Jim Jeffords

James Merrill "Jim" Jeffords ( born May 11, 1934 in Rutland, Vermont) is an American politician who is the state of Vermont in the U.S. Senate representing from 1989 to 2007. Former Republican in 2001 was held out of his party and was, until his retirement, the only independent member of the Senate. He joined the Senate elections in November 2006, not again. His successor was also independent Bernie Sanders.

Youth and Family

Jeffords was the son of Olin Jeffords, a former Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court is He studied at Yale University ( completion 1956) and Harvard Law School ( completion 1962). He served from 1956 to 1959 in the United States Navy and was an officer in the reserves until 1990. He is married to Elizabeth Dailey, has two children and lives with his family in Shrewsbury.

Policy

Jeffords 1966 won election to the Senate from Vermont. He was directly elected Minister of Justice ( Attorney General ) of Vermont in 1968. In 1974 he won the single seat, has the Vermont in the U.S. House of Representatives, and retained the post until he was in 1988 elected to the U.S. Senate.

Jeffords ' work in Congress focused mainly on the issues of education policy and working with the disabled. Since 2000 he was also increasingly concerned with environmental policy. Along with Paul Simon, he was one of two U.S. senators who vehemently support for the United Nations Mission for Rwanda ( UNAMIR ) inserting. He was co-founder of the Congress Initiative for solar energy.

Party exit

Jeffords left the Republican Party on June 5, 2001. The majority in the Senate changed by a razor-thin majority of Republicans (50:50, the voice of the Republican Vice President Dick Cheney presented the majority of them safely ) to a wafer-thin majority for the Democrats ( 50:49 ). Under the condition that he would continue to be chairman of the committee, he chose with the Democrats, and gave them so that the voting majority. Jeffords resigned as chairman of the Health and Education Committee and got on the chair of the environment committee. After the Democrats had clearly lost the midterm elections in 2002, he lost this post to a Republican.

Jeffords arranged with the Democrats that he - unless this would previously clarified by arrangement - right in the Rules of Procedure questions with them; to compensate for that he got the committee seats that he would have received if he had been a Democrat in its entire Congress period. In substantive issues he could vote as he wanted, but agreed nevertheless usually together with the Democrats. Even before his move, he followed the tradition of the Republican from Vermont, very liberal vote. Already at this time he agreed to the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the Brady Bill for the control of small arms as well as the Family and Medical Leave Act. He voted for the inclusion of homosexuals in the U.S. military and to close trade relations with China. He was vehemently opposed the appointment of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court and one of only two Republicans who voted against it. After his exchange he agreed, for example, in 2006 as one of only ten senators opposing the extension of the USA PATRIOT Act.

Jeffords agreed on 11 October 2002 as one of 23 senators against the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Retirement from politics

Jeffords announced in April 2005 that he would not be standing for the Senate election in 2006. The 70 -year-old made ​​the cancer of his wife and his own failing health as grounds of appeal. Since the big favorite for the election in Vermont so no longer took stated Bernie Sanders, previously the only independent member of the House of Representatives that he would run for Senator items. He then decided to choose for themselves.

• James M. Jeffords, My Declaration of Independence (Simon & Schuster, 2001). ISBN 0743228421
• James M. Jeffords, An Independent Man ( Simon & Schuster, 2003). ISBN 074322843X