Rep. John Murtha (D) Elected Feb. 1974, 15th term
Born:	June 17, 1932, New Martinsville, WV
Home:	Johnstown
Education:	U. of Pittsburgh, B.A. 1962, Indiana U. of PA, 1963-64
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	married (Joyce)
Elected  Office:	PA House of Reps., 1969-74.
Military Career:	Marine Corps, 1952-55, 1966-67 (Vietnam); Marine Corps Reserves, 1955-66, 1967-90.
Professional Career:	Owner, Johnstown Minute Car Wash.
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The mountains and valleys within a 100-mile radius of Pittsburgh comprise one of America's most beautiful--and economically troubled--regions. This has been tough, hard-working country ever since Scots-Irish farmers settled here in the 1790s. Their first big product was whiskey--this was the site of the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794--but historically the most important product was bituminous coal. Discovered in the 19th century, it was the basic energy source for the production of iron and steel. The offspring of the original settlers were joined by immigrants from Italy, Poland and Czechoslovakia, living in little frame houses packed into the towns on interstices between hills and rivers, within walking distance of steel factories, foundries and coal mine shafts. It is an industrial landscape and yet there are spots of natural beauty, like the swirling waters of the Youghiogheny River, now much enjoyed by rafters. But the water coming down from the mountains can be dangerous. Its best known community is Johnstown, where on May 31, 1889 floodwater from the ruptured South Fork Dam, gaining speed during an 18-mile trip down steep-walled valleys, poured into the little industrial city with a force equal to Niagara Falls. During 10 awful minutes buildings crumpled like paper, the tumbling hearths and gaslights ignited the wreckage, a flaming pile of debris converged on a 30-acre expanse, and 2,209 people died. This was the worst single-day civilian loss of life in American history until September 11, 2001, when airliners crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and came down in a field just 50 miles southwest of Johnstown. The 1889 flood and its class overtones (the dam, built at a rural retreat owned by western Pennsylvania's richest families, had been negligently maintained) are documented thoughtfully by the Johnstown Flood Museum in the old Carnegie Library. The museum provides an offset to the economic woes of Johnstown, whose population fell from 67,000 in 1920 to 23,000 in 2000--a decline similar to that of many communities in this region. Life was never easy here; after some prosperous years in the 1960s and 1970s, the coal country was hit hard by the recession that followed the 1979 oil shock. Young people have been leaving the area for years, and it now has the highest percentage of elderly residents of any of the state's 19 congressional districts.

The 12th Congressional District, with highly irregular boundaries, contains much of this coal and steel country. It includes all of Greene County and parts of Fayette, Somerset, Cambria, Indiana, Armstrong, Washington and Westmoreland Counties. The boundaries were drawn by Republican legislators who wanted to create a new Republican-leaning 18th District in the southern suburbs of Pittsburgh while also accommodating Democratic Congressman John Murtha, second ranking minority member on the Appropriations Committee, where he has worked assiduously to help Pennsylvania. The district includes Murtha's home base of Johnstown and Democratic territory in northern Westmoreland County, plus parts of Armstrong and Indiana Counties to the north. It includes part of rural Somerset County and much of the industrial country in Fayette, Greene and Washington Counties south of Pittsburgh. Its boundaries were carefully drawn so as to exclude Republican-leaning suburbs and to leave out the hometown of former 20th District Congressman Frank Mascara.

Politically, this was one of the most Republican parts of America from the Civil War up to the 1930s. Republican policies, including high tariffs and hostility to labor unions, were seen as protecting jobs and increasing growth in the steel economy centered on Pittsburgh. With the coming of the New Deal, and success of the United Mine Workers and the United Steelworkers, the area began voting mostly Democratic. Since 1945, on the Monday before primary and general elections, Democratic pols from across southwestern Pennsylvania have attended the "rally in the valley" held at the Slovak Home in the mill town of Monessen. But it has not followed the national Democratic Party on all issues. Voters here have strongly favored trade restrictions on steel imports, even when most other Democrats were free traders in the 1960s and 1970s; more recently most House Democrats have been opposing free trade measures. Voters here also tend to take conservative stands on cultural issues and foreign policy. Metro Pittsburgh in 2000 gave Al Gore a much smaller percentage than metro Philadelphia. But this carefully carved out district was solidly Democratic and cast 55% of its votes for Al Gore in 2000.

The congressman from the 12th District is John Murtha, a Democrat first elected in a February 1974 special election that signaled the political weakness of Richard Nixon. Murtha grew up in this area, served in the Marine Corps, then graduated from the University of Pittsburgh and re-enlisted in the Marines in 1966, at 34; he was the first Vietnam veteran to serve in Congress. For his service there he was awarded the Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts and the Vietnamese Cross for Gallantry. Murtha is a member of the Appropriations Committee and the ranking Democrat on the Defense Subcommittee, his party's key man on the defense budget. His voting record--hawkish and patriotic on foreign policy, interventionist on economics and usually tradition-minded on cultural issues--seems perfectly suited to the steel and coal country. Murtha is also one of those old-time politicians who operate best in secret, holding court in the back corner of the House chamber where he trades gossip and votes to colleagues who crowd around him as if they were kissing his ring (Gene Taylor has twice cast votes for him as Speaker). He speaks for attribution to few national or local reporters, hardly ever appears on television, and rarely speaks in the House chamber except for the annual defense spending bill. He wields power not only on his committee work but also on many back-room issues dear to his colleagues, including pay raises, committee assignments and, after the trial and acquittal of Pennsylvania Republican Joseph McDade, a provision requiring the Justice Department to reimburse members of Congress who are indicted but acquitted. With John Dingell, he is one Democrat who has opposed some gun control proposals.

