Sam Gibbons - Political Life

Political Life

Gibbons was a member of the Democratic Party and he served in the Florida House of Representatives from 1953 to 1958. While in the state legislature, he spearheaded the effort to create the University of South Florida. He then served in the Florida Senate from 1959 to 1962.

He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1962 from a newly-created district based in Tampa, and was reelected 16 times. The district changed numbers three times during his tenure, from the 10th (1963–1967) to the 6th (1967–1973) to the 7th (1973–1993) to the 11th (1993–1997). He usually skated to reelection in what was generally reckoned as the only Democratic bastion on Florida's Gulf Coast. However, in 1992, he was held to only 52 percent of the vote by Republican Mark Sharpe. Two years later, he was nearly defeated, only winning by 4,700 votes.

With Sharpe priming for yet another rematch in 1996, Gibbons opted not to run for an 18th term. He thus retired having never been defeated in 44 years as an elected official. He was succeeded by State Representative Jim Davis, whom he'd endorsed as his successor, and has also been a supporter of the current representative, Kathy Castor.

Gibbons was acting chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee from 1994 until the Democrats lost control of the House in 1995. Prior to leading the full committee, Gibbons chaired the subcommittee on trade. He was much more supportive of trade liberalization throughout his career than most House Democrats, who have leaned toward protectionism since the early 1970s.

Gibbons had a few verbal showdowns with the newly elected Republican congress during his last term. During a taped Ways and Means Committee hearing, after being denied the opportunity to speak several times, Gibbons stormed out of the room shouting about how the Democrats were being railroaded and given no time to speak. He compared the new Republicans to dictators and shouted that he had "to fight you guys 50 years ago," referring to Nazi Germany in World War II.

Gibbons died October 10, 2012, aged 92.