Jim Longley
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMaine's1st district
In office January 3, 1995 – January 3, 1997
Preceded by	Tom Andrews
Succeeded by	Tom Allen
Personal details
Born	James Bernard Longley Jr. (1951-07-07)July 7, 1951 (age 74) Lewiston, Maine, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Education	College of the Holy Cross (BA) University of Maine, Portland (JD)

James Bernard Longley Jr. (born July 7, 1951) is an American politician fromMaine. ARepublican, he served one term in the United States House of Representatives representingMaine's 1st district from 1995 to 1997, and was the1998 Republican nominee for Governor of Maine.

Longley was born inLewiston,Maine, the son of former IndependentGovernorJim Longley Sr. and his wife,Helen. Longley attendedPhillips Andover Academy. He received hisB.A. from theCollege of the Holy Cross, and then returned to study law at theUniversity of Maine. He is also a veteran of theUnited States Marine Corps.^[1]

Before entering Congress, Longley served as a trial lawyer. He also managed several small businesses nearPortland, Maine. In1994, when Democratic CongressmanThomas Andrews opted to not seek re-election in the1st District to instead unsuccessfully run for theUnited States Senate seat being vacated by DemocratGeorge J. Mitchell, Longley ran to succeed him. He faced State Senate PresidentDennis L. Dutremble, the Democratic nominee, in the general election. Though the Portland-based district had long favored Democratic candidates, Longley narrowly defeated Dutremble as part of the "Republican Revolution."

In one of his first actions in Congress, he offered testimony before a Congressional committee considering aminimum wage increase. In his testimony he presented the concept of cutting taxes paid by minimum wage workers to provide a greater increase in their take home pay. He pointed out that minimum wage increases cause small businesses to not only pay more in wages (hurting the businesses and forcing them in some cases to cut jobs and reduce their workforce to make up for wage increases) but that cutting the payroll taxes would actually increase the employees take home pay by a larger amount than raising the overall minimum wage. Longley noted in his testimony that minimum wage increases cause businesses, as well as employees, to pay more in federal taxes through employee percentage withholding and the business match of payroll taxes. He then accused the Democrats on the committee of only seeking a minimum wage increase to increase tax revenues for the federal government – a backdoor tax increase on Americansmall business, he claimed. Democrats on the committee accused him of wanting to harm his constituents, led by a rant from CongressmanPete Stark, who was gaveled down by the Chairman for being out of order after Stark made reference to how they would use the issue against him in the next election. Longley's idea did not succeed.

He quickly became a prime target of the Democratic Party in1996, and was challenged by Former Portland MayorTom Allen. In the race labor unions and left leaning groups spent millions of dollars in a coordinated effort to defeat him. It was the largest effort of its kind on behalf of a Democratic candidate (or in opposition to an incumbent Republican) within the nation during the 1996 election cycle. Of course, smaller, but similar, sums were spent by business and professional organizations, and right-leaning special interest groups, in a coordinated effort to defend the seat. Longley lost to Allen by a wide margin, and is the last Republican to have represented Maine's 1st congressional district.

In1998, Longley ran for Governor of Maine. He won the Republican primary against State RepresentativeHenry L. Joy and faced incumbent GovernorAngus King, an independent, in the general election, along with attorneyThomas J. Connolly, the Democratic nominee. Longley came in second place and received 19% of the vote.

• United States Congress."James B. Longley Jr. (id: L000431)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved on 2009-02-13
• Appearances onC-SPAN

• 1951 births
• 20th-century United States representatives
• College of the Holy Cross alumni
• Living people
• Maine lawyers
• Politicians from Lewiston, Maine
• Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Maine
• United States Marines
• University of Maine School of Law alumni

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• People appearing on C-SPAN