Oh, my. This is just awful. Representative Jim Bottorff (D-Jeffersonville) has died, the Indianapolis Star is reporting. He was 61, and the Star is reporting that he died of cancer in a Louisville Hospital.
It was my privilege to serve, in 1997 and 1998, as counsel for the House Commerce Committee which was chaired by Representative Bottorff. I recall one of the receptionists at the Legislative Services Agency who had been there for many, many years and knew whereof she spoke concerning legislators, describing Rep. Bottorff as a “mensch”.
The Star article states:
State Rep. James L. Bottorff, a Democrat from Jeffersonville, died today at a Louisville hospital after a battle with cancer.
Bottorff, 61, was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives in 1990 and has served on the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee; the Natural Resources Committee and the Utilities and Energy Committee.House Minority Leader B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, praised Bottorff.
“We have lost a man who defined the role of public servant, a man who devoted much of his life to the idea that answering the needs of others was a noble callling,” Bauer said.
Bottorff was a real estate appraiser who had previously served as both Clark County treasurer and Clark County assessor. He is survived by his wife, Carlene, and two sons, Christopher and Robert.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
This is just, very, very sad. Rest in peace Representative Bottorff.
Update Lesley Stedman Weidenbener’s article for the Louisville Courier Journal is here. Her article says he had been battling colon and liver cancer for about 7 months.
WTHR is carrying the AP story here. That story mentions that “a caucus of Democratic precinct committeemen will be held to select Bottorff’s replacement to represent the district.”
Representative Heim has his recollection of Rep. Bottorff here. Rep. Heim describes Rep. Bottorff as a quiet, gentle man who was helpful even to a freshman legislator in the opposing, minority, party and also describes him as a master negotiator. (Though I do recall a time when Rep. Bottorff wasn’t afraid to use partisan force as opposed to negotiation. Things had been fairly bipartisan up until the last day of committee hearings. All of the Republicans (who were in the minority at the time) were there. Only Representative Bottorff was there for the Democrats. But, Rep. Bottorff had a fist full of proxies from the other members and hammered some contentious bills through committee on strictly party line votes. Tempers flared, but to Rep. Bottorff’s credit, there wasn’t anything personal or malicious in the proceedings. Just a recognition that compromise wasn’t achievable and the Democrats had the numbers to pass the bills. So, he did the will of his party.)
Rep. Dvorak has a blog entry here.
Taking Down Words has a blog entry here.
Leave a Reply