[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 61 (Tuesday, April 17, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S4555]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page S4555]]
                   REMEMBERING CONGRESSMAN JIM JONTZ

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I wish to say a few words about a friend 
of mine who passed away on Saturday. His name was Jim Jontz. For 6 
years, from 1987 to 1993, Jim represented Indiana's fifth congressional 
district in the House of Representatives. That is where I first met him 
and worked with him.
  In 1991, the Almanac of American Politics described him as:

       One of the most incredibly hardworking and gifted natural 
     politicians who has routinely done the impossible.

  Two years ago Jim was diagnosed with colon cancer that had already 
spread to his liver. We hoped at the time he would find a way to ``do 
the impossible'' again and defeat this illness. He fought that cancer 
for 2 valiant years, but he died on Saturday afternoon in his home in 
Portland, OR.
  Jim Jontz defied ordinary stereotypes. He was a progressive Democrat 
elected three times by one of the most conservative areas in the 
country to represent them in Congress. People used to wonder all the 
time how that was possible. I have some ideas. For one thing, Jim had a 
flair for trademarks. He was famous for riding his sister's rusty blue 
Schwinn with mismatched tires in parades.
  Jim also practiced a very personal style of politics--something he 
learned from his days as a grassroots organizer. He ran what he called 
``shoe leather'' campaigns. His goal in every campaign was to knock on 
as many doors and speak to as many people as possible. He owned four 
pairs of shoes that he rotated in and out of at a local repair shop 
every week. That is how much shoe leather he put into his job. His 
campaign signs were always shaped like shoes.
  Most importantly, Jim Jontz was a bridge builder. There is a school 
of politics that says the way you win campaigns is to divide people up 
into groups and pit them against one another. Jim was a master of a 
different and better kind of politics. He wanted to build bridges and 
understanding between groups that too often saw themselves as enemies: 
organized labor and environmentalists, and family farmers and 
environmentalists. He was always trying to find some common ground. He 
cared deeply about preserving the land and family farms and he believed 
the best way to preserve family farms was to help farmers be better 
stewards of the land. That seemed like a strange idea to some people 25 
years ago. Today, it surely makes sense.
  Because of his bridge-building abilities, Jim was tapped to mediate 
disputes between farmers and environmentalists during negotiations for 
the 1990 farm bill. One result was a wetlands protection program that 
won strong support from farmers, environmentalists, and sportsmen. That 
program has saved many family farms, preserved the natural beauty of 
our land, and protected our clean water. It is part of the great legacy 
Jim Jontz leaves.
  In addition to his important work on the House Agriculture Committee, 
Jim served on the Education and Labor Committee, the House Select 
Committee on Aging, and on the Veterans' Affairs Committee. On 
Veterans' Affairs, he worked with another brave man--my closest friend 
when I came to Congress and for so many years--Lane Evans. They worked 
to help veterans living with one of the most common but least 
understood injuries of war: post-traumatic stress disorder. Those 
efforts are part of Jim's legacy that we are relying on today while so 
many of our soldiers come back from Iraq and Afghanistan trying to 
conquer the demons in their minds from that experience.
  As everyone who knew Jim also knew, he was deeply committed to 
preserving the ancient forests in the Pacific Northwest. That 
commitment earned him the support of celebrities and common folk as 
well who shared his love for America's natural treasures. It also won 
him the enmity of powerful logging interests and their supporters in 
Congress.
  During the debate of the 1990 farm bill, Jim offered an amendment 
that would have prevented logging of ancient forests and national 
parks. A powerful House member of the other party retaliated by 
drafting legislation that would have allowed the Federal Government to 
create a 1-million acre national forest smack dab in the middle of 
Jim's congressional district.
  In the end, Jim's efforts to save old-growth forests probably ended 
his career in Congress. The timber industry targeted him for defeat 
when he ran for his fourth House term in 1992 and he lost, but he 
didn't stop. In 1994, he ran for the Senate, losing in his last 
campaign. In 1995, he moved to Portland, OR, where he continued to work 
to save ancient forests and preserve the Endangered Species Act.
  In 1998, Jim was elected president of Americans for Democratic 
Action, a position he held for 4 years before becoming ADA president 
emeritus. His most recent project for the ADA was leading its ``Working 
Families Win'' campaign which focused on raising the minimum wage, 
providing working families with affordable health care, and other 
issues of basic economic justice.
  Jim Jontz grew up in Indianapolis and graduated phi beta kappa from 
Indiana University in 1973 after less than 3 years with a degree in 
geology. He fell into politics by accident almost in 1974. He opposed a 
dam building project that he thought threatened his little community. 
He challenged the chief sponsor of the project, who happened to be the 
majority leader of the Indiana House, and Jim won. At age 22 he became 
a political giant killer. He also served in the Indiana Senate before 
being elected to Congress in 1996 at age 35.

  Jim won that first race against the House majority leader by two 
votes. He believed he picked up those last two votes when he insisted 
on campaigning at 10 p.m. the night before the election at a laundromat 
that was still open. That was Jim Jontz--using every last minute to try 
to make a difference. It was the way he ran his campaigns, it is the 
way he lived his life, and he did make a difference.
  I join so many others--not just from Indiana and from Congress, but 
from across the country--in offering condolences to Jim's family: his 
mother, stepfather, and his sister who lives in Chicago. He was a good 
man who left a great legacy. I am proud to have called him my friend. 
He will be missed.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Rhode Island is 
recognized.

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