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 Pennsylvania: Thirteenth District Rep. Jon D. Fox (R) As of November 1998
Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, is the hinterland of Philadelphia: rolling hills cut on one side by the Schuylkill River and at intervals by the Pennsylvania and Reading Railroad lines radiating outward from Center City. Older suburbs, the rich Main Line towns and more modest places like Glenside and Ambler, grew up around rail stations, with comfortable houses within walking distance for commuters. Here and there are the old Schuylkill River factory towns, Conshohocken and Norristown and towns established 200 years ago by German sects; near the big shopping malls around King of Prussia is Valley Forge, where George Washington wintered in 1778 and Ross Perot was nominated by the Reform Party in 1996. Farther out are 18th and 19th Century villages, once surrounded by farm fields, now encroached on by subdivisions where people depend on cars, not rail lines, to get to work, and office complexes in places like Blue Bell, the headquarters of Unisys. Statistically, Montgomery County is the most affluent part of metro Philadelphia, but as in most suburban counties there is much variety here -- economically, with high income enclaves like Gladwyne, and ethnically, with Jewish suburbs out York Road. The 13th Congressional District of Pennsylvania is made up of most of Montgomery County; parts of the county are nibbled off by four other districts. Historically it was a quintessentially Republican seat, where the style of politics was set for years by Ivy-educated Republican men, and where Republicans with more modest and sometimes ethnic backgrounds manned the local precincts and staffed local offices. But now the suburbs are as multi-ethnic as the central city, if not more so, and with varied cultural attitudes. The suburbs were a land of discontent in the recession of the early 1990s, which hit harder at residential real estate and other forms of wealth than incomes, and which saw more permanent layoffs of white-collar and professional workers than temporary layoffs of blue-collar and factory workers. This remained a land of discontent in the mid-1990s economic recovery as well, as taxes seemed to increase and government provided services poorly and in ways that seemed to undercut hard work and traditional values. Montgomery County cast huge margins for Ronald Reagan and George Bush in the 1980s but voted for Bill Clinton in the 1990s. The congressman from the 13th District is Jon Fox, a Republican defeated in 1992, elected in 1994 and reelected in 1996 by small margins emblematic of this uneasiness. Fox is in many ways a typical suburban Republican politician. He was class president at Penn State, worked in Washington while attending law school, became a Montgomery County assistant DA in 1976, at 29. He was elected Abington Township commissioner in 1980, state representative in 1984, member of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners in 1990. Fox is Jewish and won in constituencies with many Jewish Democratic voters; the Philadelphia Inquirer called him a "zen master of constituency service." In 1992, when Congressman Lawrence Coughlin retired after 24 years, Fox ran for Congress. He won the Republican primary with 37%, to 25% for state legislator Ellen Harley and 18% for self-financing businessman Jack Murray. In the general election he faced Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, a longtime television news reporter, mother of 11 and wife of former Iowa Congressman Edward Mezvinsky. MMM (as she is called) was inspired to run by the Clarence Thomas hearings and was helped by her TV fame and appealing personal story. In one of 1992's closest races, she won by 1,373 votes. In the House, she gained her greatest fame by her vote on the 1993 Clinton budget package and tax increase. After taping an interview with a Philadelphia TV station explaining why she would vote against it, she responded to pleadings by Democratic leaders and switched her vote, casting the deciding 218th vote, as Republicans chanted, "Goodbye, Marjorie." In 1994, Fox ran again, contrasting his tax cutting in Montgomery County with her vote for a tax increase that cut heavily in one of the dozen most high-income districts in the country. This time Fox won 49%-45%; incidentally, in both races the candidate who spent most lost. In the House Fox voted for most of the Contract With America but also became part of the moderate Tuesday Group. He passed one original piece of legislation: a jury tampering bill which provided penalties as harsh as those of the crime in question (except for the death penalty) on those who use violence to influence jurors. On many issues he took moderate stances: he was careful to vote with environmentalist Republican Sherwood Boehlert on environmental issues and co-sponsored an amendment to spend nearly double what conservative Republicans were seeking on the Legal Services Corporation. He sponsored, without success, an FDA reform bill providing for third-party approval of drugs and medical devices by FDA-approved reviewers and easing restrictions on export of unapproved drugs. With his narrow 1994 margin, Fox was an obvious target for Democrats; for 15 months the AFL-CIO ran ads against him on expensive Philadelphia media outlets. Fox himself raised and spent $1.7 million, $1.1 million in individual contributions and $483,000 from PACs. Altogether he has spent $3.4 million on three House elections; his opponents have spent $2.9 million. "I'm an independent Republican," he proclaimed, and his brochures ("Jon Fox. Independent. Effective. Fighting for us.") did not include the word Republican. His opponent was County Commissioner Joseph Hoeffel, who ran strong races against Coughlin in 1984 and 1986. Hoeffel attacked Fox for voting 91% of the time with Newt Gingrich -- the lowest of any House freshman, Fox responded -- and said: "This is not Newt Gingrich country. This is a moderate, progressive community in both political parties. And this is the home of the proverbial soccer moms." Both candidates campaigned indefatigably, the backslapping Fox with his wife and mother and Adlai Stevenson-style holes in his shoes, the practical joker Hoeffel accompanied by his wife and teenage children in layered clothing in chilly shopping center parking lots. Both sides sensed this was a bellwether race that would determine who would control the House, and they were very close to right: this was the closest House race in the country. The unofficial tally showed Fox ahead by 10 votes; only nine days after the election was Fox clearly declared the winner, by 84 votes. In three elections Fox has won 49% of the votes, his Democratic opponents 48%. After the election, while still hailing the tax and spending cuts and welfare and telecommunications reforms of the 104th Congress, Fox was calling for a different, less partisan atmosphere in the 105th. "Neither party holds the patent on good ideas and both Republicans and Democrats want to act in the best interests of the people they are sworn to serve." He called for bipartisan commissions on both campaign finance and on Medicare and Social Security. His priorities include FDA reform, the $500-per-child tax credit and a capital gains tax cut, putting the burden of proof in tax cases on the IRS rather than the taxpayer. Locally, he calls for repairing Route 309, widening Route 202 and creating a Cross County Metro and Schuylkill Valley Metro light-rail system. It would be astonishing if this were not a seriously contested district again in 1998.
Update: November 1998
The People: Pop. 1990: 565,663; 8% rural; 15% age 65+; 90% White; 6% Black; 3% Asian; 1% Hispanic origin. Households: 61% married couple families; 27% married couple fams. w. children; 55% college educ.; median household income: $44,764; per capita income: $22,786; median gross rent: $600; median house value: $146,600.
Rep. Jon D. Fox (R) Elected 1994; b. Apr. 22, 1947, Abington; home, Abington; PA St. U., B.A. 1969, DE Law Schl., J.D. 1975; Jewish; married (Judithanne). Career: Air Force Reserves, 1969-75; Montgomery Cnty. Asst. Dist. Atty., 1976-80; Abington Township Bd. of Commissioners, 1980-84; PA House of Reps., 1984-91; Montgomery Cnty. Bd. of Commissioners, 1991-94. DC Office: 435 CHOB 20515, 202-225-6111; Fax: 202-225-3155; e-mail: jonfox@hr.house.gov. District Offices: Abington, 215-885-3500; Norristown, 610-272-8400. Committees: Banking & Financial Services (17th of 30 R): Capital Markets, Securities & Government Sponsored Enterprises; Domestic & International Monetary Policy (Vice Chmn.); Housing & Community Opportunity. International Relations (21st of 26 R): Asia & the Pacific. Transportation & Infrastructure (38th of 40 R): Railroads.
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