Jim Himes (D-Conn.)

U.S. Representative (since January 2009)

(Himes for Congress)

Why He Matters

Himes has been an investment banker, a champion of affordable housing, and is now a congressman. In Connecticut's usually Republican 4th district, the young Goldman Sachs alum snatched the seat for the Democrats.

In the first two years of the Obama administration, Himes supported the president's agenda, voting for the 2009 economic stimulus, 2010 health-care reform, the cap-and-trade energy measure.

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Corrections?

Background

At a Glance

Career History: Vice President, Enterprise Community Partners (2002 to 2007); Vice President, Goldman Sachs (1990 to 2002)
Birthday: July 5, 1966
Hometown: Cos Cob, Conn.
Alma Mater: Harvard University, B.A. (social studies), 1988; Oxford University, Rhodes Scholar, M.Phil. (Latin American Studies), 1990

Spouse: Mary Scott
Religion: Presbyterian
Committees: House Financial Services Commitee, House Homeland Security Committee

Path to Power

Himes was born in Lima, Peru, to a father who worked for the Ford Foundation. He spent much of his childhood there and in Bogota, Colombia. After his parents divorced, he moved to New Jersey with his mother, an administrator who works with nonprofits, and his two sisters.

Himes finished high school in Lawrenceville, N.J., before heading to Harvard, where he captained the lightweight crew team and graduated with a B.A. in Social Studies in 1988. He went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, receiving an M.Phil. in Latin American Studies in 1990.

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Wall Street Banker

When he finished school, he went to work for Goldman Sachs' new Latin American division. Goldman disbanded that group after the 1994 Mexican peso crisis, and Himes then worked with the mergers-and-acquisitions and technology groups. When the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, Himes was considering other career options.

"Between that, and a newborn and 3-year-old I never saw," he told the New York Times, "I'd had enough."

Enterprise Community Partners

Himes had always been interested in using business models to help people, and in 2002 the second stage of his career brought him to the Enterprise Foundation, now called Enterprise Community Partners, a non-profit that offers financing for low-income housing.

In a questionnaire, he called the foundation "a wonderful nonprofit rebuilding America's cities."

He studied predatory lending practices in the Bronx at a time when some mortgage brokers were giving loans without assessing whether applicants were able to pay them back.

Enterprise spoke out against predatory lending as early as 2004. In a letter that year, Chairman and CEO F. Barton Harvey urged the Department of Housing and Urban Development to "strike the proper balance" by encouraging loans for low-income individuals without forcing mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac "to make bad business decisions for themselves and the housing finance system." Himes later became a Vice President at Enterprise, heading the organization's New York office.

The New York Times reported: "At the foundation, Mr. Himes helped conceive a $230 million acquisition fund to give developers of lower-income housing an edge in competing with market-rate developers to buy scarce city land. Mr. Himes had the insight, [Director Rafael] Cestero said, to figure out that banks would embrace it if their risk was shared with philanthropic foundations and the city."

2008 House Race

While working in New York, Himes lived in Cos Cob in Connecticut's 4th district. In 2007, Himes decided to continue in public service by running for that district's House seat against moderate 10-term Republican Christopher Shays.

In the 2008 campaign, the New York Times said, "Mr. Himes's resume proved fortunate; the financial crisis played to his background as an investment banker who had spent years in housing finance. His Wall Street experience also made him a safe choice for the moneyed voters of Fairfield County, said Art House, a Democratic leader. 'They weren't afraid of him the way they would be of a classic liberal,' Mr. House said."

But Himes also benefited from the overwhelming support for President Barack Obama. "Obama's message is very much Jim's message," Michael Sachse, a Himes campaign spokesman, told the Associated Press.

Obama recorded a radio ad for Himes that described the congressional candidate as the son of "a hardworking single mom" who "left a successful career in business to build environmentally friendly affordable housing."

Connecticut's Hartford Courant said Himes "rode history and Barack Obama's coattails to victory."

The Issues

Himes' primary goals in the 111th Congress will be "making health care affordable, giving every child a great start with good education, using American ingenuity and business smarts to achieve energy independence," he said in a an interview.

Himes basically voted along party lines, supporting the Obama agenda by voting for the 2009 economic stimulus, 2010 health-care reform, and the the June 2009 cap-and-trade energy.

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The Network

Himes also joins a long line of former Goldman Sachs employees who have gone into public service, including former Treasury secretary Robert Rubin; out-going Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Neel Kashkari , the administrator of the government's bailout plan.

Additional Resources