Walter B. Jones

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For other persons named Walter Jones, see Walter Jones (disambiguation).

Walter Jones, Jr.

United States Representative from North Carolina's 3rd district
In office 1995-present
Preceded by	Martin Lancaster
Succeeded by	Incumbent

Born	February 10, 1943 Farmville, North Carolina
Political party	Republican
Spouse	JoAnne Jones
Religion	Roman Catholic

Walter Beaman Jones, Jr. (born February 10, 1943) is an American politician; a Republican, he currently represents North Carolina's 3rd Congressional District (see map) in the United States House of Representatives.

Born in Farmville, North Carolina his father was Walter B. Jones, Sr., a Democratic Party congressman from the neighboring 1st District. The son has long called himself simply "Walter Jones," but the "Jr." still appears in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

1 Background
2 Political career
- 2.1 Iraq war
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Background

Jones, Jr. attended Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Virginia and graduated in 1966 with a Bachelor of Arts from Atlantic Christian College (now Barton College) in Wilson, North Carolina before serving four years (1967–1971) in the North Carolina National Guard.

Jones is a convert to Catholicism. Raleigh News Observer story (archive link, was dead; history)

[edit] Political career

An executive with his family's business supply company, Jones was elected as a Democrat to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1983 and served for five terms, until 1992. Shortly after his father died, he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Congressional nomination for his father's seat in the 103rd United States Congress of 1992 (losing to Eva Clayton).

He switched parties and won in the 3rd district in the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress, defeating incumbent Democrat Martin Lancaster. Jones has been re-elected every two years since. He has never faced a serious or well-funded opponent. This is probably because the 3rd District includes a large portion of territory represented by his father (including Farmville).

His successful campaign for a sixth consecutive term in the 2004 Congressional elections earned him 71% of the popular vote against Democrat Roger Eaton. Jones serves on the Armed Services, Financial Services, and Resources Committees.

He is best known for leading the effort, along with GOP Rep. Bob Ney to have French fries renamed "freedom fries" in House cafeteria menus as a protest against French opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. [1] Jones later modified his stance on the war to some considerable extent (in 2005, he claimed that there had been little reason to go to war, despite his vehement support just two years previous), and said of his previous position on the fries, "I wish it had never happened." [2]. In July 2006, the names were quietly changed back. [3]

According to the non-partisan National Journal, which ranks all members of Congress on the liberal-conservative spectrum, Jones sits almost exactly in the ideological center of the U.S. House of Representatives.

[edit] Iraq war

Jones was initially a strong supporter of the conflict in Iraq. More recently, however, Jones called on President George W. Bush to apologize for misinforming Congress to win authorization for the war. Jones said, "If I had known then what I know today, I wouldn't have voted for that resolution." [4]

He contends that the United States went to war "with no justification". [5], [6]

On the subject, he said, "I just feel that the reason of going in for weapons of mass destruction, the ability of the Iraqis to make a nuclear weapon, that's all been proven that it was never there." He added that his change of opinion came about from attending the funeral of a sergeant killed in Iraq, when his last letter to his family was being read out. On June 16, 2005, he joined with three other Congressmembers (Neil Abercrombie, Dennis Kucinich, and Ron Paul) in introducing a resolution calling for the start of a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq to begin by October 2006. [7]

On March 17, 2005, he sponsored a bill endorsing the conduct of controversial Marine Corps Lieutenant Ilario Pantano, who faced charges (subsequently dropped) for having shot two Iraqis (allegedly unarmed civilians) on April 15, 2004.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

Official website
This article incorporates facts obtained from the public domain Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. [8]

[edit] External links

Information from Project Vote Smart
- North Carolina National Guard (1967-71)
Voting record maintained by the Washington Post
Politics website BlueNC's coverage of Walter Jones

Preceded by Martin Lancaster	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from North Carolina's 3rd congressional district 1995 – present	Incumbent