Robert Jones Portman (born December 19, 1955) is a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio, representing that state's second congressional district (map), which is suburbs east of Cincinnati. On March 17, 2005, President George W. Bush nominated Portman to be United States Trade Representative, subject to confirmation by the Senate[1].

Portman, a Methodist who is a millionaire thanks to his family's heavy-equipment business, was born in Cincinnati and graduated in 1974 from Cincinnati Country Day School. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Dartmouth College in 1979 and a law degree from the University of Michigan in 1984. Upon his graduation, he worked for the Washington law firm of Patton, Boggs , and Blow from 1984 to 1986, when he returned to Cincinnati. In Cincinnati, he worked for Graydon, Head, and Ritchey until going to work for President George H. W. Bush as associate White House counsel in 1989. Portman later served as director of the Office of Legislative Affairs until 1991. He returned to Cincinnati to Graydon, Head, until his election to Congress.

Portman was first elected to the House in a special election in 1993 to complete the term of Willis D. Gradison Jr., who resigned three months after his election to become a lobbyist for the insurance industry. In the Republican primary preceding that special election, Portman defeated Bob McEwen, who had lost his Sixth District seat to Ted Strickland in November 1992. Portman is a member of the Budget and Ways and Means Committees and is very close to President George W. Bush, acting as liaison between Congressional Republicans and the White House. In nominating him for the trade post, President Bush called Portman "a good friend, a decent man, and a skilled negotiator."

Well respected on both sides of the aisle, Portman worked on reforming the Internal Revenue Service (the IRS Restructuring Act of 1998), Cincinnati's National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, unfunded mandates (the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995), and pensions offered by small businesses. Portman's hometown paper would describe him as having "two personas: the well-connected Congressman who would surface on cable news channels as a 'talking head' for the Bush led agenda and another as the politician who drove himself from one small town pancake breakfast or Kiwanis luncheon to another in a district stretching 100 miles plus."

Portman's wife is Jane and they are residents of Terrace Park in Hamilton County.

In December 2004, Portman and Cheryl Bauer published a book on the Shaker community that existed in Turtlecreek Township in Warren County, Ohio in the Nineteenth Century entitled Wisdom's Paradise: The Forgotten Shakers of Union Village. (Wilmington, Ohio: Orange Frazer Press, 2004. ISBN 1882203402). Portman's grandparents, Robert and Virginia Jones, in the 1930's purchased the Golden Lamb Inn in Lebanon, about four miles east of the former Shaker settlement, and decorated it with Shaker furniture and artifacts.

On December 1, 2004, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that Ohio's governor, Bob Taft, was considering a job in the Bush administration and that Portman would be appointed lieutenant governor in order to become governor when Taft resigned. This, however, did not come to pass.

See also

• Election Results, U.S. Representative from Ohio, 2nd District
• List of United States Representatives from Ohio

External links

• Official site
• President Bush's remarks on nominating Portman

References

• Michael Barone and Grant Ujifusa. The Almanac of American Politics, 1994. Washington, D.C.: National Journal, 1993. ISBN 0892340584
• Michael Barone and Grant Ujifusa. The Almanac of American Politics, 1998. Washington, D.C.: National Journal, 1997. ISBN 0892340800
• Michael Barone, Richard E. Cohen, and Grant Ujifusa. The Almanac of American Politics, 2002. Washington, D.C.: National Journal, 2001. ISBN 0892340991
• Elizabeth Becker. "Congressman From Ohio Is Chosen for Trade Post". The New York Times. March 18, 2005. C1.
• Congressional Quarterly. Politics in America, 1992: The 102nd Congress. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 1991. ISBN 0871875993
• "The Portman File". Cincinnati Enquirer. March 18, 2005. A13.
• Howard Wilkinson. "Portman will join Bush's cabinet." Cincinnati Enquirer. March 18, 2005. A1, A12.