Tom Lantos | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chair of theHouse Foreign Affairs Committee | |
| In office January 3, 2007 – February 11, 2008 | |
| Preceded by | Henry Hyde |
| Succeeded by | Howard Berman |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromCalifornia | |
| In office January 3, 1981 – February 11, 2008 | |
| Preceded by | William Royer |
| Succeeded by | Jackie Speier |
| Constituency | 11th district(1981–1993) 12th district(1993–2008) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Tamás Péter Lantos (1928-02-01)February 1, 1928 |
| Died | February 11, 2008(2008-02-11) (aged 80) Bethesda, Maryland, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 daughters, includingKatrina Swett |
| Relatives | Tomicah S. Tillemann (grandson) Levi Tillemann (grandson) Charity Tillemann-Dick (granddaughter) |
| Education | Eötvös Loránd University University of Washington, Seattle (BA,MA) University of California, Berkeley (PhD) |
Lantos speaks on the 10th anniversary ofLatvia's independence from the Soviet Union Recorded July 17, 2000 | |
Thomas Peter Lantos (bornTamás Péter Lantos; February 1, 1928 – February 11, 2008)[1] was a Hungarian-born American politician who served as aU.S. representative fromCalifornia from 1981 until his death in 2008. A member of theDemocratic Party, he represented the state's11th congressional district until 1993. After redistricting, he served from the12th congressional district, which included both the northern two-thirds ofSan Mateo County and a portion of the southwestern part ofSan Francisco.
Lantos, who served as Chair of theHouse Foreign Affairs Committee in his last term, announced in early January 2008 that he would not run for re-election because ofcancer of the esophagus. He died before finishing his term.[2][3] AHungarian Jew, Lantos was the onlyHolocaust survivor to have served in the United States Congress; he survived thegenocide with help fromRaoul Wallenberg.[4] In speaking before the House of Representatives after his death, SpeakerNancy Pelosi stated that Lantos "devoted his public life to shining a bright light on the dark corners of oppression. He used his powerful voice to stir the consciousness of world leaders and the public alike."[5]
In 2008, after his death, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, which he founded in 1983, was renamed theTom Lantos Human Rights Commission. Its mission is partly "to promote, defend, and advocate internationally recognized human rights". In the final weeks of his life, Lantos asked that a non-profit be established to carry on the work he felt so passionately about. The Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice[6] was founded later that year to carry out that wish. In 2011, the Tom Lantos Institute was set up inBudapest to promote tolerance and support minority issues inCentral Europe andEastern Europe, as well as around the world.[7]
Lantos was born Tamás Péter Lantos (Hungarian:[ˈtɒmaːʃˈpeːtɛrˈlɒntoʃ]) into aJewish family inBudapest, the son of Anna, a high school English teacher, and Pál Lantos, a banker.[8] His family was heavily involved in education, and included an uncle who was a professor at theUniversity of Budapest and a grandmother who was a high school principal.
His life in Hungary would change after theannexing of Austria byNazi Germany in 1938, with the Austrian border just 100 miles (160 km) from Budapest. Lantos remembered this period and a newspaper headline he read when he was ten years old, "Hitler Marches into Austria". Even at a young age, he understood the significance of this invasion, recalling in a 1999 interview withUniversity of Washington Magazine, "I sensed that this historic moment would have a tremendous impact on the lives ofHungarian Jews, my family, and myself".[9][10]
Six years later, in March 1944, the German militaryinvaded Hungary and occupied Budapest, its capital. As he was Jewish, Lantos, then 16, was arrested and sent to aforced labor camp outside of Budapest. He escaped, but was soon caught by the Germans and beaten severely, then returned to the labor camp. He again escaped, this time making his way back to Budapest, 40 miles (64 km) away. There, he hid with an aunt in asafe house set up byRaoul Wallenberg, aSwedish diplomat.[9]
Lantos joined Wallenberg's network; his fair hair and blue eyes, which to the Nazis were physical signs of "Aryanism", enabled him to serve as a courier and deliver food and medicine to Jews living in other safe houses.[11] In January 1945, less than a year later, Soviet military forces fought door-to-door battles and liberated Hungary from German occupation. However, Lantos, then 17, returned home only to discover that his mother and other family members had all been murdered by the Germans, along with440,000 other Hungarian Jews, during the preceding 10 months of their occupation.[9] Wallenberg, for his part, was later credited with saving the lives of thousands of other Hungarian Jews.[12]
Lantos described some of his experiences in theAcademy Award-winning documentary filmThe Last Days (1998), produced bySteven Spielberg'sShoah Foundation. In his floor speeches as a congressman, he sometimes referred to himself as one of the few living members of Congress who had fought againstfascism. In 1981, Lantos sponsored a bill making Wallenberg anHonorary Citizen of the United States, and became a member of theInternational Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. In January 2006, he traveled to Hungary and attended a ceremony commemorating the 61st anniversary of the liberation of theBudapest Ghetto. The event was held at theGreat Synagogue in Budapest.[13]
In 1946, Lantos enrolled at theUniversity of Budapest. As a result of his fluent English,[citation needed] he wrote an essay aboutFranklin D. Roosevelt, and he was awarded a scholarship by theHillel Foundation to study in the United States. He then emigrated to the U.S., and studied economics at theUniversity of Washington inSeattle, where he earned aB.A. in 1949 and anM.A. in 1950. He continued his post-graduate education at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, and received aPh.D. in economics in 1953.[14] His student years were thinly fictionalized in the character of Ted Lambros inErich Segal's 1985 novelThe Class.
