Thomas Evert Petri (born May 28, 1940) is an American politician who was the

U.S. representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

for from 1979 to 2015; he is a member of the

Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa *Republican Party (Liberia) * Republican Part ...

Early life

Petri was born in

Marinette, Wisconsin Marinette is a city in and the county seat of Marinette County, Wisconsin, United States. It is located on the south bank of the Menominee River, at its mouth at Green Bay, part of Lake Michigan; to the north is Stephenson Island, part of the ...

. When he was a toddler, his father, a Navy flyer and lieutenant during World War II, was lost during a mission over the Atlantic. Petri, his infant brother, and his widowed mother moved to Fond du Lac, where Petri's mother taught in the Fond du Lac public schools. He represented his high school as a delegate to the youth government and leadership program

Badger Boys State The American Legion Boys State and American Legion Auxiliary Girls State are summer leadership and citizenship programs for high school juniors, which focus on exploring the mechanics of American government and politics. The programs are sponsor ...

in 1957. He graduated from Goodrich High School in Fond du Lac. Petri then attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, where he received his Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees. After graduating from law school he served as a

law clerk A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...

to federal district judge

James Doyle James Doyle may refer to: The arts * James Francis Doyle (1840–1913), British architect * James S. Doyle (born 1935), American journalist * James William Edmund Doyle (1822–1892), English illustrator and antiquary * Jimmy Doyle (musician) (194 ...

. He was one of the founders of the

Ripon Society The Ripon Society is an American centrist Republican public policy organization and think tank based in Washington, D.C. It publishes ''The Ripon Forum'', the U.S.'s longest running Republican thought and opinion journal, as well as ''The Ripon A ...

, a public policy organization aligned with the Republican Party. He served as a volunteer with the

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F. ...

in Somalia from 1966-1967. From 1969 to 1970 he served as a White House aide during the

Presidency of Richard Nixon Richard Nixon's tenure as the 37th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1969, and ended when he resigned on August 9, 1974, in the face of almost certain impeachment because of the Watergate Scanda ...

Early political career

Wisconsin Senate

Petri served in the Wisconsin State Senate from 1973 to 1979.

1974 U.S. Senate election

Petri ran for the

U.S. Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

in 1974. He won the Republican primary with 85% of the vote. During the campaign, Petri walked across the state of Wisconsin as part of his grassroots strategy. In the general election, incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson defeated Petri 62%–36%. Petri took five of 72 counties in the state.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

In 1979, he won a special election to finish the term of the late U.S. Congressman

William A. Steiger William Albert Steiger (May 15, 1938 – December 4, 1978) was a member of the US House of Representatives from 1967 to his death from a heart attack in Washington, DC, in 1978. He served as a Republican Party (United States), Republican from Wis ...

, who had died shortly after being re-elected in 1978. He defeated fellow state senator Gary Goyke by only 1,200 voters. He won the seat in his own right in 1980, taking 57 percent of the vote in a rematch with Goyke. Petri was reelected 16 times. The only time he faced a race anywhere near as close as his 1979 contest came in 1992. That year, he defeated State Representative

Peg Lautenschlager Peggy Ann Lautenschlager (November 22, 1955 – March 31, 2018) was an American attorney and Democratic politician who was the first chair of the Wisconsin Ethics Commission from 2016 to 2017, the 42nd Attorney General of Wisconsin from 2003 to ...

53% to 47%. It would be the only reelection contest in which he won less than 65 percent of the vote. He won ten of the district's thirteen counties. He lost Manitowoc,

Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model used ...

, and Outagamie counties. He ran unopposed in 1990, 1994, 2002, and 2006. He faced no major-party opposition in 1986 and 1998. In April 2014, Petri announced he would not seek re-election in November 2014.

Tenure

Petri was a member of The Republican Main Street Partnership and supports stem-cell research, although he generally opposes

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

. He called for a moratorium on the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

, but voted against other restrictions on it. Petri was a member of the moderate Republican conference, The Tuesday Group, and received a $10,000 contribution from the group in 2008 and $5,000 in 2012. Petri was the author and sponsor of three surface transportation laws. He supported the laws that eliminated the 55-miles-per-hour speed limit and eliminated the

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminat ...

. Petri's three largest contributors in the 2012 campaign cycle were labor unions.Top 20 Contributors – Representative Tom Petri 2011 – 2012
OpenSecrets.org. Accessed January 17, 2012 He voted for

Project Labor Agreement A Project Labor Agreement (PLA), also known as a Community Workforce Agreement, is a pre-hire collective bargaining agreement with one or more labor unions that establishes the terms and conditions of employment for a specific construction project. ...

s (PLAs) and twice voted to allow the use of PLAs in government contracts. Petri also voted to permit the use of taxpayer funds to comply with the Davis-Bacon Act, voted to use federal funds for collective bargaining by the

Transportation Security Administration The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that has authority over the security of transportation systems within, and connecting to the United States. It was created ...

