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George Nethercutt
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromWashington's5th district
In office January 3, 1995 – January 3, 2005
Preceded by	Tom Foley
Succeeded by	Cathy McMorris Rodgers
Personal details
Born	George Rector Nethercutt Jr. (1944-10-07)October 7, 1944 Spokane, Washington, U.S.
Died	June 14, 2024(2024-06-14) (aged 79) Colorado, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Mary Beth Socha ​ (m. 1977)​
Children	2
Education	Washington State University (BA) Gonzaga University (JD)

George Rector Nethercutt Jr. (October 7, 1944 – June 14, 2024) was an American lawyer, author, and politician. A member of theRepublican Party, he rose to national attention upon his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in1994, when he defeatedTom Foley, thespeaker of the house, inWashington's 5th congressional district. Nethercutt served five terms and left the House in 2004, when he mountedan unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate.

George Rector Nethercutt Jr. was born inSpokane, Washington, in 1944, the son of Nancy (Sampson) and George Nethercutt, a school board president.^[1][2] A graduate ofNorth Central High School, he earned aB.A. in English fromWashington State University in 1967 and aJ.D. degree fromGonzaga University in 1971.^[3] He worked as a clerk for Alaskan federal JudgeRaymond Plummer. Nethercutt then served as staff counsel and later chief of staff to SenatorTed Stevens (R-AK) from 1972 to 1977 before returning to private practice in Washington State.^[3]

Nethercutt served as atown attorney for the communities ofReardan,Creston andAlmira.^[4] He was a chair of theSpokane County Republican Party.^[4] He was the co-founder of the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery.^[4]

Nethercutt was first elected to Congress in 1994 in a dramatic election in which he unseated theSpeaker of the House,Tom Foley. It was the first time he had run for office.^[2] The district had been growing more conservative since the early 1980s, but Foley had held on mainly by running up his totals in Democratic-leaningSpokane. In the 1994 election, however, Nethercutt ran up his totals in the more rural areas of the district while holding Foley to a margin of only 9,000 votes in Spokane and 3,000 inSpokane County, which allowed him to prevail by 4,000 votes. This marked the first time a sitting Speaker of the House was unseated since 1862, and was part of a massive national Republican landslide that saw the GOP take control of the House for the first time in 40 years. In Congress, he sat on theHouse Appropriations Committee and theHouse Science Committee. Like most Republicans elected in the 1994 wave, he had a strongly conservative voting record.^{[citation needed]}

Nethercutt's campaign against Foley, a 30-year incumbent, included significant attention to Foley's opposition toterm limits. In 1992, Washington state voters approved a ballot measure limiting the terms of Washington officials, including federal officials such as U.S. Representatives. Foley brought suit contesting the constitutionality of this limit and won in court. Nethercutt repeatedly cited the caption of Foley's lawsuit – "Foley against the People of the State of Washington." He also promised to serve no more than three terms (six years) in the House.^[5]

In the 1996 elections, the Democrats mounted a serious bid to regain the seat, but Nethercutt won by an unexpectedly large 12-point margin even asBill Clinton narrowly carried the district. He was handily reelected in 1998. In 2000, when his self-imposed three-term limit would have kicked in, Nethercutt changed his mind and announced his intention to run again, infuriating term-limits supporters. Nethercutt was nevertheless re-elected without much difficulty in 2000 and 2002.^[2]

Nethercutt'scongressional papers are held atGonzaga University.^[6]

Rather than running for a sixth term in the House of Representatives, Nethercutt decided to run forU.S. Senate in 2004, hoping to unseat the incumbent, SenatorPatty Murray. He was encouraged to run for the seat by PresidentGeorge W. Bush.^[2] Term limits again became an issue in the campaign, as Democrats quickly seized on Nethercutt's broken term-limits pledge.^{[citation needed]}

Nethercutt was also hampered by his lack of name recognition in the more densely populated western part of the state, home to two-thirds of the state's population. Washington has not elected a senator from east of theCascades sinceClarence Dill in1928. Other important issues included national security and thewar in Iraq. Nethercutt supported theinvasion of Iraq, while Murray opposed it.^{[citation needed]}

Nethercutt was a heavy underdog, and his campaign never gained much traction. In November, he lost by 345,124 votes, receiving 43% of the vote to Murray's 55%. While he dominated the eastern portion of the state, including his own congressional district, he only won two counties west of the Cascades,Clark County andLewis County.^{[citation needed]}

Nethercutt left the House of Representatives at the end of his term in January 2005, but said that he would probably not completely retire from politics. In 2005, he and two other political veterans (former Interior Department deputy secretaryJ. Steven Griles and former White House national energy policy director Andrew Lundquist) formed the political lobbying firm Lundquist, Nethercutt & Griles, LLC.^[7] Griles resigned in 2007, after he pleaded guilty toobstruction of justice in connection with theAbramoff scandal, the top Bush administration official to do so.^[8]

Nethercutt served as Chairman of Nethercutt Consulting LLC, was of counsel for the law firms of Bluewater Strategies and Lee & Hayes, and was a member of several corporate boards. He was the author of the bookIn Tune with America: Our History in Song. He wrote a monthly column forThePacific Northwest Inlander newspaper, and recorded radio commentaries for several radio stations.^[9]

He was also a board member on the Dutch board ofJDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation).^{[citation needed]}

Nethercutt founded The George Nethercutt Foundation inSpokane, Washington. The Foundation is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization^[10] dedicated to fostering civic involvement. The foundation accepts applications from college students who aspire to be Nethercutt Fellows. The Nethercutt Fellowship involves, among other things, a trip toWashington, D.C. where fellows have the opportunity to see the inner-workings of the United States government.^{[citation needed]}

Nethercutt married Mary Beth Socha in 1977, and they had two children.^[2] He died fromprogressive supranuclear palsy inColorado on June 14, 2024, at the age of 79.^[2][11]

• Nethercutt Jr., George R. (with Tom M. McArthur). (2010)In Tune with America: Our History in Song. Marquette Books LLC.ISBN 978-0-982-65970-0
• Nethercutt Jr., George R. (2022)Saving Patriotism: American Patriotism in a Global Era. Marquette Books LLC.ISBN 978-1-732-71972-9

• United States Congress."George Nethercutt (id: N000051)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Appearances onC-SPAN
• George Nethercutt on the Issues
• The Nethercutt Foundation website
• Nethercutt's columns inThe Pacific Northwest Inlander

• 1944 births
• 2024 deaths
• 20th-century American lawyers
• 20th-century Washington (state) politicians
• Presbyterians from Washington (state)
• Candidates in the 2004 United States elections
• Chiefs of staff to United States senators
• Deaths from progressive supranuclear palsy
• Gonzaga University School of Law alumni
• Harvard Institute of Politics
• Members of Congress who became lobbyists
• Neurological disease deaths in Colorado
• Politicians from Spokane, Washington
• Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Washington (state)
• Washington (state) lawyers
• Washington State University alumni
• 21st-century members of the United States House of Representatives
• 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives

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