After graduation from Berkeley, Lantos became a professor of economics atSan Francisco State University. In subsequent years, he worked as a business consultant and television commentator on subjects of foreign policy. He eventually became a senior advisor to various U.S. Senators, and in 1980, he was elected to theU.S. Congress, where he remained until his death in February 2008. Recalling his early life, he announced his retirement by stating to Congress, "I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country."[9]
Despite becoming fluent in English, Lantos never lost his Hungarian accent. During his childhood, he met his future wife, Annette Tillemann (or Tilleman; born June 27, 1931), then using the name Agnes Ethel Seymour. Her family had managed to escape to Switzerland, using Swedish passports issued byRaoul Wallenberg. After Hungary was liberated, she and her family returned to Budapest, where she and Lantos met again. After emigrating to the United States, they married on July 13, 1950. They remained married until his death in 2008. Agnes Ethel Lantos became a naturalized United States citizen on May 17, 1954, under that name.[15][16] Annette's father Sebastian was the brother ofJolie Gabor, with Jolie's daughtersMagda,Zsa Zsa, andEva Gabor being first cousins to Annette Lantos.[17]
Lantos and his wife had two daughters, Annette Marie and Katrina, and 18 grandchildren, includingLevi Tillemann, an author and energy expert; Tomicah S. Tillemann, a former Democratic political speechwriter; andCharity Tillemann-Dick, an opera singer and activist. The Lantoses' daughter Annette was married to Timber Dick, an independent businessman in Colorado,[18] until his accidental death in 2008.[19][20]
Lantos's younger daughter,Katrina Lantos Swett, is married toambassador and former U.S. Representative fromNew HampshireRichard Swett, and was herself a candidate for Congress in New Hampshire. She now serves as President of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, and she is also the Co-chair of the International Religious Freedom Summit.[21]
Lantos considered himself asecular Jew.[22]
Lantos made his first run for office in 1980, challengingRepublican CongressmanBill Royer, who had won a 1979 special election afterDemocratLeo Ryan was killed in theJonestown massacre. Lantos defeated Royer by 5,700 votes. He never again faced such a close contest, and was re-elected 13 times. Lantos earned a reputation as a champion for varioushuman rights causes, such as havingYahoo CEOJerry Yang testify at a congressional hearing after the company turned over the email records of two Chinese dissidents to the Chinese government, allowing them to be traced and one sentenced to jail.[23][24]
Lantos was a member of theCongressional Progressive Caucus, and repeatedly called for reforms to the nation'shealth-care system, reduction of thenational budget deficit and thenational debt, repeal of theEconomic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. He opposedSocial Security privatization efforts. He supportedsame-sex marriage rights andmarijuana for medical use, was a strong proponent ofgun control and adamantlypro-choice.[25]
Lantos was an advocate on behalf of theenvironment, receiving consistently high ratings from theLeague of Conservation Voters and otherenvironmental organizations for his legislative record. His long-standing efforts to protect open space brought thousands of acres under the protection of theGolden Gate National Recreation Area, includingMori Point,Sweeney Ridge, andRancho Corral de Tierra, which will keep itswatersheds and delicate habitats free from development permanently.[26][27]
While Lantos was an early supporter of theIraq War,[28] from 2006 onward, he acknowledged public criticism about the conduct of the war[29] and called for a diplomatic approach toward ceasing hostilities.[30]
Lantos served as the chairman of theUnited States House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Through its more than 20 years of work, theCongressional Human Rights Caucus—of which Lantos was co-chair with RepresentativeFrank Wolf—covered a wide range of human rights issues. They included speaking for Christians inSaudi Arabia andSudan to practice their faith, helpingTibetans to retain their culture and religion in Tibet, and advocating for other minorities worldwide.
