{"id":294481,"date":"2010-02-08T16:09:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-08T21:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:www.opensecrets.org,2010:\/news\/\/8.1358"},"modified":"2010-02-08T16:18:41","modified_gmt":"2010-02-08T21:18:41","slug":"rep-john-murtha-popular-and-polarizing-dead-at-77","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/294481","title":{"rendered":"Rep. John Murtha, Popular and Polarizing, Dead at 77"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        <a href=\"http:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/news\/johnmurtha.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"johnmurtha.jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/news\/assets_c\/2010\/02\/johnmurtha-thumb-170x236-503.jpg\" width=\"170\" height=\"236\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" \/><\/a>Rep. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/politicians\/summary.php?cid=N00001408&amp;cycle=Career\">John Murtha<\/a>, a veteran Democratic lawmaker as popular with his Pennsylvania constituents as he was polarizing on the national political scene, <a href=\"http:\/\/thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com\/2010\/02\/08\/congressman-murtha-dies\/?hp\">died this afternoon<\/a> after experiencing complications from gallbladder surgery.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>(Read his office&#8217;s statement, via Capitol News Connection,&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.capitolnewsconnection.org\/node\/13863\">here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Murtha was 77. He had served in the House since 1974 and was the first Vietnam War combat veteran to win a congressional seat.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Widely beloved in Pennsylvania&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.govtrack.us\/congress\/findyourreps.xpd?state=PA&amp;district=12\">12th District<\/a>, which skirts Pittsburgh to the south and east, Murtha helped secure hundreds of millions of federal dollars for his constituents, often through the contentious practice of earmark sponsorships. Murtha <a href=\"http:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/races\/summary.php?id=PA12&amp;cycle=2008\">easily won re-election<\/a> to his district&#8217;s seat in all of his recent races.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/politicians\/industries.php?cycle=Career&amp;cid=N00001408&amp;type=I\">Defense contractors and lobbyists<\/a> also held Murtha in high esteem, filling his campaign coffers with millions of dollars during his political career. For this, along with&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/politicians\/earmarks.php?cid=N00001408&amp;cycle=2008\">his frequent use<\/a> of federal earmarks and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/news\/2009\/09\/capital-eye-opener-friday-sept-1.html\">lingering<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/news\/2009\/12\/capital-eye-opener-tuesday-dec-3.html\">ethics rows<\/a>, political opponents frequently derided Murtha.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/news\">Capital Eye<\/a><\/i> will take an extended look at Murtha&#8217;s career Tuesday morning.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. John Murtha, a veteran Democratic lawmaker as popular with his Pennsylvania constituents as he was polarizing on the national political scene, died this afternoon after experiencing complications from gallbladder surgery. (Read his office&#8217;s statement, via Capitol News Connection,&nbsp;here.) Murtha was 77. He had served in the House since 1974 and was the first Vietnam [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3994,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-294481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3994"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}