A Wednesday Public Radio East report by Valerie Crowder presents some fond recollections of the principled political efforts of Ron Paul Institute Advisory Board Member Walter Jones who died last month while serving in his 13th term in the Unites States House of Representatives as a Republican from North Carolina.
Jones’ friend Rufus Edmisten relates in the report that Jones knew taking independent positions in the House, including in opposing US wars, would cost Jones politically, but he did so anyway. While Edmisten states that “loads and loads of money” were spent to defeat Jones in Republican primary contests, but Jones was never defeated “because people back home said, ‘OK, Walter may not vote like we want him to all the time, but we know we can trust him to do what he thinks is right.’”
Fellow Representative G.K. Butterfield, a Democrat also from North Carolina, discusses in the report looking at vote tallies and seeing “perhaps two Republicans voted with Democrats on an issue, and one would be Walter B. Jones, Jr, not because he was enamored with Democratic policies, but because he found an issue that we had in common.”
Listen to the complete report about Jones here.
The recollections in the Public Radio East report are similar to some of the recollections of former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), who was a friend and colleague of Jones at the House. In a February Ron Paul Liberty Report episode dedicated to discussing Jones’ life, Paul said that Jones showed “you can survive politically” while “standing on principle, working with Democrats, and saying that peace is a good idea.”
