John Yarmuth

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John Yarmuth

Representative-elect from Kentucky's 3rd district
Term of office: term begins 2007
Political party:	Democratic
Succeeding:	Anne Northup
Religion:	Jewish
Born:	November 4, 1947 Louisville, Kentucky
Spouse:	Catherine Yarmuth

John Yarmuth (born November 4, 1947) is an American politician and former independent newspaper publisher. A Louisville native who graduated from Atherton High School in 1965, he graduated from Yale University, majoring in American Studies. After working for U.S. Senator Marlow Cook from 1971 to 1975, he returned to Louisville to begin his publishing career when he founded the Louisville Today magazine (1976 - 1982). He later worked as a vice-president of University Relations at the University of Louisville. He is the Congressman-Elect from Kentucky's 3rd District.

Yarmuth is best known for founding the popular weekly paper, Louisville Eccentric Observer (LEO), in 1990 and for writing a progressive-oriented weekly political column for the paper.

Yarmuth is also known as a television debate participant. In 2003, he and former WHAS-AM radio talk show host John Ziegler debated political issues on the weekly WAVE program Yarmuth & Ziegler, with Yarmuth taking the liberal side and Ziegler, the conservative side. On a successor program, Hot Button, which ran from September 2004 to December 2005, he faced off with conservative Jim Milliman.

Yarmuth sold the LEO in 2003 to a company owned by Times Publishing Company of Pennsylvania, owner of the Erie Times-News, though Yarmuth remained onboard as a columnist and consultant until January 2006, when he declared his running for Kentucky's Third District Congressional district race as a Democrat. His column was put on hold until the campaign was over.

[edit] 2006 Congressional Campaign

Yarmuth filed candidacy papers on 31 January 2006. Having won the Democratic primary on May 16, 2006, defeating Andrew Horne and two other opponents, he defeated incumbent Anne Northup (R) in November 2006 for Kentucky's 3rd congressional district.

In June 2006 a college student who had volunteered for the Yarmuth campaign went to Northup's campaign headquarters with a fake name to become a volunteer. The intern was found to be a Yarmuth volunteer when a Northup campaign member thought he looked familiar and found his picture on a website for Yarmuth supporters. The Yarmuth campaign denied any knowledge of his actions, and he was no longer allowed to volunteer for them after his prank was discovered. ^[1]^[2]

On August 7, 2006, The Courier-Journal reported that The Hill revealed a week before that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had earmarked $51.5 million for television advertising in 32 congressional districts across the nation, but none for Yarmuth's challenge in the Third Congressional District. ^[3]

On October 20, a Courier Journal article stated that a WHAS11/SurveyUSA poll revealed the race had tightened dramatically, with Yarmuth leading Northup 48 to 47 percent. Another poll a month earlier had Northup leading by 6 points. ^[4]. A WHAS11/SurveyUSA poll released on November 2nd showed Yarmuth leading Northup 52 to 44 percent. ^[5]

Yarmuth defeated Northup in the general election. He garnered 122,139 votes (51%) to Northup's 116,157 votes (48%). Independent candidates garnered 2,896 votes (1%). As a result, Yarmuth was declared the winner in the 3rd district of Kentucky. Northup conceded the race, praising her opponent for his campaign.