Former Rep. Jim Leach, an Iowa Republican who left Congress in 2007 and later spoke in support of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, died Dec. 11. He was 82.
Leach, a moderate former Princeton professor who represented a swath of eastern Iowa, broke with his party in 2002, becoming one of only six House Republicans to vote against a resolution authorizing then-President George W. Bush to launch a military campaign against Iraq. The next year, he became the first Republican to call for a withdrawal of U.S. forces in Iraq.
A former staffer to then-Rep. Donald Rumsfeld, R-Ill., Leach was sworn in 1977 and served 15 terms, leaving after he was defeated in 2006 by Democrat Dave Loebsack. In Congress, he served as the chairman of what was then the Committee on Banking and Financial Services for six years before being term-limited out of that position.
