Rep. Adam Putnam (R) Elected 2000, 3d term
Born:	July 31, 1974, Bartow
Home:	Bartow
Education:	U. of FL, B.S. 1995
Religion:	Episcopalian
Marital Status:	married (Melissa)
Elected  Office:	FL House of Reps., 1996-00.
Professional Career:	Rancher, Putnam Groves, Inc.
DC Office	1213 LHOB20515, 202-225-1252; Fax: 202-226-0585; Web site: www.adamputnam.house.gov
State Offices	Bartow, 863-534-3530.
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With their skyscrapers rising over bays and rivers, the great gleaming cities of Florida are found near the Atlantic or Gulf coasts. But the most expansive inland county in the state, billed as the heart of central Florida, is Polk County. It is filled with modest lakes and small and medium-sized cities: Lakeland, Bartow, Lake Wales, Winter Haven, Frostproof and Haines City. It is the part of Florida most dependent on agriculture: strawberries, cattle and citrus remain economic mainstays, though periodic freezes have convinced some orange growers to move south or to produce tomatoes instead. Turpentine distilleries, dependent on the big stands of pine, and phosphate mining businesses can be found as well. There are more manufacturing jobs here proportionately than almost anywhere else in Florida (though still not very many). Retired Ladies Home Journal editor Edward Bok built the most prominent landmarks here: the gothic Bok Tower and the surrounding Mountain Lake Sanctuary and gardens. But the area has not become a major retiree haven; it grew 23% between 1990 and 2004--rapid growth in most of the country, but not in Florida. About half the growth here has been a large influx of Latinos. Three devastating hurricanes struck this area hard in 2004 and caused the loss of thousands of jobs for migrant and seasonal laborers, especially those who work on tomato and citrus crops.

The 12th Congressional District of Florida includes almost all of Polk County. This was the home of Spessard Holland and Lawton Chiles, two legendary Democrats who each served as governor and senator. Even today, there are more registered Democrats than Republicans, but Polk County, like most of the Deep South, increasingly votes Republican, and Chiles lost Polk County to Jeb Bush when he was reelected in 1994. The 12th District also includes a sliver of Osceola County and the rapidly growing suburbs just east of Tampa in Hillsborough County--places like Brandon, home to strip malls and younger, pro-business families. Overall this district, historically Democratic, is becoming reliably Republican. It voted 55% for George W. Bush in 2000 and 58% in 2004.

The congressman from the 12th District is Adam Putnam, a Republican first elected in 2000. He was the youngest member of the House from January 2001 until the January 2005 swearing in of Patrick McHenry of North Carolina. He grew up in Polk County, a fifth-generation member of a Bartow family, graduated from the University of Florida and worked in his family's citrus and cattle business. In 1996, at 22, he was elected to the state House, where as Agriculture Committee chairman he supported a "sovereign lands" bill that would have given shoreline property on inland waters to adjacent property owners and that was strongly opposed by environmental groups. In 2000, when incumbent Charles Canady retired at age 46, keeping his pledge to serve only four terms, Putnam was unopposed in the Republican primary. Putnam supported most parts of the Republican agenda. He opposed abortion and gun control, wanted to lower the capital gains tax and favored personal retirement accounts in Social Security and favored missile defense. In his first election, Putnam had a tougher than expected challenge from auto-dealer and first-time candidate Michael Stedem; he said that Putnam did not have enough life experience for the job. Stedem's message gained some traction; Putnam was ridiculed in the press. "Putnam is 26 and looks as if he's going on 13," wrote Daniel Ruth of the Tampa Tribune in October 2000, in a story headlined, "Opie runs for Congress." But Putnam won the seat 57%-43%.

With one notable exception, Putnam has been a reliable conservative vote. That one case was the December 2001 vote on trade promotion authority, where an evidently conflicted Putnam sided with the citrus industry, despite considerable pressure from party leaders and from George W. Bush on Air Force One a week before the vote. When the bill returned to the House a few months later to resolve final details, Putnam voted in favor after he got what he viewed as a stronger commitment to protect citrus interests. Putnam had another memorable ride with Bush three months earlier. On the morning of September 11, 2001 he was with Bush during a visit to an elementary school in Sarasota when word came of the attacks on the World Trade Center towers. After their rapid and steeply-banking exit and before they landed at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, Bush called in Putnam and the 13th District's Dan Miller for a briefing of his options that morning. The two congressmen returned to Washington on another plane. He urged the EPA to relax restrictions on phosphogypsum, a waste product of fertilizer manufacturing; industry studies have concluded that it could be used in landfills and roadbeds. On immigration, an important local issue, Putnam supported Bush's guest worker proposal, based partly on his own family's hiring experiences. After the 2004 hurricanes, he helped to get $500 million in disaster relief for his state's agricultural industry.

In 2003 he became chairman of the Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and Census Subcommittee on Government Reform, making him the youngest subcommittee chair in the post-World War II era. As chairman, Putnam worked to reduce the risk of cyberterrorism, and passed an amendment to the 2004 intelligence bill that required federal agencies to emphasize information security in planning new systems. His party faithfulness was rewarded when Speaker Dennis Hastert in September 2004 named Putnam to a seat on the House Rules Committee, which had become open when Porter Goss resigned to become director of the CIA; he was the first new member that Hastert picked for Rules in the six years that he had been Speaker. Putnam was forced to relinquish his chairmanship, but the new assignment moved him closer to leadership operations. At home, he has been reelected easily.

Committees

• Budget (4th of 22 R).
• Rules (5th of 9 R): Rules & Organization of the House (Vice Chmn.).

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	0	0	0	0	100	66	100	100	86	100	--
2003	5	--	0	5	--	61	97	92	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	27%	--	71%		5%	--	93%
Social	17%	--	79%		20%	--	80%
Foreign	21%	--	79%		17%	--	78%
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 Y		7. Restrict Gun Liability Y  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage Y 10. Fund Iraq War * 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds N 12. Intelligence Reorg. Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Adam Putnam (R)	179,204	65%	$700,625
	Bob Hagenmaier (D)	96,965	35%	$54,002
2004 primary	Adam Putnam (R)	42,605	92%
	Robert Wirengard (R)	3,546	8%
2002 general	Adam Putnam (R)	unopposed
Prior winning percentages: 2000 (57%)

2004 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 167,216 (58%) Kerry (D) 119,825 (42%) Other 798 (0%)

2000 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 121,083 (55%) Gore (D) 99,826 (45%)

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: R + 5
• District Size: 2,096 square miles
• Population in 2000: 639,296; 84.3% urban; 15.7% rural
• Median Household Income: $37,769; 12.4% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 26.1% blue collar; 55.9% white collar; 18.0% gray collar; 17.0% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 72.1% White, 13.0% Black, 1.1% Asian, 0.3% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 1.3% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 12.0% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 9.9% German, 9.8% USA, 8.4% Irish
• Click here for statewide demographic data.