Walter B. Jones

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Walter Jones, Jr.
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from North Carolina's 3rd district
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 3, 1995
Preceded by	Martin Lancaster
Born	February 10, 1943 (1943-02-10) (age 65) Farmville, North Carolina
Political party	Republican
Spouse	JoAnne Jones
Religion	Roman Catholic

Walter Beaman Jones, Jr. (born February 10, 1943, in Farmville, North Carolina) is an American politician; a Republican, he currently represents North Carolina's 3rd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. The district encompasses the Outer Banks and areas near the Pamlico Sound.

Jones' father was Walter B. Jones, Sr., a Democratic Party congressman from the neighboring 1st district. The younger Jones has long since dropped the "Jr." from his name, much like John Dingell of Michigan.

[edit] Background

Jones 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.^[1]

[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 nomination for his father's seat in the 103rd United States Congress of 1992 (losing to Eva Clayton in a primary runoff).

He switched parties and won in the 3rd District in the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress, defeating incumbent Democrat Martin Lancaster, becoming the first (and as of the 2006 elections, only) Republican to represent a significant portion of eastern North Carolina in the House. The 3rd had incorporated a large amount of his father's former territory. Jones has been re-elected every two years since.

His most serious re-election challenge came in 2000, when his opponent spent well in excess of $1.4 million dollars in attempting to unseat him. Jones garnered some 63% of the vote in that contest, largely helped by George W. Bush's performance in the district; the 3rd gave Bush his highest victory margin in the state. He was easily reelected to a 7th term in 2006, receiving 69% of the vote against Democrat/Marine Veteran Craig Weber.

Jones serves on the Armed Services and Financial Services Committees.

Unlike Walter, Sr., a moderate Democrat, Walter, Jr. has a fairly conservative voting record. He has a lifetime rating of 90.2 from the American Conservative Union. However, his voting record has drifted more toward the center in recent years. For the past two years, he has earned the lowest ACU rating of any Republican in the state. In 2006 he received a 79; in 2007 he received a 71.^{[2] [3]} He also serves on the Liberty Caucus (sometimes called the Liberty Committee), a group of libertarian-minded Republican congressional representatives.^[4] Congressman Ron Paul hosts a luncheon for the Liberty Caucus every Thursday. Other members include Jimmy Duncan of Tennessee, Virgil Goode of Virginia, Roscoe Bartlett of Maryland, Scott Garrett of New Jersey, Zach Wamp of Tennessee and Jeff Flake of Arizona.^[5]

Jones 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.^[6] Jones later modified his stance on the war to a considerable extent. In 2005, he stated that he had come to believe that there had been little reason to go to war, despite his earlier support, which had been based upon selective intelligence supplied to Congress. He said of his previous position on the fries, "I wish it had never happened."^[7] In July 2006, the names were quietly changed back.^[8]

Jones is also very active on issues of religious freedom.

Jones has sided with the Democrats on economic issues such as raising the minimum wage.

Jones endorsed Ron Paul in the 2008 race for president of the United States.^[9]

In 2007, Jones cosponsored legislation with fellow North Carolina congressman Heath Shuler to require airlines to have sections of the aircraft where large movie screens were not visible. This was to avoid the situation where children could watch films potentially objectionable by their parents. ^[10]

In 2007, he and Rep. William Delahunt (D-MA) introduced the Constitutional War Powers Resolution, which seeks to "prohibit the president from ordering military action without congressional approval, except when the United States or U.S. troops were attacked or when U.S citizens needed to be evacuated." ^[11]

On February 14, 2008 Rep. Jones was one of only three Republicans (along with Ron Paul and Wayne Gilchrest) to vote to hold George W. Bush confidantes Joshua Bolten and Harriet Miers in contempt of Congress for failing to testify and provide documents relevant to the firing of federal prosecutors.

[edit] Committee Assignments

• Armed Services Committee
  • Military Personnel Subcommittee
  • Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee
  • Readiness Subcommittee
• Financial Services Committee
  • Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade, and Technology
  • Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit

[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."^[12]

He contends that the United States went to war "with no justification."^[13][14] 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 members of Congress (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.^[15]

On January 12, 2007 he introduced H. J. Res. 14: Concerning the use of military force by the United States against Iran in the 110th congress.^[16] According to Jones on his web site, The resolution requires that — absent a national emergency created by an attack, or a demonstrably imminent attack, by Iran upon the United States or its armed forces — the President must consult with Congress and receive specific authorization prior to initiating any use of military force against Iran.^[17] This resolution was removed from a military spending bill for the war in Iraq by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on March 13, 2007.^[18]

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]}

On March 23, 2007, Jones was one of two Republicans to vote for a bill that would require President George W. Bush to bring combat troops home from Iraq by September 1, 2008. The other Republican was Wayne Gilchrest of Maryland's 1st congressional district.^[19]

Jones's views on the war in Iraq prevented him from succeeding the late Jo Ann Davis as ranking Republican on the Readiness Subcommittee of the Armed Forces Committee. He was passed over for Randy Forbes when the 110th Congress convened because the full committee's ranking member, Duncan Hunter of California, didn't agree with his change of heart on the war.^[20] He has been approached by some Democrats about bolting the GOP and either becoming an independent caucusing with the Democrats or switching back to the Democratic Party outright.^[21]

Additionally, Jones' changed views on the war and other issues angered many Republicans in his district. For the first time since his initial run for Congress, he faced substantive primary opposition in Onslow County commissioner Joe McLaughlin. However, on May 6, 2008, he defeated poorly funded McLaughlin by a 60% to 40% margin and was nominated for another term. Jones will face a rematch with Weber in the November election.

[edit] References

• This article incorporates facts obtained from the public domain Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. [3]

[edit] External links

• Congressman Walter Jones official U.S. House site

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• Profile at SourceWatch Congresspedia
• NNDB — Walter B. Jones