Among his other efforts was a demand thatJapan apologize forsex slavery during World War II.[31] He declared Turkey's mass killings of Armenians during World War I to begenocide.[31] In more recent times, he supported democracy inBurma and pressed for sanctions on Iran for supporting terrorism.[31] In 2004, he sponsored a bill to stop the spread ofantisemitism.[32]
On other aspects ofAmerican foreign policy, Lantos spoke out against waste, fraud and abuse in the multi-billion dollar U.S. reconstruction program in Iraq, and warned that the U.S. could lose Afghanistan to theTaliban if theBush administration failed to take decisive action to halt the current decline in political stability there. Lantos was against U.S. military aid toEgypt as the Egyptian military had failed to stop the flow of money and weapons across the Egyptian border toHamas inGaza, and Egypt had not contributed troops to the peacekeeping efforts inAfghanistan and elsewhere.[33]
Lantos was a strong supporter of the 1991Persian Gulf War. During the run-up to the war in 1990, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, of which Lantos was co-chairman, hosted a 15 year oldKuwaiti girl, then identified only as "Nurse Nayirah", who told of horrific abuses by Iraqi soldiers following theIraqi invasion of Kuwait, including the killing of Kuwaiti babies by taking them out of their incubators and leaving them to die on the floor of the hospital. These alleged atrocities figured prominently in the rhetoric at the time about Iraqi abuses in Kuwait. Her witness account was later challenged by independent human rights monitors.[34]
"Nurse Nayirah" later turned out to be the daughter ofSaud Nasser Al-Saud Al-Sabah, a member of Kuwait's rulingAl-Sabah family who served asKuwait's ambassador to the United States at the time. Asked about having allowed the girl to give testimony without identifying herself, and without her story having been corroborated, Lantos replied, "The notion that any of the witnesses brought to the caucus through the Kuwaiti Embassy would not be credible did not cross my mind... I have no basis for assuming that her story is not true, but the point goes beyond that. If one hypothesizes that the woman's story is fictitious from A to Z, that in no way diminishes the avalanche of human rights violations."[34]
TheCanadian Broadcasting Corporation sent investigators to Kuwait who went through the hospital and counted the incubators and they found that "except for one or two that may have been misplaced" all of the incubators were still in the hospital. The investigators concluded that there were no deaths resulting from stolen equipment. And the doctor who providedAmnesty International with the number of babies killed dropped from 312 to 72 and then 30, 19 of which died before the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. After the war,The New York Times wrote, "It's plainly wrong for a member of congress to collaborate with a public relations firm to produce knowingly deceptive testimony on an important issue.[35] Yet Representative Tom Lantos has been caught doing exactly that. His behavior warrants a searching inquiry by the House Ethics Committee."[36]
On October 4, 2002, Lantos led a narrow majority of Democrats on the House International Relations Committee to a successful vote in support of the Resolution for the Use of Force, seeking the approval of the United Nations and under the condition that PresidentGeorge W. Bush would allow UN weapons inspectors to finish their work and that Bush would need to return to Congress for an actual declaration of war before invading Iraq. The resolution later passed the House and the Senate with a total of 373 of 435 members of Congress supporting it. "The train is now on its way", said Lantos after the resolution successfully passed both houses of Congress.[37] In later hearings on the war, Lantos continued his enthusiastic support.
