Joe Barton: “Judge Tom Vandergriff was a Member of the House of Representatives from January 1982 until December 1984. He was…”

“Judge Tom Vandergriff was a Member of the House of Representatives from January 1982 until December 1984. He was defeated for reelection in November of 1984 by Dick Armey, moved back to Texas, and switched parties from the Democrat Party to the Republican Party. In 1990 he was elected county judge in which he served from 1990 until 2007. He passed away on December 30, 2010. His memorial service is tomorrow afternoon at the University of Texas at Arlington's Texas Center from 1 till 3. Judge Vandergriff was a personal friend of mine. When I first was given part of Arlington in the redistricting process in 1992, he agreed to be my cochairman for my campaign. He was just an absolute gentleman and helped in every way possible. One of the most unique things about Judge Vandergriff is that in his entire political career, which spanned from 1951 until 2007, he never held a political fund-raising event for himself. He did actually accept political contributions obviously but he never solicited and he never held an organized political event that he himself organized on his behalf. I thought that was astounding in the modern political era to be as successful politically as he was without having to go out and do the numerous fund-raisers that most of us have to do. We are going to miss Judge Vandergriff. He's got a list of accomplishments a mile long. He was mayor of Arlington from 1951 until 1967.…”