Peter G. Torkildsen

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Peter Gerard Torkildsen is a former member of the United States House of Representatives. He was a Republican from Massachusetts.

Torkildsen was born in to a Roman Catholic family with ten children in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on January 28, 1958. He attended college at the University of Massachusetts and then went on to the prestigious John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Before entering politics, he was a service coordinator for the Visiting Nurses Association of Boston.

Torkildsen served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1985 to 1991. From 1991 to 1992, Torklidsen was the state's Commissioner of Labor. He then went on to represent Massachusetts' 6th Congressional District as a Republican from 1993 until 1997.

He was narrowly defeated in the Presidential-year elections of 1996 by Democrat John F. Tierney in a state that voted overwhelmingly for Democratic President Bill Clinton in that year's Presidential election.

Tierney was part of a net two-seat Democratic gain in the House elections that year. Torkildsen challenged Tierney to a rematch in the United States House election, 1998, but Tierney won that contest as well. Torkildsen was rumored to be considering another attempt at reclaiming his seat in 2006.

Torkildsen is rumored to be a candidate for the Chairmanship of the Massachusetts Republican State Committee. The election will be held in January of 2007.

Since leaving the House, Torklidsen has returned to working in labor relations. From 2001 to 2003, he again held the position as Commissioner of Labor. Since 2004, he has been the president of the Massachusetts Workforce Investment Board.

Preceded by: Nicholas Mavroules

Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 6th congressional district 1993-1997

Succeeded by: John F. Tierney