Jim Saxton - Life

Life

Born in Nicholson, Pennsylvania, he attended East Stroudsburg State College (now East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania) and Temple University. He then pursued a career as an elementary public school teacher and small business owner. Saxton served in the New Jersey General Assembly (the lower chamber of the New Jersey Legislature) from 1976 to 1981 and in the New Jersey Senate from 1982 to 1984. In 1984, he was elected to the House of Representatives in a special election to fill a vacancy caused by the death of then 13th District Congressman Edwin B. Forsythe.

He was a high-ranking member of the Armed Services Committee and the Resources Committee and Ranking Republican Member and Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee made up of members of the Senate and House of Representatives.

In the United States House elections, 2006, Saxton was challenged by Democrat Rich Sexton, a lawyer and U.S. Navy veteran from Mount Laurel. Saxton won reelection by a 58%-41% margin.

Saxton was widely praised across South Jersey for his efforts to remove Fort Dix from the Pentagon's base realignment and closure lists in 1989 and 1991, McGuire Air Force Base from the list in 1993, and Lakehurst Naval Air Station from the list in 1995. From 1993 to 2005, he worked to foster joint military facilities at the three installations. Saxon's efforts were rewarded when Congress passed and President Bush signed into law the Base Realignment and Closure, 2005. In addition to saving the bases' 17,000 jobs, the legislation merged the three bases, creating a "megabase" (the first of its kind in the United States). Furthermore, 1,500 jobs and additional aircraft were directed to the new joint base. Saxton also saved the New Jersey National Guard's 108th Air Refueling Wing from oblivion by working to provide it with a squadron of newer planes.

His other accomplishments include a beach erosion repair project on popular tourist destination Long Beach Island (which saw a 2006 groundbreaking) and a hospital Medicare funding initiative that brought $80 million to New Jersey hospitals in 2005 and 2006.

On May 26, 2006, Saxton reported hearing a loud gunfire-type noise in the Rayburn House Office Building that led to the building being shut down for several hours. It was later determined that the noise was a construction worker discharging a pneumatic hammer in an elevator shaft near the garage. Capitol police officers who subsequently asked the workers to recreate the noise agreed it sounded like gunfire.

On November 9, 2007, Saxton announced that he would not seek reelection in 2008, citing prostate cancer.

Saxton has been a resident of Mount Holly, New Jersey.