Tom Cope worked on two of Congressman Jim Leach’s re-election campaigns and on his district office staff, from 1991-1995. He is a principal in the Iowa lobbying firm of Cope Murphy + Co. and serves on the Johnston City Council.
I consider myself to have been very blessed in my life. One of those blessings was the opportunity to work for Congressman Jim Leach from 1991 to 1995. I managed his re-election campaigns in both 1992 and 1994, and worked in his district offices in Cedar Rapids and Davenport in between those times.
As I think about Jim and all that I learned, there are three things that are important to remember about him.
A GREAT THINKER AND GREAT LISTENER
Jim grew up in Davenport, was a star athlete at Davenport Central High School, winning the 138 pound weight class state wrestling championship in 1960. He had a very distinguished academic career at Princeton, Johns Hopkins, and the London School of Economics. Jim’s intellect and deep knowledge of history came through in the speeches he gave, whether on the House floor or to a group in Washington or back in the district.
During the years that I worked for Jim, it was common for him to start off a speech by saying, “Perspective is always difficult to apply to the events of the day.” Since then, when I have run into someone who also worked for Jim, we would try to work that line into our conversation—it wasn’t easy.
But he was always a very down to earth person, very close to his family, and someone who greatly enjoyed meeting with and hearing from his constituents. A good friend and fellow Jim Leach alum, Gary Reed, said it best when he said, “(Jim) was the consummate listener.”
You can’t be a great listener unless you really care about what the person you are listening to has to say. I’m sure Jim got that from both of his parents. I’m also not sure there are many people on earth who revered their parents more than Jim.
In 2009, Jim sat for an interview with the staff of the National Endowment of the Humanities, which President Barack Obama appointed him to lead. Read the article, and you will truly learn about what he valued.
He was an intellectual who was also a great listener—there aren’t many people who have walked this earth that you can say that about. The personal touch was always very important to Jim. His enthusiasm when meeting with his constituents was genuine. And because he was a great listener, he truly loved to hold town meetings—listening to his constituents was something he really enjoyed.
HOLDING LEADERS OF BOTH PARTIES TO A VERY HIGH STANDARD
In Washington, D.C. it isn’t hard to find someone who can identify the shortcomings of those from the other political party. But Jim Leach established in his career that he would hold both major political parties to a very high standard.
Jim is well known for a career of bucking leaders in his own political party: resigning from the State Department’s Foreign Service because of President Richard Nixon’s actions during the Watergate scandal, endorsing Barack Obama for President in 2008, and criticizing President Donald Trump’s January 6 activities. But he also led efforts to investigate Democratic President Bill Clinton’s Whitewater actions. Jim believed in holding leaders of both political parties accountable.
Jim was an advocate for campaign finance reform and reducing the influence of special interest groups in politics. In every campaign he ran for Congress, he had three rules: (1) no PAC contributions, (2) no contributions from anyone who lived outside the state of Iowa (appropriately his campaign committee was named “Iowans for Jim Leach”), and (3) no contribution more than $500.
That didn’t change even after he became the chair of the House Banking Committee. He easily could have raised significant amounts of money for his campaign from financial executives from the east and west coast, but that would have violated his principles, and Jim was not going to change those principles.
Usually people who have a lot of experience speaking truth to power don’t have many friends in a town like Washington, D.C., but that wasn’t true about Jim—he developed close personal friendships with people of all ideological stripes. He was very close with longtime Democratic Congressman Neal Smith, but he was also good friends with conservative Iowa Congressman Jim Ross Lightfoot.
A BUILDER OF A TALENTED, LOYAL STAFF
Most members of Congress who have a long, distinguished career like Jim did have legendary staffs, so in some ways, the loyal, talented people who worked for Jim isn’t all that unique. But Jim’s team was very special.
When I first started working for Jim, he had two longtime senior staff members who were absolute legends—Bill Tate and Linda Weeks. Bill was a high school football teammate of Jim’s, graduated from the Naval Academy, and had an intellectual pedigree that could match Jim’s. Bill was Jim’s top aide in his Washington, DC office.
Linda Weeks was his top aide in his district offices, and was there from day one, managing his early campaigns. She helped Jim nearly pull off a political miracle in 1974, and then helped him win a rematch against Congressman Ed Mezvinsky in 1976. Linda was tough and very protective of Jim.
Everyone who worked for Jim loved Bill, and everyone who worked for Jim feared Linda. And everyone who worked for Jim respected both of them.
I remember a time I was staffing Jim and he was speaking to the Iowa City Rotary Club. After the speech he came up to me and he was very excited because he had connected with Dan Gable, and Gable had invited him to come by an Iowa wrestling practice after the speech. I hadn’t worked for Jim for all that long at that point, and I was deadly afraid Jim would get himself hurt at the practice, and I would get fired.
At that time, Iowa’s best wrestler was Lincoln McIlravy, who would win three national titles while at Iowa. We got to the practice, and Gable introduced Jim to Lincoln, and they started comparing notes on wrestling strategy, with Jim showing Lincoln some of his favorite techniques. While it was a ton of fun to have a front row seat and meet wrestling gods like Gable and McIlravy, I was so relieved that I didn’t have to call Linda to tell her that our next stop was to take Jim to the hospital.
I feel very lucky to have had some many amazing experiences during my time working for Jim. He had an amazing intellect, was an amazing athlete, was a great listener, was a wonderful, son, husband, and father. And he was willing to hold others, whether they were in his political party or not, to very high standards.
Some might think we won’t elect people like Jim Leach ever again, but Jim would disagree. For he was also an optimist. To those who fear our country can no longer elect great leaders like Jim, my guess is that he would respond: perspective is always difficult to apply to the events of the day.
Top photo of Jim Leach from sometime in the 1980s published with permission of Archives of the Century.