Jim Jeffords

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the US car racing driver, see Jim Jeffords (racing driver) .

Jim Jeffords

James Merrill "Jim" Jeffords (born May 11, 1934 in Rutland , Vermont , † August 18, 2014 in Washington, DC ) was an American politician who represented the state of Vermont in the US Senate from 1989 to 2007 . The former Republican resigned from his party in 2001 and was the only independent Senate member until he left. He did not run again in the November 2006 Senate elections. His successor was Bernie Sanders , who was also independent .

Youth and family

Jeffords is the son of Olin Jeffords, a former chief justice of the Vermont Supreme Court . He graduated from Yale University (1956) and Harvard Law School (1962). He served in the United States Navy from 1956 to 1959 and was a reserve officer until 1990. He was married to Elizabeth Dailey, had two children, and lived in Shrewsbury with his family .

politics

Jeffords won the election to the Vermont Senate in Rutland County in 1966 and was a member of this 1967/68. In 1968 he was elected Attorney General of Vermont and was re-elected once, so that he held that office from 1969 to 1973. In 1972 he was defeated in the party primary as a candidate for the governorship of Vermont and did not prevail in his efforts to become Republican party chairman of the state. These quarrels had a major influence on the fact that the democrat Thomas P. Salmon surprisingly prevailed in the 1972 gubernatorial election .

After former Vermont Congressman Richard W. Mallary announced that he would run for the US Senate in 1974, Jeffords ran for its seat in the United States House of Representatives (the only one in the state). In the 1974 election he won this seat and retained the mandate until he moved to the US Senate on January 3, 1989 after winning the Senate election in 1988 .

Jeffords' work in Congress focused primarily on educational policy and working with the disabled. Since 2000 he has also increasingly dealt with environmental policy . Together with Paul Simon , he campaigned vehemently for the United Nations Support Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR). He was a co-founder of the Congress Initiative for Solar Energy.

Resignation

Jim Jeffords (center) with his successor Bernie Sanders (left) and Vermont's second Senator Patrick Leahy

Jeffords resigned from the Republican Party on June 5, 2001, ending the tradition of this Senate seat that had been in Republican hands for the longest time. The majority in the Senate changed from a wafer-thin majority of Republicans (50:50, the vote of Republican Vice President Dick Cheney secured a majority) to a wafer-thin majority for the Democrats (50:49). On the condition that he would continue to serve as committee chairman, he voted with the Democrats, giving them a majority vote. Jeffords resigned as chairman of the health and education committee and became chairman of the environmental committee . After the Democrats had clearly lost the Senate election in 2002 , he lost that post to a Republican.

Jeffords agreed with the Democrats that he would vote with them on procedural matters, unless this was clarified beforehand through an arrangement; In return, he got the committee seats that he would have had if he had been a Democrat during his entire time in Congress. In matters of content he could vote as he wanted, but still mostly voted together with the Democrats. Even before his move, he followed the tradition of the Vermont Republicans to vote very liberally. During this time he already approved the Civil Rights Act of 1991 , the Brady Bill for the control of small arms and the Family and Medical Leave Act . He voted for homosexuals to join the US military and against close trade ties with China. He was vehemently against Clarence Thomas's appeal to the Supreme Court , making him one of two Republicans who voted against it. For example, after his move, in 2006 he voted as one of ten senators against the extension of the USA PATRIOT Act .

Jeffords voted on October 11, 2002 as one of 23 senators against the US invasion of Iraq.

Withdrawal from politics

Jeffords announced in April 2005 that he would no longer run for the 2006 Senate election . The 70-year-old claimed his wife's cancer and his own declining health as reasons. Since the high favorite for the Vermont election no longer ran, Bernie Sanders, previously the only independent member of the House of Representatives, declared that he would run for the senatorial post. He made the choice for himself.

Death and remembrance

Jeffords died on August 18, 2014 in Washington, DC at the age of 80 of complications from pneumonia . A wooded area in Vermont near the Appalachian Trail was named after him.

Books

• James M. Jeffords, My Declaration of Independence (Simon & Schuster, 2001), ISBN 0743228421
• James M. Jeffords, An Independent Man (Simon & Schuster, 2003), ISBN 074322843X

literature

• Jeffords, James (1934-). In: John J. Duffy, Samuel B. Hand, Ralph H. Orth (Eds.): The Vermont Encyclopedia. University of Vermont Press, Burlington / University Press of New England, Hanover, London 2003, p. 170 f.

Web links

Commons : Jim Jeffords  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Jim Jeffords in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Jim Jeffords in nndb (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jeffords, James (1934-). In: John J. Duffy, Samuel B. Hand, Ralph H. Orth (Eds.): The Vermont Encyclopedia. University of Vermont Press, Burlington / University Press of New England, Hanover, London 2003, p. 170 f., Here p. 170.
2. ↑ Jeffords, James (1934-). In: John J. Duffy, Samuel B. Hand, Ralph H. Orth (Eds.): The Vermont Encyclopedia. University of Vermont Press, Burlington / University Press of New England, Hanover, London 2003, p. 170 f., Here p. 171.
3. ↑ Bruce Weber: Jim Jeffords, Who Altered Power in Senate, Dies at 80. Obituary. In: The New York Times , August 18, 2014; Tributes pour in for Vermont GOP giant Jeffords. In: Burlington Free Press , Aug. 18, 2014.
4. ↑ Jim Jeffords State Forest. In: The Trust for Public Land.