Rep. John Larson (D) Elected 1998, 4th term
Born:	July 22, 1948, Hartford
Home:	E. Hartford
Education:	Central CT St. U., B.S. 1971
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	married (Leslie)
Elected  Office:	E. Hartford Bd. of Ed., 1977-79; E. Hartford Town Cncl., 1979-83; CT Senate, 1983-95, Pres. Pro-Tem 1986-95.
Professional Career:	H.S. teacher, 1972-77; Insurance broker, 1977-98; Sr. Fellow, Yale Bush Ctr., 1995-1998.
DC Office	1005 LHOB20515, 202-225-2265; Fax: 202-225-1031; Web site: www.house.gov/larson
State Offices	Hartford, 860-278-8888.
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In 1871, Mark Twain moved to Hartford to become director of an insurance company, and in time became the Connecticut capital's most famous citizen. Hartford, already more than two centuries old, home of the nation's longest circulating newspaper (since 1764), The Hartford Courant, boyhood home of the financier J. P. Morgan, was becoming the nation's best-known insurance center. This was not what the harsh Puritans who founded Hartford had in mind, but Connecticut's Yankees turned out to be shrewd businessmen. Thanks to the broad Connecticut River, Hartford also became a seaport; its merchants, prevented from trading and writing marine insurance by Thomas Jefferson's Embargo Act of 1807, turned to writing fire insurance and using the capital they had accumulated in the Napoleonic Wars to finance their ventures. One was Samuel Colt's gun factory just south of downtown Hartford, which became one of the nation's great arms plants.

Insurance and arms are still economic mainstays of Hartford, Connecticut's capital and the center of its largest metropolitan area. Insurance carriers account for 17% of local jobs; The Phoenix Companies, which includes Phoenix Life Insurance, and the Hartford Financial Services Group are among the two largest employers. Across the river is the Pratt & Whitney jet engine plant in East Hartford, cornerstone of Connecticut-based United Technologies; even though its local work force is less than one-fourth its size in 1980, it still builds engines for more than 600 customers around the world. The small central city of Hartford is otherwise in bad shape, its high-crime neighborhoods abandoned and bedraggled, its school system deeply troubled. Many words have been written about the sad decline of this once rich city, but a few numbers make the case: where 177,000 people lived in 1950 there were 124,000 in 2000. Today, its population is 41% Hispanic and 38% black. In its latest hope for an incarnation, the city in 2002 selected Eddie Perez as its first Hispanic Mayor, who described Hartford as "a Latin city," with challenges and opportunities, including the Adriaen's Landing convention center which opened in June 2005 near the riverfront. Beyond Hartford, the metropolitan area is mostly affluent and growing slowly, spread out over pleasant hills.

The 1st Congressional District of Connecticut is centered on Hartford. On the map it looks like a lobster claw. The claw extends west, excluding some affluent suburbs from the district while including small towns and part of Torrington in the north. Southwest of Hartford, the district includes the industrial town of Bristol, where along a two-lane country road is the sprawling headquarters of ESPN, the 24-hour cable network that revolutionized sports broadcasting. East of the Connecticut River are East Hartford, home of the Pratt & Whitney plant, and more affluent suburbs. Politically, the Hartford area has long been more Democratic than the rest of Connecticut: Hartford is something like Boston, a commercial metropolis more statist than its surroundings. It owes some of its Democratic character to longtime state (1946-75) and national (1961-68) Democratic chairman John Bailey, an old-fashioned political boss with a scandal-free career who promoted a raft of first-class candidates.

The congressman from the 1st District is John Larson, a Democrat first elected in 1998 to replace Barbara Kennelly (Bailey's daughter), who ran unsuccessfully for governor. Larson grew up in the Mayberry Village public housing project in East Hartford, one of eight children; his father was a fireman at Pratt & Whitney, and his mother worked at the state Capitol. He graduated from Central Connecticut State, taught high school and coached athletics; he then became an insurance agent. He comes from a political family--his brother Timothy became mayor of East Hartford--and in 1982, at 34, John Larson was elected to the state Senate. Four years later he was Senate president. There Larson sponsored one of the nation's first family medical leave laws, a prototype for the law sponsored by Senator Christopher Dodd and signed by Bill Clinton in 1993. He seemed headed for the governorship, and in 1994 he won the party designation at the state convention. But Comptroller Bill Curry built an organization of unionists and liberal activists, and beat him 55%-45% in the primary.

