Anne Northup

Anne Meagher Northup (born January 22, 1948) is an American Republican politician and educator from the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Anne Meagher Northup was born on January 22, 1948, in Louisville, Kentucky to a large family of James and Floy Meagher, having nine sisters and a brother, and grew up in St. Matthews, a suburb of Louisville.

Northup was educated at Sacred Heart Academy and Saint Mary's College, earning a bachelor's degree in economics and business.

Northup first became active in politics as a volunteer for the Barry Goldwater 1964 presidential campaign.

She was elected to the Kentucky General Assembly in 1987, where she represented the 32nd district until 1996.

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 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.

The seat had been held for the previous 24 years by Democrat Ron Mazzoli.

From 1997 to 2007, she represented the Louisville-centered 3rd congressional district of Kentucky in the United States House of Representatives, where she served on the powerful House Appropriations Committee.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

She lost reelection to Democrat John Yarmuth in the 2006 election.

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.

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.

She then ran for Governor of Kentucky, losing by 15 points to embattled governor Ernie Fletcher in the Republican primary election for the 2007 Kentucky gubernatorial election.

Prior to her election to the United States House of Representatives, Northup had served in the Kentucky House of Representatives.

Northup ran again for her old congressional seat in the 2008 election, losing again to Yarmuth.