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Lane Allen Evans (August 4, 1951 – November 5, 2014) was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from 1983 until 2007, representing the 17th District of Illinois. Evans announced that he would not seek reelection in November 2006 and retired at the end of the 109th Congress, due to the increasingly debilitating effects of Parkinson's disease. ==Background== Evans was born in 1951 in Rock Island, Illinois,〔 and attended Alleman High School and Augustana College there. He served in the United States Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, stationed in Okinawa. After leaving the Marines in 1971, Evans enrolled at Augustana College in Rock Island, graduating in 1974. He earned a Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University in 1977〔 and he started his legal career as an attorney with the Quad Cities Legal Clinic (America Law Offices, Ltd. ) in Moline.〔(Profile ), qctimes.com; accessed December 16, 2014.〕 In 1982, Evans ran for and won the Democratic nomination for Illinois' 17th congressional district, which included most of Illinois' share of the Quad Cities area. It had been renumbered from the 19th District since Illinois lost two districts after the 1980 census. The district had been in Republican hands for all but two years since 1939. However, the brand of Republicanism that prevailed in the district had traditionally been a moderate one. Evans got a significant boost when 16-year incumbent Tom Railsback was defeated for renomination by the more conservative Republican, State Senator Kenneth McMillan. Taking advantage of hardships from that year's recession, Evans won by around 5 percentage points, and handily defeated McMillan in a 1984 rematch despite Ronald Reagan's gigantic landslide victory that year. Evans faced almost no opposition in his next four campaigns. In 1994, however, Evans only won by nine points over an unknown Republican who spent almost no money. This emboldened the Republicans for 1996, when Evans faced Mark Baker, an anchor at WGEM-TV in Quincy (the third-largest city in the district). Although Bill Clinton carried the district by a healthy 30,000 votes, Evans defeated Baker by only 5 percentage points. A 1998 rematch was even closer, with Evans only winning by 6,000 votes. A third run by Baker in 2000 saw Evans win by almost 10 points, however. Redistricting after the 2000 census made Evans safer. Decatur and part of Springfield were added while some more rural areas were taken out. The redistricting process, guided by House Speaker and 14th District Congressman Dennis Hastert and 3rd District Congressman Bill Lipinski, solidified the holdings of many Illinois incumbents. Evans was re-elected in 2002 and 2004. Beginning in 1995, Evans battled Parkinson's disease. While his previous opponents, including Baker, did not make an issue of it, his 2004 opponent, Andrea Zinga (a former anchorwoman at KWQC-TV and WQAD-TV in the Quad Cities) claimed he was not able to fully represent the members of his district due to his health concerns. However, this tactic backfired, and Evans won handily. During his tenure, Evans was one of the most liberal members of the House, and probably Illinois' most liberal congressman from outside Chicago. A founding member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, he had a near-perfect lifetime rating from Americans for Democratic Action, while the American Conservative Union gave him its lowest rating of any congressman outside Chicago. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lane Evans」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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