George Nethercutt

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George Rector Nethercutt Jr. (October 7, 1944 – June 14, 2024) was an American lawyer, author, and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he rose to national attention upon his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994, when he defeated Tom Foley, the speaker of the house, in Washington's 5th congressional district. Nethercutt served five terms and left the House in 2004, when he mounted an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate.

Early life

George Rector Nethercutt Jr. was born in Spokane, Washington,[1][2] in 1944, the son of Nancy (Sampson) and George Nethercutt, a school board president.[3][4] A graduate of North Central High School, he earned a B.A. in English from Washington State University in 1967 and a J.D. degree from Gonzaga University in 1971.[5] He worked as a clerk for Alaskan federal Judge Raymond Plummer. Nethercutt then served as staff counsel and later chief of staff to Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) from 1972 to 1977 before returning to private practice in Washington State.[5]

Nethercutt served as a town attorney for the communities of Reardan, Creston and Almira.[6] He was a chair of the Spokane County Republican Party.[6] He was the co-founder of the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery.[6]

Congressional career

File:President George W. Bush and George Nethercutt.jpg
Nethercutt with President George W. Bush in June 2004

Nethercutt was first elected to Congress in 1994 in a dramatic election in which he unseated the Speaker of the House, Tom Foley. It was the first time he had run for office.[4] The district had been growing more conservative since the early 1980s, but Foley had held on mainly by running up his totals in Democratic-leaning Spokane. 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 in Spokane 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 the House Appropriations Committee and the House Science Committee. Like most Republicans elected in the 1994 wave, he had a strongly conservative voting record.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

Nethercutt's campaign against Foley, a 30-year incumbent, included significant attention to Foley's opposition to term 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.[7]

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 as Bill 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.[4]

Nethercutt's congressional papers are held at Gonzaga University.[8]

2004 Senate race

Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". Rather than running for a sixth term in the House of Representatives, Nethercutt decided to run for U.S. Senate in 2004, hoping to unseat the incumbent, Senator Patty Murray. He was encouraged to run for the seat by President George W. Bush.[4] Term limits again became an issue in the campaign, as Democrats quickly seized on Nethercutt's broken term-limits pledge.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

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 the Cascades since Clarence Dill in 1928. Other important issues included national security and the war in Iraq. Nethercutt supported the invasion of Iraq, while Murray opposed it.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

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 and Lewis County.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

Post-congressional life

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 secretary J. Steven Griles and former White House national energy policy director Andrew Lundquist) formed the political lobbying firm Lundquist, Nethercutt & Griles, LLC.[9] Griles resigned in 2007, after he pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in connection with the Abramoff scandal, the top Bush administration official to do so.[10]

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 book In Tune with America: Our History in Song. He wrote a monthly column for The Pacific Northwest Inlander newspaper, and recorded radio commentaries for several radio stations.[11]

He was also a board member on the Dutch board of JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation).Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

Nethercutt founded The George Nethercutt Foundation in Spokane, Washington. The Foundation is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization[12] 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 to Washington, D.C. where fellows have the opportunity to see the inner-workings of the United States government.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

Personal life and death

Nethercutt married Mary Beth Socha in 1977, and they had two children.[4] He died from progressive supranuclear palsy in Colorado on June 14, 2024, at the age of 79.[4][13]

Electoral history

Template:Ushr: Results 1994–2002[14]
Year Democratic Votes Pct Republican Votes Pct 3rd Party Party Votes Pct
1994 style="color:black;background-color:Template:Democratic Party (US)/meta/shading" |Thomas S. Foley (incumbent) style="color:black;background-color:Template:Democratic Party (US)/meta/shading" align="right" |106,074 style="color:black;background-color:Template:Democratic Party (US)/meta/shading" |49% style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading" |George R. Nethercutt, Jr. style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading" align="right" |110,057 style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading" |51%
1996 style="color:black;background-color:Template:Democratic Party (US)/meta/shading" |Judy Olson style="color:black;background-color:Template:Democratic Party (US)/meta/shading" align="right" |105,166 style="color:black;background-color:Template:Democratic Party (US)/meta/shading" |44% style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading" |George R. Nethercutt, Jr. (incumbent) style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading" align="right" |131,618 style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading" |56%
1998 style="color:black;background-color:Template:Democratic Party (US)/meta/shading" |Brad Lyons style="color:black;background-color:Template:Democratic Party (US)/meta/shading" align="right" |73,545 style="color:black;background-color:Template:Democratic Party (US)/meta/shading" |38% style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading" |George R. Nethercutt, Jr. (incumbent) style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading" align="right" |110,040 style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading" |57% Template:Party shading/Independent |John Beal Template:Party shading/Independent |American Heritage Template:Party shading/Independent align="right" |9,673 Template:Party shading/Independent align="right" |5%
2000 style="color:black;background-color:Template:Democratic Party (US)/meta/shading" |Tom Keefe style="color:black;background-color:Template:Democratic Party (US)/meta/shading" align="right" |97,703 style="color:black;background-color:Template:Democratic Party (US)/meta/shading" |39% style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading" |George R. Nethercutt, Jr. (incumbent) style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading" align="right" |144,038 style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading" |57% style="background:Template:Party color" |Greg Holmes style="background:Template:Party color" |Libertarian style="background:Template:Party color" align="right" |9,473 style="background:Template:Party color" align="right" |4%
2002 style="color:black;background-color:Template:Democratic Party (US)/meta/shading" |Bart Haggin style="color:black;background-color:Template:Democratic Party (US)/meta/shading" align="right" |65,146 style="color:black;background-color:Template:Democratic Party (US)/meta/shading" |32% style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading" |George R. Nethercutt, Jr. (incumbent) style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading" align="right" |126,757 style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading" |63% style="background:Template:Party color" |Rob Chase style="background:Template:Party color" |Libertarian style="background:Template:Party color" align="right" |10,379 style="background:Template:Party color" align="right" |5%
Washington Senator (Class III) results: 2004[14]
Year Democratic Votes Pct Republican Votes Pct 3rd Party Party Votes Pct 3rd Party Party Votes Pct
2004 style="color:black;background-color:Template:Democratic Party (US)/meta/shading" |Patty Murray (incumbent) style="color:black;background-color:Template:Democratic Party (US)/meta/shading" align="right" |1,549,708 style="color:black;background-color:Template:Democratic Party (US)/meta/shading" |55% style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading" |George R. Nethercutt, Jr. style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading" align="right" |1,204,584 style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading" |43% style="background:Template:Party color" |J. Mills style="background:Template:Party color" |Libertarian style="background:Template:Party color" align="right" |34,055 style="background:Template:Party color" align="right" |1% Template:Party shading/Green |Mark B. Wilson Template:Party shading/Green |Green Template:Party shading/Green align="right" |30,304 Template:Party shading/Green align="right" |1%

Books

  • Nethercutt Jr., George R. (with Tom M. McArthur). (2010) In Tune with America: Our History in Song. Marquette Books LLC. Template:ISBN
  • Nethercutt Jr., George R. (2022) Saving Patriotism: American Patriotism in a Global Era. Marquette Books LLC. Template:ISBN

References

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External links

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  5. ↑ a b Spring 2012 Fellows Template:Webarchive. Harvard University Institute of Politics. Retrieved September 22, 2015.
  6. ↑ a b c Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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