34 Facts About Jim Jeffords

1. Jim Jeffords was born in Vermont on a Sunday, March 11, 1934.

2. Jim Jeffords stayed within the GOP and made his demands and got many of them met through the first three-plus months of the new Bush presidency.

3. Jim Jeffords campaigned with Bush when it appeared that the Senate would remain firmly in GOP control.

4. Jim Jeffords had an amazing ability to achieve professionally, yet remain an excellent father.

5. Jim Jeffords served his community as a long-standing member of the Wenatchee School Board, as a Board member of the Washington State Bar Association, and Regent in the American College of Trial Lawyers.

6. Jim Jeffords attended law school at University of Washington from 1968 to 1971, where he served as the editor of the Law Review and graduated in the Order of the Coif.

7. Jim Jeffords graduated from Othello High School in 1961, and received a full academic scholarship to attend Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH.

8. Jim Jeffords died of Alzheimer's disease on August 18, 2014, at Knollwood, a military retirement facility in Washington, DC, where he had lived for eight years.

9. On September 27, 2006, Jim Jeffords delivered his farewell speech on the Senate floor.

10. On November 11, 2003 Jim Jeffords was one of only four senators to vote against the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act, a bill that received strong support from politicians from across the aisle.

11. On October 11, 2002, Jim Jeffords was one of 23 senators to vote against authorizing the use of military force in Iraq.

12. Jim Jeffords sponsored The Employee Non Discrimination Act of 1995, 1997 (105th Congress), and 1999 (106th Congress).

13. Jim Jeffords consistently voted against the ban on partial-birth abortion, and against a harsher line on Cuba.

14. Jim Jeffords was one of only two Republicans to vote against confirming Clarence Thomas.

15. Jim Jeffords was free to vote as he pleased on policy matters, but more often than not voted with the Democrats.

16. Jim Jeffords agreed to vote with the Democrats on all procedural matters except with permission of the whip, in exchange for the committee seats that would have been available to Jeffords had he been a Democrat during his entire Senate tenure.

17. On May 24, 2001, Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party, with which he had always been affiliated, and announced his new status as an independent.

18. Jim Jeffords was one of the founders of the Congressional Solar Coalition and the Congressional Arts Caucus.

19. In October 1999, Jim Jeffords was one of four Republicans to vote in favor of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

20. Jim Jeffords was one of only five Republican senators who voted to acquit Clinton after Clinton was impeached by the US House in 1999.

21. In 1988, Jim Jeffords was elected to the US Senate, and was reelected in 1994 and 2000.

22. Jim Jeffords was the only Republican to vote against the Ronald Reagan tax cuts of 1981, and was a supporter of both abortion rights and expanded protections for the rights of gays and lesbians.

23. Jim Jeffords sought the Republican Party nomination for governor in 1972, but was defeated in the primary by Luther "Fred" Hackett.

24. Jim Jeffords was a Presidential Elector for Vermont in 1972, and voted for reelection of the Nixon-Agnew ticket.

25. Jim Jeffords won a seat in the Vermont State Senate in 1966.

26. Jim Jeffords graduated from Yale University in 1956 and Harvard Law School in 1962.

27. Jim Jeffords was born in Rutland, Vermont, the son of Marion and Olin Merrill Jeffords, who served as Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court.

28. Jim Jeffords died in 2014 from complications associated with Alzheimer's disease, and was buried in Shrewsbury.

29. In 2005, Jim Jeffords announced that he would not run for reelection in 2006, and would retire at the end of his term.

30. Jim Jeffords served in the Senate from 1989 until 2007, winning reelection in 1994 and 2000.

31. Jim Jeffords served in the House from 1975 to 1989; in 1988 he was the successful Republican nominee for the United States Senate seat held by the retiring Robert Stafford.

32. Jim Jeffords lost the 1972 Republican primary for Governor of Vermont, but won the election for Vermont's lone seat in the United States House of Representatives in 1974.

33. Jim Jeffords practiced law in southern Vermont and became a resident of Shrewsbury, where he was active in local politics and government as a Republican, including serving as chairman of the town's Republican committee.

34. Jim Jeffords graduated from Yale University, served for three years in the United States Navy, and then attended Harvard Law School, from which he received his degree in 1962.