Member of Congress
Peter DeFazio was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1986.
DeFazio serves on the House Transportation And Infrastructure Committee, where he serves as the top Democrat on the Aviation Subcommittee, where he is a vocal advocate for consumer safety and aviation security. He was instrumental in securing the passage of the first significant piece of aviation security legislation in history. He also serves as a member of the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee and the Railroad Subcommittee.
On the House Committee on Homeland Security, Peter works hard to meet the national security needs of the country. He has consistently fought for more money towards protecting our ports, our airports and our borders.
Peter also serves on the Resources Committee, where he is active on the Subcommittee for Forests and Forest Health.
A Springfield Resident
Unlike many Members of Congress, Peter DeFazio hasn’t forgotten the people he was elected to represent. He commutes from his Springfield home to Washington, DC almost every week. He has logged over three million miles traveling between Oregon and Washington, DC to serve the people of Oregon’s Fourth Congressional District in the United States Congress.
He lives in Springfield, Oregon with his wife Myrnie Daut, a Chesapeake Bay Retriever, a Black Lab, 2 cats, and a Dodge Dart.
When home, he frequently travels his large District stretching from above Sweet Home to Brookings at the California border. DeFazio has held more than 368 town hall meetings throughout the district and frequently attends local civic clubs and community events to stay in touch.
Not Your Usual Politician - Effective Outspoken Leadership
"DeFazio is a feisty populist progressive whose sharp-edged views resonate with both rural and urban constituents." - Register Guard October 19, 2002
"DeFazio continues to be an independent thinker who values hard work and results more than rhetoric, and the practical more than party ideology." - Corvallis Gazette-Times, October 16, 2004
" The DeFazio that people in Oregon's 4th District have known for 20 years is the same DeFazio who represents them in Congress: hard-working, independent and politically shrewd." -
Register Guard September 27, 2006
“For his 16 years on Congress, Peter DeFazio has been a maverick with his only allegiance being to his constituents.” - Daily Courier, October 8, 2002
“Thanks to DeFazio’s straight-shooting style, he has become one of the most trusted and respected members of Congress and he has the experience and political clout to get the job done.” -Curry County Reporter, August 22, 2001
“ DeFazio ....is one of the best congressmen Oregon has produced. His value to our state and the nation grows with every term he serves.” -Daily Astorian, August 15, 2001
"We can’t afford to lose such an effective fighter for the district, state and nation - and a good man - like Peter DeFazio.” - Curry County Reporter, October 18, 2000
“[DeFazio] a man of the people populist who’s not afraid to speak his mind when it comes to taxes and spending, forests and logging, Social Security and the need to regulate utilities and other big-business sectors.” -Register Guard, August 21, 2001
"DeFazio has been good for the district.” - The World, March 20, 2002
“DeFazio is an effective, hard-working, senior Congressman who listens to his constituents.” - Roseburg News Review, November 2, 2001
Re-Elect DeFazio
Congressman fits district and is gaining clout
For the record, Peter DeFazio doesn't drive Mercedes when he's back in Washington, D.C. The Springfield Democrat drives a 1968 Plymouth Barracuda. The Mercedes story has been floated in a few places, including the letters columns of this newspaper, to suggest that DeFazio is a different person at home, with his regular-guy manner and his beater cars, than in the capital.
Don't believe it. The DeFazio that people in Oregon's 4th District have known for 20 years is the same DeFazio who represents them in Congress: hard-working, independent and politically shrewd. The county would be better off if there were more like him in Washington, whatever their automotive preferences.
Between DeFazio and his Republican challenger, Jim Feldkamp, it's no contest. DeFazio deserves re-election.
That has been the voters' judgment in every election since 1986, the first and last time a Republican came anywhere close to beating DeFazio. He won with 68 percent of the vote in 2000, even though voters in the 4th District favored George W. Bush for president by 5 percentage points.
Two years ago, DeFazio beat Feldkamp by 61 percent to 38 percent while Democrat John Kerry edged Bush by a mere 1,200 votes. Many voters in the 4th District, which covers Southwestern Oregon, mark their ballots for Republicans and then cross over to support DeFazio.
Feldkamp claims this proves that voters don't really know who DeFazio is – but that misreads the district. The 4th was one of only two congressional districts in the nation to flip from Bush in 2000 to Kerry in 2004. While the district has mane partisan Democrats in the Eugene area and many partisan Republicans elsewhere, DeFazio has succeeded by cultivating key constituencies for whom party labels are of secondary importance.
DeFazio's work on behalf of seniors and veterans has won him loyal supporters, while his willingness to break with his party on such issues as trade, gun control and immigration has given him partial immunity to conservative attacks.
More than triangulation is involved here. DeFazio is a rarity in the degree to which he works his way to his own positions on public policy questions, rather than having them handed to him by a party leader or political consultant. Sometimes he's wrong, as when he supported a punitive immigration bill. More often he's right, as when he offered forest-thinning legislation that would have yielded more timber than the version favored by Republicans.
Feldkamp, 42, is a former Navy pilot and FBI agent who grew up in Roseburg. He says he returned to Oregon to run for Congress. Since, moving home he has taught at community colleges and worked as a fundraiser for such groups as the Boy Scouts. Feldkamp says that after 20 years, DeFazio has had his chance and it's time for a change. The change, however, would be to a congressman who supports President Bush on every major issue at a time when the Republican majority in Congress acts too often as a rubber stamp for the administration.
Feldkamp can't match the depth of DeFazio's understanding of issues ranging from Social Security to the Bonneville Power Administration from Medicare to tax policy. This understanding, yoked to increasing seniority, allowed DeFazio to win more transportation funds for his district than any House Democrat, and more than all but four Republicans. If the Democrats take control of the House, DeFazio would be in line to become chairman of a powerful transportation subcommittee. It would take years for Feldkamp to achieve that level of influence, if indeed he ever could.
At 59, DeFazio remains energetic and productive. He deserves the voters' support, no matter what he drives.
