Rep. Jim Kolbe (R) Elected 1984, 11th term
Born:	June 28, 1942, Evanston, IL
Home:	Tucson
Education:	Northwestern U., B.A. 1965, Stanford U., M.B.A. 1967
Religion:	United Methodist
Marital Status:	divorced
Elected  Office:	AZ Senate, 1976-82.
Military Career:	Navy, 1968-69 (Vietnam), Naval Reserves, 1970-77.
Professional Career:	Asst., IL Bldg. Authority Architect, 1970-72; Asst., IL Gov. Ogilvie, 1972-73; Vice Pres., land planning firm; Real estate consultant.
DC Office	237 CHOB20515, 202-225-2542; Fax: 202-225-0378; Web site: www.house.gov/kolbe
State Offices	Sierra Vista, 520-459-3115; Tucson, 520-881-3588.
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Update: November 30, 2005
On November 23, 2005, Rep. Jim Kolbe announced he would not seek reelection in 2006.

Arizona's first frontier was just south of today's Tucson, where Franciscan friars built San Xavier del Bac mission in the 18th century. To the east the late 19th century mining towns of Tombstone and Bisbee sprang up on desert mountainsides, where miners dug up gold and silver and much of America's copper; Cochise County, which includes those two towns, was the most populous county when Arizona became the 48th state in 1912. Here the white man last subdued the Indians, when the Apache leader Geronimo faced the U.S. Army in 1900. In the last decade Cochise County has been an active frontier again. After the Border Patrol reduced illegal crossings in California and Texas, Mexicans wishing to enter the United States came to Agua Prieta, just across the border from the town of Douglas. There they fan out, cross the border and use the area's numerous roads, mountain trails and ranch lands to get to Tucson and Phoenix. The Border Patrol's Tucson sector has become the most active on the border, with 230,000 illegal aliens apprehended in 2004, almost double the population of Cochise County; more were apprehended that year in Arizona than in California, New Mexico and Texas combined. Numerous border-crossers are found dead in the mountains and the desert; in winter Border Patrol officers carry blankets and heat packs to treat cases of hypothermia.

One of their destinations is Tucson, Arizona's second metropolis, much smaller, more rough-hewn and politically less conservative than Phoenix. Tucson is a high-tech city and home of the University of Arizona. It is also a tourist destination, with famed resorts. For nearly 40 years, Tucson was the political base of the brothers Udall: Stewart, congressman in the 1950s, Interior secretary in the 1960s, now an Arizona lawyer again; Morris, congressman for 30 years and Interior Committee chairman, who retired in 1991 because of Parkinson's disease and died in 1998. Now their sons, Tom and Mark Udall, represent New Mexico and Colorado districts; a cousin, Stephen Udall, finished second in the 2002 primary in Arizona's 1st District.

The 8th Congressional District of Arizona includes all of Tucson except the Latino west side that is in the 7th District. The 8th also includes the eastern half of surrounding Pima County and much southeastern Arizona desert real estate: All of Cochise County (including Tombstone and Bisbee), Douglas and Sierra Vista near Fort Huachuca, site of the Army Military Intelligence Center, the training site for military interrogators; and very small portions of Santa Cruz and Pinal Counties. Politically it is closely divided, voting narrowly for George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004.

The congressman from the 8th District is Jim Kolbe, a Republican first elected in 1984. He was born in Evanston, Illinois, moved to Arizona at age 5 and grew up on a cattle ranch in Sonoita. He graduated from Northwestern and Stanford Business School, served in the Navy in Vietnam, became an assistant to Illinois' Republican Governor Richard Ogilvie in 1972, and moved back to Arizona shortly thereafter and went into real estate. In 1976 he was elected to the Arizona Senate. In 1982 he ran in the 5th District and lost to Democrat Jim McNulty 50%-48%. In 1984 he ran again and beat him 51%-48%.

Kolbe's voting record on economics has been mostly conservative; he ranks near the middle of the House on cultural and foreign issues. He is a strong booster of free trade and of the maquiladora program, in which U.S.-made components shipped to Mexico for assembly can reenter the U.S. without paying full duty. He was one of the Republican leaders in the successful fight to pass NAFTA in the House in November 1993. He supported GATT, trade promotion authority and the WTO and has called for a free-trade zone covering Central America. In 2000, he was one of the leading House spokesmen for normal trade relations with China; in 2002, he opposed steel import quotas. He favors eliminating U.S. farm subsidies but said, "We will not do so unilaterally." In November 2004, at his suggestion, Tucson hosted a session of the Andean trade talks with Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.

Immigration has become the hottest local issue: "On a list of 10 issues," Kolbe has said, "it would be one through seven or one through eight." In April 2002 he called for using more military troops, including National Guard units, on the border. In May 2002 he proposed that the INS be split into three parts, with function-specific units to be folded into the Justice, State and Labor Departments. At his insistence, the CIS (formerly INS) has only roving checkpoints in Arizona, to preserve "the element of surprise." In April 2004 he and Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl sponsored a bill to spend $4 billion on technology to secure the borders; he wants tamper-proof, biometric, machine-readable identity cards for immigrants. At the same time, he has said, "We do not currently have an enforceable law" and that attempts to control immigration and stepped-up law enforcement is "spitting in the wind." To solve the larger problem, Kolbe, with McCain and the 6th District's Jeff Flake have co-sponsored a guest worker law, which would provide six-year temporary worker visas and three-year visas for those who are here illegally now.

