Geoff Davis
Geoff Davis (born October 26 1958) is an American politician from the state of Kentucky, who was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Republican from the 4th District of Kentucky with 54% of the vote on November 2 2004. The district includes 24 counties in the northeastern part of the state, stretching from the fringes of the Louisville area to the West Virginia border. Most of its vote, however, is cast in the Cincinnati suburbs.
To win the open seat, he defeated Democrat Nick Clooney. The race had been rated as highly competitive by outside observers. In the 2002 election cycle, Davis had challenged Ken Lucas, the Democratic incumbent but was narrowly defeated.
Davis was born in Montreal, Canada to American parents (one of few sitting House members to be born in Quebec), and attended the United States Military Academy. Before running for the House, he worked as a consultant in the manufacturing field.
Davis has a solidly conservative voting record; according to his congressional website, he has positioned himself as pro-life and in favor of industrial deregulation.
In November, 2005, Davis made headlines for his response to Pennsylvania representative John Murtha's call for withdrawal from Iraq, saying, "Ayman Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's deputy, as well as Abu Musab Zarqawi, have made it quite clear in their internal propaganda that they cannot win unless they can drive the Americans out. And they know that they can't do that there, so they've brought the battlefield to the halls of Congress. And, frankly, the liberal leadership have put politics ahead of sound, fiscal and national security policy. And what they have done is cooperated with our enemies and are emboldening our enemies." Davis faced harsh criticism for his remarks from both sides of the spectrum, and several other controversial remarks sparked a drive (led by national Democratic Party leaders) to get Lucas to run against him in 2006. 1
On January 30 2006, Lucas announced he would indeed challenge Davis later that year. The announcement instantly turned the race from a cakewalk for Davis into one of the hottest in the campaign cycle, even though the 4th is considered the most Republican district in Kentucky. Despite a substantial Democratic advantage in voter registration, the influence of the heavily Republican Cincinnati suburbs kept the district in Republican hands from 1967 until Lucas won the seat in 1998. Lucas' entry into the race prompted Congressional Quarterly to change its rating of the district from "Safe Republican" to "Lean Republican," meaning that a Lucas victory would not be considered an upset. Most recently, CQ changed its rating to "Toss-Up," meaning the race could go either way. The Cook Political Report, an independent non-partisan newsletter, rated the race for Kentucky's 4th Congressional District as a "Toss-Up", meaning either party has a good chance of winning. [1] This represents deterioration for the Davis campaign, as previously the race had been rated as "Lean Republican."
Davis was a recipient of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's ARMPAC campaign contributions. DeLay is being criminally prosecuted on charges of felony money laundering of campaign finances and conspiracy to launder money. To date, Davis has not offered to return or donate to charity any of the $30,000 he received, despite calls from Democrats to do so, [2] [3] Republicans say that the charges against DeLay are politically motivated because prosecutor Ronnie Earle has a history of unsuccessful indictments against political enemies of both parties such as Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), and because Earle had to shop the charges to multiple grand juries because one refused to indict. [4] [5]
Davis has received donations from Republican Duke Cunningham, who pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud, and tax evasion. [6] [7] Davis received a donation from Congressman Bob Ney, who is under an investigation for bribery and his involvement with convicted felon Jack Abramoff. [8]
External links
- 2004 campaign site
- Official House site
- 2004 campaign finance data
- Congresspedia article — campaign funding and other information
- Voting record maintained by the Washington Post