Joseph R. Pitts

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Joe Pitts

United States Representative from Pennsylvania's 16th district
In office 1997 - present
Preceded by	Robert Walker
Succeeded by	Incumbent

Born	October 10, 1939 Lexington, Kentucky
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Virginia Pitts
Religion	Evangelist

Joseph R. "Joe" Pitts (b. October 10, 1939) is a Republican politician for the state of Pennsylvania, currently representing Pennsylvania's 16th Congressional district (map) in the U.S. House since 1997.

Pitts was born in Lexington, Kentucky and he graduated from Asbury College. Pitts served five and a half years in the United States Air Force, with three tours in Vietnam. Initially commissioned as a Second Lieutenant, he was promoted to Captain by the time he left the service. He graduated second in his class from Navigator School, after which he was trained as an Electronic Warfare officer. As an EW officer, he served on B-52s out of Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts, with payloads of nuclear bombs. In all, he completed 116 combat missions in the Vietnam War and earned an Air Medal with five oak leaf clusters.

He worked as a teacher for a short time. Pitts was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1972. Pitts was elected to the House of Representatives in 1996. Pitts has a conservative voting record. He visited Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban and Pakistan in 2002. A federal judge's order that a plaque containing Ten Commandments should be removed from the Chester County courthouse angered Pitts.

He also supports the Internet Gambling Enforcement provision (as an after-midnight amendment to the unrelated Safe Port Act) that would make private, consumer transactions from banking institutions to online gambling sites illegal.

In recent years, he has taken a leading role in advocacy for religious prisoners overseas and some obscure human rights crises, like Burma, Western Sahara, and Kashmir. Pitts has used his office to build relationships with Ambassadors from other countries in hopes of building ties between people from those nations and his constituents. This has yielded shipments of aid to developing nations.

[edit] 2006 Election

Pitts has drawn fire for abandoning his pledge to serve no more than ten years in the House.[1] Joseph Pitts' challengers in the November 7, 2006 election were Democrat Lois Herr and independent candidate John Murphy. Pitts won reelection with 57% of the vote to Herr's 39% and Murphy's 4%.

[edit] External links

Preceded by: Robert Walker	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 16th congressional district 1997 - Present	Succeeded by: Incumbent