Bob Stump | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chair of theHouse Armed Services Committee | |
| In office January 4, 2001 – January 3, 2003 | |
| Speaker | Dennis Hastert |
| Preceded by | Floyd Spence |
| Succeeded by | Duncan Hunter |
| Chair of theHouse Veterans' Affairs Committee | |
| In office January 4, 1995 – January 4, 2001 | |
| Speaker | Newt Gingrich Dennis Hastert |
| Preceded by | Sonny Montgomery |
| Succeeded by | Chris Smith |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromArizona's3rd district | |
| In office January 3, 1977 – January 3, 2003 | |
| Preceded by | Sam Steiger |
| Succeeded by | Trent Franks (Redistricting) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Robert Lee Stump April 4, 1927 Phoenix, Arizona,U.S. |
| Died | June 20, 2003(2003-06-20) (aged 76) Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. |
| Resting place | Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery (Phoenix, Arizona) |
| Political party | Democratic (1958–1982) Republican (1982–2003) |
| Spouse | Nancy Stump |
| Children | 3 |
| Alma mater | Arizona State University |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States of America |
| Branch/service |  United States Navy |
| Years of service | 1943–1946 |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
Stump, as chair of theHouse Armed Services Committee, presents the conference report for the FY2002National Defense Authorization Act Recorded December 13, 2001 | |
Robert Lee Stump (April 4, 1927 – June 20, 2003) was an American politician who served as aU.S. Congressman fromArizona. He served as a member from theDemocratic Party from 1977 to 1983 and then later a member of theRepublican Party until the end of his tenure as congressman.
Stump was born inPhoenix, and was aU.S. NavyWorld War II combat veteran, where he served on theUSSTulagi from 1943 to 1946. He graduated fromTolleson Union High School in 1947, andArizona State University in 1951 where he was a member of theDelta Chi fraternity. He owned a cotton and grain farm in the Phoenix suburb ofTolleson for many years.
He served four terms in theArizona House of Representatives from 1959 to 1967, and five terms in theArizona State Senate, from 1967 to 1976. He served as President of the Arizona State Senate from 1975 to 1976.
He was first elected to the95thCongress on November 2, 1976, originally as aDemocrat from the3rd Congressional District, a vast district stretching from western Phoenix throughPrescott toLake Havasu City and theGrand Canyon. He defeated state senate minority leader Fred Koory with 47 percent of the vote.[1]
Stump wore his party ties very loosely. He considered himself a "Pinto Democrat," the popular name for conservative Democrats from rural Arizona, and his voting record was strongly conservative. His profile was similar to those of conservative Democrats from the South. He voted forRonald Reagan's tax cuts in 1981. Shortly after that vote, he announced he would become aRepublican when Congress reconvened in January 1982. Regardless of his party affiliation, he never faced serious competition at the ballot box. After his initial run for Congress, he only dropped below 60 percent of the vote once, in 1990. He only faced an independent in 1978, and was completely unopposed in 1986.[2]
He briefly considered running for theSenate in 1986 afterBarry Goldwater decided to retire.[3]
Described as "quiet" and "assiduously private",[3] Stump kept a fairly low profile for most of his tenure. He had only a skeleton staff; he was known to answer the phone himself at hisWashington, D.C. office, and to open his own mail.[3][4][5] Stump usually returned home to work his farm in Tolleson on weekends.
In November 1997, Stump was one of eighteen Republicans in the House to co-sponsora resolution byBob Barr that sought to launch animpeachment inquiry against PresidentBill Clinton.[6][7] The resolution did not specify any charges or allegations.[7] This was an early effort toimpeach Clinton, predating the eruption of theClinton–Lewinsky scandal. The eruption of that scandal would ultimately lead to a more serious effort to impeach Clinton in 1998.[8] On October 8, 1998, Stump voted in favor of legislation that was passed to openan impeachment inquiry.[9]On December 19, 1998, Stump voted in favor of all four proposedarticles of impeachment against Clinton (only two of which received the majority of votes needed to be adopted).[10][11][12][13]
In his 26 years in the House he became a noted member of theHouse Armed Services Committee, serving as chairman from 2001 to 2003. He'd chaired theHouse Veterans' Affairs Committee from 1995 to 2001, when he was forced to give that post up due to caucus-imposed term limits. He is one of the few members of the House to chair both committees.[14] He consistently supported increased spending on the military and veterans.[4][5][15] The 2003 military appropriations authorization act was named after him in recognition of his commitment to the military as the Bob Stump National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003.[16]
Stump sponsored bills to makeEnglish the official language for government business and to alter laws so that children born on US soil to non-citizen parents would not automatically be citizens.[5] According to Amy Silverson, he was "best known in Congress as a perpetual naysayer, casting votes against almost all spending programs."[3]
Between 1976 and 2002, he accumulated a lifetime score of 97 (out of 100) from theAmerican Conservative Union.[17] He received very low scores from theNational Council of Senior Citizens, theAmerican Civil Liberties Union, theAFL–CIO, theNAACP, and theLeague of Conservation Voters.[18]
Although his district included the entire northwestern portion of Arizona, the great majority of its residents lived in the West Valley. Stump was often accused of addressing himself mainly to the West Valley and ignoring the other portions of his sprawling district, even though the district's center of gravity had moved to the West Valley as early as the 1970s. Indeed, many of his constituents rarely saw him. He maintained his district office in downtown Phoenix, outside his own district, for many years.[3] Although he claimed his farm in Tolleson as his residence in the district, his main residence was in another portion of Phoenix outside the district. However, Stump toldThe Arizona Republic that he saw the farm as "my place of business," and knew that "nobody ever thought I resided there." He believed that "you declare your residency wherever you want.[19] Stump would have been well within his rights to claim his Phoenix home as his official residence, as members of the House are only required to live in thestate they represent.
After theAssociated Pressmistakenly placedBob Hope's obituary on its web site in June 1998, Stump announced on the floor of the House that the entertainer had died.[20][21] This was quickly denied by his daughter and publicist; Hope outlived Stump by five weeks, dying in 2003 at the age of 100.
He decided not to run for re-election in 2002 due to declining health. He endorsed his longtime chief of staff, Lisa Jackson Atkins, as his successor in what was then numbered as the 2nd District. Atkins had been very visible in the district, to the point that many thoughtshe actually represented it rather than Stump. However, Atkins was defeated in a seven way Republican primary byTrent Franks, who held the seatuntil December 2017. Stump died June 20, 2003, ofmyelodysplasia, a blood disorder and was buried atGreenwood/Memory Lawn Mortuary & Cemetery in Phoenix withfull military honors.[3][4][15]
In 2004, the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center inPrescott, Arizona, was renamed the Bob Stump Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Stump is no relation to the member of theArizona Corporation Commission of the same name. In 2006, SR 303L was renamed theBob Stump Memorial Highway.[22]
In 2018, Stump's widow issued a letter, criticizing an Arizona state government politicianof the same name for allegedly capitalizing on her late husband's name. The letter was met with a sharp rebuke by the state government politician's mother.[23]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromArizona's 3rd congressional district 1977–2003 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Ranking Member of theHouse Veterans' Affairs Committee 1989–1995 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theHouse Veterans' Affairs Committee 1995–2001 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theHouse Armed Services Committee 2001–2003 | Succeeded by |
Chairs of theUnited States House Committee on Armed Services | ||
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| Military Affairs Committee (1822–1947) |  | |
| Naval Affairs Committee (1822–1947) | ||
| Armed Services Committee* (from 1947) | ||
*Alternately namedNational Security in 104th and 105th Congresses. | ||
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