On foreign issues, Murtha voted for the Gulf War resolution in 1991 and the use of force in Iraq in 2002, but opposed intervention in Bosnia and deployment in Somalia, arguing that UN officials lacked the know-how to command U.S. troops. He supported the Nunn-Lugar program to decommission former Soviet nuclear weapons and favored technology that provides "force multipliers" for U.S. weapons. With Defense subcommittee chairman Jerry Lewis, he raised questions about production of the F-22 fighter plane, but worked on changes and testing to avoid its elimination. He is caught sometimes between Democratic demands for lower defense spending to make more money available for domestic programs and Republican desires to spend even more on defense, but he seeks to come up with appropriations that a broad cross-section of the House will sustain. When a bipartisan group of 14 members met in Austin with George W. Bush in January 2001, Murtha urged him to reduce his proposed tax cut to assure adequate money for the Pentagon. He opposed PNTR with China because of its threat to use force against Taiwan; as a stalwart of organized labor, he opposed trade promotion authority. After the September 11 attacks, he won enactment of a bill creating a national memorial at the Somerset County crash site to commemorate the passengers and crew of United Flight 93. Inside the Democratic Caucus, he gained additional respect and influence as the campaign manager for Nancy Pelosi in her contest against Steny Hoyer for Democratic Whip, adding his old-style influence to her new-age style. But he retained his independence, voting against campaign finance reform despite Pelosi's plea that his vote would be "an embarrassment to her."

After a close 1990 primary, Murtha spent more time traveling around the district and developed a more secure electoral base. His tending to local concerns paid off handsomely in 2002, when redistricting added much of the territory represented by four-term Democrat Frank Mascara. Republicans had consulted Murtha during the redistricting process and made adjustments to the boundaries to suit him; one was to put Mascara's house in the new Republican-leaning 18th District. Mascara took a month to decide which district to run in, then finally decided that his chances in the general election in the 18th were poor and that he would run against Murtha. Each had represented about half of the new 12th District. Mascara's campaign was poorly financed and organized. Murtha campaigned actively around the new district, emphasizing his "record of getting things done." Mascara attacked Murtha for ducking debates, and for being "the David Copperfield of politics … handing out checks and then disappearing from his district." Murtha won 64%-36%. He had huge leads in his base of Cambria and Indiana Counties, while Mascara led only narrowly in Washington and Greene Counties. In Westmoreland County, parts of which both had represented, Murtha won 67%-33%. The general election was no contest; Murtha won with 73% of the vote.

Murtha returned to business as usual at the Capitol: protecting the Pentagon and the troops, cutting deals wherever he could, and receiving visitors from his throne in the Pennsylvania corner of the House. Meanwhile, the Republican redistricting plan reduced the number of Pennsylvania Democrats from 10 to seven.

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DC Office
2423 RHOB 20515, 202-225-2065; Fax: 202-225-5709; Web site: www.house.gov/murtha

State Offices
Johnstown, 814-535-2642.

Committees

• Appropriations (2d of 29 D): Defense (RMM); Interior.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	55	50	88	50	68	62	21	61	32	24	33
2001	65	--	100	36	--	--	24	52	48	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	72%	--	27%		66%	--	34%
Social	52%	--	47%		52%	--	47%
Foreign	61%	--	36%		56%	--	44%
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 N 2. Limit Patients' Bill of Rights N 3. Campaign Finance Reform N 4. Ban ANWR Development N 5. Faith-Based Charities N 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts Y		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  8. Arm Commercial Pilots Y  9. Trade Promotion Authority N 10. Bar Funds for Intl. Court Y 11. Authorize Force in Iraq Y 12. Deny Home. Sec. Dept. Union N

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	John Murtha (D)	124,201	73%	$2,386,861
	Bill Choby (R)	44,818	27%	$17,584
2002 primary	John Murtha (D)	60,687	64%
	Frank Mascara (D)	33,837	36%
2000 general	John Murtha (D)	145,538	71%	$968,531
	Bill Choby (R)	56,575	28%	$8,310
	Other	3,324	2%
Prior winning percentages: 1998 (68%); 1996 (70%); 1994 (69%); 1992 (100%); 1990 (62%); 1988 (100%); 1986 (67%); 1984 (69%); 1982 (61%); 1980 (59%); 1978 (69%); 1976 (68%); 1974 (58%); 1974 (50%)

2000 presidential
	Gore (D)	131,960	55%
	Bush (R)	105,451	44%
	Other	3,595	1%
For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Twelfth 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: D + 5
• District Size: 2,783 square miles
• Population in 2000: 646,079; 62.5% urban; 37.5% rural
• Median Household Income: $30,614; 13.6% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 30.5% blue collar; 51.3% white collar; 18.1% gray collar; 15.3% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 94.9% White, 3.3% Black, 0.3% Asian, 0.1% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 0.7% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 0.6% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 17.2% German, 9.9% Irish, 9.2% Italian
• Click here for statewide demographic data.