Looking back on his 20-year congressional career, U.S. Rep. Tim Holden said Wednesday that he wants to be remembered for the work he did while others engaged in partisan arguments and political posturing.
"I always prided myself in staying out of the petty partisan bickering," Holden, D-17, said during an interview reflecting on his 10 terms in Washington. "People want you to work together."
Holden, 55, of Saint Clair, is looking at the end of that career, as he lost the April 24 Primary Election to Scranton lawyer Matt Cartwright, who went on to win the Nov. 6 General Election and will take office on Thursday.
First elected in 1992 as the congressman for the Sixth District, which included Berks, Schuylkill and part of Montgomery counties, he held that seat for 10 years before redistricting put Schuylkill County in the 17th District. In 2002, he topped Dauphin County Republican George W. Gekas in one of the closest and most expensive congressional campaigns in the country to win the 17th District, where he has served for the last 10 years.
"We had a good 20-year run," Holden said of a tenure that included many earth-shattering events.
Running for office came naturally to Holden, whose father and grandfather, Joseph "Socks" and John, served as a county commissioner and borough councilman, respectively.
"I was raised in a political family," he said. "Politics is sort of in my blood."
Holden was a probation officer when he won his first race, beating Daniel G. Grow to become sheriff. After seven years in that post, upon learning U.S. Rep. Gus Yatron was retiring, he decided to aim high.
"I thought it was a wonderful opportunity," Holden said.
Two Berks County Democrats, Warren Haggerty and John Reusing, split the vote, enabling Holden to win the nomination and setting up an all-Schuylkill General Election against John E. Jones III, a Pottsville lawyer who is now a U.S. district judge.
"It was a tough, hard-fought campaign," Holden said of his first congressional race, which he managed to win 105,890 to 95,447.
Arriving in Washington, Holden and other freshmen received advice from two Keystone state congressional veterans, Republican Joseph McDade and Democrat John Murtha, to do what was best for their constituents regardless of what party leaders might say.
" 'You're not Democrats, you're not Republicans, you're Pennsylvanians,' " Holden remembers being told. "This Congress could use some of that."
He also remembers a piece of advice from Murtha that served him well: "Keep you mouth shut, keep your ears open and make friends, and you'll do OK for your district."
"That's what I've tried to pride myself on," Holden said.
That work included joining the Agriculture and Transportation committees, where he was able to obtain millions of dollars for Schuylkill and other counties in his district.
Those projects included improvements to Route 61 and other local highways, support for the Schuylkill Transportation System, financial backing for business projects, grants for firefighters and law enforcement personnel, and additional money that helped people in the county and enabled him to count on their solid support.
He said he always was more interested on that than in political arguments.
"Common sense" is what Washington needs, he said. "The Democrats are just as guilty of it as the Republicans. We've got to find a way to work together."
After one term, however, Holden found himself in the minority, as Republicans took control of both the House and Senate in the 1994 election. Although Holden himself won re-election, he was surprised by the change.
"If they had polling, they were not showing it to us," he said of Democratic leaders.
That change set up a confrontation between President Clinton and new House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., a fight that led to a government shutdown when they could not agree on a budget.
"I knew they were two strong personalities," Holden said. "I never thought they'd take it to a government shutdown."
A funny thing then occurred, however: Clinton and Gingrich made peace and the country started a stretch of prosperity.
"They realized they had to live together. They compromised," Holden said. "That's what the American people want."
That cooperation ended abruptly in 1998 with Clinton's impeachment on perjury charges stemming from his extramarital affair with intern Monica Lewinsky.
"Gwen (Tim's wife) and I were on vacation. A total stranger told us," Holden said of Lewinsky.
He thinks Republicans went too far in trying to remove Clinton from office. The House impeached Clinton but the Senate refused to remove him from office.
"I think he was embarrassed enough by the exposure of it," he said.
In 2000, the gap between the parties grew even wider with the close and controversial presidential election, in which Republican George W. Bush, the governor of Texas, beat Vice President Al Gore after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a halt in December to the recount directed by the Supreme Court of Florida. At that time, Holden was with Clinton in Belfast, Northern Ireland, when the president took a telephone call.
