John Murtha was born June 17, 1932 in New Martinsville, West Virginia. His hometown is Johnstown, Pennsylvania. He went to the University of Pittsburg and earned a B.A. in Economics in 1962. He is Roman Catholic, has a wife, Joyce, and three children. He was elected February 1974. Murtha grew up in the 12th District area. He served in the Marine Corps and then he re-enlisted into the Marines at age 34 in 1966. He was the first Vietnam veteran in the Congress. For his service in Vietnam, he was awarded the Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts, and the Vietnamese Cross for Gallantry.
Pennsylvania's 12th District is Murtha's district. The district covers an area of 2,781 square miles and has an urban population of 62.5 percent and a rural population of 37.5 percent. The population in 2000 was 646,249 people. The median income for the people is $30,612 and the poverty status in Murtha's district is 13.6 percent. The 12th District is comprised of 15.3 percent military veterans. There is a wide variety of race and ethnic origins in Murtha's district, but it is predominately white. There are 95 percent white; 3.3 percent black; .3 percent Asian; .1 percent Native American; .7 percent two or more races; .1 percent other; and .6 percent Hispanic origin. The ancestry for the district include: 17.3 percent German and 9.2 percent Italian. The occupational status of his district is: blue collar with 30.5 percent; white collar with 51.4 percent; and gray color with 18.1 percent.
The 12th district has not followed the national Democratic Party on all issues. The voters strongly favor trade restrictions on steel imports when a lot of the other Democrats were actually free traders of 1960 and 1970. Today however, Democrats have opposed the free trade measures. Voters also usually take conservative stands on cultural issues and foreign policy. This district voted 55 to 44 percent for Al Gore when he ran for President. However, when George W. Bush imposed important quotas on steel and boosted the clean coal technology, this district then voted 51 to 49 percent for John Kerry.
The 12th district has irregular boundaries compared to most districts and contains a lot of coal and steel country. The counties in the 12th district include all of Greene County and parts of Allegheny, Armstrong, Cambria, Fayette, Indiana, Somerset, Washington and Westmoreland. This district is also the location of Murtha's home base.
Murtha is in his 16th term as Representative. Throughout his term, he has either been the Chairman or a top minority member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. He likes to think of himself as the government's watchman through compromise and judicious applications of legislature in areas such as adding funds for hometown projects that are of great importance to individual members.
Murtha is a member of the Appropriations Committee, the Chairman of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, and serves as the Democrat's key man on the defense budget. His voting record is very hawkish. He is hawkish on foreign policy, intervention on economics and he is usually traditional minded on cultural issues. He is suited well for the steel and coal country.
John Murtha is known for his finding out what his colleagues want, getting in touch with parties involved, figuring out what he'll probably be able to get and then he will deliver on his comments. This requires a lot of personal time from Murtha, but he is happy to give that time. If a Representative needs a sympathetic ear for some hometown priority, they speak to Murtha during roll call. John Murtha operates best in secret. He likes to trade gossip in the back corner of the House chamber. He also votes to colleagues who crowd him like “they were kissing his ring.” (big paper)
Murtha does not try to just get the government going, he tries to use his process to shape defense policy. His views on this subject are credible because he works the military establishment while he is working in the House, so that he'll be able to look his interlocutor straight into the eye. Murtha travels to deployments in far away regions to look and assess the situation.
He also talks on military affairs with moral authority as the decorated Vietnam veteran he is. He is one of few Veterans in the House. Murtha rarely talks about his Vietnam record in public, but his colleagues know very well about his record. His words had a larger impact in 2004, when he was standing next to Nancy Pelosi, the Minority Leader, and said that the Pentagon needed to devote more troops and resources to the Iraq War or it would be “unwinnable.” (CQ)
