Phil Gingrey

Phil Gingrey
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia's 11th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2003
Preceded by	John Linder
Personal details
Born	(1942-07-10) July 10, 1942 Augusta, Georgia
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Billie Ayers
Children	Billy Gingrey Gannon Gingrey Manning Phyllis Gingrey Collins Laura Neill Gingrey Schuessler
Residence	Marietta, Georgia
Alma mater	Georgia Institute of Technology, Medical College of Georgia
Occupation	OB/GYN
Religion	Roman Catholic

John Phillip "Phil" Gingrey, (born July 10, 1942, Augusta, Georgia) is the U.S. Representative for Georgia's 11th congressional district, serving since 2003.^{[citation needed]} He is a member of the Republican Party (GOP). The district is located in the northwestern suburbs of Atlanta. On March 27, 2013, Gingrey announced he is an official candidate in the 2014 race for U.S. Senate for his state.

Early life, education, and early political career

Gingrey grew up in Georgia and attended St. Thomas Aquinas High School. He received a bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Georgia Tech in 1965, and then attended Medical College of Georgia. He then worked as an obstetrician. While at Georgia Tech Phil Gingrey was once a driver of the Ramblin' Wreck.

Gringrey entered politics when he ran for the Marietta School Board, a body of which he was three times named chairman.^{[citation needed]} He served two terms as a member of the Georgia State Senate from 1999 to 2003.^{[citation needed]}

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

Georgia gained two districts after the 2000 Census, but the Democratic-controlled state legislature wanted to see more Democrats in the congressional delegation.^{[citation needed]} They produced a map that was designed to elect seven Democrats and six Republicans; the delegation at the time consisted of eight Republicans and three Democrats.^{[citation needed]} In the process, they drew Republicans Bob Barr and John Linder into the same district.^{[citation needed]} The new district was numbered the 7th — Barr's former district number — but contained most of the territory in Linder's 11th District.^{[citation needed]}

The remainder of Barr's former territory was renumbered the 11th and redrawn to include some Democratic-leaning rural territory northwest of Atlanta.^{[citation needed]} It was also 28 percent black.^{[citation needed]} Gingrey faced Democrat Roger Kahn, who had lost to Barr in 2000, and narrowly defeated him by three points.^{[citation needed]}

The Republicans won control of the state legislature in 2004, and immediately redrew the district map again.^{[citation needed]} In the process, they made the 11th much more Republican than its predecessor.^{[citation needed]} The new 11th is more compact and extends further into the Atlanta suburbs, and is only 12 percent black.^{[citation needed]} George W. Bush won the old 11th with 55 percent of the vote, but would have won the current 11th by a staggering 71 percent margin. Gingrey won a third term with 70% of the vote, and was reelected with 68 percent of the vote in 2008.^{[citation needed]}

Tenure

Gingrey is one of three OB/GYNs in the House of Representatives, the other two being fellow Republicans Michael Burgess of Texas and Phil Roe of Tennessee.^{[citation needed]}

Stephen Colbert interviewed Congressman Gingrey on his Better Know a District segment. Colbert asked, "The war in Iraq. Great War — or the greatest war?" Gingrey responded that it may be the greatest war. Colbert asked Gingrey if he was a "Georgia peach" and Gingrey responded in the affirmative.

Gingrey has depended heavily on political contributions from fellow physicians to finance his re-election campaigns. The American College of Radiology Association, Harbin Clinic, American Academy of Ophthalmology, and American College of Cardiology were among his largest contributors in the 2004 election cycle.^{[citation needed]} Gingrey has also received $30,000 from ARMPAC, former House Majority Leader's Tom DeLay's PAC.^{[citation needed]} In the 2004 election cycle, ARMPAC was Gingrey's third largest contributor. After the Delay scandal, Gingrey returned all $30,000.^{[citation needed]} According to opensecrets.org during the 2008 election cycle AFLAC was Gingrey's top contributor and the insurance industry was in the top five industries to provide support.

Feud with Rush Limbaugh

Gingrey gained notoriety when he ran afoul of conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh in January 2009 when he criticized an editorial comment wherein Limbaugh accused the Republican leadership of appeasing popular President Barack Obama. Limbaugh stated on his radio program that "He (Obama) is obviously more frightened of me (Limbaugh) than he is of Mitch McConnell. He's more frightened of me, than he is of say, John Boehner, which doesn't say much about our party." Gingrey then came to the defense of the Republican leaders, saying that Limbaugh should "back off" and further commenting "I think that our leadership, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, are taking the right approach. I mean, it's easy if you're Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh or even sometimes Newt Gingrich to stand back and throw bricks. You don't have to try to do what's best for your people or your party." Gingrey's office was immediately flooded with complaints from Limbaugh's followers, and he promptly arranged to appear as a guest on the Limbaugh show and apologized, saying, "Rush, thank you so much. I thank you for the opportunity, of course this is not exactly the way to I wanted to come on. … Mainly, I want to express to you and all your listeners my very sincere regret for those comments I made yesterday to Politico. … I clearly ended up putting my foot in my mouth with some of those comments, and I just wanted to tell you, Rush, and all the 'conservative giants' who help us so much to maintain our base and grow it and get back this majority that I regret those stupid comments."

