Paul Gillmor

Infobox_Congressman
name =Paul Gillmor


date of birth= February 1 1939
place of birth= Tiffin, Ohio
date of death= c. death date and age|2007|9|5|1939|2|1
place of death = Arlington, Virginia
state = Ohio
district = 5th
term_start = January 3 1989
term_end = September 5 2007
preceded = Del Latta
succeeded = Bob Latta
party = Republican
spouse = Karen L. Gillmor
religion = Methodist
occupation= attorney
alma_mater= Ohio Wesleyan University, University of Michigan

Paul Eugene Gillmor (February 1 1939 – c. September 5 2007 ) was an American politician of the Republican Party who served as the U.S. Representative from the 5th congressional district of Ohio from 1989 until his death.

Early life, career, and family

Gillmor was born in Tiffin, Ohio and grew up in Old Fort; his father owned a trucking business in the area. He attended Old Fort High School, graduating in 1957. In 1961 he received a bachelor of arts degree from Ohio Wesleyan University; in 1964, he graduated with a law degree from the University of Michigan.

From 1965 to 1966, Gillmor was on active duty in the U.S. Air Force as a Judge Advocate, attaining the rank of Captain. He then entered the practice of law.

Gillmor's 2006 financial disclosure placed his wealth between $6.2 and $27.8 million. Much of that is from an eight-branch local bank, Old Fort Bank, owned by Gillmor and his relatives. He was the 43rd-richest member of Congress, according to "Roll Call". [http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/09/05/congressman.dead/index.html "Ohio congressman found dead in apartment"] , "CNN", September 5, 2007]

Gillmor married Karen Lako, who also served in the Ohio Senate, in 1983. He had five children: daughters Linda and Julie and sons Paul and twins Adam and Connor.

Political career

Ohio State Senate

Gillmor was elected as an Ohio state senator in 1967, where he remained until being elected to Congress in 1988. He was the Republican Leader from 1978 to 1980 and from 1983 to 1984. After the Republican Party won a majority in the Ohio Senate, Gillmor was elected President of the Senate and served in that office for three General Assemblies from 1981 to 1982 and from 1985 to 1988. He ran in the 1986 Republican primary for governor, but lost to former governor James A. Rhodes.

U.S. Congress

Elections

In 1988, Gillmor entered the Republican primary for the 5th District after 30-year incumbent Del Latta retired. Latta endorsed his son, Bob, as his successor; Gillmor defeated him by only 27 votes. He was then handily elected in November and has been reelected nine times in this heavily Republican district, usually by margins of 2-to-1. He ran unopposed in 1992.

In 2002, Gillmor defeated Republican Rex Damschroder in the primary [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=76949] , in a campaign where Gillmor was accused of ignoring his district and spending almost all of his time at his homes near Washington and Columbus, Ohio. [http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:Bl5iSVpSe3cJ:hosted.ap.org/dynamic/external/pre-election/bios/1378.html%3FSITE%3DWIMILELN%26SECTION%3DPOLITICS%26TEMPLATE%3DDEFAULT+site:hosted.ap.org+%22Paul+Gillmor%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us&client=firefox-a Associated Press profile, 2006] , accessed May 14, 2007 ]

Committees and positions

Gillmor was the ranking Republican on the Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee of the Financial Services Committee. He also served on the Energy and Commerce Committee, and chaired its Environment and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee until the Republicans lost control of Congress following the 2006 elections. In 2006, Gillmor served as a member of a bipartisan reform task force on ethics and congressional mailing practices. He was a member of the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership.

The American Conservative Union gave Gillmor's 2005 voting record a rating of 82 points out of a possible 100; the liberal Americans for Democratic Action gave him a 0 rating.

Gillmor joined with Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank to propose the Industrial Bank Holding Company Act of 2006, which was designed to prevent retailers such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot from operating banks to process their credit card transactions. [ [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-148603236.html LAWMAKERS ATTEMPT TO PREVENT RETAILERS FROM OPERATING BANKS; "THE INDUSTRIAL BANK HOLDING COMPANY ACT OF 2006" SEEKS TO BLOCK NON-FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS FROM BANKING.(Paul Gillmor) - HFN The Weekly Newspaper for the Home FurnishingNetwork - HighBeam Research ] ] "The Toledo Blade" noted that as he fought for the interests of the banking community, Gillmor had opened his own bank in Florida, Panther Community Bank, and was heir to an Ohio bank, Old Fort Bank. [ [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-164086247.html Gillmor takes lead on bank law while he's a bank owner. - Blade (Toledo, OH) - HighBeam Research ] ]

Residency and real estate

Until March 2006, when he bought a condominium in Tiffin for $230,000, Gillmor claimed his boyhood home in Old Fort as his official residence. Both are within his district. However, when Gillmor was not in Washington, D.C., he lived primarily in Dublin, a suburb of Columbus, about a 90-minute drive from the condominium Al Kamen, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/10/AR2007051002397_pf.html "Congressman Says Home Purchase Was 'Pretty Much Aboveboard'"] , "The Washington Post", May 11, 2007] and outside the district he represents (it is split between the 12th and 15th districts). Gillmor and his wife also owned a townhouse in Arlington, Virginia, purchased in 1989 for $389,000 [Jonathan Riskind, [http://www.columbusdispatch.com/dispatch/content/local_news/stories/2007/06/10/dclive.ART_ART_06-10-07_A1_A36VS8H.html "Perks of power stop at tiny D.C. digs"] , "Columbus Dispatch", June 10, 2007] and valued in 2007 at $640,000. Gillmor's wife works in Columbus as vice chairman of the State Employment Relations Board; prior to being appointed to that position, she was a state senator. Their three sons attend Dublin schools. When asked prior to the November 2006 election how often he stayed at the Tiffin house, Gillmor refused to answer.Jennifer Feehan, [http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061102/NEWS09/611020353/-1/NEWS "Gillmor family rarely seen at new 'residence' in Tiffin"] , "Toledo Blade", November 2, 2006]

His opponents in the last three election cycles prior to his death made an issue of his residence, and many of the condominium's residents claim they rarely saw him there. However, Gillmor long insisted that Seneca County (home to both Old Fort and Tiffin) is his true home. Members of the House are constitutionally required to live only in the state they represent, but it has become a strong convention that they live in the district they represent as well.