When Kennelly announced her retirement, Larson ran against Secretary of State Miles Rapoport, from more affluent West Hartford, who had the support of unions, the Sierra Club, and the Connecticut Citizens Action group. Rapoport led in polls and fundraising. But Larson raised impressive sums as well, built a local organization, did lots of door-to-door campaigning, and benefited from the support of Hartford Mayor Mike Peters. Larson won by 46%-43%. Rapoport won in the northwest part of the district, including Hartford, West Hartford and Bloomfield; Larson carried most of the rest, with a big vote in East Hartford. The general election was vigorously contested by Kevin O'Connor, a 31-year-old former law clerk and SEC lawyer who was endorsed by the Hartford Courant, but Larson won 58%-41%.

In the House Larson's voting record places him near the center of his party. He voted against normal trade relations with China, he said, because of a promise he had made to labor unions. Larson actively opposed authorizing the use of force in Iraq; he worried that unilateral action would unite the Arab world against the United States. In 2004, he added a provision to the defense bill to reimburse soldiers and their families who have purchased body armor before deploying to Iraq. He got $21 million in the 2004 omnibus appropriation to help build in East Hartford a National Center for Aerospace Leadership. As ranking Democrat for two years on the House Administration Committee, he responded to colleagues' concerns and questions about how to run their offices, and worked with Capitol officials on security. When the House approved a bipartisan package of steps to reconstitute Congress in the event of a catastrophic attack on its members, it defeated proposals by Larson to give states additional time to fill vacancies. This former history teacher took an unusual interest in the institution--pushing successfully for the Library of Congress to write an illustrated, narrative history of the House, to match the fine history of the Senate written by Senator Robert Byrd. He was forced to give up his committee post in 2005, when Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi tapped him for a seat on the Ways and Means Committee. Even before joining that panel, Larson had denounced the 2003 Medicare/prescription drug law as a "masquerade" that benefits pharmaceutical firms and big business.

In 2000 Larson faced a celebrity challenger in former World Wrestling Federation champion Bob Backlund, but this was to be no repeat of the Jesse Ventura phenomenon. Backlund had little experience in public life, raised little money, and lost every town as he was defeated 72%-28%. Two years later, Larson won with 67% against the brother of Robert Steele, who won two terms in the eastern Connecticut 2d District in the 1970s. In 2004 he won 73%-27%.

Committees

• Ways & Means (16th of 17 D): Select Revenue Measures; Trade.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	100	83	100	100	40	10	38	16	0	9	--
2003	100	--	100	90	--	23	21	16	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	74%	--	25%		75%	--	24%
Social	82%	--	18%		76%	--	23%
Foreign	89%	--	8%		94%	--	4%
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 N 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts N 3. Medicare/Rx Bill N 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. Y 5. DC School Vouchers N 6. Ban Human Cloning N		7. Restrict Gun Liability N  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion *  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage N 10. Fund Iraq War N 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds Y 12. Intelligence Reorg. N

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	John Larson (D)	198,802	73%	$604,516
	John Halstead (R)	73,601	27%
2004 primary	John Larson (D)	unopposed
2002 general	John Larson (D)	134,698	67%	$565,840
	Phil Steele (R)	66,968	33%
Prior winning percentages: 2000 (72%); 1998 (58%)

2004 Presidential Vote Kerry (D) 187,089 (60%) Bush (R) 121,263 (39%)

2000 Presidential Vote Gore (D) 178,977 (62%) Bush (R) 96,411 (33%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the First 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 +14
• District Size: 673 square miles
• Population in 2000: 681,113; 93.4% urban; 6.6% rural
• Median Household Income: $50,227; 9.6% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 19.7% blue collar; 65.8% white collar; 14.5% gray collar; 12.0% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 71.6% White, 12.6% Black, 2.4% Asian, 0.2% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 1.7% Two+ races, 0.2% Other, 11.4% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 12.1% Italian, 11.1% Irish, 6.9% English
• Click here for statewide demographic data.