Jim Kolbe | |
|---|---|
 Kolbe in the 1990s | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromArizona | |
| In office January 3, 1985 – January 3, 2007 | |
| Preceded by | James F. McNulty Jr. |
| Succeeded by | Gabby Giffords |
| Constituency |
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| Member of theArizona Senate from the14th district | |
| In office January 3, 1977 – December 31, 1982 | |
| Preceded by | Lucy Davidson |
| Succeeded by | William De Long |
| Personal details | |
| Born | James Thomas Kolbe (1942-06-28)June 28, 1942 Evanston, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | December 3, 2022(2022-12-03) (aged 80) |
| Political party |
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| Spouses | |
| Education | |
| Military service | |
| Branch/service | United States Navy |
| Years of service |
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James Thomas Kolbe (June 28, 1942 – December 3, 2022) was an American politician who served as aRepublican member of theUnited States House of Representatives. He representedArizona's 5th congressional district from 1985 to 2003 and its8th congressional district from 2003 to 2007. Amoderate, pro–abortion rights Republican, hecame out as gay in 1996 after voting in support of theDefense of Marriage Act; his subsequent re-elections made him the second openly gay Republican elected to Congress.
After leaving Congress, Kolbe served on the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations under Democratic presidentBarack Obama. Kolbe left the Republican Party and became anindependent in 2018 after the election ofDonald Trump. He endorsedJoe Biden in the2020 presidential election.
Kolbe was born inEvanston, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, on June 28, 1942,[1] the son of Helen Nevada (Reed) and Walter William Kolbe.[2][3] When he was five, his family moved to a ranch in ruralSanta Cruz County, Arizona. He attended Patagonia Elementary School andPatagonia Union High School, but graduated from the United States Capitol Page School in 1960 after serving for three years as aUnited States Senate Page forBarry Goldwater. In 1965, he received his bachelor's degree inpolitical science fromNorthwestern University in Evanston, where he was a member ofAcacia fraternity, and, in 1967, hismaster's in business administration fromStanford University inPalo Alto, California.[4] He served in theUnited States Navy, including a year in Vietnam in the riverine, "Swift Boat," force.[5] He was a special assistant toIllinois Republican GovernorRichard B. Ogilvie. He then moved toTucson, Arizona, where he was a business executive.[6]
In 1976, Kolbe ran for theArizona Senate in a Tucson-area district and defeatedLucy Davidson, a one-termDemocrat who had been elected in the national Democratic wave of 1974. He served three terms in that body, and was majority whip from 1979 to 1982.
In 1982, Kolbe ran for theUnited States House of Representatives in the newly created5th congressional district. He lost to DemocratJim McNulty, a member of theArizona Board of Regents, by one percent.[7] However, Kolbe sought a rematch in 1984. Buoyed byRonald Reagan's massive national landslide that year (Reagan carried the 5th with 60 percent of the vote), Kolbe won,[8] becoming the first—and until the 2014 elections, only—Republican to represent the Arizona-Mexico border region in the House. He was reelected 10 times, often facing only token opposition. In 1998, former Tucson mayorTom Volgy challenged Kolbe,[9] holding Kolbe to only 51 percent of the vote.[10]
Kolbe was amoderate Republican.[11] This served him well; although his district included most of Tucson's Republican-leaning suburbs, the brand of Republican politics practiced in Southeast Arizona has traditionally been a centrist and independently-minded one. Like his mentor, Goldwater, Kolbe supportedabortion rights.[12] He was generally more supportive of environmental legislation than most Republicans, especially those from the West. He was a member of various moderate Republican groups such as theLog Cabin Republicans, theRepublican Main Street Partnership,[13] theRepublican Majority For Choice,Republicans for Choice,Republicans For Environmental Protection, andIt's My Party Too. He was one of the four Republicans who voted against thePartial-Birth Abortion Ban Act which was passed by the House of Representatives with 281–142 votes on October 2, 2003.[14]
In 2001, Kolbe introduced theLegal Tender Modernization Act which would have ceased production of the U.S.one-cent piece (penny). In July 2006, Kolbe introduced the Currency Overhaul for an Industrious Nation (COIN) Act, which would round cash transactions to the nearest five cents. This act would effectively remove the penny from circulation. Kolbe argued that, because of inflation, the penny is virtually worthless, and that the U.S. should stop using the penny now that the costs of penny production exceed its value. Kolbe had received some media attention as one of the foremost promoters ofeliminating the penny from circulation.[15]
In 2004,State House Majority WhipRandy Graf challenged Kolbe for the Republican nomination.[16] It was the first substantive primary challenge Kolbe had faced since his initial run for the seat in 1982. Graf ran well to Kolbe's right, but was best known for his hardline approach to illegal immigration. In contrast, Kolbe was a strong supporter ofguest worker programs for immigrants. Kolbe defeated Graf.[17] He easily won an 11th term in November. Also in 2004, Kolbe was among the 27 Republicans who voted against theFederal Marriage Amendment, a constitutional amendment intended to ban gay marriage.[18] He voted against banning gay marriage again in 2006.[19]
