John Shadegg

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John Shadegg
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona's 3rd district
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 3, 1995
Preceded by	Jon Kyl
Born	October 22, 1949 (1949-10-22) (age 60) Phoenix, Arizona
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Shirley Shadegg
Residence	Phoenix
Alma mater	University of Arizona
Occupation	attorney
Religion	Episcopalian
Military service
Service/branch	United States Air National Guard
Years of service	1969-1975
Unit	Arizona

John Barden Shadegg (born October 22, 1949), American politician, has been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 1995, representing Arizona's 3rd congressional district (map). The district, numbered as the 4th District before the 2000 Census, includes much of northern Phoenix.

[edit] Personal life

Shadegg is the son of Steve Shadegg of Arizona, who managed Barry Goldwater's 1952 and 1958 U.S. Senate races and organized the Draft Goldwater movement in the 1964 presidential campaign. Steve Shadegg did not, however, manage Goldwater's general election campaign in 1964. John Shadegg was born in Phoenix, was educated at the University of Arizona B.A. 1972 J.D. 1975, served in the Arizona Air National Guard from 1969 to 1975, and was a lawyer, a special counsel to the Arizona state House Republican caucus 1991–1992, special assistant attorney general in the State of Arizona 1983–1990, and an adviser to the United States Sentencing Commission before entering the House.

Shadegg is married to the former Shirley Lueck; they have a son and a daughter.

[edit] House of Representatives career

Shadegg entered the Republican primary for the 4th District after four-term incumbent Jon Kyl made what turned out to be a successful run for the United States Senate. He won a four-way primary with 43 percent of the vote, and breezed to victory in November. He has been reelected seven times.

From 2000 to 2002, Congressman Shadegg served as chairman of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), a group of conservative House Republicans.

Following the 2004 elections, Shadegg was elected Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, the fifth-ranking position in the House Leadership. He was the only member of the Republican Class of 1994 serving in leadership until resigning the post to run for Majority Leader in January 2006.

On January 13, 2006 Shadegg officially joined the race for the House Majority Leader as a compromise alternative candidate to Representatives Roy Blunt and John Boehner. Shadegg received the support of the National Review,^[1] the Club for Growth,^[2] the Arizona Republic,^[3] and the blog RedState.^[4] Feb. 2, after Shadegg came third in the first ballot, his supporters switched to second place Boehner, ensuring Boehner's election on the second ballot.

Shadegg ran for House Minority Whip following the loss of Republican control of the House in November 2006, losing to Blunt.

[edit] 2006

In 2006, the Democrats nominated Herb Paine, who barely defeated his Democratic primary opponent, to face Shadegg in his November 2006 bid for reelection. (See U.S. congressional elections in 2006) Shadegg easily retained his seat with nearly 60% of the vote.

[edit] 2008 Retirement announcement and retractment

Shadegg announced on February 11, 2008 that he would not run for an eighth term, saying that he wanted to "seek a new challenge in a different venue to advance the cause of freedom." However, Shadegg retracted the statement on February 21, and announced he would seek reelection.^[5][6] Although it was speculated that he would run for the United States Senate in 2010 if John McCain had become president,^[7] Shadegg had expressed his intention to leave public life and return to the private sector^[6] before changing his mind.

[edit] Committee Assignments

• Committee on Energy and Commerce
  • Subcommittee on Energy and Environment
  • Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet
  • Subcommittee on Health
• Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming

[edit] Political positions

Shadegg is an economic conservative who has fought for lower taxes and against government waste and is a signer of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge^[8]. Shadegg opposed a house budget resolution that would increase taxes in 2007.^[9] Citizens Against Government Waste considered him a "Taxpayer Hero".^[10] National Taxpayers Union considered him a "Taxpayer Friend" in 2006.^[11]

In every Congress since the 104th Congress, U.S. Congressman John Shadegg has introduced the Enumerated Powers Act, although it has not been passed into law. At the beginning of the 105th Congress, the House of Representatives incorporated the substantive requirement of the Enumerated Powers Act into the House rules.

In 2007, he opposed several bills to set a deadline to withdraw troops from Iraq.^{[12][12][13][14][15][16][17]} Shadegg voted against the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, which increased the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour.^[12][18] Shadegg voted for a bill to build a 700-mile fence along the border between the United States and Mexico (Secure Fence Act of 2006).^[12] In 2005, Shadegg voted against a bill to create a flag-burning amendment to the Constitution.^[12][19]

Shadegg is a staunch advocate of a federal prohibition of online poker. In 2006, he cosponsored H.R. 4411, the Goodlatte-Leach Internet Gambling Prohibition Act^[20] and H.R. 4777, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act.^[21]

Shadegg is vehemently opposed to the Healthcare Reform Package that was tabled in October 2009. He said the reform package is a "Soviet-style gulag health care", and will make American healthcare something akin to that available to the prisoners of Russian gulag.[1] He later used his seven month old granddaughter as a prop in a speech on the House floor against healthcare reform.

On October 14, 2009, Shadegg joined with three fellow Representatives in calling for the investigation of CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations) over allegations of trying to plant "spies," based on a CAIR memo indicating that they "will develop national initiatives such as Lobby Day, and placing Muslim interns in Congressional offices." The request came in the wake of the publication of a book, Muslim Mafia, the foreward of which had been penned by Congresswoman Sue Myrick, that portrayed CAIR as a subversive organization allied with international terrorists.^[22] CAIR has countered that these initiatives are extensively used by all advocacy groups and accused Shadegg and his colleagues of intending to intimidate American Muslims who "take part in the political process and exercise their rights." ^[23][24]

[edit] Position on 2008 "Bailout"

On September 29, 2008, Shadegg voted for the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 which created the Troubled Assets Relief Program^[25]. He was the only Arizona Republican Congressman to do so.

Despite his support of the second economic stimulus package bill, he voted "NO" on the first Economic Package and he also was a proponent of the 2009 Tea Party protests which condemned any bailouts, and even spoke at a rally in Phoenix.^[26]

[edit] Apology to Bloomberg

In November 20009, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg expressed confidence in the security of having five 9/11 suspects brought to trial in lower Manhattan, to which Shadegg gave an overheated response: "Well mayor, how are you going to feel when it is your daughter that is kidnapped at school by a terrorist?"^[27]. He later apologized to the mayor and his family for "the insensitivity of my remarks."

[edit] Electoral history

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• U.S. Congressman John Shadegg official House site
• John Shadegg at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Federal Election Commission — John B. Shadegg campaign finance reports and data
• On the Issues — John Shadegg issue positions and quotes
• OpenSecrets.org — John Shadegg campaign contributions
• Project Vote Smart — Representative John B. Shadegg (AZ) profile
• SourceWatch Congresspedia — John Shadegg profile
• Washington Post — Congress Votes Database: John Shadegg voting record
• John Shadegg for Congress official campaign site