Joe Hoeffel

Joseph Merrill Hoeffel III (born September 3, 1950) is an American author and politician.

After graduating from William Penn Charter School in 1968, he attended Boston University and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1972.

He served in the Army Reserves from 1970 to 1976.

He first became involved in politics during the 1972 presidential election, when his opposition to the Vietnam War led him to support Senator George McGovern.

In 1973, he became a legislative aide to Representative Gerry Studds of Massachusetts, for whom Hoeffel did research on foreign overfishing.

After working for Studds for a year, Hoeffel challenged four-term Republican incumbent Daniel Beren for a seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, representing the Abington-based 153rd district, in 1974.

He was defeated by 1,505 votes.

From 1975 to 1976, he was the Central Montgomery County administrator for the American Red Cross.

Hoeffel successfully ran again for state House in 1976, after Beren decided to not seek re-election.

He was the first Democrat to represent the Abington area since World War I.

He also served multiple terms on the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners, and from 1977–84, was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

A native of Philadelphia, he is a graduate of Boston University and Temple University School of Law.

He served from 1977 to 1985.

The first bill he passed as a state legislator was a campaign reform proposal in 1978 improving financial disclosure.

In 1984, he gave up his seat to run for the United States House of Representatives in the 13th congressional district, but was defeated by longtime Republican incumbent Lawrence Coughlin.

Hoeffel sought a rematch in 1986, and was defeated again.

He received his Juris Doctor degree from Temple University School of Law in 1986, and then worked at the Norristown law firms of Wright, Manning, Kinkaid & Oliver (1987–90) and Kane, Pugh & Driscoll (1990–91).

After several years out of politics, Hoeffel won a seat on the Montgomery County Commission in 1991.

In a surprise to the political establishment, Hoeffel supported Republican Mario Mele for Commission chairman over Jon Fox.

In 1996, Hoeffel made a third run at Congress, taking on his former colleague on the Montgomery County Commission, Jon Fox, now a first-term Congressman.

That year, Fox hung onto his seat by an 84-vote margin.

However, in 1998, in his fourth attempt, Hoeffel broke through.

Hobbled by a tough Republican primary and the fallout from the impeachment process against President Bill Clinton, Fox could not hang on a second time.

Hoeffel won by more than 5,000 votes.

Hoeffel became only the second Democrat to represent the Montgomery County-based district in 86 years.

He won re-election twice, though not without difficulty.

A Democrat, Hoeffel was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1999 to 2005, representing Pennsylvania's 13th congressional district.

In 2000 he won an expensive race against Republican State Senator Stewart Greenleaf, who represented most of the eastern portion of the congressional district.

He thus became the first Democrat to serve more than one term in the district in decades.

In 2002, he defeated wealthy ophthalmologist Melissa Brown by less than expected; the 13th had been made somewhat more Democratic with the addition of part of Philadelphia.

During the 2002 election, Hoeffel's website was praised as among the best of the 2002 election cycle.

In Congress, Hoeffel was a member of two House committees: International Relations and Transportation and Infrastructure.

Hoeffel was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate in 2004, and for Governor of Pennsylvania in 2010.

Hoeffel was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Joseph and Eleanore Hoeffel.

On July 20, 2004, Hoeffel became the third sitting U.S. Congressman in one week, following Charles Rangel and Bobby Rush, to be arrested for trespassing while protesting alleged human rights violations in front of the Sudanese Embassy.

U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, Hoeffel's Republican opponent in the 2004 U.S. Senate race, criticized the arrest as a publicity stunt.

Rather than holding onto his seat, Hoeffel decided in 2004 to run for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Republican Arlen Specter.

In the election held on November 2, 2004, Hoeffel was defeated by more than ten points to Specter, 53%-42%, and only carried four counties.

Hoeffel was at a considerable disadvantage because of Specter's popularity in the Philadelphia suburbs.

Hoeffel endorsed Bob Casey, Jr. for the United States Senate in 2006; Casey defeated incumbent Republican Rick Santorum by a wide margin.