35 Facts About Jim Leach

James Albert Smith Leach was born on October 15,1942 and is an American academic and former politician.

Jim Leach served as ninth Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities from 2009 to 2013 and was a member of the US House of Representatives from Iowa.

Jim Leach served as the interim director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University from September 17,2007, to September 1,2008, when Bill Purcell was appointed permanent director.

Previously, Jim Leach served 30 years as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, representing.

In Congress, Jim Leach chaired the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services and was a senior member of the House Committee on International Relations, serving as Chair of the committee's Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs.

Jim Leach founded and served as co-chair of the Congressional Humanities Caucus.

Jim Leach lost his 2006 re-election bid to Democrat Dave Loebsack.

In 2022, Jim Leach broke with the Republicans and endorsed a Democrat running to represent his former district.

Jim Leach was born in Davenport, Iowa, and won the 1960 state wrestling championship at the 138-pound weight class for Davenport High School.

Jim Leach then earned a Master of Arts degree in Soviet studies from Johns Hopkins University in 1966.

Jim Leach later did further Soviet research at the London School of Economics, where he studied under Leonard Schapiro, the foremost expert on Soviet affairs.

In 1973, Jim Leach resigned his commission in protest of the Saturday Night Massacre when Richard Nixon fired his Attorney General, Elliot Richardson, and the independent counsel investigating the Watergate break-in, Archibald Cox.

Jim Leach chaired two national organizations dedicated to moderate Republican causes: the Ripon Society and the Republican Mainstream Committee.

Jim Leach objected to military unilateralism as reflected in the Iran-Contra policy of the 1980s.

Jim Leach pushed for full funding of US obligations to the United Nations, supported US re-entry into UNESCO, and opposed US withdrawal from the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice.

Jim Leach was one of only six House Republicans to vote against the resolution.

Jim Leach supported campaign reform and pressed unsuccessfully for a system of partial public financing of elections whereby small contributions could be matched by federal funds with accompanying limits on the amounts that could be spent in campaigns including the personal resources candidates could put in their own races.

Jim Leach was a top critic of President Bill Clinton and played a leading role in the House's investigation of the Whitewater scandal.

Jim Leach was usually reelected without much difficulty.

Jim Leach remained very popular in the 1st even as his district turned increasingly Democratic, especially from the 1990s onward.

However, Jim Leach opted to move to Iowa City in the reconfigured 2nd and won reelection two more times.

Still, it was considered very likely that Jim Leach would be succeeded by a Democrat once he retired.

In 2006, Jim Leach was defeated in a considerable upset by Democratic opponent Dave Loebsack, a political science professor at Cornell College.

Loebsack had only qualified for the Democratic primary as a write-in candidate, and Jim Leach was not on many Democratic target lists.

Jim Leach argued that Internet gambling weakened the economy and jeopardized the social fabric of the family.

On December 8,2006, Leach's House colleagues Earl Blumenauer and Jim Walsh sent a letter to President George W Bush urging the President to nominate Leach for the post.

Jim Leach then taught at Princeton and served on the board of several public companies and four non-profit organizations, including the Century Foundation, the Kettering Foundation and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Jim Leach is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and formerly served as a trustee of Princeton University.

Jim Leach holds eight honorary degrees and has received decorations from two foreign governments.

Jim Leach is the recipient of the Wayne Morse Integrity in Politics Award, the Woodrow Wilson Award from Johns Hopkins, the Adlai Stevenson Award from the United Nations Association, and the Edger Wayburn Award from the Sierra Club.

On September 17,2007, Jim Leach was named as Interim Director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School after former director Jeanne Shaheen left to pursue a US Senate seat in New Hampshire.

Jim Leach was elected to the Common Cause National Governing Board in 2007.

Jim Leach spoke at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, on the night of August 25,2008.

Jim Leach was introduced by Senator Tom Harkin, a fellow Iowan.

President Obama announced his nomination of Jim Leach to be the ninth Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities in June 2009.