On November 23, 2005, Kolbe announced that he would not seek a 12th term in 2006.[20] While Kolbe had usually coasted to reelection, it had been expected to be very competitive if he ever retired. (Bill Clinton had narrowly won the district in 1996, andGeorge W. Bush narrowly edged outAl Gore andJohn Kerry in both of his presidential bids.) Graf won the five-candidate primary on September 12, 2006. Kolbe refused to endorse Graf,[21] who lost to DemocratGabby Giffords in the November 2006 election.[22]
Kolbe endorsed State Senate PresidentTim Bee's bid to unseat Giffords in 2008. However, he withdrew his endorsement in July 2008.[23]
In 2000, when Kolbe found out about former CongressmanMark Foley's "Internet communications with teenagers" who were subordinate to Foley, he informed the office that oversaw the page program. He assumed the matter had been taken care of, although this was not brought to the public's attention until September 29, 2006,[24] when it became public that Foley had sent sexually explicit and solicitative e-mails andinstant messages to young adult male pages. Republican leaders had claimed that they had only recently been made aware of Foley's actions, despite Kolbe's actions.[25] In January 2007, theFederal Election Commission committee ruled that Kolbe could use campaign funds for legal expenses associated with the Foley scandal.[26]Former SenatorLarry Craig cited this ruling in 2012 in defense against a lawsuit by the FEC regarding Craig's use of campaign funds in his own legal defense.[27]
In October 2006, federal prosecutors in Arizona opened a preliminary investigation into a camping trip that Kolbe took in July 1996 that included two teenage former congressional pages, as well as National Park officials, then-current staff, and Kolbe's sister. During that trip to the Grand Canyon, he was accused of "acting inappropriately";NBC News interviewed several people who were on the trip, and their accounts vary. On June 5, 2007, federal investigators absolved Kolbe of any wrongdoing in the case. In a statement released by the Justice Department, "investigators have completed their work on the preliminary inquiry opened by federal prosecutors last fall, and see no reason to pursue it further."[28]
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Following his career in elected office, Kolbe became a fellow at theGerman Marshall Fund think tank and a consultant atKissinger McLarty Associates. He focused on issues that were his priorities while he was in Congress—trade, aid, and migration. During the fall semesters from 2007 to 2009, he taught a class on trade andglobalization at theUniversity of ArizonaJames E. Rogers College of Law inTucson. He was a member of the board of directors of theInternational Republican Institute.[29] During the 2010 election he broke from the Republican Party to endorse the candidacy of DemocratAndrei Cherny for state treasurer.[30] He was also a member of Washington D.C. based think tank theInter-American Dialogue.[31]
In September 2010, PresidentBarack Obama appointed Kolbe to the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations.[32] Kolbe served on the Board of Advisors forInternational Relief and Development Inc.[33] He was also a Co-Chairman of the dollar coin alliance.[34] Kolbe served on the board of directors of theCommittee for a Responsible Federal Budget.[35]
In 2018, Kolbe left theRepublican Party.[36] He endorsed DemocratJoe Biden for president in the2020 presidential election.[37]
In 2020, Kolbe, along with over 130 other former Republican national security officials, signed a statement that asserted that President Trump was unfit to serve another term, and "To that end, we are firmly convinced that it is in the best interest of our nation that Vice President Joe Biden be elected as the next President of the United States, and we will vote for him."[38]
Kolbe sat on the Executive Advisory Board for autonomous trucking company TuSimple.[39] He joined nine other former members of Congress to co-author a 2021 opinion editorial advocating reforms of Congress.[40]
Kolbe was married to Sarah Dinham, a professor of educational psychology at theUniversity of Arizona, from 1977 to 1992.[41][42] He was a member of CatalinaUnited Methodist Church.[43]
Kolbecame out as gay in August 1996 after his vote in favor of theDefense of Marriage Act spurred efforts by some gay rights activists toout him.[44][45] He won re-election that year. In 2000, he became the first openly gay person to address theRepublican National Convention, although his speech did not addressgay rights.[46] He was the second openly gay Republican to serve in Congress, the first beingSteve Gunderson ofWisconsin.[47]
In 2013, Kolbe married his partner, Hector Alfonso.[48] That year, Kolbe was a signatory to anamicus curiae brief submitted to theU.S. Supreme Court in support ofsame-sex marriage during theHollingsworth v. Perry case.[49]
On December 3, 2022, Kolbe died from a stroke at age 80.[50] Arizona GovernorDoug Ducey ordered flags in the state to be lowered until the evening of December 4 in honor of Kolbe.[51]
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromArizona's 5th congressional district 1985–2003 | Succeeded by |
| New constituency | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromArizona's 8th congressional district 2003–2007 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
