SEATTLE — Former U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt, a Spokane lawyer with little political experience who helped lead a surprising Republican push to the right in national politics and oust Democratic House Speaker Tom Foley in 1994, has died. He was 79.
Nethercutt died Friday near Denver from progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare neurodegenerative brain disease, her son said in an email Monday.
“He lived a life based on faith, family, community and service, and he never sacrificed his principles as a politician,” Elliot Nethercutt wrote.
The 1994 midterm elections, held midway through President Bill Clinton’s first term, resulted in a landslide victory for the Republican Party, giving them control of both houses of Congress for the first time since the early 1950s.
Nethercutt was chairman of the Spokane County Republican Party and served as chief of staff to Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens in the 1970s, but had never run for office before challenging Foley.
Foley represented the district for 30 years, the last five as House speaker. Nethercutt’s campaign ads emphasized Foley’s opposition to term limits and noted that Foley has been in Congress since “Bonanza” was a popular TV show.
Foley became the first speaker since 1860 to lose reelection.
Nethercutt signed the “Contract with America” with other Republican candidates in 1994, a list of conservative priorities pushed by Rep. Newt Gingrich and others. One of those priorities was the imposition of term limits. Nethercutt said he would not serve more than three terms, but broke that promise and served five terms before losing in 2004 against Democratic Sen. Patty Murray.
“George Nethercutt was a great man who served the people of Eastern Washington with honor and patriotism for a decade,” Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who now holds Nethercutt’s former seat, said in a Facebook post. “George was a man of character who led with kindness and conviction, and someone I was proud to represent and respected in the district we both loved long before I was sworn in as its representative.”
Among his priorities during his tenure were finding new international markets for Eastern Washington agricultural products, securing federal funding for Fairchild Air Force Base and supporting research grants to Washington State University.
Like many other Republicans elected in 1994, he had a conservative voting record and supported impeaching Clinton for lying about his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
After his term in Congress, he became a lobbyist and worked for the George Nethercutt Foundation, which promotes civic education through scholarships, contests and educational trips to Washington.
Nethercutt attended Foley’s memorial when he died in 2013 and two years ago joined the advisory board of the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service at Washington State University.
He also established an endowment at the University to establish the George Nethercutt Endowed Chair Series on Civic Engagement.
“Since 2008, my foundation has promoted civic education among students and prepared them to participate in our democratic system, which functions properly with informed citizen participation, open dialogue and compromise,” Nethercutt said at the time.
Born in Spokane in 1944, Nethercutt graduated from Washington State University and then Gonzaga University School of Law in 1971. As a law student, he briefly clerked for Foley’s father, Ralph Foley, who was a Spokane County Superior Court Judge.
Nethercutt is survived by his wife, Mary Beth Nethercutt, whom he married in 1977; his two children, Meredith Nethercutt Krisher and Elliot Nethercutt; his sister, Nancy Nethercutt Gustafson; his brother, John Irving Nethercutt; and his granddaughter, Holly Beth Krisher.
