Rep. John Duncan (R) Elected 1988, 9th full term
Born:	July 21, 1947, Lebanon
Home:	Knoxville
Education:	U. of TN, B.S. 1969, George Washington U., J.D. 1973
Religion:	Presbyterian
Marital Status:	married (Lynn)
Military Career:	Army Natl. Guard & Army Reserves, 1970-87.
Professional Career:	Practicing atty., 1973-81; Knox Cnty. judge, 1981-88.
DC Office	2267 RHOB20515, 202-225-5435; Fax: 202-225-6440; Web site: www.house.gov/duncan
State Offices	Athens, 423-745-4671; Knoxville, 865-523-3772; Maryville, 865-984-5464.
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Knoxville, the largest city in East Tennessee, is nestled between mountain ridges where the Holston and French Broad Rivers join to form the Tennessee River. It was established not long after the first wave of pioneers came through the gaps and down between the mountains of the Appalachian chain. During the Civil War it was Union territory, and it has remained Republican in allegiance and progressive on civil rights ever since: The ancestral tug of Tennessee politics. But its Republican heritage is tempered by another tradition, that of the Tennessee Valley Authority. A venturesome program when created in the 1930s, it is now part of the fabric of life in East Tennessee, sometimes criticized as its cheap hydroelectric power capacity was filled and more of its production came from expensive and sometimes poorly functioning nuclear plants.

Both TVA and the region have undergone turbulent changes in recent years. TVA has cut its payroll sharply and held down rates; in a competitive electricity market, and laboring under billions of dollars in debt mostly incurred in building its nuclear plants, its director proposed spinning off navigation and flood control functions to state or federal agencies. A worrisome sign for area jobs and the low cost of living: Heavy ozone pollution in Knoxville led the Environmental Protection Agency to impose growth limits, which have discouraged industrial expansion. Although TVA is spending several billion dollars to reduce pollution at its coal-fired power plants, North Carolina planned legal action because it hasn't moved fast enough. Delay in construction of a national nuclear-waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada has forced TVA to spend tens of millions of dollars for new storage pools. But Knoxville has overcome setbacks and grown robustly without much notice in the national press. Education entrepreneur Christopher Whittle's downtown campus is now a federal courthouse complex; the 1982 World's Fair site is the home of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. And the University of Tennessee's football stadium on fall Saturdays contains one of the nation's largest crowds--it qualifies as the state's 5th largest city during games--cheering the Vols. The city is also the home base of Instapundit.com, the weblog of University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds. One man with a laptop and WiFi in Knoxville can in our networking age be a player in national politics.

The 2d Congressional District of Tennessee includes Knoxville and Knox County, plus four mountainous counties and part of one other to the south. It is heavily Republican and has not elected a Democratic congressman since the Civil War. Knox County surprised many by giving a narrow plurality to Democratic Governor Phil Bredesen in 2002, but Republican Van Hilleary carried the rest of the district by a wider margin.

The congressman from the 2d District is John "Jimmy" Duncan, a Republican first elected in 1988; his father, who was senior Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, represented the 2d from 1964 until his death in May 1988. Jimmy Duncan studied in Knoxville and Washington, practiced law and was a trial judge in the 1980s. When his father died, he won the seat despite a spirited challenge from Democrat Dudley Taylor, a scion of another prominent East Tennessee political family. Taylor attacked Duncan for signing up with the National Guard in 1970 and for his ties to scandal-tarred banker and Democratic politician Jake Butcher. But Duncan won with 56% in the special election and 57% in November. He has not been seriously challenged since then.

Duncan has been a frequent maverick on economic and foreign policy issues. He opposed normal trade relations with China, trade promotion authority and he was one of 10 Republicans to vote against the new Homeland Security Department. In October 2002, he was one of six Republicans--and the only Tennessean--who voted against the use of force in Iraq. He said that this was his most difficult vote in 14 years in the House and argued that there was not sufficient proof that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. A year later, he opposed the $87 billion spending package for Iraq. "It's the most massive foreign aid program in history," he said in January 2004, after a trip to Iraq. "They've got a country over there with their own oil wells." Citing privacy concerns, he was the only Tennessee Republican to oppose continued authority for federal investigation of library records. For six years, he chaired the Aviation Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, but in 2001 he switched and became chairman of the Water Resources Subcommittee, a pork-dispensing panel of great interest to many members. He was a team player in helping to negotiate the final deal on the airline security bill after the September 11 attacks. But his independence had its price. He was a candidate for the chairmanship of the Resources Committee in 2003 but Speaker Dennis Hastert's Steering Committee passed over Duncan and five other senior members and gave the post to Richard Pombo. Perhaps mindful of that setback, and aware that he will have other opportunities for a committee chairmanship, he voted for the Medicare/prescription drug bill in November 2003.

Duncan sometimes takes his thrifty approach to unusual extremes. He questioned excessive bonuses and pensions for TVA executives, won enactment of his bill to have TVA's inspector general appointed by the President rather than the TVA board, and said that $6.5 million in annual hospitality expenses "seems ridiculously expensive to me." But he hasn't been shy about seeking funding for local projects, from resurfacing the Foothills Parkway in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to a rail and trolley system for downtown Knoxville. In 2004 he authored a land swap between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and an adjacent Alcoa aluminum plant. Under the terms, FERC would renew Alcoa's hydroelectric dam operating license and Alcoa would give the park 100 dry acres in exchange for 180 flooded acres; Alcoa also granted a permanent easement on several thousand acres to the Tennessee Nature Conservancy.

In Knoxville, Duncan's annual barbecue dinner draws as many as 10,000 people, and reinforces his local popularity.

Committees

• Government Reform (12th of 23 R): Government Management, Finance & Accountability; National Security, Emerging Threats & International Relations.
• Resources (5th of 27 R): Forests & Forest Health; National Parks.
• Transportation & Infrastructure (5th of 41 R): Aviation; Highways, Transit & Pipelines; Water Resources & Environment (Chmn.).

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	5	5	13	9	70	75	90	88	97	84	--
2003	15	--	13	10	--	72	83	76	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	41%	--	57%		43%	--	56%
Social	30%	--	65%		31%	--	67%
Foreign	53%	--	46%		39%	--	59%
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 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 N 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds N 12. Intelligence Reorg. N

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	John Duncan (R)	215,795	79%	$418,308
	John Greene (D)	52,155	19%
	Other	4,978	2%
2004 primary	John Duncan (R)	41,362	91%
	Dibbie Howard (R)	3,861	9%
2002 general	John Duncan (R)	146,887	79%	$362,876
	John Greene (D)	37,035	20%
	Other	2,059	1%
Prior winning percentages: 2000 (89%); 1998 (89%); 1996 (71%); 1994 (90%); 1992 (72%); 1990 (81%); 1988 (57%); 1988 (56%)

2004 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 185,450 (64%) Kerry (D) 100,032 (35%)

2000 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 144,412 (59%) Gore (D) 95,100 (39%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Second 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: 2,492 square miles
• Population in 2000: 632,144; 71.4% urban; 28.6% rural
• Median Household Income: $36,796; 12.2% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 25.9% blue collar; 59.6% white collar; 14.5% gray collar; 13.5% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 90.1% White, 6.2% Black, 1.0% Asian, 0.3% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 1.0% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 1.3% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 14.0% USA, 8.9% English, 8.9% German
• Click here for statewide demographic data.