Jim Marshall

Marshall is just as willing to buck his party on economic and social issues, perhaps never more strikingly than when he cast the lone Democratic vote against the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program. He also supported George W. Bush's 2003 tax cuts and a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage while opposing the cash-for-clunkers program and stem-cell research. In March 2010, he said he would vote "no" on the Senate health-care reform measure (he also voted against the November 2009 House health bill).

The 8th district is a conservative one and the congressman had survived two of the closest elections before being defeated in 2010. In 2002, he narrowly prevailed in an open-seat race before surviving by just 1,752 votes in 2006. In between those two contests, an unusual mid-decade redistricting left the district more Republican and less African-American

In Their Own Words

"The anti-surge resolution is akin to sitting on the sidelines booing in the middle of our own team's play because we don't like the coach's call," Marshall said in 2007 on the House floor during a debate on military surge in Iraq.

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