Biography
Longley was born in Lewiston,Maine,the son of former Independent Governor Jim Longley Sr. and his wife,Helen. Longley attended Phillips Andover Academy. He received his B.A. from the College of the Holy Cross,and then returned to study law at the University of Maine. He is also a veteran of the United States Marine Corps. [1]
U.S. House of Representatives
In one of his first actions in Congress,he offered testimony before a Congressional committee considering a minimum wage increase. In his testimony he presented the concept of cutting taxes paid by minimum wage workers to provide a greater increase in their take home pay. He pointed out that minimum wage increases cause small businesses to not only pay more in wages (hurting the businesses and forcing them in some cases to cut jobs and reduce their workforce to make up for wage increases) but that cutting the payroll taxes would actually increase the employees take home pay by a larger amount than raising the overall minimum wage. Longley noted in his testimony that minimum wage increases cause businesses,as well as employees,to pay more in federal taxes through employee percentage withholding and the business match of payroll taxes. He then accused the Democrats on the committee of only seeking a minimum wage increase to increase tax revenues for the federal government –a backdoor tax increase on American small business,he claimed. Democrats on the committee accused him of wanting to harm his constituents,led by a rant from Congressman Pete Stark,who was gaveled down by the Chairman for being out of order after Stark made reference to how they would use the issue against him in the next election. Longley's idea did not succeed.
He quickly became a prime target of the Democratic Party in 1996,and was challenged by Former Portland Mayor Tom Allen. In the race labor unions and left leaning groups spent millions of dollars in a coordinated effort to defeat him. It was the largest effort of its kind on behalf of a Democratic candidate (or in opposition to an incumbent Republican) within the nation during the 1996 election cycle. Of course,smaller,but similar,sums were spent by business and professional organizations,and right-leaning special interest groups,in a coordinated effort to defend the seat. Longley lost to Allen by a wide margin,and is the last Republican to have represented Maine's 1st congressional district.
Campaign for governor
In 1998,Longley ran for Governor of Maine. He won the Republican primary against State Representative Henry L. Joy and faced incumbent Governor Angus King,an independent,in the general election,along with attorney Thomas J. Connolly,the Democratic nominee. Longley came in second place and received 19% of the vote.
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
