gregg, who was Governor from 1953 to 1955. Gregg graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1965. Gregg received his baccalaureate from Columbia University in 1969 and, from Boston University School of Law, a Juris Doctor in 1972 and a Master of Laws in 1975. In 1969, during the Vietnam War, Gregg received a 1-Y draft deferment due to having bad knees.
The first elective office held by Gregg was a seat on the Executive Council of New Hampshire, a post which he held from 1979 to 1981. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1980, and was reelected in 1982, 1984 and 1986.
He declined to run for re-election in 1988, and ran for Governor of New Hampshire instead. He won that election and was re-elected in 1990, New Hampshire being one of two states (Vermont is the other) that continues to elect its governors to two-year, rather than four-year, terms. As Governor, he balanced the budget, leaving the office in 1993 with a $21 million surplus. However, his political opponents in the 1990s attacked Judd for the state's weak economy and his Vietnam War deferments.
In 1992, Gregg decided to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by two-term Republican Warren Rudman. He defeated Democrat John Rauh, and took his seat as a United States Senator in 1993. He was re-elected to a second term in 1998 after defeating George Condodemetraky. He ran for a third term in 2004 and defeated campaign finance activist Doris "Granny D" Haddock, the then 94-year-old Democratic nominee, by 66% to 34%.
After withdrawing from his nomination to become United States Secretary of Commerce in the presidential administration of Democrat Barack Obama on February 12, 2009, Gregg said he would "probably not" seek reelection in 2010, when his term of office was set to expire.
In January 2005, Gregg was elected to chair the U.S. Senate Committee on Budget by the Senate Republican Conference, and steadfastly supported lower spending.
On November 14, 2008, Gregg was appointed by United States Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to serve on the five-member Congressional Oversight Panel created to oversee the implementation of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act. Gregg "stepped aside" on December 1, citing his Senate workload:
I regret that due to the impending Senate schedule involving the potential of dealing with an extremely large stimulus package, coupled with the ongoing issues of developing fiscal policy relative to the budget and the continuing economic downturn and my responsibility for foreign operations appropriations, it has become difficult to continue service on the TARP oversight board. I have advised Senator McConnell I will need to step aside from this effort.
A 1998 CBS News profile on Gregg wrote that he "appears moderate as newer, more conservative Senators are elected." The non-partisan National Journal gave then-Senator Gregg a composite ideology rating of 65% conservative and 35% liberal.
Republicans for Environmental Protection issued Gregg an "environmental harm demerit" for sponsoring the 2006 S.C. Resolution 83, which according to REP "included only one revenue-raising instruction to Senate appropriations committees, an abuse of the congressional budget process in order to force oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge", and "would perpetuate America's dangerous oil dependence and damage the most scenic, wildlife-rich reserve in the circumpolar north." Nonetheless, the same organization praised Gregg, together with John E. Sununu, for their work to pass the New England Wilderness act, which classified nearly 100,000 acres (400 km2) of New Hampshire and Vermont as wilderness. In 2006, Gregg received a score of 43% from the nonpartisan League of Conservation Voters.
The University of New Hampshire renamed its Environmental Technology Building Gregg Hall, because Gregg used earmarks to secure $266 million of federal funds for research and development projects for the university. The Judd Gregg Meteorology Institute (JGMI), established in 2003, is the center of meteorological and atmospheric research at Plymouth State University in Plymouth, NH, which offers the only meteorology degree program in the state. The Senator was also instrumental in the establishing of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College in 1999.
In 2007, Gregg voted for the Clean Energy Act of 2007 (H.R. 6) and the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 (S. 1639).
In October 2009, Gregg said, "You talk about systemic risk. The systemic risk today is the Congress of the United States ... we're creating these massive debts which we're passing on to our children ... (the figures) mean we're basically on the path to a banana republic-type of financial situation in this country. "
Gregg has a moderate record on social issues. In June 2006, he joined six of his fellow Republicans in voting against the Federal Marriage Amendment. In April 2007, he was among the breakaway Republicans to support the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act. However, his record on the issue of abortion is otherwise a solidly anti-abortion one. Gregg has voted for some gun control measures and against others. He voted against the Brady Bill, but in recent years has voted for trigger control locks on firearms and in favor of the ban on assault weapons.