| Jim McGovern | |
|---|---|
| McGovern in 2009 | |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 3rd district |
|
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 3, 1997 |
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| Preceded by | Peter Blute |
| Personal details | |
| Born | November 20, 1959 Worcester, Massachusetts |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Lisa McGovern |
| Residence | Worcester, Massachusetts |
| Alma mater | American University |
| Occupation | United States Representative |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
James Patrick "Jim" McGovern (born November 20, 1959) is the U.S. Representative for Massachusetts's 3rd congressional district, serving since 1997. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
Born and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, McGovern attended Worcester Academy and received a master's degree from American University in Washington, D.C.. While in college he worked as a congressional aide to Senator George McGovern, a two-time presidential candidate he campaigned for. From 1981 to 1996 he was a senior staff member for Representative Joe Moakley.
McGovern first ran for Congress in 1994, where he lost in the Democratic primary. He ran again in 1996, defeating Republican incumbent Peter Blute. He has since been re-elected six times, four of which he was unopposed. A focus of his career has been international human rights, which he has advocated for in countries such as El Salvador, Sudan, and Colombia. He is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus[1] and has been ranked as one of the most liberal members of Congress.[2]
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James Patrick McGovern[3] was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on November 20, 1959. He grew up in Worcester, where his mother Mindy was a dance instructor and his father Walter owned a liquor store.[4][5] In junior high school, he first became involved in politics by campaigning for Democratic U.S. Senator George McGovern (to whom he is not related) in his unsuccessful 1972 presidential bid. After graduating from Worcester Academy he moved to Washington, D.C., where from 1977 to 1980, he worked as an aide to George McGovern. He attended American University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in history in 1981 and a Masters of Public Administration in 1984. When George McGovern ran for president again in 1984, Jim McGovern was the state coordinator of his Massachusetts campaign branch, and he made his nominating speech at the 1984 Democratic National Convention.[5]
In 1981 McGovern joined the Capitol Hill staff of Joe Moakley, a Democratic U.S. Representative from Massachusetts.[5] He was appointed by Moakley in 1990 to lead a House task force investigating the 1989 murder of six Jesuit priests and two women in El Salvador by the Salvadoran Army. He later advocated cutting off U.S. funding for the U.S. Army School of the Americas, where several of the military members had been trained.[5]
McGovern first ran for Congress in 1994, running in a crowded Democratic primary to represent Massachusetts's 3rd congressional district.[5] The district, located in central and southeastern Massachusetts, includes the city of Worcester and parts of Bristol, Middlesex, Norfolk, and Worcester counties.[6] During the campaign McGovern asserted that his record as "a Washington insider" would make him a more effective representative. Despite endorsements from George McGovern, Joe Moakley, and presidential aide George Stephanopoulos, McGovern lost in the primary to Massachusetts State Representative Kevin O'Sullivan.[5][7] In 1995, he served as an alternate member of the Interagency Council on Women.