Prior to the Gingrey/Limbaugh incident House Republicans had vowed to cooperate with Democrats on drafting the economic stimulus package. One day after Gingrey was forced to apologize to Limbaugh a vote was taken on the stimulus package, with all 177 House Republicans voting against it. This prompted some to speculate that Limbaugh's castigation of Republican leaders, and subsequent cowing of Gingrey had put the fear of a potential Limbaugh-led conservative revolt against Republicans into the Representatives, causing them to withdraw any support for the package. Observers painted this as a dramatic demonstration of Limbaugh's influence on both the Republican base and the conservative American mind set.

Yu-Fang controversy

In 2012, after chairman of the Taiwanese defense committee Lin Yu-fang rejected calls for more F-16 fighters and said that only the F-35 could ensure Taiwan's security, Gingrey pressed an NDAA amendment to offer only the much older F-16 fighter to Taiwan.

Todd Akin rape controversy

See also: Pregnancy from rape and Rape and pregnancy controversies in the 2012 United States elections

In an appearance before the Smyrna Area Council of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce on January 10, 2013, Gingrey, an OB-GYN since 1975, said former Republican Rep. Todd Akin was "partly right" when he said women's bodies can avoid pregnancy in cases of "legitimate rape." Of Akin, Gingrey said, "he went on and said that in a situation of rape, of a legitimate rape, a woman's body has a way of shutting down so the pregnancy would not occur. He's partly right on that." Gingrey continued, "And I've delivered lots of babies, and I know about these things. It is true." Gingrey also said he didn’t “find anything so horrible” about distinguishing “legitimate rape” from non-legitimate rape, which he defined as a false accusation. Gingrey also said, commenting on former Indiana Republican Richard Mourdock's unsuccessful U.S. Senate bid, “Mourdock basically said ‘Look, if there is conception in the aftermath of a rape, that’s still a child, and it’s a child of God, essentially.’ Now, in Indiana, that cost him the election."

The next day, following the widespread circulation of Gingrey's comments in the media, his office released a statement that said, "In my attempt to provide context as to what I presumed they meant, my position was misconstrued.” The Associated Press reported, "Gingrey is co-chairman of the GOP Doctors Caucus, which was formed in March 2009 to challenge President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. He also is a member of the Health subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce panel."

Committee assignments

• Committee on Energy and Commerce
  • Subcommittee on Communications and Technology^{[citation needed]}
  • Subcommittee on Health
  • Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations

Caucus memberships

• Chairman of the Republican Healthcare Public Affairs Team
• Healthcare Reform Subcommittee of the Republican Policy Committee (Chairman)
• Congressional Robotics Caucus (Co-Chair)
• International Conservation Caucus
• Medical and Dental Doctors in Congress Caucus (Co-Chair)
• Republican Study Committee
• Sportsmen's Caucus
• Tea Party Caucus

Personal life

He is married to the former Billie Ayers; they have four children.^{[citation needed]}

In November 2011, it was reported that Gingrey received stock benefits, potentially in violation of congressional ethics rules, from his role as an investor and board member of two Georgia banks. One of these banks, Bank of Ellijay, failed in September 2010 and was taken over by regulators at a cost of $60 million to taxpayers. Gingrey's office denied any conflicts of interests.^{[citation needed]}

External links

• U.S. Congressman Phil Gingrey official U.S. House site
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Congressional profile at GovTrack
• Congressional profile at OpenCongress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Financial information (federal office) at OpenSecrets.org
• Staff salaries, trips and personal finance (federal office) at LegiStorm.com
• Financial information (state office) at the National Institute for Money in State Politics
• Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
• Voting record at The Washington Post
• Appearances on C-SPAN programs
• Profile on SourceWatch
• Profile at OurCampaigns.com

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by John Linder	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia's 11th congressional district January 3, 2003 – present	Incumbent
United States order of precedence
Preceded by Jim Gerlach R-Pennsylvania	United States Representatives by seniority 158th	Succeeded by Raúl Grijalva D-Arizona