Starting in early 2006, Lantos distanced himself from theBush Administration's Iraq policy, making critical statements at hearings, on the House floor and in published media interviews about the conduct of the war. During hearings of the House International Relations Committee, where he was then the ranking member, Lantos repeatedly praised the investigative work of the office of the Special Inspector of Iraq Reconstruction GeneralStuart Bowen, which uncovered evidence of waste, fraud and abuse in the use of U.S. taxpayer dollars intended to help secure and rebuild Iraq. Lantos was an immediate and consistent critic of the troop surge advocated by President Bush. On the night in January 2007 that Bush announced his plan, Lantos responded, "I oppose the so-called surge that constitutes the centerpiece of the President's plan. Our efforts in Iraq are a mess, and throwing in more troops will not improve it."[38]
During a joint House hearing on September 10, 2007, featuring GeneralDavid Petraeus and AmbassadorRyan Crocker, Lantos said:
The Administration's myopic policies in Iraq have created a fiasco. Is it any wonder that on the subject of Iraq, more and more Americans have little confidence in this Administration? We can not take ANY of this Administration's assertions on Iraq at face value anymore, and no amount of charts or statistics will improve its credibility. This is not a knock on you, General Petraeus, or on you, Ambassador Crocker. But the fact remains, gentlemen, that the Administration has sent you here today to convince the members of these two Committees and the Congress that victory is at hand. With all due respect to you, I must say ... I don't buy it.
At the same hearing, Lantos drew comparisons between some of the current U.S. activities in Iraq to U.S. support two decades earlier ofIslamic militants in Afghanistan:
America should not be in the business of arming, training and funding both sides of a religious civil war in Iraq. Did the Administration learn nothing from our country's actions in Afghanistan two decades ago, when by supporting Islamist militants against theSoviet Union, we helped pave the way for the rise of theTaliban? Why are we now repeating the short-sighted patterns of the past?[33]
As co-founder of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in 1983 and as Chairman of theForeign Affairs Committee, Lantos would "stir the consciousness of world leaders and the public alike", according to RepresentativeNancy Pelosi. She added: "Wherever there was injustice or oppression, he used his expertise and moral authority to put the United States on the side of justice and human rights". In 2007, in his effort to help the people of China and Tibet, he presented theDalai Lama with theCongressional Gold Medal.[39]
On April 28, 2006, Lantos and four other Democratic U.S. Representatives, along with six other activists, took part in acivil disobedience action in front of theSudanese embassy inWashington, D.C. They were protesting the role of theSudanese government in carrying outgenocide in theDarfur conflict and were arrested fordisorderly conduct.[40]
Lantos was an activist for the rights ofHungarian minorities;[41][42] as a member of the US House of Representatives. In a 2007 letter he askedRobert Fico, the Prime Minister of Slovakia to distance themselves from theBeneš decrees, a reasonable process in theHedvig Malina case, and to treat members of theHungarian minority as equal.[43][44]
The American Hungarian Federation recognized Congressman Lantos for his "Leadership in Support of Democracy, Human Rights and Minority Rights in Central and Eastern Europe", awarding him the organization's highest award, the "Col. Commandant Michael Kovats Medal of Freedom", at the October 19, 2005, Congressional Reception commemorating the 49th Anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.[45]
On August 27, 2006, at theIsraeli Foreign Ministry building inIsrael, Lantos said he would block aforeign aid package promised by PresidentGeorge W. Bush toLebanon unless and until Beirut agreed to the deployment of international troops on the border withSyria and Lebanon takes control of its borders with Syria to prevent arms smuggling to Hezbollah guerrillas.[46]
Lantos supportedMorocco's demand to gain sovereignty overWestern Sahara, and criticized thePolisario Front, which demands independence for the disputed region. In 2007, he backed Morocco's proposal to make the region autonomous under Moroccan rule, saying: "I urge the leadership of the Polisario to realize that they will never again get such a good deal for the population they purport to represent."[47]
On January 2, 2008, after having been diagnosed withesophageal cancer, Lantos announced he would not run for a 15th term in the House, but planned to complete his final term. In his statement, he said:
It is only in the United States that a penniless survivor of the Holocaust and a fighter in the anti-Nazi underground could have received an education, raised a family, and had the privilege of serving the last three decades of his life as a Member of Congress. I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country."[31]
Lantos died from complications of esophageal cancer atWalter Reed National Military Medical Center on February 11, 2008, ten days after his 80th birthday, and eleven months before the end of his term.[31] Numerous politicians memorialized him; House Minority WhipRoy Blunt called him "a man of uncommon integrity and sincere moral conviction — and a public servant who never wavered in his pursuit of a better, freer and more religiously tolerant world", and PresidentGeorge W. Bush called Lantos "a man of character and a champion of human rights" and "a living reminder that we must never turn a blind eye to the suffering of the innocent at the hands of evil men".[31][48] A memorial service was held for Lantos on February 14, 2008, at Statuary Hall in the Capitol. Speakers included then-SenatorJoe Biden,Bono ofU2, Rep.Steny Hoyer, UN Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon,Israeli foreign ministerTzipi Livni, SpeakerNancy Pelosi,Secretary of StateCondoleezza Rice, Rep.Christopher Shays andElie Wiesel.[49] He was buried inCongressional Cemetery inWashington, D.C.