McGovern left Moakley's office in 1996 and moved back to Worcester, again running for Congress. Unopposed in the Democratic primary, he ran against Republican incumbent Peter Blute in the general election. His campaign slogan focused on unseating House Speaker Newt Gingrich: "To dump Newt you have to dump Blute."[8] Blute was endorsed by The Boston Globe and five other local papers, but McGovern won the election with 53 percent of the vote.[4][9] He has never faced another contest nearly that close, and has been reelected seven times. He even ran unopposed in 2000 and 2002; he was re-elected both times with 98.8 percent of the vote.[9]
In 2004 he was opposed by Republican Ronald A. Crews, an evangelical pastor, former Georgia state legislator, and president of the Massachusetts Family Institute. Crews, a national conservative activist, challenged McGovern's positions on same-sex marriage and abortion. McGovern derided his opponent's focus on social issues, saying, "When Ron Crews gets up in the morning, the first thing he thinks about is gay marriage. ... I don't think that is the most important issue for most families. Jobs, health care, education, how to make the world a more peaceful place, those are the issues people care about."[10] McGovern defeated Crews with 71 percent of the vote, and ran unopposed in 2006 and 2008.[9] In the 2010 elections he faced Republican Marty Lamb, a real estate lawyer, and independent Patrick J. Barron, a Department of Mental Health administrator.[11][12] He was re-elected with 57 percent of the vote.[13]
McGovern is currently a Democratic whip for the New England region
For his first three terms, McGovern served on the House Transportation Committee. He and Rep. John Olver (D-MA), who served on the House Appropriations Committee, would coordinate to bring extensive transportation funding to their respective districts. When criticized for his heavy use of earmarks, McGovern was quoted in response saying, "It's not pork. It's nourishment."[14]
McGovern has supported economic stimulus efforts during the late-2000s recession, including the Economic Stimulus Act in February 2008[15] and the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (which established the Troubled Asset Relief Program) in October 2008.[16] He supported the Obama administration's 2009 stimulus package.[17] Responding to Republican criticism of Democratic budgetary priorities, he chided the GOP for running up the national debt under George W. Bush, saying: "It is somewhat ironic that the very people who drove this economy into a ditch are now complaining about the size of the tow truck."[18] He voted to instate the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act in February 2010.[19]
The Higher Education Act of 1998 included an amendment by McGovern which doubled Pell Grant funding for two years for students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their class.[20]
As co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus, McGovern is an advocate for expanding child nutrition programs both domestically and internationally.[21] In 2007 McGovern sought and obtained $840 million in required funding for the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program in the House version of the farm bill.[22] The House–Senate conference committee stripped most of the funding from the final bill.[23]
McGovern has voted against major efforts to restrict illegal immigration, including the REAL ID Act of 2005,[24] the Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005,[25] and the Secure Fence Act of 2006.[26]
On November 15, 2011 McGovern introduced the People's Rights Amendment H.J.Res. 88, a proposal to limit the Constitution's protections to the rights of natural persons, and not corporations. [27]
McGovern has vocally opposed the Iraq War since its inception.[5] He voted against the initial authorization of military force against Iraq in October 2002.[28] In May 2007, McGovern introduced H.R. 2237, to "provide for the redeployment of United States Armed Forces and defense contractors from Iraq." The bill failed with a vote of 255 to 171.
He initially supported the War in Afghanistan, but has become increasingly skeptical of the war. In June 2010 he pushed a funding amendment which would require President Barack Obama to provide for a draw-down plan before any further funding would be authorized. "Let us not waste, you know, more resources, more lives, on a policy that quite frankly is going to lead us nowhere," said McGovern. "We need to let [Afghan President Hamid] Karzai know that we're not a cheap date. ... We expect him to clean up his government."[29]
McGovern has been a prominent voice against the Islamist governments of Sudan for its prosecution of the war in Darfur. He has been arrested twice during protests outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington D.C. On April 28, 2006, he was one of five members of Congress arrested while protesting atrocities in the Darfur region.[30] Also arrested were U.S. Representatives Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Jim Moran (D-Virginia), Rep. John Olver (D-Massachusetts), and Tom Lantos (D-California). McGovern was arrested again at the Sudanese embassy on April 27, 2009, this time accompanied by Reps John Lewis (D-Georgia), Donna Edwards (D-Maryland), Lynn Woolsey (D-California), and Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota).[31]
In April 2007, he called for the United States and other countries to boycott the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China to protest the Chinese government's support of the Sudanese government and, by extension, the genocide in Darfur.[32]
McGovern has traveled several times to Colombia to meet with human rights advocates there, and has been very critical of Plan Colombia and US military aid to that country. On March 25, 2008, the Wall Street Journal published an unsigned editorial insinuating that McGovern supported the Marxist FARC rebels in Colombia. The editorial accused McGovern of making "an ardent effort to do business directly with the FARC."[33] The Journal's sole evidence was that McGovern had met with an intermediary whose letters mentioning McGovern were found on the computer of a killed FARC leader. In response, McGovern said that his concern was to help win the release of hostages held by the FARC, as requested by several families of Americans held by the FARC.[34] He said that he had no sympathy for the rebels or for their hostage-taking.
