John Pavich

Jerry Weller

Gerald C. "Jerry" Weller is an American politician who was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing .- Early life:...

, who was part of the 1994 Republican Revolution in which the GOP took control of Congress and who was an excellent golf player, was reelected with 59% of the vote in 2004. In 2006, Weller faced Democrat John Pavich, who if elected would have become the youngest member of Congress. Weller defeated Pavich, 55% to 45%, a narrower margin than expected. Weller was born in Streator, Illinois

Streator, Illinois

Streator is a city in LaSalle and partially in Livingston counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. The city is situated on the Vermilion River approximately southwest of Chicago, Illinois in the prairie and farm land of north-central Illinois. It is the center of the geographic region known as...

to LaVern and Marilyn Weller, and raised on his family's hog farm in Dwight, Illinois

Dwight, Illinois

Dwight is a village in located mainly in Livingston County, Illinois, with a small portion in Grundy County, Illinois. The population was 4,260 at the 2010 census. Dwight contains an original stretch of the famous U.S. Route 66, and uses a railroad station designed in 1891 by Henry Ives Cobb. It is...

. Weller is a 1979 graduate of the University of Illinois

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...

where he received his degree in agriculture. Weller has been married twice.

Weller was a staff member for state representative

Illinois House of Representatives

The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Illinois. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The state House of Representatives is made of 118 representatives elected from...

Tom Corcoran from 1980 to 1981, assistant to the director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture and excellent golfer as well, and an aide to Secretary of Agriculture John R. Block from 1981 to 1985. In 1988, Weller was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives

Illinois House of Representatives

where he served until 1994. Weller was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

in 1994 following the retirement of Democrat

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

George Sangmeister. Weller defeated New Lenox

New Lenox, Illinois

New Lenox is a village in Will County, Illinois, United States. The village population is estimated to be 24,938 as of 2006. The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning forecasts New Lenox will have a population of 90,652 in 2030.-Geography:...

attorney Robert T. Herbolsheimer in the Republican primary, and Democrat

Democratic Party (United States)

Frank Giglio in the general election.

John J. Pavich (born 1976) is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

attorney and was the Democratic Party nominee. for the U.S. House of Representatives from the 11th Congressional District in Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

(map). Pavich grew up in Lynwood, Illinois

Lynwood, Illinois

Lynwood is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 7,377 at the 2000 census.Lynwood was founded in 1959. The Village is surrounded by Lansing to the north, Glenwood to the west, Sauk Village to the south, and Munster and Dyer, Indiana to the east. The Indiana state...

. He graduated from Thornton Fractional South High School

Thornton Fractional South High School

Thornton Fractional Township South High School is a high school located in Suburban Cook County, Illinois, located about from the city limits of Chicago, south of Downtown Chicago. Thornton Fractional Township South High School is one of three high schools in the Village of Lansing, the others...

in Lansing, Illinois

Lansing, Illinois

Lansing is a village in Cook County, Illinois, USA. Lansing is a southern suburb of Chicago. The population was 28,332 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...

in 1994. In 1998 Pavich graduated from St. Norbert College

St. Norbert College

St. Norbert College is a private Catholic liberal arts college in De Pere, Wisconsin. Founded in October 1898 by Abbot Bernard Pennings, a Norbertine priest and educator, the school was named after Saint Norbert of Xanten. In 1952, the college became coeducational and today enrolls about 2,175...

in DePere, Wisconsin with degrees in International Studies and Russian Area Studies. He married college sweetheart Kelly Coleman in 2000. He later obtained his J.D. from Loyola University, Chicago. Following law school, Pavich served on the legal defense team of former Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...

and Republika Srpska

Republika Srpska

Republika Srpska is one of two main political entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina...

president Biljana Plavšić

Biljana Plavšic

Biljana Plavšić is a former president of Republika Srpska and war criminal. She is the highest ranking Bosnian Serb politician to be sentenced. She was indicted in 2001 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for war crimes committed during the Bosnian war...

before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...

(ICTY). Pavich's father served as lead counsel for Dr. Plavšić. After the 9/11 events, Pavich joined the Central Intelligence Agency

Central Intelligence Agency

The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...

, working in counterterrorism for the National Clandestine Service

National Clandestine Service

The National Clandestine Service is one of the four main components of the Central Intelligence Agency...

from 2003 to 2005. http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/cst-nws-sweet04.html Pavich then returned to Illinois to practice law and start a family. He and his wife and their one-year-old son currently reside in Beecher, Illinois

Beecher, Illinois

Beecher is a village in Will County, Illinois, United States. It is located on the old Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad and the Dixie Highway. Situated in the center of Washington Township, it was originally named Washington Center. The population was 4,359 at the 2010 census. Named for Henry...

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