Aspecial election was held to fill his seat on April 8, 2008, and was won by formerState SenatorJackie Speier, whom Lantos had endorsed.[50]
On June 19, 2008, Bush posthumously awarded Lantos the Medal of Freedom. In a ceremony at the White House, Bush stated "We miss his vigorous defense of human rights and his powerful witness for the cause of human freedom. For a lifetime of leadership, for his commitment to liberty, and for his devoted service to his adopted nation, I am proud to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom, posthumously, to Tom Lantos, and proud that his loving wife Annette will receive the award on behalf of his family."[51]
In 2008, theCongressional Human Rights Caucus, which he founded in 1983, was renamed The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. Its mission is partly "to promote, defend and advocate internationally recognized human rights." The first Lantos Human Rights Prize was presented to the14th Dalai Lama in 2009. In 2011, the institute was set up in Budapest to promote tolerance and support minority issues in central and eastern Europe and in the world.[7]
In the final weeks of his life, Lantos asked that a non-profit be established to carry on the work he felt so passionately about. The Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice was founded later that year to carry out that wish.[52] Lantos's daughter,Katrina Lantos Swett, serves as the Foundation's president and CEO.
On September 10, 2011, thePeninsula Humane Society & SPCA officially opened the Tom and Annette Lantos Center for Compassion, located at 1450 Rollins Road inBurlingame, California. The facility was funded with a naming gift in the Lantos's honor byOracle founder,Larry Ellison, and his wife, Melanie.[53]
Budapest named a promenade in the city in honor of Lantos in 2016.[54]
Lantos received theGrand Cross, Hungary's highest civilian honor.[55]
See also
Project Vote Smart provides the following results from congressional scorecards.[56]
During a 1996 congressional inquiry into theFilegate scandal, Lantos told witness Craig Livingstone that "with an infinitely more distinguished public record than yours,Admiral Boorda committedsuicide when he may have committed a minor mistake". Boorda, theChief of Naval Operations, had taken his own life after his right to wearCombat V decorations had been questioned. Lantos was criticized by some (including fellow CongressmanJoe Scarborough) for this comment.[58]
On May 3, 2000, Lantos was involved in an automobile accident while driving onCapitol Hill. He drove over a young boy's foot and then failed to stop his vehicle and was later fined over the incident for inattentive driving.[59]
In 2002, Lantos, who was on the House Committee on International Affairs, tookColette Avital, aLabor Party member of the IsraeliKnesset, by the hand and, according toHaaretz, tried to reassure her with these words: "My dear Colette, don't worry. You won't have any problem withSaddam. We'll be rid of the bastard soon enough. And in his place we'll install a pro-Western dictator, who will be good for us and for you."[60] He later denied saying this, but Avital confirmed it, according to Ben Terrall, an adviser to Maad H. Abu-Ghazalah, aLibertarian Party candidate who ran against Lantos that year.[citation needed]
In June 2007, Lantos called former German ChancellorGerhard Schröder a "political prostitute" at the dedication ceremony of theVictims of Communism Memorial, which caused a political backlash from theGerman government. Lantos was referring to Schröder'sties to energy business inRussia, and remarked that this appellation would offend prostitutes.[61]
In October 2007, Dutch parliamentarians said Lantos insulted them while discussing thewar on terror by stating that theNetherlands had to help the United States because it liberated them inWorld War II, while adding that "Europe was not as outraged byAuschwitz as byGuantanamo Bay."[62]
On January 6, 2008,FBI whistleblowerSibel Edmonds included Lantos's photograph among others featured in the "State Secrets Privilege Gallery" posted on her website, composing images of figures considered to be relevant to her case.[63] On August 8, 2009, she gave sworn testimony about Lantos and others during a witness deposition before the Ohio Elections Commission in theSchmidt v.Krikorian case, in which she alleged that he had engaged in "[N]ot only ... bribe[ry], but also ... disclosing highest level protected U.S. intelligence and weapons technology information both toIsrael and toTurkey. ... other very serious criminal conduct."[64][65]
