George G. Gilliam III

Representative Gilliams answers a phone call from one of his constituents as a State Senator in 1999.

### Occupation

U.S. Representative, former State Senator, former City Council Member for Portland

## Physical description

### Weight

180

**George Gazpacho Gilliam the Third** is an American representative, journalist, former state senator for West and former city counciler for Portland. Known for creating the first ever Congressional queue to organize and streamline the process of passing bills, as well as his progressive beliefs, he has been an ardent supporter of President Myles. S. Kinney and authored the Inagurations Act and the Archive Act

## Early life, education, and early career

George Gilliam was born on February 23rd, 1969, in a small town in Oregon County, West, the son of Robert Gilliams and Louisa Gilliams. He grew up fairly upper-middle class in a nice neighboorhood, and did well in school as a child. His best subject was always social studies and he greatly enjoyed learning about history and politics, winning his school's geography bee 3 times. At 15 year old, he was established in his progressive beliefs and was a political organizer and member of the government and politics club at his high school. It was at this time, around 1984, that Gilliams, who was sickened with the conservative policies of president Ronald Reagan, began getting interested in joining government. But that would have to wait. After turning 18 in 1987, he graduated high school and moved out of the house and moved to Eugene, West, to attend the University of Oregon, getting a degree of political science from there and graduating in 1991. He then south to California, attending the University of California-Berkley in order to get a bachelors degree in 1993. Upon graduating, he was hired by the Portland Tribune for a short time as co-editor. In 1995, Gilliams quit his job in order to pursue his political career, announcing his campaign for Portland City Council in May 1995.

## Early Political Career

Upon running, nobody payed too much attention to his campaign, considering his youth and supposed inexpierience. He didnt have much money in the bank to start a campaign and so relied on individual donations. However, through a masterful campaign in the newspaper, awareness was raised about his campaign and people took notice. His Democratic primary opponents critized him for his youth, saying he "just moved to Portland and hardly knows the city." However, he continued to outraise them, rejecting money from PACs and political organizations and organizing a progressive, grassroots movement. When primary day rolled around in April 1996, the election was extremley close. His opponent appeared to have beaten him by 20 votes, however, a runoff was triggered due to no candidate winning a majority. In the runoff, Gilliams won narrowly in a stunning victory. The seat was basically guarenteed to go to Gilliams, as Portland was and is solid blue. In January 1997, he was inagurated as a city council member. Despite his term being 6 years, he had higher ambitions. While as a city counciler, he helped raise the cities wage to a minimum of 6.50 dollars, one of the highest in the country. He pushed for reform to vaccination, co-authoring a city bill which would abolish personal exemptions. After 2 years in office, he announced he would be resigning at the beginning of 1999, and seeking another higher office.

At the last minute he ran for state senator for West's State Senate 15th district. Once again, he was discredited, but he had much more money than last time. He crushed his primary opponent, and then won his State Senate seat with 67% of the vote, in a solid blue district. As state senator, he did little but particpate in votes, and rarely participated in floor debates. Most of his time was spent preparing for his next campaign...this time for a national office.

## House of Representatives

In late 1999, Gilliams announced his campaign for the House of Representatives, garnering widespread support from across his state. The election was multi-winner, so as long as Gilliams had broad support across the state, he would win his race. When election day rolled around, Gilliams received the most votes out of anyone running. He was inagurated as a Representative at the beginning of the new Congress on January 3rd, 2001, elected at the same time as the election of President Kinney, a fellow Oregonian. At the beginning of the session, he introduced the first ever House Resolution, the Inagurations Act. After some minor edits, the bill passed and is now law. Later on in the First Congress, he got the Archive Act passed and signed, which was written by him. Both bills passed with bipartisan support, and despite his progressive views, Gilliams is well liked among his fellow representatives and constituents. During the impeachment of President Myles S. Kinney for incompetence, he was one of the lone voices in opposition, opposing it on constitional grounds. However, Myles later died (was banned) in office. At the end of 2001, Gilliams announced his re-election campaign for house. Public polling shows that he is expected to win re-election in the 2002 midterm elections, despite a crowded field.