Anne Northup

Northup with President George W. Bush in May 2001

She represented the Louisville-centered 3rd congressional district of Kentucky. Despite the Democratic leanings of the district, she won re-election four times. She served on the powerful House Appropriations Committee. She was one of the wealthiest members of the House of Representatives, ranking 34th out of the 435—with assets of $4.4 million to $15.9 million—based on financial disclosure statements made for the 2006 campaign.[5]

She was elected to the United States House in 1996, narrowly defeating one-term Democratic incumbent Mike Ward with a vote count of 126,625 to 125,326.[6] The seat had been held for the previous 24 years by Democrat Ron Mazzoli.

In 1998, Northup defeated Democratic candidate Chris Gorman, a former state attorney general, by just 4 percentage points.

In December 1998, she voted for three of the four impeachment charges against President Bill Clinton.[7]

In 2000, Northup faced state representative Eleanor Jordan, who was trying to become Kentucky's first black member of Congress. As with many of Northup's other opponents, Jordan, who had begun her political career as an unwed mother on welfare, argued that Northup too often sided with her Republican counterparts, voting the party line over 90% of the time. This would be a common theme for most of Northup's Democratic challengers. Northup ran on her record of getting federal money for the district, and argued Jordan would be "too liberal" for constituents.[7]

The competitive race—the candidates were in a dead heat in early polls—was of national interest in a year when Democrats were trying to regain control of the house. It attracted a visit from then-President Clinton in support of Jordan, and became at the time the second most expensive House race in Kentucky history. A memorable Northup ad featured a clip of Jordan speaking in the Kentucky House's floor, urging colleagues to hurry up and vote a bill, saying "I have a fund-raiser at 6 o'clock and I want to get out of here." The Courier-Journal credited that ad, combined with Jordan's admission on a local radio program that she did not know the cost of a Medicare bill she had voted for, with Jordan's gradual decline in support late in the campaign.[7]

Although the race looked close early on, Northup pulled away to win with 53 percent of the vote to Jordan's 44 percent, even as Al Gore carried the district. It would remain Northup's biggest victory margin until 2004.[8]

Northup was elected to a fifth term with 60 percent of the vote in 2004, her largest margin of victory. Her earlier House races were much closer. She defeated long time Jefferson County Circuit Court Clerk Tony Miller. In three debates in October, she attacked her opponent as uninformed on national issues and unprepared for office. In polls before the debates, Northup led by 7 percentage points; in polls afterwards, she led by 24 points. She ran on her past performance, as well as the promise of securing funding for two new Ohio River bridges and a new Veteran's Administration hospital.[8]

Northup was endorsed by The Courier-Journal (typically seen as liberal), several local Democratic officeholders, and former state Attorney General Chris Gorman, a Democrat who ran against her for the seat in 1998.[9]

Political observers had been amazed at Northup's ability to hold onto the 3rd, even though it was easily the most Democratic district in Kentucky. However, she was defeated for re-election to a sixth term in the 2006 congressional election by John Yarmuth, former publisher and editorialist of the Louisville Eccentric Observer (LEO), an alternative newsweekly. Although initially considered an underdog for his lack of a political background and the potential for his views to be portrayed as strongly liberal, Yarmuth garnered 122,139 votes (51%) to Northup's 116,157 votes (48%). Third party candidates garnered 2,896 votes (1%).

The campaign was relatively civil, although ads were run calling Yarmuth a hypocrite for his statements condemning the minimum wage as immoral while his family's restaurants paid some employees minimum wage. Northup also attempted to exploit Yarmuth's lengthy record in print, repeating in campaign ads some of his potentially unpopular statements (such as allegedly supporting the legalization of marijuana) and holding a press conference to complain that not all of his old columns had been made available to her campaign. Major themes of Northup's campaign was that she was independent of the then-unpopular President Bush, and that she was uniquely able to secure federal funds for Louisville projects. Due to her support for many of President Bush's policies and her past campaigning with the president her reelection was closely watched on election night as an indicator as to how well the Democrats would do in the mid-term elections.