Pete Stark

Pete Stark
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California
In office January 3, 1973 – January 3, 2013
Preceded by	George P. Miller
Succeeded by	Eric Swalwell (Redistricting)
Constituency	8th district (1973–1975) 9th district (1975–1993) 13th district (1993–2013)
Personal details
Born	Fortney Hillman Stark Jr. (1931-11-11)November 11, 1931 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
Died	January 24, 2020(2020-01-24) (aged 88) Harwood, Maryland, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Carolyn Layton nee Wente (div. 1989–1991) Deborah Roderick
Alma mater	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (B.S.) University of California, Berkeley (M.B.A.)
Profession	Banker
Military service
Allegiance	United States of America
Branch/service	Air Force
Years of service	1955–1957

Fortney Hillman "Pete" Stark Jr. (November 11, 1931 – January 24, 2020) was an American businessman and politician. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1973 to 2013. He served as a Democrat from California.^[1]

After 2010 redistricting, Stark campaigned for the 15th district seat in 2012, narrowly finished first in the primary but lost in the general election to fellow Democrat Eric Swalwell.

Stark had been the longest-serving member of Congress from California, serving continuously from January 3, 1973 through January 3, 2013.

Stark was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was raised in San Francisco, California. He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at the University of California, Berkeley.

In 1972, Stark moved to Oakland to run in the Democratic primary against 14-term incumbent U.S. Representative George Paul Miller of Alameda in what was then the 8th district. In the 1972 general election, he defeated Republican Lew Warden with 53% of the vote. He was re-elected a total of 18 times until loosing in the 2012 primaries to Eric Swalwell.

On October 18, 2007, Stark made the following comments on the House floor during a debate with Congressman Joe Barton of Texas:

Republicans sure don't care about finding $200 billion to fight the illegal war in Iraq. Where are you going to get that money? Are you going to tell us lies like you're telling us today? Is that how you're going to fund the war? You don't have money to fund the war or children. But you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the President's amusement.^[2][3]

Following the initial criticism to his statements, when asked by a radio station if he would take back any of his statements, Stark responded "Absolutely not. I may have dishonored the Commander-in-Chief, but I think he’s done pretty well to dishonor himself without any help from me."^[4]

Stark revealed he was an atheist in 2007, which made him the first openly atheist member of Congress.^[5] In 1989, he married Carolyn Layton nee Wente. They divorced in 1991. He then married Deborah Roderick.

Stark died on January 24, 2020 at his home near Annapolis, Maryland of leukemia, aged 88.^[6]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pete Stark.

• Pete Stark for Congress official campaign site
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission

Links formerly displayed via the CongLinks template:

• Congressional profile^{[permanent dead link]} at GovTrack
• Congressional profile at OpenCongress
• Financial information (federal office) at OpenSecrets.org