nbs.com
Saturday January 26th 2019
Congressman Adrian Galway dead at 82
Congressman Adrian Galway (R-FL), one of the fiercest anti-corruption legislators in Congress, died today in his Maryland town home from natural causes. Paramedics were called when Galway's wife Mary attempted to wake the 82 year-old congressman from a nap after his chief of staff came to the couple's home to discuss staff issues, but got no response.
Galway, who was first elected to Congress in 2008, made a career out of exposing corruption. Born in 1936 to a college professor and his stay-at-home mother, Galway graduated from the University of Florida in 1959 and began a storied career at the St. Petersburg Times (now the Tampa Bay Times), working first in the labor beat and then transitioning to local government in 1961. In more than four decades on that beat, Galway gained a reputation for doggedness and in 1985, won a Pulitzer Prize for his work uncovering massive corruption in the Pasco County Sheriff's Department that led to several deputies later being convicted for various crimes and both the incumbent sheriff and mayor of Dade City resigning in disgrace. Retiring from the Times in 2002, Galway ran for mayor of his home town of Largo and defeated incumbent Jim Whelan. In his term as mayor, Galway cleaned up the city government and reduced administrative costs by nearly ten percent. In 2008, he opted to run for Congress instead of another term as mayor, winning a normally Democratic district.
In his ten years in Congress, Galway passed little legislation. Instead, he made his name on his strong constituent services and for his dogged work exposing government waste and corruption, regardless of whether the administration was Democratic or Republican.
House Minority Leader Mitchell Harris (R-IN) said that he was "shocked and saddened" at the sudden death of "one of Congress' greatest stewards of the public purse." "With a lifetime of public service, Congressman Galway embodied the best in our nation. With her passing, Congress and the people of Florida have lost a great champion of our values of honesty and integrity as well as a dear friend." Speaker Daniel Maddox (D-IL) issued a statement ordering that flags at the Capitol be lowered to half-mast from Saturday afternoon until midnight on Sunday.
A special election to fill Galway's seat will be called by Governor James Ritchie (R-FL) at an unknown date.