Helena, Mont.. He was 87.
His family announced death in a statement. The cause was not specified.
John Patrick Williams represented the western half of Montana from 1979 to 1997. When the 1990 census removed one of two house seats that the state, which has taken place since 1912, took Williams the up-to-date nationwide district in a bruising against the long -time representative of the East distribution representative, Republican Ron Marlene.
The majority of 51% was the slimest of Williams and the first election in Marlene’s 16-year-old career.
The Matchup was invoiced as a classic liberal conservative confrontation and a microcosm of political struggles across the west due to control of the country and its resources.
It was a bitter, highly competitive competition-more than $ 1 million and Williams quickly said after his victory he would work to bring the state together.
Williams first tried the seat of the congress in 1974, but lost to Democrat Max Baucus. Williams was elected to the post in 1978 when Baucus moved to the US Senate. At the time of the attack with Marlenee, Williams was a deputy whip in the house.
He was an insolent liberal, a convinced lawyer for organized workers and the supporters of the government’s potential to facilitate people.
This brought him the hostility of conservative groups such as Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition, Williams defended the national foundation for the arts against pornography and proposed constitutional changes to the prohibition of prohibition and flag approval and to pursue a balanced budget.
He rejected the US military intervention in the 1991 Gulf War and wanted the savings to be used for public work projects after the Cold War.
Williams tried to take a middle street in one of the most splitting problems of taking wilderness and environmental groups in Montana, which generally gave him forceful support. He said the argument of jobs compared to the environment had presented a wrong decision because the state could not have anyone without the other.
“A clean environment … was and will be an absolute cash register for this state,” he said in 1992.
After leaving the house in 1997, Williams began teaching at the University of Montana, including courses in environmental sciences, history and political science.
“When Montana’s longest -in office, Pat campaigned for Montana’s interests and worked in Washington for almost 20 years,” said governor Greg Gianforte on Thursday.
Williams ” Ms. Carol was the first woman who became the minority leader in the Senate. You have a son, John G. and two daughters, Erin and Whitney.
Williams received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Denver and worked at Montana State University.
Williams was born in Helena on October 30, 1937 and grew up in the mining city of Butte, and his traditionally democratic union workforce was an crucial element of his base of power. He taught public school for seven years, and the combination brought him a place in the committee for education and work of the house.
Williams served in the Montana House in the 1967 and 1969 meetings. In 1968 he headed the Montana presidential campaign for Hubert Humphrey. He did the same for Jimmy Carter in 1976.
From 1969 to 1971 Williams looked at Washington, DC, first hand when he worked as an assistant to the Montana Democratic US representative.
Williams returned to Montana in 1971 and spent seven years as the state director of the Montana Family Education Program financed by the Federal Funded, a career program for disadvantaged people.
Williams will be found in the state in Helena in Helena, said Gianforte in the state of Montana State Capitol.