, and voted in favor of $233 million in taxpayer funding for the

National Labor Relations Board The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent agency of the federal government of the United States with responsibilities for enforcing U.S. labor law in relation to collective bargaining and unfair labor practices. Under the Natio ...

. In 1994, Petri introduced H.R. 4469, "The Multicare Act of 1994". This bill would have established federally funded government-run health insurance programs, and would have authorized states to require an individual to purchase insurance from one of these government-run insurance plans. Petri continued to push for the passage of Multicare until 2004. In 2005, Petri voted to fund the "

Gravina Island Bridge The Gravina Island Bridge, commonly referred to as the "Bridge to Nowhere", was a proposed bridge to replace the ferry that currently connects the town of Ketchikan, Alaska, United States, with Gravina Island, an island that contains the Ketchikan ...

", and voted to prevent the drilling for oil in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In 2005, Petri introduced the Direct Loan Reward Act, and in 2006 introduced the Student Aid Reward (STAR) Act. On November 2, 2005, Petri voted against the Online Freedom of Speech Act. On January 18, 2007 Petri voted in favor of HR 6, which made it more difficult to obtain a lease to drill for oil domestically. Petri endorsed

Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American politician, businessman, and lawyer serving as the junior United States senator from Utah since January 2019, succeeding Orrin Hatch. He served as the 70th governor of Massachusetts f ...

in the 2008 GOP presidential primary. He subsequently endorsed

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms ...

in the 2008 presidential election. In 2011, Petri sponsored an amendment to allow Michigan-based Badger Ferry to continue operating on Lake Michigan dumping more than 500 tons of coal ash a year into the lake. He had received $14,751 in campaign donations from executives of Lake Michigan Carferry, the owner of Badger Ferry. The

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

and Badger Ferry came to agreement in 2013 to modifying coal-dumping procedures within two years. Badger Ferry, the oldest continuously operating coal ferry in the United States, announced in 2015 that is would continue operating without dumping coal in Lake Michigan. On August 1, 2011, Petri voted for the

Budget Control Act of 2011 The Budget Control Act of 2011 () is a federal statute enacted by the 112th United States Congress and signed into law by US President Barack Obama on August 2, 2011. The Act brought conclusion to the 2011 US debt-ceiling crisis. The law inv ...

, which raised the nation's debt limit and created the United States Congress Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. Petri headed the Congressional British-American Parliamentary Exchange Group, which coordinated annual meetings between members of Congress and Parliament. In the 112th Congress and the 113th Congress, Petri introduced the ExCEL Act, which would have created a universal income-contingent student loan repayment process, where students repaid loans based on their after college earnings. Petri's bill received bipartisan and bicameral support. In 2012, Petri introduced H.R. 4148, the Fox-Wisconsin Heritage Parkway National Heritage Area Act of 2012, which would place 1,444 square miles of land in Wisconsin under the control of the federal government. In 2014, Petri was investigated for advocating for a constituent company, Oshkosh Corporation, in which he held stock. He was also under scrutiny in regard to another Wisconsin-based business,

The Manitowoc Company The Manitowoc Company, Inc. was founded in 1902 and, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, markets, and supports mobile telescopic cranes, tower cranes, lattice-boom crawler cranes, and boom trucks under the Grove, Manitow ...

, in which he had a financial interest. Although the

Office of Congressional Ethics The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), established by the U.S. House of Representatives in March 2008, is a nonpartisan, independent entity charged with reviewing allegations of misconduct against members of the House of Representatives and thei ...

found reason to believe Petri violated House rules and standards, the House Ethics Committee disagreed, voting not to impose sanctions on him.

Committee assignments (2013–2015)

Committee on Education and Labor The Committee on Education and Labor is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. There are 50 members in this committee. Since 2019, the chair of the Education and Labor committee is Robert Cortez Scott of Virginia. Hi ...

** Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education ** Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training *

Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure The U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. History The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure was formerly known as the Committee on Public Works a ...

