Jim Marshall (Georgia politician)

Infobox_Congressman
name =Jim Marshall


date of birth=birth date and age|1948|03|31
place of birth =Ithaca, New York
state = Georgia
district = 8th
term_start =January 3, 2003
preceded = Saxby Chambliss
succeeded = Incumbent
religion = Roman Catholic
party =Democrat
spouse = Camille Hope
children = Mary Marshall
Robert Marshall
residence=Macon, Georgia
alma_mater=Princeton University, Boston University
occupation=attorney
branch=United States Army
serviceyears=1968-1970
battles=Vietnam War
unit=Rangers
awards=Bronze Star (2)
Purple Heart

James Creel "Jim" Marshall (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician who has been a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 2003, representing ushr|Georgia|8 ( [http://nationalatlas.gov/printable/images/preview/congdist/ga08_110.gifmap] ). The district, which was numbered as the 3rd District from 2003 to 2007, is based in Macon and includes much of rural Middle Georgia.

Background

The son and grandson of army generals, Marshall was born in Ithaca, New York, but moved frequently during his childhood and graduated from high school in Mobile, Alabama. He entered Princeton University in 1966, but left college in 1968 to enlist in the United States Army. He served in Vietnam as an Airborne Ranger reconnaissance platoon sergeant and earned two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart. (Marshall was recently inducted into the Army Ranger Hall of Fame.) He returned to Princeton in 1970 and graduated in 1972. Marshall worked various jobs for two years before entering law school at Boston University, where he earned his J.D. in 1977. He practiced law, taught at Mercer University's Walter F. George School of Law in Macon, and from 1995 to 1999 served as mayor of Macon before running for Congress.

Marshall lives in Macon with his wife Camille Hope, the daughter of National Hurricane Center meteorologist John Hope (and the namesake for Hurricane Camille). The couple has two children, Mary and Robert.

Career in the U.S. House of Representatives

2000, 2002, and 2004 campaigns

Marshall first ran for Congress in 2000 as the Democratic candidate for the 8th District. Despite being the former mayor of Macon--by far the biggest city in the district--he lost by 18 points to incumbent Saxby Chambliss.

After the 2000 Census, the state legislature carved away much of the heavily Republican southern portion of the old 8th (including Chambliss' home in Moultrie). They replaced it with some more rural, Democratic-leaning territory around Macon and renumbered it the 3rd District. Despite this, Marshall barely defeated Republican Calder Clay in 2002 due to the Republican wave that swept through Georgia. Another factor was voter anger at Warner Robins being drawn out of the district. The redrawn 3rd included all of Houston County, except for a long gash where Warner Robins and the surrounding area had been cut out and placed in the heavily Republican 1st District. Marshall thus became the first white Democrat to represent Georgia in the House since Nathan Deal switched parties in 1995. Marshall handily defeated Clay in their 2004 rematch, winning 63% of the vote.

2006 campaign

Early in 2005, the Georgia state legislature--now controlled by Republicans--approved a new map of congressional districts. The Macon-based district was significantly redrawn and renumbered once again as the 8th. Although it retained just under 60 percent of Marshall's former territory, it is considerably more Republican than its predecessor. The new district closely resembles the area Chambliss represented for eight years. Had the district existed in 2004, George W. Bush would have carried it with 61 percent of the vote.

Marshall's Republican opponent was former Congressman Mac Collins. The 8th District includes Collins' birthplace in Butts County (Collins represented a district in the Atlanta suburbs during his first stint in Congress) but also includes all of Macon. [http://www.cqpolitics.com/2006/07/ga_8_new_boundaries_likely_to.html]

Marshall won a close election 51%-49%, although Collins benefited from two visits by President George W. Bush and massive amounts of national party and PAC funding. It was the second-closest any Democratic incumbent came to losing his seat to a Republican in the 2006 Democratic landslide. As a result, the 8th became one of the most Republican districts in the nation to be represented by a Democrat.

Positions

Marshall is a social conservative. He opposes abortion, gay marriage and gun control, and supports a constitutional amendment to ban flag-burning. He has cited the concerns of people who have ethical objections to embryonic stem-cell research as influencing his votes on federal funds for such research: he supports allowing cell extraction only if embryos are not destroyed. [ [http://www.house.gov/marshall/05-06-11macontel.html The reality of stem cell research: Macon Telegraph Editorial of June 11, 2005 ] ] He is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of conservative congressional Democrats.

However, on economic and environmental issues, Marshall tends to vote more with his party. He opposed repealing the estate tax and opposed reducing environmental regulations on the construction of new oil refineries ("Gasoline for America's Security Act"). He voted against bankruptcy reform, for American withdrawal from the World Trade Organization, and against tort reform.

Marshall has consistently been a vocal advocate of larger benefits for military servicemen and veterans. In December 2005, Marshall was the sole Democrat to vote against "HR 2863". This defense appropriations bill, which passed 308-122, included language supporting increased protections for detainees held in U.S. custody. [http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll630.xml#N] In February 2007, along with Gene Taylor from Mississippi, he was one of two Democrats to vote against "H CON RES 63", which expressed opposition to a troop surge in the Iraq War. [http://clerk.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.asp?year=2007&rollnumber=99]

Jim Marshall is the only Democrat who voted against the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act, which would have expanded publicly-funded health care for uninsured children. However, he did vote to extend S-CHIP funding through March 31, 2009, which provided additional allotments to eliminate funding shortfalls. See S-CHIP. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/ref/washington/ROLLCALL.html?currentChamber=House&currentSession=1&currentCongress=110&currentRoll=1009 How They Voted: A Look at how the Roll Call Votes in the Senate and the House Broke Down - New York Times ] ] [ [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:SN02499:|TOM:/bss/d110query.html Search Results - THOMAS (Library of Congress) ] ]

Committee Assignments

*Armed Services Committee
**Readiness Subcommittee
**Air and Land Forces Subcommittee
**Terrorism and Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee
*Financial Services Committee
**Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises
**Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade, and Technology
*Agriculture Committee
**Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management
**Subcommittee on Specialty Crops, Rural Development and Foreign Agriculture
*Co-chair of the Air Force Caucus
*Board of Visitors of the United States Military Academy
*Steering committee of the Rural Health Care Coalition

Future

Marshall is a possible candidate for Governor of Georgia in 2010, or for the United States Senate against Republican Johnny Isakson in 2010. Given Georgia's increasingly conservative voting history, Marshall is one of the few Democrats who would be considered competitive in a statewide race. However, national Democrats have encouraged him not to run for the Senate, given his reconfigured district's more Republican tilt.

References

External links

* [http://www.house.gov/marshall/ U.S. Representative Jim Marshall] official House site
*CongBio|m001146
* [http://herndon1.sdrdc.com/cgi-bin/can_detail/H0GA08032 Federal Election Commission — Jim Marshall] campaign finance reports and data
* [http://www.ontheissues.org/GA/Jim_Marshall.htm On the Issues — Jim Marshall] issue positions and quotes
* [http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.asp?CID=N00009635 OpenSecrets.org — Jim Marshall] campaign contributions
* [http://www.vote-smart.org/bio.php?can_id=MGA72937 Project Vote Smart — Representative James 'Jim' Marshall (GA)] profile
* [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jim_Marshall SourceWatch Congresspedia — Jim Marshall] profile
* [http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/m001146/ Washington Post — Congress Votes Database: Jim Marshall] voting record
* [http://www.friendsofjimmarshall.com/ Jim Marshall for Congress] official campaign site