1. James Thomas Kolbe was an American politician who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives.
42 Facts About Jim Kolbe
1. 2.
Jim Kolbe represented Arizona's 5th congressional district from 1985 to 2003 and its 8th congressional district from 2003 to 2007.
3.
Jim Kolbe left the Republican Party and became an independent in 2018 after the election of Donald Trump.
4.
Jim Kolbe endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
5.
Jim Kolbe was born in Evanston, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, on June 28,1942, the son of Helen Nevada and Walter William Jim Kolbe.
6.
Jim Kolbe attended Patagonia Elementary School and Patagonia Union High School, but graduated from the United States Capitol Page School in 1960 after serving for three years as a United States Senate Page for Barry Goldwater.
7.
Jim Kolbe served in the United States Navy, including a year in Vietnam in the riverine, "Swift Boat," force.
8.
Jim Kolbe was a special assistant to Illinois Republican Governor Richard B Ogilvie.
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Jim Kolbe then moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he was a business executive.
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In 1976, Jim Kolbe ran for the Arizona Senate in a Tucson-area district and defeated Lucy Davidson, a one-term Democrat who had been elected in the national Democratic wave of 1974.
11.
Jim Kolbe served three terms in that body, and was majority whip from 1979 to 1982.
12.
In 1982, Jim Kolbe ran for the United States House of Representatives in the newly created.
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Jim Kolbe lost to Democrat Jim McNulty, a member of the Arizona Board of Regents, by one percent.
14.
Jim Kolbe was reelected 10 times, often facing only token opposition.
15.
In 1998, former Tucson mayor Tom Volgy challenged Jim Kolbe, holding Jim Kolbe to only 51 percent of the vote.
16.
Jim Kolbe was generally more supportive of environmental legislation than most Republicans, especially those from the West.
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Jim Kolbe was a member of various moderate Republican groups such as the Log Cabin Republicans, the Republican Main Street Partnership, the Republican Majority For Choice, Republicans for Choice, Republicans For Environmental Protection, and It's My Party Too.
18.
In 2001, Jim Kolbe introduced the Legal Tender Modernization Act which would have ceased production of the US one-cent piece.
19.
In July 2006, Jim Kolbe introduced the Currency Overhaul for an Industrious Nation Act, which would round cash transactions to the nearest five cents.
20.
Jim Kolbe argued that, because of inflation, the penny is virtually worthless, and that the US should stop using the penny now that the costs of penny production exceed its value.
21.
Jim Kolbe had received some media attention as one of the foremost promoters of eliminating the penny from circulation.
22.
In contrast, Jim Kolbe was a strong supporter of guest worker programs for immigrants.
23.
Also in 2004, Jim Kolbe was among the 27 Republicans who voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment, a constitutional amendment intended to ban gay marriage.
24.
Jim Kolbe voted against banning gay marriage again in 2006.
25.
On November 23,2005, Jim Kolbe announced that he would not seek a 12th term in 2006.
26.
Jim Kolbe refused to endorse Graf, who lost to Democrat Gabby Giffords in the November 2006 election.
27.
Jim Kolbe endorsed State Senate President Tim Bee's bid to unseat Giffords in 2008.
28.
In 2000, when Jim Kolbe found out about former Congressman Mark Foley's "Internet communications with teenagers" who were subordinate to Foley, he informed the office that oversaw the page program.
29.
In October 2006, federal prosecutors in Arizona opened a preliminary investigation into a camping trip that Jim Kolbe took in July 1996 that included two teenage former congressional pages, as well as National Park officials, then-current staff, and Jim Kolbe's sister.
30.
Jim Kolbe was a member of the board of directors of the International Republican Institute.
31.
Jim Kolbe was a member of Washington DC based think tank the Inter-American Dialogue.
32.
Jim Kolbe served on the Board of Advisors for International Relief and Development Inc He was a Co-Chairman of the dollar coin alliance.
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Jim Kolbe served on the board of directors of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
34.
Jim Kolbe endorsed Democrat Joe Biden for president in the 2020 presidential election.
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Jim Kolbe sat on the Executive Advisory Board for autonomous trucking company TuSimple.
36.
Jim Kolbe joined nine other former members of Congress to co-author a 2021 opinion editorial advocating reforms of Congress.
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Jim Kolbe was married to Sarah Dinham, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Arizona, from 1977 to 1992.
38.
Jim Kolbe was a member of Catalina United Methodist Church.
39.
Jim Kolbe came out as gay in August 1996 after his vote in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act spurred efforts by some gay rights activists to out him.
40.
Jim Kolbe was the second openly gay Republican to serve in Congress, the first being Steve Gunderson of Wisconsin.
41.
That year, Kolbe was a signatory to an amicus curiae brief submitted to the US Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage during the Hollingsworth v Perry case.
42.
On December 3,2022, Jim Kolbe died from a stroke at age 80.