Posted on 11/12/2014 10:52:42 AM PST by dead
Former U.S. Rep. Marge Roukema, one of the dwindling numbers of moderate Republicans, has died. She was 85 and had Alzheimer's disease.
Roukema was first elected to the House during the Ronald Reagan landslide of 1980, defeating Democratic incumbent Andrew Maguire in Northern New Jersey, and retired after finishing her 11th term in 2003.
“We have lost a tremendous leader and state treasure today," said newly elected U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-Ewing, who will be the first woman representing New Jersey in Congress since Roukema retired. "Congresswoman Marge Roukema was a standard bearer for many in New Jersey and across the country, as a legislator and as a woman of honor and distinction.
A former teacher, Rep. Roukema blazed a trail of common sense in a political climate oftentimes more concerned with partisan outcomes than with real results." Born Margaret Scafati in Newark on Sept. 19, 1929, Roukema began her political career on the Ridgewood Board of Education in 1970. She told the New York Times that she was looking for an outlet to channel her energies following the death of her 17-year-old son to leukemia.
After working for former Gov. Tom Kean's campaign, she launched her first bid for the House against Maguire in 1978, and then won the seat in 1980 on the ticket headed by Reagan. Her official House biography describes her as someone who "forged a reputation as a Republican moderate in the U.S. House, focusing on family issues and welfare reform." Roukema helped push through the Family and Medical Leave Act, which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1993....
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
She was a liberal of course. Rest in peace.
I do like how that reads…”dwindling numbers of moderate Republicans”.
Why did the writer of this article have to make a political statement? To say she is one of a dwindling number of moderate Republicans? Somebody died, and some liberal has to get their digs in about perceived political shifts in the Republican party? Anyone else think this is completely uncalled for in an obit?????
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
RIP
The only thing dwindling is the number of Dem seats in the House... and Senate... ;)
And it’s still RINO season too!!
Yes, it is, and if you lived in New Jersey you would know to expect such bias in anything produced by the Star Ledger.
They are staffed by talentless hacks who spend their entire careers trying to slip across the river and wiggle a career finger up the Old Gray Lady's skirt.
Obit says she was looking for something to do after she lost a child, so she went into politics to promote abortion. Sounds moderate to me.
Bye bye RINO...truthfully, she was a good lady, but she was a RINO. Prayers to her family....
But wait - there’s more! Watson-Coleman’s two sons were imprisoned in 2000 for armed robbery with automatic weapons (yes, auto) in the suburban mall Kids*R*Us.
Yesterday, one of her violent sons landed a county job with benefits.
Automatic weapons! Children’s store! Democrats!
RIP.
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