On February 13, 2009, McGovern offered a resolution on the subject of the trial of the Iranian Bahá'í leadership co-sponsored by seven others in H.Res. 175 - "Condemning the Government of Iran for its state-sponsored persecution of its Baha'i minority and its continued violation of the International Covenants on Human Rights" which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs.[35] The situation has gathered international attention including defense of Nobel Laureate attorney Shirin Ebadi in June[36] after she received threats in April warning her against making speeches abroad, and defending Iran's minority Baha'i community[37] (See Arrest of Bahá'í leaders).
In 2002 McGovern, who has made several trips to Cuba, joined the Congressional Cuba Working Group, which advocated for lowering restrictions on travel and food shipment to Cuba.[5]
He is the current co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, formerly the Human Rights Caucus.[38]
McGovern has a pro-choice record on abortion. He voted against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in October 2003[39] and the Unborn Victims of Violence Act in February 2004.[40] He supports stem cell research, having voted in favor of the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act in 2005, 2007, and 2009.[41] He voted for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2007, which would have prevented employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.[42] He voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have constitutionally outlawed same-sex marriage, in 2004 and 2006,[43] and co-sponsored the Respect for Marriage Act of 2009, which would allow the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages.[44]
McGovern has aligned himself with liberal and progressive causes. "It's no secret that I'm a liberal," he said in 2010. "I didn't poll any of this stuff, but I am who I am."[45] Political interest groups generally rank McGovern as one of the most liberal members of Congress. The National Journal ranked him among the seven most liberal representatives.[2] Since 1997, the liberal advocacy group Americans for Democratic Action has given him an average vote rating of 98.5 percent, whereas its conservative counterpart, the American Conservative Union, has given him an average vote rating of 2.5 percent.[46] The United States Chamber of Commerce, which advocates for business-oriented policies, has given McGovern a 35 percent lifetime rating.[47]
McGovern lives in Worcester with his wife, Lisa Murray McGovern, a former aide to U.S. Representative Gerry Studds. They have two children, Patrick and Molly. He has two sisters, who are teachers in the Worcester public school system.[48] In November 2010 he underwent surgery to remove his thyroid gland after being diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer, from which he is expected to recover.[49]
| Democratic candidate | Republican candidate | Independent candidate | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Name | Votes | % | Name | Votes | % | Name | Party | Votes | % |
| 1996 | Jim McGovern | 135,044 | 52.9% | Peter Blute | 115,694 | 45.4% | Dale E. Friedgen | Natural Law | 3,362 | 1.3% |
| 1998 | Jim McGovern | 108,613 | 56.9% | Matthew J. Amorello | 79,174 | 31.0% | George Phillies | Libertarian | 2,887 | 1.1% |
| 2000 | Jim McGovern | 213,065 | 98.8% | None | None | |||||
| 2002 | Jim McGovern | 155,697 | 98.8% | None | None | |||||
| 2004 | Jim McGovern | 192,036 | 70.5% | Ronald A. Crews | 80,197 | 27.2% | None | |||
| 2006 | Jim McGovern | 166,973 | 98.8% | None | None | |||||
| 2008 | Jim McGovern | 227,619 | 98.5% | None | None | |||||
| 2010 | Jim McGovern | 122,357 | 56.5% | Marty Lamb | 84,972 | 39.2% | Patrick Barron | Independent | 9,304 | 4.3% |
| United States House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Peter I. Blute |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 3rd congressional district January 3, 1997 – present |
Incumbent |
| United States order of precedence | ||
| Preceded by Carolyn McCarthy |
United States Representatives by seniority 127th |
Succeeded by Mike McIntyre D-North Carolina |
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