Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R) Elected 1996, 4th term
Born:	Sept. 16, 1950, Washington, D.C.
Home:	Cape Girardeau
Education:	Ohio Wesleyan U., B.A. 1972
Religion:	Presbyterian
Marital Status:	married (Ron Gladney)
Professional Career:	Deputy Communications Dir., Natl. Repub. Cong. Cmte., 1984-91; Dir., State Relations & Grassroot Programs, Natl. Restaurant Assn., 1991-94; Sr. Vice Pres., Pub. Affairs, American Insurance Assn., 1994-96.
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Mark Twain might not recognize life on the Mississippi below St. Louis today, where the land flattens out and the river is hidden behind levees, which ordinarily, except during the terrible flood of 1993, screen small towns and river roads from the sight of rows of barges tethered together, full of coal or soybeans. The Mississippi today is an industrial waterway. But it was never really all that romantic. Twain's steamboats, as he was at pains to point out, were dangerous, noisy contraptions, forever blowing up or getting embedded in roots and branches in the swirling river currents. This is one of the older-settled parts of the U.S.: French settlers founded Missouri towns like Cape Girardeau in the late 1700s. The big influx started a few years after the 1811 earthquake centered on New Madrid; the spongy Mississippi valley land is also seismically very active, and this was the site of one of the most devastating earthquakes in U.S. history.

The southeast quadrant of Missouri--the river valley and the hills to the west, with coal and lead mines (the area produces most of the world's lead) with their miles of tunnels, plus the Bootheel that hangs down in the far southeast--has not seemed to change much in 50 years. For years there has been a population outflow from the Bootheel, as machines replaced low-wage farm workers and crops shifted from cotton to corn and soybeans. Dairy cattle, pigs, apples, and berries--plus, some timber--are among the area's other products. The only big growth here has been around Cape Girardeau and along I-44; the poverty rate in the Bootheel is the highest in the state. At a point 20 miles south of Rolla is Edgar Springs, the home to 190 residents and the population center of the nation, according to the 2000 Census; 10 years earlier, that designation was 35 miles to the northwest in Steelville.

The sprawling 8th Congressional District covers this southeast corner of Missouri. The political heritage is mixed. The Bootheel was as solidly Democratic as the Mississippi Valley around Memphis once was, and some mining counties remain Democratic. Cape Girardeau is heavily Republican and an incubator of Republican talent: it is the home town of Rush Limbaugh and his columnist brother David Limbaugh, of state Senate President Peter Kinder and Republican National Committee Deputy Chairman and ace fundraiser Jack Oliver. For many years this district was safely Democratic, but since 1980, it has been represented by Republicans. This was one of the rural areas that trended to Republicans in the Clinton years, and George W. Bush won 59% of the vote here in 2000.

The congresswoman from the 8th District is Jo Ann Emerson, elected in 1996 to replace her late husband Bill Emerson, who died that June. Jo Ann Emerson grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, in a Republican family (her father was executive director of the RNC) but next door to Democrats Hale and Lindy Boggs, who served in Congress over a half-century; their daughter, Cokie Roberts, babysat Jo Ann. In 1975 she married Republican Bill Emerson, then a Washington lobbyist. In 1979, spotting the vulnerability of the Democratic incumbent, he went home to Missouri to run, and won with 55%. In 1995 he was diagnosed with cancer, but missed few votes during radiation therapy. After Bill's death, Jo Ann Emerson decided to run. She had worked for the American Insurance Association and National Restaurant Association, and was a press aide at the NRCC. Her views are conservative, and leading state and national Republicans quickly endorsed her. But she could not seek the party nomination in the August primary: Missouri law bars reopening the filing deadline if an incumbent dies less than 11 weeks before the primary, so she ran as an independent. Democrats nominated Emily Firebaugh, a timber company owner who attacked Emerson as a product of the Washington suburbs. Firebaugh spent $831,000, slightly more than Emerson. The Republican nominee Richard Kline was less trouble: In 1995 he had used pepper spray to try to place a Veterans Administration doctor under citizen's arrest. Bill Emerson's record, Jo Ann Emerson's conservative views, and the poignancy of the situation all worked toward an Emerson victory. She won 50%, with 37% for Firebaugh and 11% for Kline; in the same-day election to fill the remaining two months of her husband's term, Emerson won 63%-34%.