** Subcommittee on Aviation ** Subcommittee on Highways and Transit (Chairman) ;Caucus memberships * Congressional Arts Caucus

Electoral history

, + : Results 1980–2012 ! Year ! Republican ! Votes ! % ! Democratic ! Votes ! % ! Third Party ! Party ! Votes ! % ! Third Party ! Party ! Votes ! % ! Third Party ! Party ! Votes ! % , - , 1979 , , Tom Petri , , 71,715 , , 50% , , Gary R. Goyke , , 70,492 , , 50% , , , , , , , , , , , , , - ,

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

, , Tom Petri , , 129,574 , , 57% , , Gary R. Goyke , , 98,628 , , 43% , , , , , , , , , , , , , - ,

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

, , Tom Petri , , 111,348 , , 65% , , Gordon Loeher , , 59,922 , , 35% , , , , , , , , , , , , , - ,

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

, , Tom Petri , , 170,271 , , 76% , , David Iaquinta , , 54,266 , , 24% , , , , , , , , , , , , , - ,

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

, , Tom Petri , , 124,328 , , 97% , , ''No candidate'' , , , , , , John Daggett , ,

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

, , 4,268 , , 3% , , , , , , , , , - ,

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

, , Tom Petri , , 165,923 , , 74% , , Joseph Garrett , , 57,552 , , 26% , , , , , , , , , , , , , - ,

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

, , Tom Petri , , 111,036 , , 100% , , ''No candidate'' , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , - ,

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

, , Tom Petri , , 143,875 , , 53% , , Peggy Lautenschlager , , 128,232 , , 47% , , , , , , , , , , , , , - ,

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

, , Tom Petri , , 119,384 , , 99% , , ''No candidate'' , , , , , , Scattering , , , , 603 , , 1% , , , , , , , , , - ,

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

, , Tom Petri , , 169,213 , , 73% , , Floyd Brenholt , , 55,377 , , 24% , , James Dean , ,

Libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

, , 4,494 , , 2% , , Timothy Farness , , U.S. Taxpayers , , 2,532 , , 1% , , Scattering , , , , 103 , , 0% , - ,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, , Tom Petri , , 144,144 , , 93% , , ''No candidate'' , , , , , , Timothy Farness , , U.S. Taxpayers , , 11,267 , , 7% , , , , , , , , , - ,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, , Tom Petri , , 179,205 , , 65% , , Dan Flaherty , , 96,125 , , 35% , , , , , , , , , , , , , - ,

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, , Tom Petri , , 169,834 , , 99% , , ''No candidate'' , , , , , , Scattering , , , , 1,327 , , 1% , , , , , , , , , - ,

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, , Tom Petri , , 238,620 , , 67% , , Jef Hall , , 107,209 , , 30% , , Carol Rittenhouse , ,

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

, , 10,018 , , 3% , , , , , , , , , - ,

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, , Tom Petri , , 201,367 , , 99% , , ''No candidate'' , , , , , , Scattering , , , , 2,190 , , 1% , , , , , , , , , - ,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, , Tom Petri , , 221,875 , , 64% , , Roger Kittelson , , 126,090 , , 36% , , , , , , , , , , , , - ,

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, , Tom Petri , , 183,271 , , 71% , , Joe Kallas , , 75,926 , , 29% , , , , , , , , , , , , , - ,

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

, , Tom Petri , , 223,460 , , 62% , , Joe Kallas , , 135,921 , , 38% , , Scattering , , , , 364 , , 0% , , , , , , ,

Honors

Petri was honored by U.S. English, Inc. in May 2008 for his votes and co-sponsorships of official English legislation in the 110th Congress. Petri had previously sponsored legislation declaring English an official language in 1999. In 2014, Petri received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, Japan's second highest civilian honor, for his work to improve relations between the United States and Japan. In 2015, Petri was made an honorary officer in the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his work on trans-Atlantic issues.

Personal life

Petri and his wife, nonprofit executive

Anne D. Neal Anne deHayden Neal is the former president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), a non-profit organization with a stated mission of advancing academic quality, accountability and affordability at colleges and universities in the U ...

, are the parents of ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' humor columnist

Alexandra Petri Alexandra Attkisson Petri (, born March 15, 1988) is an American humorist and newspaper columnist. In 2010, she became the youngest person to have a column in ''The Washington Post''. Petri runs the ComPost blog on the paper's website, on which ...

. After leaving office, he became involved in political reform efforts, including joining nine other former members of Congress to co-author a 2021 opinion editorial advocating reforms of Congress.

References

External links

* * , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Petri, Tom 1940 births 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American politicians 21st-century American politicians American Lutherans American people of German descent American people of Norwegian descent Candidates in the 1974 United States elections Harvard Law School alumni Living people Peace Corps volunteers Politicians from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin People from Marinette, Wisconsin Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Wisconsin Wisconsin lawyers Republican Party Wisconsin state senators