" 'I just hung up with Al. He's going to concede,' " was what Clinton told him and the other Democrats on the trip, Holden recalled.
Bush became president, Holden was still in the minority in the House - and then came Sept. 11, 2001.
"I was in the House gym. I was working out on the elliptical machine," Holden remembered of that awful day. "Everything just stopped. The Capitol police came into the gym shouting, 'Get out of here, get out of here.' "
Two days later, Holden and the rest of Congress rode a special train to Ground Zero, a trip that he said produced disbelief among everyone.
"You think of the people jumping out," he recalled. "It's hard for us to understand that there are people who hate us so much."
The 9/11 attacks, in which approximately 3,000 people died at the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon and on an airplane that crashed in Shanksville, Somerset County, led to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"The effort directed against the Taliban was just and proper," Holden said of the war against the Afghan regime that harbored Osama bin Laden. "I voted for the war in Iraq."
The next year, Holden faced his hardest election until 2012, when redistricting resulted in him running against Gekas in one of four contests nationwide that pitted incumbents against each other.
"I honestly didn't think I was going to run," until a poll showed him running even with Gekas, a 10-term incumbent, Holden said. "I thought, 'Well, I'm going to take a shot at this.' "
In a Republican district, Holden kept it close all the way.
"That's the only election in my career when I went into Election Day not knowing whether I was going to win or lose," he said.
In a major upset, Holden won, ending Gekas' career and putting him in a majority Republican district.
"I figured after that I'd have to work my tail off in Dauphin and Lebanon," Holden said. "I knew they'd be coming after me the next time."
Holden said he always prided himself on working for the Sixth District, and he continued to do so in the 17th.
He obtained approximately $74.5 million for Fort Indiantown Gap in Lebanon County and $33.65 million to help establish a cancer institute at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Dauphin County. Combined with solid support from Schuylkill County and one of the most conservative voting records of any Northeastern Democrat, those enabled him to keep his job, winning re-election easily in 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010.
"I only lost Dauphin County once," he said. Dauphin County's state representatives had pretty safe seats, which made them reluctant to run against him, according to Holden.
Holden again found himself in the majority after the 2006 election but went back to the minority after the 2010 election. He foresaw both, saying they stemmed from the same essential cause and represented what he has tried to fight against his entire career.
"When one party has absolute control and they listen to the extreme faction of the party, that locks out the other party," he said. "They have a tendency to go to the extreme. People ... want you to govern."
Then came 2012, and another redistricting that moved the 17th northeast and made it more Democratic, but also gave him 80 percent new territory. Holden said his Republican colleagues told him that Scranton had to be moved out of the 11th District, and kept out of the 10th, to help freshmen Lou Barletta and Tom Marino keep their jobs, so it would have to be put in the new 17th.
"Once Harrisburg or Reading were not in this district, I knew I had a problem. I was prepared not to run," but Democratic leaders in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties said they would not run for the seat, he said. "When Matt decided to run, I knew he was credible."
Money from liberal political action committees helped undermine him among the voters who did not know him, and Cartwright won by a fairly large margin, according to Holden.
Holden foresees trouble in Washington over the "fiscal cliff," the looming financial crisis over renewal of the tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush.
"I think we're going over the cliff," he said. "Everybody's taxes will go up. It will be a financial disaster."
He also is leery about the future around the globe, especially the Middle East.
"It's still a very dangerous world," Holden said. "There are a lot of people who don't like us."
Holden said he is not sure what the future holds for him, but he knows it does not include politics.
"I have no intention of running for office," he said. "I have a lot of irons in the fire. I've talked to several firms. I have no definite plans now. I'm going to find something to do."
However, he is grateful for having had the chance to serve the people of the Sixth and 17th districts, and especially the folks from Schuylkill County.
"It's been an honor and privilege to represent them for 20 years in Congress and seven as sheriff," he said. "Schuylkill County overwhelmingly backed me and I'll never forget that."