| Year | Democratic | Votes | Pct | Republican | Votes | Pct | 3rd Party | Party | Votes | Pct | 3rd Party | Party | Votes | Pct | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Tom Lantos | 85,823 | 46% | Bill Royer | 80,100 | 43% | Wilson Branch | Peace and Freedom | 13,723 | 7% | William S.Wade, Jr. | Libertarian | 3,816 | 2% | * | ||||
| 1982 | Tom Lantos | 109,812 | 57% | Bill Royer | 76,462 | 40% | Chuck Olson | Libertarian | 2,920 | 2% | Wilson Branch | Peace and Freedom | 1,928 | 1% | * | ||||
| 1984 | Tom Lantos | 147,607 | 70% | Jack Hickey | 59,625 | 28% | Nicholas W. Kudrovzeff | American Independent | 3,883 | 2% | |||||||||
| 1986 | Tom Lantos | 112,380 | 74% | Bill Quraishi | 39,315 | 26% | |||||||||||||
| 1988 | Tom Lantos | 145,484 | 71% | Bill Quraishi | 50,050 | 24% | Bill Wade | Libertarian | 4,683 | 2% | Victor Martinez | Peace and Freedom | 2,906 | 1% | * | ||||
| 1990 | Tom Lantos | 105,029 | 66% | Bill Quraishi | 45,818 | 29% | June R. Genis | Libertarian | 8,518 | 5% |
*Write-in and minor candidate notes: In 1980, Nicholas W. Kudrovzeff,American Independent Party, received 1,550 votes (1%). In 1982, Nicholas W. Kudrovzeff,American Independent Party, received 1,250 votes (1%). In 1988, Nicholas W. Kudrovzeff,American Independent Party, received 1,893 votes (1%).
| Year | Democratic | Votes | Pct | Republican | Votes | Pct | 3rd Party | Party | Votes | Pct | 3rd Party | Party | Votes | Pct | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Tom Lantos | 157,205 | 69% | Jim Tomlin | 53,278 | 23% | Mary Weldon | Peace and Freedom | 10,142 | 4% | George O'Brien | Libertarian | 7,782 | 3% | |||||
| 1994 | Tom Lantos | 118,408 | 67% | Deborah Wilder | 57,228 | 33% | |||||||||||||
| 1996 | Tom Lantos | 149,049 | 72% | Storm Jenkins | 49,276 | 24% | Christopher V.A. Schmidt | Libertarian | 6,111 | 3% | Richard Borg | Natural Law | 3,472 | 2% | |||||
| 1998 | Tom Lantos | 128,135 | 74% | Robert Evans, Jr. | 36,562 | 21% | Michael J. Moloney | Libertarian | 8,515 | 5% | |||||||||
| 2000 | Tom Lantos | 158,404 | 75% | Mike Garza | 44,162 | 21% | Barbara J. Less | Libertarian | 6,431 | 3% | Rifkin Young | Natural Law | 3,559 | 2% | |||||
| 2002 | Tom Lantos | 105,597 | 68% | Michael Moloney | 38,381 | 25% | Maad H. Abu-Ghazalah | Libertarian | 11,006 | 7% | |||||||||
| 2004 | Tom Lantos | 171,852 | 68% | Mike Garza | 52,593 | 21% | Pat Gray | Green | 23,038 | 9% | Harland Harrison | Libertarian | 5,116 | 2% | |||||
| 2006 | Tom Lantos | 138,650 | 76% | Michael Moloney | 43,674 | 24% |
Rep. Tom Lantos of California, the only Holocaust survivor ever to serve in Congress, died early Monday morning, his spokeswoman said.
Born in Hungary in 1928 to assimilated Jewish parents, he escaped from a forced-labor brigade, joined the resistance, and was eventually, with his later-to-be-wife Annette, among the tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews rescued by the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg.
'While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies', Tom Lantos, Democrat of California and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said angrily after hearing from the two executives, Jerry Yang, the chief executive, and Michael J. Callahan, the general counsel.
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromCalifornia's 11th congressional district 1981–1993 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromCalifornia's 12th congressional district 1993–2008 | Succeeded by |
| New office | Chair of theHouse Human Rights Commission 1983–1995 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Ranking Member of theHouse Human Rights Commission 1995–2007 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Ranking Member of theHouse International Relations Committee 2001–2007 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theHouse Foreign Affairs Committee 2007–2008 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theHouse Human Rights Commission 2007–2008 | Succeeded by |