Another Kolbe cause is individual investment accounts in Social Security. In May 2002, he said the debate was moving backward, and when Republican candidates in the 2002 cycle, on the advice of NRCC chairman Tom Davis, attacked "privatization" (by which they meant Bill Clinton's 1999 proposal for government investment of Social Security payroll taxes), he said, "A plague on all of them. We ought to be focused on acknowledging the long-term problem and the options that we might look at that would save Social Security. One has to look at the debate and say this will be a tough thing to do in the next several years." In 2005, he co-sponsored a bill with Democrat Allen Boyd to establish personal retirement accounts, the only bipartisan plan currently on the table.

From 1997-2000, Kolbe was Appropriations subcommittee chairman with jurisdiction over the Treasury, the White House and the Postal Service. In 2001 he switched to the chairmanship of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee. He devoted particular attention to Pakistan, where he visited Afghan refugee camps in May 2001. After September 11 he called for lifting sanctions on Pakistan and setting it specific tasks in the war on terrorism; he also called for lifting the restrictions on imports of Pakistani textiles and other products. He was disturbed in November 2002 when it became clear that Pakistan had shipped nuclear technology to North Korea, and said that the 1994 Agreed Framework with North Korea was "effectively ended." In May 2002 he inserted $200 million additional aid to Israel into a supplemental; at Colin Powell's suggestion he added $50 million for Palestinian relief. He has supported the Bush administration on Iraq but, with McCain, opposed the Pentagon policy of not releasing photographs of the coffins of slain Americans. He has pushed for more funding for global AIDS programs--$2.3 billion in 2004.

On cultural issues Kolbe is often liberal. He angered many Republicans by supporting funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and was one of the few Republicans to vote against the partial-birth abortion ban. He opposed the Bush policy on stem-cell research. He voted for the Defense of Marriage Act and in July 1996, pressured by an impending article in The Advocate, announced that he is gay. This had little apparent impact on the 1996 election, in which he beat Morris Udall's chiropractor 69%-26%. He supported hate crimes legislation before the Matthew Shepard slaying and said afterward, ''Thank God Wyoming has the death penalty.'' In July 1998 he opposed Joel Hefley's amendment to overturn Clinton's order banning discrimination against homosexuals in federal employment. Republican leaders got Hefley to agree not to offer his amendment to Kolbe's appropriation; when it came up later, Kolbe helped persuade 63 Republicans to vote against it. He voted against the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, saying it was a matter for the states.

In 1998 Kolbe won reelection over former Tucson Mayor Tom Volgy by only 52%-45%, and many wondered whether his sexual orientation was a hidden liability. In August 2000 Kolbe was the first openly gay speaker at a Republican National Convention. As he spoke about the importance of free trade, his assigned topic and one on which he had a strong record, several members of the Texas delegation in the front took off their cowboy hats and bowed their heads in prayer. Kolbe said he didn't notice. In September he easily dispatched a primary opponent by 79%-21%. In November 2000 against former state Senator George Cunningham he won by a solid 60%-35%. Redistricting did not hurt Kolbe, and in November 2002 he beat a Tucson prosecutor 63%-34%.

Kolbe had tougher competition in the September 2004 Republican primary from state Representative Randy Graf. He opposed Kolbe's guest worker bill and called for tougher border enforcement, with "a role for the military." He supported Protect Arizona Now's Proposition 200, which passed 56%-44% in November, and argued that Kolbe had been ineffective in protecting the border. Kolbe, evidently disturbed by his polling, ran tough attack ads against Graf in the weeks before the primary. Kolbe won 57%-43%--an unimpressive margin for a 20-year incumbent in a primary. His hometown support in Tucson stayed strong; he won 60%-40% in Pima County. But Graf carried Cochise County 53%-47%. In November he won by a wider margin 60%-36%.

Committees

• Appropriations (6th of 37 R): Foreign Operations, Export Financing & Related Programs (Chmn.); Homeland Security.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	20	40	13	9	90	49	100	56	65	46	--
2003	15	--	0	5	--	59	97	60	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	9%	--	84%		23%	--	76%
Social	51%	--	49%		58%	--	42%
Foreign	50%	--	49%		55%	--	44%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Drilling in ANWR Y 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 3. Medicare/Rx Bill Y 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. N 5. DC School Vouchers Y 6. Ban Human Cloning N		7. Restrict Gun Liability Y  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion N  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage N 10. Fund Iraq War Y 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds N 12. Intelligence Reorg. Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Jim Kolbe (R)	183,363	60%	$1,146,714
	Eva Bacal (D)	109,963	36%	$99,691
	Other	10,443	3%
2004 primary	Jim Kolbe (R)	36,039	57%
	Randy Graf (R)	26,686	43%
2002 general	Jim Kolbe (R)	126,930	63%	$865,996
	Mary Ryan (D)	67,328	34%	$292,398
	Other	6,170	3%
Prior winning percentages: 2000 (60%); 1998 (52%); 1996 (69%); 1994 (68%); 1992 (67%); 1990 (65%); 1988 (68%); 1986 (65%); 1984 (51%)

2004 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 167,647 (53%) Kerry (D) 147,300 (46%)

2000 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 123,585 (50%) Gore (D) 114,055 (46%)

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 + 1
• District Size: 9,057 square miles
• Population in 2000: 641,329; 87.3% urban; 12.7% rural
• Median Household Income: $40,656; 10.5% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 16.5% blue collar; 66.7% white collar; 16.8% gray collar; 19.1% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 73.9% White, 3.0% Black, 2.1% Asian, 0.8% Amer. Indian, 0.1% Hawaiian, 1.8% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 18.2% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 14.4% German, 9.7% English, 9.1% Irish
• Click here for statewide demographic data.