JOHN KLINE (POLITICIAN)

'John Paul Kline' (born September 6, 1947 in Allentown, Pennsylvania) is an American politician. He has been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 2003, representing Minnesota's 2nd congressional district, one of eight congressional districts in Minnesota.

Contents

Background and education

Political career

110th congress

Personal life

Electoral History

References

External links

Background and education

Kline is a graduate of W. B. Ray High School in Corpus Christi, Texas (1965) and was educated at Rice University (1969) and Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania (1988).
Prior to his election to Congress, Kline was a 25-year veteran of the United States Marine Corps, where he was a senior military adviser to Presidents Carter and Reagan and was responsible for carrying the President's package containing launch codes for a nuclear attack, known as the "nuclear football". Throughout his military career from which he retired at the rank of Colonel, Kline served as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, commanded all Marine aviation forces in Operation Restore Hope in Somalia, flew "Marine One," the Presidential helicopter, and served as Program Development Officer at Headquarters Marine Corps. During his military career, Kline received numerous medals and commendations including Four Legions of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal (awarded 3 times), the Vietnam Campaign Medal, a Presidential Service Badge, and the Navy Commendation Medal.^[1]

Political career

In 2002, Kline defeated the Democratic incumbent, Bill Luther, in a rematch of their 2000 and 1998 races. In 2004, he defeated Democratic Burnsville City Councilwoman Teresa Daly to win a second term and in 2006, he defeated former FBI Special agent and whistleblower Coleen Rowley, one of ''Time magazine's'' "Persons of the Year".
In 2005, Kline introduced legislation to place Ronald Reagan on the $50 bill. While the bill has a dozen Congressional cosponsors, it has not made any legislative progress.
In his campaigns, Kline received $30,000 in contributions from former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's political action committee ARMPAC. Following DeLay's indictment on charges of money laundering, Democrats have criticized Kline for failing to return DeLay's contributions or to donate them to charity.^[2]
He has also taken $11,000 in political contributions from the PAC of former congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham. After Cunningham’s indictment on fraud charges, Kline donated the $11,000 to charity “to remove questions of any impropriety" according to his chief of staff, Steve Sutton.^[3]
Kline is considered to be the most conservative member of the Minnesota delegation in the 109^th Congress, scoring 100% conservative by a conservative group^[4] and 3% progressive by a liberal group.^[5] Minnesota Congressional Districts shows the scores for the entire delegation.

110th congress

Along with fellow Minnesota Republican, Michele Bachmann, Kline supported President Bush's plan to increase troop levels in Iraq in January, 2007,^[6] and against most of the Democrat’s “100-Hour Plan” legislative agenda.^[7]

Personal life

Kline and his wife, Vicky, live in Lakeville, Minnesota. They have one daughter and one son, Kathy and Dan, and four grandchildren.

Electoral History

★ '2006 Race for U.S. House of Representatives — 2nd District'

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★ John Kline (R) (inc.), 56%

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★ Coleen Rowley (DFL), 40%

★ '2004 Race for U.S. House of Representatives — 2nd District'

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★ John Kline (R) (inc.), 57%

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★ Teresa Daly (DFL), 40%

★ '2002 Race for U.S. House of Representatives — 2nd District'

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★ John Kline (R), 53%

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★ Bill Luther (DFL) (inc.), 42%

★ '2000 Race for U.S. House of Representatives — 6th District'

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★ Bill Luther (DFL) (inc.), 50%

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★ John Kline (R), 48%

★ '1998 Race for U.S. House of Representatives — 6th District'

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★ Bill Luther (DFL) (inc.), 50%

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★ John Kline (R), 46%

References

1. Congressman John Kline — Representative of Minnesota
2. DeLay's Money, Part 9 Accessed August 12th, 2006
3. Some Republicans are dumping donations given by Cunningham Accessed August 12th, 2006
4. Congressional Voting Scorecard 2005
5. Leading with the Left
6. Minnesota delegation offers cool response
7. House approves minimum wage increase

External links

★ U.S. Congressman John Kline 'official House site'

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★ Federal Election Commission — John P. Kline campaign finance reports and data

★ MPR — Campaign 2006: John Kline profile from ''Minnesota Public Radio''

★ NNDB — John Kline profile

★ On the Issues — John Kline issue positions and quotes

★ OpenSecrets.org — John Kline campaign contributions

★ Project Vote Smart — Representative John P. Kline (MN) profile

★ SourceWatch Congresspedia — John Kline profile

★ Washington Post — Congress Votes Database: John Kline voting record