In the House, Emerson has had a moderate-leaning voting record though more conservative on cultural issues. A property rights supporter, she got her portion of the district excluded from Bill Clinton's American Heritage Rivers project, which she opposed as an abuse of executive power to save wetlands. On the Appropriations Committee and its Agriculture Subcommittee, her priority was addressing low prices for farm commodities. She worked with other members from farm districts to open agricultural trade with Cuba and later made visits to Cuba to encourage deals. She chaired the Congressional Hunger Center, which trains young people to help reduce hunger across the nation, and she works to send more farm surpluses to poor countries. After the September 11 attacks, she bucked Attorney General--and former Missouri Senator--John Ashcroft by voting with House Democrats to federalize airport security. She was one of eight Republicans who voted against their party's prescription drug bill in 2002 and, with Democrat Sherrod Brown, she co-sponsored a proposal to make generic drugs more readily available for prescriptions; she complained that her mother-in-law pays $11,000 a year for drug coverage. In 2003, she joined the newly organized Homeland Security subcommittee of Appropriations. She opposed requiring Medicare beneficiaries to enroll in private health care plans if they want prescription drug coverage under President Bush's medicare reform plan.

Emerson has won reelection without difficulty. She turned down the opportunity to run in 2002 against Senator Jean Carnahan.

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DC Office
2440 RHOB 20515, 202-225-4404; Fax: 202-226-0326; Web site: www.house.gov/emerson

State Offices
Cape Girardeau, 573-335-0101; Farmington, 573-756-9755; Rolla, 573-364-2455.

Committees

• Appropriations (23d of 36 R): Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA & Related Agencies; Energy & Water Development; Homeland Security.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	0	21	13	0	34	100	55	95	96	82	92
2001	5	--	10	7	--	--	57	91	83	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	46%	--	54%		33%	--	66%
Social	20%	--	69%		30%	--	68%
Foreign	43%	--	58%		35%	--	60%
For National Journal's complete 2002 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 107th Congress (More Info)
1. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 2. Limit Patients' Bill of Rights Y 3. Campaign Finance Reform N 4. Ban ANWR Development N 5. Faith-Based Charities Y 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts Y		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  8. Arm Commercial Pilots Y  9. Trade Promotion Authority Y 10. Bar Funds for Intl. Court Y 11. Authorize Force in Iraq Y 12. Deny Home. Sec. Dept. Union Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Jo Ann Emerson (R)	135,144	72%	$777,711
	Gene Curtis (D)	50,686	27%
	Other	2,491	1%
2002 primary	Jo Ann Emerson (R)	50,605	87%
	Allen Kline (R)	7,499	13%
2000 general	Jo Ann Emerson (R)	162,239	69%	$794,800
	Bob Camp (D)	67,760	29%
	Other	4,067	2%
Prior winning percentages: 1998 (63%); 1996 (50%); 1996 (63%)

2000 presidential
	Bush (R)	143,511	59%
	Gore (D)	93,244	38%
	Other	5,635	2%
For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Eighth District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: R +11
• District Size: 18,818 square miles
• Population in 2000: 621,690; 39.6% urban; 60.4% rural
• Median Household Income: $27,865; 18.2% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 34.5% blue collar; 47.7% white collar; 17.8% gray collar; 15.1% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 92.5% White, 4.3% Black, 0.4% Asian, 0.6% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 1.1% Two+ races, 0.0% Other, 1.0% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 13.7% USA, 12.7% German, 8.5% Irish
• Click here for statewide demographic data.