U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, longtime Seattle Democrat and health care advocate, dies at 89: report

SEATTLE - Former U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, a longtime Seattle Democrat who spent nearly five decades in state and national politics championing universal health care and opposing the Iraq War, died Thursday, The Seattle Times reported. He was 89.

McDermott represented Washington's 7th Congressional District for 14 terms, from 1989 until his retirement in January 2017. Before heading to Washington, D.C., he served in both chambers of the Washington State Legislature and mounted three gubernatorial campaigns.

Jim McDermott dies at 89

The backstory:

According to The Seattle Times, McDermott's brother Mark McDermott said he died Thursday night at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. 

Born James Adelbert McDermott on Dec. 28, 1936, in Chicago, he earned his medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in 1963 and completed a fellowship in child psychiatry at the University of Washington Medical Center in 1968.

Drafted into the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War, he served as a psychiatrist in the Navy Medical Corps from 1968 to 1970 at Long Beach Naval Station in California, treating returning soldiers for combat-related trauma.

Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1988 with 71% of the vote, McDermott was re-elected 13 times before stepping down at the end of his term in 2017.

46-year political career

Big picture view:

McDermott's career helped define Seattle's progressive identity and shaped major national debates over health care and foreign policy.

Inspired by Canadian single-payer pioneer Tommy Douglas and New Deal Democrats, McDermott focused much of his legislative work on expanding medical access. In the Washington State Senate, where he served from 1975 to 1987, he sponsored the Washington State Basic Health Plan, the nation's first program offering health insurance to the unemployed and working poor, and authored the Basic Education Act.

In Congress, he was a senior member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, a member of the House Progressive Caucus, and one of the chief architects of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. He also authored the 1990 AIDS Housing Opportunity Act, the African Growth and Opportunity Act, and the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act.

His tenure also included high-profile national controversies:

• The Gingrich tape: In January 1997, while serving as the senior Democrat on the House Ethics Committee, McDermott leaked an illegally recorded cellphone call involving House Speaker Newt Gingrich and other Republican leaders to The New York Times. Republican Rep. John Boehner sued McDermott in 1998. After a 10-year legal battle that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review, a federal judge ordered McDermott in 2008 to pay Boehner more than $1 million in legal costs and $60,000 in damages.
• Iraq War opposition: In 2002, McDermott voted against authorizing military force in Iraq and accused President George W. Bush of misleading the public about Iraq's weapons programs, earning the nickname "Baghdad Jim" from political opponents. Outside his congressional office, he maintained the "Washington Faces of the Fallen" photo display honoring more than 150 Washington service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• Pledge of Allegiance: In April 2004, McDermott drew national criticism when he omitted the words "under God" while leading the House in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, explaining that he recited the version he had learned prior to Congress adding the phrase in 1954.

Local perspective:

After moving to Seattle in 1966, McDermott began his political career in 1970 by winning a seat in the Washington State House of Representatives from the 43rd District — becoming the first Democrat to hold that seat.

He ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1972, 1980 and 1984. Following his 1984 primary loss to Booth Gardner, McDermott briefly stepped away from politics to serve as a Foreign Service medical officer in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) from 1987 to 1988 before returning to Seattle to run for Congress.

Among his local legislative achievements, McDermott cited the Cedar River Watershed Land Exchange Act of 1992, which gave Seattle full control over its primary water source. Following his retirement from Congress, he taught foreign policy at the University of Washington's Jackson School of International Studies, practiced Japanese Sumi-e ink wash painting, and split time between Seattle and a cottage in France's Bordeaux region.

What they're saying:

Upon McDermott's retirement announcement in January 2016, national Democratic leaders praised his decades of public service:

President Barack Obama saluted McDermott as "a much-needed voice for the nation's most vulnerable."

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement: "Whether in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps during the Vietnam War, as a foreign service medical officer, or as a champion of single-payer healthcare, Jim made it his life's work to ensure quality healthcare is available to every American, not just the privileged few."

Jim McDermott, reflecting on his decision to retire rather than seek a 15th term, told local media in 2016: "I've seen people leave Congress in handcuffs. I've seen them die. I've seen them defeated. And then there's a few who walk out. And I thought to myself, 'That option seems like a better option.'"

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