Like the middle-class white ethnics who dominate his suburban Chicago district, Lipinski holds conservative views on social issues, is wary of tax increases and remains a staunch ally of organized labor.

Bill Clinton has never been wildly popular in the 3rd -- he carried the district by just two points in 1992 -- and Lipinski takes a pick-and-choose attitude toward the president's legislative initiatives. From the outset in 1993, he frowned on the tax component of Clinton's budget: Lipinski was one just 11 House Democrats who opposed Clinton's budget blueprint in March 1993, and five months later, when the final budget passed the House 218-216, Lipinski was still a "no." He voted against lifting the ban on homosexuals in the military, and he is an opponent of abortion. He was an early critic of NAFTA and also voted against GATT.

Lipinski, however, did support Clinton's proposed economic stimulus package in March 1993, and he voted for two Clinton-backed gun control measures -- a five-day waiting requirement on handgun purchases, and a ban on certain semi-automatic weapons. Those measures went over well in the 3rd, where economic revitalization and big-city violence are top concerns.

A wiry, terse-talking smoker, Lipinski is the picture of an old-style urban pol. A Catholic of Polish and Irish lineage from working-class roots, he worked his way up in the Chicago Democratic machine and still leads the party's 23rd Ward organization. He is a persistent and sometimes emotional spokesman for conservative ethnic values who bristles that the label "white ethnic" has become derogatory code language. "These same political types who have made the term fashionable have at the same time tried to make it unfashionable to exhibit many of [the] beliefs real ethnics hold, implying that it's immoral to oppose all abortions, racist to support capital punishment," Lipinski once said. He strongly opposed the 1991 civil rights bill, denouncing its "quotas," and he feels that special treatment for minorities disadvantages people of other ethnic backgrounds. "My constituents suffer discrimination," he told the Chicago Sun-Times. "They had nothing to do with slavery."

A generation ago, the House Democratic Caucus was replete with members like Lipinski, but times have changed. In 1993, Lipinski saw his party loyalty questioned by a freshman Democrat, Leslie L. Byrne of Virginia. Complaining that 11 subcommittee chairmen (including Lipinski) had opposed Clinton's budget, Byrne led an effort that briefly threatened to strip the defectors of their chairs. That did not happen, and Byrne's crusade looked particularly ill-advised after she was defeated for re-election in 1994.

Throughout his House career, Lipinski has worked largely on matters of parochial concern to Chicago. He is now the 4th-ranking Democrat on the Transportation Committee (formerly Public Works) and just recently appointed Ranking Democrat of the Aviation Subcommittee, which deals with a range of Chicago concerns, such as improvements at O'Hare airport, the fate of aging Midway airport (in Lipinski's district), and replacement of revetments to prevent erosion of the city's 24-mile Lake Michigan shoreline. Lipinski also works to secure funding for highway projects sought by Illinois colleagues. "Who knows better where a certain amount of federal money should be spent locally than the congressman?" he has said.

In the 103rd Congress, Lipinski got a forum of his own as he took over the chairmanship of the Merchant Marine subcommittee of the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee. That put him at the center of action as Congress worked to revitalize the faltering U.S. Maritime industry. In 1992, candidate Clinton promised to help domestic shipyards and shipping lines; in 1994, the Merchant Marine Committee approved a subsidy bill. Cruise-ship companies howled about paying higher fees to help generate revenue for the subsidy, but Lipinski said the per-passenger fee increase "amounts to less than lunch at McDonalds, a small price to pay for thousands of American jobs." When the Merchant Marine bill came to the House floor, Lipinski got a rare moment in the spotlight as a spokesman for the $1 billion-plus measure. After resolving a dispute over how to fund the subsidy (Merchant Marine and Ways and Means had competing ideas), the House passed the bill.

Lipinski's subcommittee also worked on legislation to address non-indigenous "aquatic nuisance species" -- pest organisms such as the zebra mussel that enter U.S. waterways after being released when foreign ships empty their ballast water in U.S. ports. Pests such as the mussel have damaged the Great Lakes ecosystem and interfere with shipping and fishing. Lipinski also pushed legislation in 1993 to give re-employment rights to maritime workers who leave their regular jobs to serve on Merchant Marine ships. During the Persian Gulf War, merchant sailors who volunteered to serve in the Ready Reserve Force, hauling military cargo overseas, were not guaranteed their regular jobs when they returned.

Lipinski's tenure on Merchant Marine ended at the outset of the 104th, when the new Republican majority abolished the committee altogether.

At Home: In 1994, Republicans hoped that infighting between Lipinski and an alderman would create an opening for their challenger in the 3rd, political newcomer Jim Nalepa. A real estate developer and former Army officer, Nalepa tried to taint Lipinski by associating him with the Clinton Administration and Chicago machine politics. Lipinski also was dogged by an Illinois term limits group that sent out several mailings against him.

But Lipinski made peace with the alderman, showed the machine's muscle by taking 74 percent of the city vote (along with 45 percent of the suburban vote), and highlighted his independence by including Republican candidates on the "palm cards" he handed out to guide voters on Election Day. Lipinski held on -- albeit with his lowest-ever general election percentage.

It was Lipinski's second tough election in a row. In 1992, redistricting forced him into a primary match-up with fellow Democratic Rep. Marty Russo. The redrawn 3rd's reach into the suburbs seemed to benefit Russo, whose former district was mainly suburban. Lipinski lost some of his Chicago base. But many of the close-in suburbs shared the ethnic characteristics and socially conservative views of his urban turf. And in his remaining base, Lipinski was hugely popular. He had an army of precinct workers and the support of key members of the city's Democratic organization.

Lipinski swamped Russo by more than 25,000 votes in Chicago and ran within 3,500 votes of Russo in the suburbs. The GOP initially had designs on the conservative-leaning 3rd, but the party could not recruit a strong challenger, and Lipinski took 64 percent in November.

A lifelong Chicago resident, Lipinski developed his political contacts while working in city government. Beginning as a weekend athletic instructor, Lipinski spent 17 years in the Parks Department and rose to an administrative position. In 1975, Lipinski was elected to the Board of Alderman, where he lobbied for the establishment of the Southwest Rapid Transit Line; as chairman of the Education Committee, he opposed mandatory busing, a hot-button issue for his heavily ethnic constituency.

His 1982 primary challenge to Democratic Rep. John G. Fary in the then-5th District was the result of an intraparty split. Fary had been a loyal supporter of Mayor Richard J. Daley. But after Daley's death, Fary aligned with Mayor Jane Byrne. By the early 1980's , Fary was being pressured to retire by allies of the mayor's son, Richard M. Daley, then a prospective challenger to Byrne who became mayor in 1987. Fary resisted, and Lipinski ran as the candidate of the Daley forces, winning with 60 percent.

ADDRESS:

The Honorable William O. Lipinski

1501 Longworth House Office Building

United States House of Representatives

Washington, D.C. 20515-1303

PHONE:

(202)225-5701

FAX:

(202)225-1012