CHICAGO (ELCA) -- When the 109th Congress of the United
States is sworn in Jan. 3, it will include 19 Lutherans -- 10
Democrats and 9 Republicans, according to the Lutheran Office for
Governmental Affairs, Washington, D.C., the federal public policy
advocacy office of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
(ELCA).
Three Lutherans will be members of the U.S. Senate:
Conrad Burns (R-Mont.)
Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.)
Tim Johnson (D-S.D.)
Sixteen Lutherans will be in the U.S. House of
Representatives:
Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio 13th)
Lois Capps (D-Calif. 23rd)
John R. Carter (R-Texas 31st)
Norman D. Dicks (D-Wash. 6th)
Darlene Hooley (D-Ore. 5th)
Ron Kind (D-Wis. 3rd)
Tom Latham (R-Iowa 5th)
Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif. 16th)
Jim Nussle (R-Iowa 2nd)
Michael Oxley (R-Ohio 4th)
Collin C. Peterson (D-Minn. 7th)
Thomas E. Petri (R-Wis. 6th)
Dave Reichert (R-Wash. 8th)
Martin Olav Sabo (D-Minn. 5th)
John M. Shimkus (R-Ill. 19th)
Bill Shuster (R-Pa. 9th)
All are members of the ELCA, except Reichert and Shimkus who
are members of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and Kind who
is a member of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod.
The newest and longest-serving Lutherans in Congress are
both from the state of Washington. Dicks was first elected to
the U.S. House in 1976; he begins his 15th two-year term in 2005.
Reichert begins his first term; the King County Sheriff was
elected to fill a vacancy left when Rep. Jennifer Dunn announced
her intention to not seek re-election.
Five Lutherans in the 108th Congress will not continue in
the 109th. Douglas K. Bereuter (R-Neb. 1st) resigned from the
House during his 13th term and on Sept. 1 became president of the
Asia Foundation, based in San Francisco. Ernest F. "Fritz"
Hollings (D-S.C.) leaves Congress after 38 years in the Senate,
opting not to seek re-election. William J. Janklow (R-S.D. at
large) resigned from the House on Jan. 20, 2004, convicted of
manslaughter in a fatal accident the previous August. Doug Ose
(R-Calif. 3rd) honored a campaign pledge when he was first
elected to the House in 1998 to hold the office for no more than
three terms. Charles W. Stenholm (D-Texas 17th) lost re-election
when redistricting pitted him against the incumbent Randy
Neugebauer (R) in Texas' 19th district.
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The home page of the Lutheran Office for Governmental
Affairs is at http://www.loga.org/ on the Web.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
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About the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:
The ELCA is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with 2.8 million members in more than 8,500 worshiping communities across the 50 states and in the Caribbean region. Known as the church of "God's work. Our hands.," the ELCA emphasizes the saving grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, unity among Christians and service in the world. The ELCA's roots are in the writings of the German church reformer Martin Luther.
For information contact:
Candice Hill Buchbinder
Public Relations Manager
Candice.HillBuchbinder@ELCA.org
