Davis/Davis
Jack Davis (industrialist)
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Jack Davis campaigningJohn R. "Jack" Davis is an industrialist and Democratic politician from western New York. He is also the founder of the "Save Jobs Party."
Contents [hide]
1 Biography
2 Decision to leave the Republican Party
3 2004 Congressional campaign
4 Save Jobs Party
5 2006 Congressional campaign
6 External links
[edit] Biography
Davis grew up in western New York. He graduated from the University of Buffalo with a B.S. in Engineering in 1955. A "fighting Dem," Davis writes in his biography that he joined the Marine Corps Reserve while in college. When he graduated, the Korean War was over. Davis said that the Marine Corps didn’t need his service, and, since he still owed the military three years of active duty service, he joined the Coast Guard. [1]
In 1964, after leaving the Coast Guard with the rank of lieutenant, he started a company out of his garage that would eventually make him a millionaire. [2] He still owns the company, I Squared R Element Company, which makes special heating elements for electric furnaces. It is the only remaining US company that manufactures silicon carbide heating elements. Davis is married, with six children and thirteen grandchildren.
[edit] Decision to leave the Republican Party
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Davis was a self-described "Goldwater Republican" for 50 years. In late 2003, he purchased two tickets to a $1,000-a-plate Republican fundraiser in Buffalo, attended by Vice President Dick Cheney. Davis insisted on talking to the Vice President about U.S. free trade policies, which Cheney's staff refused to allow.
Following a moderately heated dispute, Cheney staff members ordered Davis to be ejected from the fundraiser. Davis then quit the Republican party. The incident also caused some embarrassment for Cheney's staff after an audio recording of the conversation between Davis and one Cheney staffer was played on a local radio station.
[edit] 2004 Congressional campaign
In 2004, Davis officially entered politics, running as a Democrat for the U.S. Congress from the 26th District of New York. He ran against incumbent Representative Tom Reynolds, a Republican, who was considered unbeatable. Davis doubled his original commitment to the race, pouring a total of $1.2 million dollars of personal money into his campaign. Reynolds was forced to begin running campaign ads for the first time since his election in 1998.
On election day, Reynolds won, 56% to 44%; in contrast, he won the 2002 election 75% to 25% against the Democratic challenger. Many cite the amount spent by Davis as compared to Reynolds' prior challenger as the primary factor for the change.
After the election, Davis was fined for a violation of campaign finance reporting laws. Davis had used his non-profit "Save Jobs" organization to funnel money into his political efforts, failing to comply with political disclosure requirements of both the federal government and New York State.
[edit] Save Jobs Party
Following his defeat in 2004, Davis continued his political activism by forming his own political party, the Save Jobs Party. While Republicans accused him of using the party merely as a springboard for a 2006 rematch, Davis sponsored more than a dozen candidates for public office in races across Western New York. However, the Save Jobs party soon ran into trouble with state and federal officials.
In one incident, an Erie County Legislator sought an FBI investigation following last-minute phone callsimpersonating the unpopular County Executive made from Davis's campaign headquarters. In another, Davis's Deputy Executive Director and Chair of his state PAC, took a plea deal in a petition fraud case involving Davis's party.[3] He has since been granted a conditional discharge. In early 2006, Davis's state PAC was sued in State Supreme Court for failing to file required disclosure documents. Later that year, Davis abandoned the fledgling party.
[edit] 2006 Congressional campaign
In 2006, Davis again is running for the 26th district Congressional seat, against Tom Reynolds. Since no other Democrat chose to run in the September 12, 2006 primary, Davis is the Democratic nominee.
Some Republicans have questioned Davis's statement that he served as a "naval officer," which implies service in the United States Navy. Davis said he calls himself a "naval officer" because he worked on a ship, not because he was in the Navy. "I ran a navy ship," Davis said. "I was a deck officer. ... I’m proud of my military career."[4].
Davis is also the candidate of the Working Families Party. Davis also secured the nomination of the Independence Party of New York after spending over 1 million dollars to defeat relatively unknown attorney Robert Pusateri. Reynolds had received permission to compete for the minor party's endorsement, but declined to do so. Votes from all nominating parties will count towards Davis' total under New York's electoral fusion rule. [5]
[edit] External links
Davis's official campaign website
A Buffalo Business Journal editorial discussing Davis' activism.
A conservative regional blog offering commentary on the Davis campaign.
Retrieved from "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Davis_%28industrialist%29"
Categories: Future election candidates | Articles lacking sources | Year of birth missing | Living people | American businesspeople | American entrepreneurs | Fighting Dems | People from New York | United States House of Representatives candidates | United States Marines
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This page was last modified 06:49, 30 October 2006. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.)
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