John Patrick Murtha Jr. ( MUR-thə; June 17, 1932 – February 8, 2010) was an American politician and Marine Corps officer. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1974 until his death in 2010. Murtha was the first Vietnam War veteran elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and is the longest-serving member of the chamber ever elected from Pennsylvania.
Murtha was a native of West Virginia and western Pennsylvania. He was a Marine Corps officer in the 1950s and later volunteered for service in the Vietnam War from 1966 to 1967, where he received honors including the Bronze Star Medal and two Purple Hearts. A member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1969 to 1974, Murtha narrowly won a special election to U.S. Congress in 1974 and was successively reelected every two years until his death.
In the first decade of the 21st century, Murtha had been best known for his calls for a withdrawal of American forces in the Iraq War, as well as questions about his ethics. After the Democrats won control of the House of Representatives in the 2006 midterm elections he made an unsuccessful bid to be elected House Majority Leader during the 110th Congress (2007–2009), losing to Steny Hoyer of Maryland.
Early life and military career
Murtha was born into an Irish-American family in New Martinsville, West Virginia, near the border with Ohio and Pennsylvania, and grew up in Paden City, West Virginia and then Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, a largely suburban county east of Pittsburgh. He was the son of Mary Edna (née Ray) and John Patrick Murtha.
As a youth, he became an Eagle Scout. He also worked delivering newspapers and at a gas station before graduating from The Kiski School, an all-male boarding school in Saltsburg, Pennsylvania.
Murtha left Washington and Jefferson College in 1952 to join the Marine Corps and was awarded the American Spirit Honor Medal for displaying outstanding leadership qualities during training. He became a drill instructor at Parris Island and was selected for Officer Candidate School in Virginia. He was then assigned to the Second Marine Division, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. As an undergraduate, Murtha was initiated into the Kappa Sigma fraternity.
Murtha remained in the Marine Forces Reserve and ran a small business, Johnstown Minute Car Wash (which still operates in the West End section of Johnstown). He also attended the University of Pittsburgh on the G.I. Bill, and received a degree in economics. Murtha later took graduate courses from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Murtha left the Marines in 1955. He remained in the Reserves after his discharge from active duty until he volunteered for service in the Vietnam War, serving from 1966 to 1967, serving as a battalion staff officer (S-2 Intelligence Section) with the 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, receiving the Bronze Star with Valor device, two Purple Hearts, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. He retired from the Marine Corps Reserve as a colonel in 1990, receiving the Navy Distinguished Service Medal.
Pennsylvania House of Representatives (1969–1974)
Soon after returning from Vietnam, Murtha won the Democratic nomination for what was then the 22nd District, which was based in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. He lost fairly handily to longtime Republican incumbent John P. Saylor.
Murtha was elected to represent the 72nd legislative district in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in a special election on May 20, 1969. The election was triggered by the death of Representative Edward McNally, who died in November 1968. He was elected to a full term in 1970.
U.S. House of Representatives (1974–2010)
Congressman Saylor died in October 1973, nine months into his 13th term. Murtha immediately jumped into the special election contest in what was now the 12th District. In the February 1974 special election, which took place during the burgeoning Watergate scandal, Murtha defeated one of Saylor's former aides, Harry Fox, by only 242 votes, and was sworn in on February 20. He defeated Fox for a full term by a significantly wider margin in the general election that November and was re-elected 17 times.
Murtha faced tough primary challenges in 1982, 1990 and again in 2002. The 1982 challenge occurred when the Republican-controlled state legislature took advantage of Murtha's connection to Abscam and incorporated most of the district of fellow Vietnam War veteran and Democrat Don Bailey of Westmoreland County into the 12th District. The 2002 challenge occurred when the state legislature redrew the district of Democrat Frank Mascara to make it more Republican-friendly, shifting a large chunk of Mascara's former territory into Murtha's district. Mascara opted to run against Murtha in the Democratic primary since the new 12th was geographically more his district than Murtha's. However, Mascara was badly defeated.
In 2006, his Republican challenger was Diana Irey, a county commissioner from Washington County, Pennsylvania, the heart of Mascara's former district. Irey attacked Murtha for his criticism of the Iraq war. Even though Irey was Murtha's strongest Republican opponent in decades, she polled well behind Murtha throughout the campaign. A poll by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on October 12, 2006, showed Murtha with a commanding lead over Irey, 57%–30%. In the November election, Murtha won 61%–39%.
In 1980, during his fourth term as a congressman, Murtha became embroiled in the Abscam investigation, which targeted dozens of congressmen. The investigation entailed FBI operatives posing as intermediaries for Saudi nationals hoping to bribe their way through the immigration process into the United States. Murtha met with these operatives and was videotaped. He did agree to testify against Frank Thompson (D-NJ) and John Murphy (D-NY), the two Congressmen mentioned as participants in the deal at the same meeting and who were later videotaped placing the cash bribes in their trousers. The FBI videotaped Murtha responding to an offer of $50,000, with Murtha saying, "I'm not interested... at this point. [If] we do business for a while, maybe I'll be interested, maybe I won't," right after Murtha had offered to provide names of businesses and banks in his district where money could be invested legally. The U.S. Attorney's Office reasoned that Murtha's intent was to obtain investment in his district. Full length viewing of the tape shows Murtha citing prospective investment opportunities that could return "500 or 1,000" miners to work.
In 2002, Murtha managed Nancy Pelosi's campaign to become House Minority Whip, where she defeated Steny Hoyer. On June 9, 2006, Murtha informed Pelosi that he would run for House Majority Leader if the Democrats gained control of the House in the 2006 midterm elections. Despite Murtha receiving Pelosi's support, Hoyer was elected to the post. As the Democrats became the majority party in the House in 2007, Murtha re-assumed his chairmanship of the United States House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. He had previously chaired this subcommittee from 1989 to 1995 and served as its ranking member from 1995 to 2007.