WASHINGTON, D.C. - Former Congress member Steve LaTourette, known for his moderate brand of Republican politics and his irreverent brand of humor, died Wednesday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 62.
LaTourette grew up in Cleveland Heights. His father, Eugene, was an accountant, and his mother, Patricia, worked for a life insurance company. At Cleveland Heights High School, LaTourette led petition drives to permit students to wear jeans and grow facial hair. Although he regularly spent campaign money on season tickets to Ohio State University football games during his years in Congress, LaTourette graduated from the University of Michigan before obtaining a law degree from Cleveland State University.
After law school, LaTourette worked as a public defender, a job he said taught him what it was like to have "nobody like you." He was elected to serve as Lake County prosecutor in 1988, after losing an initial bid for the job.
His successful prosecution of cult killer Jeffrey Lundgren, who murdered followers who disagreed with his religious teachings, gave LaTourette sufficient name recognition to win a House of Representatives seat in the 1994 sweep that put Republicans in charge of Congress for the first time in 40 years.
The Northeast Ohio district he represented encompasses all of Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula counties and parts of Cuyahoga, Trumbull, Portage and Summit counties. He lived in Bainbridge Township, Ohio and McLean, Virginia at the time of his death.
Upon joining Congress in 1995, LaTourette invited humor columnist Dave Barry to serve as his temporary press secretary. He delivered a Barry-authored tort reform speech on the House floor that asserted: "As a lawyer, I am the last person to suggest that everybody in my profession is a money-grubbing, scum-sucking toad. The actual figure is only about 73 percent."
He voted with conservatives on issues like abortion and firearms but took more moderate stands on labor, health and social services issues. High-profile breaks with his party included opposing the TARP bank rescue program and backing extended benefits for the unemployed during the recession.
He used his congressional committee seats to channel highway dollars to Northeast Ohio and protect the interests of credit unions. LaTourette also helped establish an arbitration process that saved hundreds of auto dealers who were scheduled to close after the federal government bailed out General Motors and Chrysler.
When Cleveland's Defense Finance and Accounting Service office was in danger of closing during a military base consolidation process, LaTourette led efforts to save it. He also fought Pittsburgh-based PNC's takeover of National City Corp. during the bank bailout in 2008.
Because of his even temper and knowledge of parliamentary procedures, House leaders often chose him to oversee contentious floor debates. Shortly before his retirement from Congress, National Journal magazine classified LaTourette as the second most liberal Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, behind North Carolina's Walter Jones.
Although LaTourette was sufficiently frustrated with Congress at the start of his service to publicly say his job "sucks," he ended up breaking a term-limits pledge and staying in office for 18 years, retiring in 2013 after expressing despair with partisan gridlock.
"For a long time now, words like compromise have been considered to be dirty words," LaTourette said in announcing his departure from office. "I've always believed . . . that the art of being a legislator is finding common ground."
After leaving Congress, LaTourette and his wife, Jennifer, launched a government relations and lobbying subsidiary of the McDonald Hopkins law firm, where their clients included the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. LaTourette also served as president of the Republican Main Street Partnership, a centrist GOP group that runs seminars between the business community and members of Congress.
He chaired the Northeast Midwest Institute's board, and launched a super PAC to support middle-of-the-road candidates facing Tea Party challengers. He made frequent media appearances to tweak the Tea Party, where he argued that Republicans will continue to lose national elections unless they stay out of people's bedrooms.
Although LaTourette voted for anti-gay-marriage legislation early in his congressional career, in 2015 he signed onto a legal brief that urged the U.S. Supreme Court to legalize same-sex marriage.
In a 2012 speech to mark LaTourette's departure from Congress, Warrensville Heights Democratic Rep. Marcia Fudge applauded LaTourette's collegiality, noting he was among only seven House Republicans to vote against defunding National Public Radio, and one of only two to vote against holding former Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress.
"It didn't matter who you were or what you were about or if you had an "R" or a "D" by your name with respect to Steve," Columbus-area GOP Rep. Patrick Tiberi agreed in his own LaTourette tribute. "If he believed in your cause, he was your partner and he was going to do everything within his power to make sure that cause, that issue, was going to be solved. He didn't always win, but he surely went down swinging every time he took that cause up."
Wadsworth Republican Rep. Jim Renacci called LaTourette a "mentor" and "confidante," who was always "available for advice or even as a sounding board."
"We are losing an intelligent, thoughtful and highly motivated public servant, one who always puts his constituents first," Renacci said. After watching colleagues deliver farewells from a gallery above the House of Representatives floor, LaTourette joked it was a shame for bipartisanship to break out only when he's leaving.
"It was like being at my funeral, but it was better because I was able to look at it from above," LaTourette continued. "I don't think I'll have that privilege at my real funeral."
LaTourette is survived by his wife, Jennifer, and six children: Sarah, Amy, Clare, Sam, Emerson and Henry. A previous marriage ended in divorce.