In March 2007, Gillmor and his family moved into a new house in Dublin. In 2004, the land where that house now sits was purchased by Zenith Holding & Trading Corp., a subsidiary of a Columbus law and lobbying firm, Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease. In 2005, Zenith Holding received a construction loan of $967,000, to build the house. Prior to moving into the house, Gillmor and his family lived in a four-bedroom, 3,571 square-foot house in Dublin that they bought in 1996 for $364,900.Joshua Boak, [http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070502/NEWS09/705020395 "Gillmor defends move to new home"] , "Toledo Blade", May 2, 2007]

In a letter to the "Toledo Blade" in early May 2007, the firm said that Zenith has the new Dublin house and its land in trust "at the request of, and for the benefit of" Gillmor, who pays the mortgage and taxes. In a follow-up letter to the newspaper, Gillmor said he considers the properties outside his district, in Dublin and Arlington, to be "only real estate investments." In his April 2007 letter to "The Blade", Gillmor similarly said that the property was in a trust. But in May 2007, Gillmor's spokesman, Brad Mascho, said that a trustlike entity that is "not a trust" controls the house, so there had been no need to notify the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct that Gillmor was transferring assets into a trust in order to purchase the home.Joshua Boak, [http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070513/NEWS09/70513002 "Questions about Gillmor’s $1 million residence linger"] , "Toledo Blade", May 13, 2007]

Banking interests

Gillmor became partial owner of Old Fort Bank in Seneca County, about 60 miles southeast of Toledo, after the death of his father, Paul M. Gillmor. In 2006, Gillmor received $540,000 in dividends from the bank, for his share of ownership, out of a total of $2 million paid to all shareholders. The bank had total profits of $3.6 million in 2006.

In 2007, Gillmor received approval from the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct and the offices of two federal regulators to be an initial director and investor in a new Florida bank, the Panther Community Bank.Joshua Boak, [http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070527/NEWS09/705270337 "Gillmor takes lead on bank law while he's a bank owner"] , "Toledo Blade", May 27, 2007]

In May 2007, the House of Representatives passed, by a vote of 371-16, a bill by Gillmor and Representative Barney Frank that blocked retailers such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot from establishing their own industrial loan companies. [Marilyn Geewax, [http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-wed_house_bankmay23,0,2772309.story?coll=chi-business-hed "House blocks stores' bank bid: Senate may see closer vote on bill closing loophole"] , "Cox News Service", May 23, 2007] Industrial loan companies are state-chartered corporations that are potential competitors of community banks.

Death

On September 5, 2007, Gillmor was found dead in his Arlington County, Virginia townhouse by members of his staff after he failed to show up for a House Financial Services Committee meeting, and did not respond to repeated telephone calls and e-mails. [cite web
url = http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/05/AR2007090501072.html?hpid=sec-politics
title="10-Term Ohio Congressman, 68, Found Dead in His Arlington Home"
date=2007-09-06
author=Markon, Jerry; and Weisman, Jonathan
work=Washington Post
accessdate=2007-09-06] The Virginia state medical examiner's office said in a report that Gillmor died from blunt head and neck trauma consistent with a fall down the stairs. Police assessed the scene and ruled out foul play. Gillmor's death was ruled an accident. [John McCarthy, [http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Sep07/0,4670,OhioCongressman,00.html "Report: Congressman Likely Fell to Death"] , Associated Press (Fox News), September 7, 2007.]

In a special election held in December, Bob Latta, the man Gillmor had narrowly defeated in the 1988 primary, won the seat.

ee also

*Election Results, U.S. Representative from Ohio, 5th District
*List of United States Representatives from Ohio

Notes and references

External links

*CongBio|g000210
* [http://www.gillmorforcongress.com/ Official campaign site]
* [http://www.gillmorblog.com/ Congressional blog by Gillmor]
* [http://herndon1.sdrdc.com/cgi-bin/can_detail/H8OH05044 Federal Election Commission — Paul E Gillmor] campaign finance reports and data
* [http://www.ontheissues.org/OH/Paul_Gillmor.htm On the Issues — Paul Gillmor] issue positions and quotes
* [http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.asp?CID=N00003660 OpenSecrets.org — Paul E. Gillmor] campaign contributions
* [http://www.vote-smart.org/bio.php?can_id=H3061103 Project Vote Smart — Representative Paul E. Gillmor (OH)] profile
* [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Paul_Gillmor SourceWatch Congresspedia — Paul Gillmor] profile
* [http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/g000210/ Washington Post — Congress Votes Database: Paul Gillmor] voting record

Persondata
NAME=Gillmor, Paul Eugene
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Ohio politician
DATE OF BIRTH=February 1 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH=Old Fort, Ohio
DATE OF DEATH=September 5 2007
PLACE OF DEATH=Arlington, Virginia