Thomas Stephen Foley, KBE (March 6, 1929 - October 18, 2013) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 49th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1989 to 1995. A member of the Democratic Party, Foley represented Washington's fifth district for thirty years (1965-1995). He was the first Speaker of the House since 1862 to be defeated in a re-election campaign.
Born in Spokane, Washington, Foley attended Gonzaga University and pursued a legal career after graduating from the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle. He joined the staff of Senator Henry M. Jackson after working as a prosecutor and an assistant attorney general. With Jackson's support, Foley won election to the House of Representatives, defeating incumbent Republican Congressman Walt Horan. He served as majority whip from 1981 to 1987 and as majority leader from 1987 to 1989. After the resignation of Jim Wright, Foley became Speaker of the House.
Foley's district had become increasingly conservative during his tenure, but he won re-election throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. In the 1994 election, Foley faced attorney George Nethercutt. Nethercutt mobilized popular anger over Foley's opposition to term limits to defeat the incumbent Speaker. After leaving the House, Foley served as the United States Ambassador to Japan from 1997 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton.
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Early life and legal practice
Born and raised in Spokane, Washington, Foley was the son of Helen Marie (née Higgins), a school teacher, and Ralph E. Foley (1900-1985), a Superior Court judge for 34 years. He was of Irish Catholic descent on both sides of his family; his grandfather Cornelius Foley was a maintenance foreman for the Great Northern railroad in Spokane.
Foley graduated from the Jesuit-run Gonzaga Preparatory School in Spokane in 1946 and attended Gonzaga University for three years; he completed his bachelor's degree at the University of Washington in Seattle, then attended its School of Law and was awarded a law degree in 1957.
Following law school, Foley entered private practice. In 1958, he began working in the Spokane County prosecutor's office as a deputy prosecuting attorney, and later taught at Gonzaga's School of Law (in Spokane) from 1958 to 1959. He joined the state attorney general's office in 1961 as an assistant attorney general.
In 1961, Foley moved to Washington, D.C., and joined the staff of Senator Henry Jackson, the then-Democratic Senator From Washington. He left Jackson's employ in 1964 at his urging to run for Congress.
Congressional service
In 1964, Foley was unopposed for the Democratic nomination for Washington's 5th congressional seat, which included Spokane. He faced 11-term Republican incumbent Walt Horan in the general election and won by seven points, one of many swept into office in the Democratic landslide. He was re-elected without significant difficulty until 1978, when he narrowly defeated conservative activist Duane Alton. The next race in 1980 was also close, when physician John Sonneland finished just 4 points back. Though the fifth district became increasingly conservative, Foley didn't face serious opposition again until his defeat in 1994.
In 1981, Foley was chosen majority whip by the House Democratic caucus and served in that capacity until 1987, when he moved up to the position of majority leader. In 1989, Jim Wright of Texas stepped down as Speaker of the House amid an ethics scandal, and Foley was elected to succeed him. He became the first Speaker from a state west of the Rocky Mountains.
Term limits
During his time in the House, Foley repeatedly opposed efforts to impose term limits on Washington state's elected officials, winning the support of the state's voters to reject term limits in a 1991 referendum; however, in 1992, a term limit ballot initiative was approved by the state's voters.
Foley brought suit, challenging the constitutionality of a state law setting eligibility requirements on federal offices. Foley won his suit, with a United States district court declaring that states did not have the authority under the United States Constitution to limit the terms of federal officeholders.
However, in Foley's bid for a 16th term in the House, his Republican opponent, George Nethercutt, used the issue against him, properly citing the caption of the federal case brought by Foley, "Foley against the People of the State of Washington". Nethercutt vowed that if elected, he would not serve more than three terms in the House (but ultimately served for five terms). Foley lost in a narrow race. While Foley had usually relied on large margins in Spokane to carry him to victory, in 1994 he won Spokane by only 9,000 votes, while Nethercutt did well enough in the rest of the district to win overall by just under 4,000 votes.
Foley became the first sitting Speaker of the House to lose his bid for re-election since Galusha A. Grow in 1862. He is sometimes viewed as a political casualty of the term limits controversy of the early 1990s. President Bill Clinton attributed his defeat to his support for the Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994.
Electoral history
Here is a chart of the voting results in Foley's election race. There are subtotals for the city of Spokane, rural Spokane County, and a Spokane total, as this is the main part of the 5th Congressional District.
Later career
From 1995 to 1998, Foley was head of the Federal City Council, a group of business, civic, education, and other leaders interested in economic development in Washington, D.C.
In 1997, Foley was appointed as the 25th U.S. Ambassador to Japan by President Bill Clinton. He served as ambassador until 2001.
Foley was a Washington delegate to the 2000 Democratic National Convention. On July 9, 2003, Governor Gary Locke awarded the Washington Medal of Merit, the state's highest honor, to Foley. He was North American Chairman of the Trilateral Commission.
Death
Foley died at his home in Washington, D.C. on October 18, 2013, following months of hospice care after suffering a series of strokes and a bout with pneumonia. He was 84 and is survived by his wife, Heather. He had been experiencing aspiration pneumonia. Services were held at St. Aloysius Church at Gonzaga University, as well as Washington, D.C. Speaker John Boehner, and Nancy Pelosi, who also served as Speaker, issued statements honoring Foley. In a White House statement, U.S. President Barack Obama called Speaker Foley a "legend of the United States Congress" who "represented the people of Washington's 5th district with skill, dedication, and a deep commitment to improving the lives of those he was elected to serve.", going on to praise him for his bipartisanship and subsequent ambassadorial service under former President Clinton. Vice President Joseph Biden also released an official statement, saying "Tom was a good friend and a dedicated public servant.", citing his work in Congress with Foley in the 1980s on budgetary issues. Washington Governor Jay Inslee also released a statement, acknowledging his efforts to reach consensus and emphasize mutual common ground, and his work in the legal system and in Congress, in these capacities serving the state and the Spokane, Washington area. Former President George H. W. Bush, whose presidential term overlapped Foley's service as Speaker, stated he "represented the very best in public service- and our political system" and "never got personal or burned bridges."
Honors
- Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (UK).
- Order of Merit (Germany).
- Légion d'honneur (France).
- Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers, Grand Cordon (Japan), 1995.
- Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service at Washington State University, Pullman. Established in 1995.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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