HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Former U.S. Sen. John Melcher, a Montana Democrat who narrowly lost his bid for a third term in 1988 just days after a wilderness bill he championed was vetoed, has died at 93.
His daughter, Joan Melcher, said Melcher died Thursday at his home in Missoula.
Melcher’s 35-year political career included seven years in the House and two terms in the U.S. Senate.
During his time in Washington, Melcher largely stuck to bread-and-butter issues for a farm-state lawmaker, such as crop subsidies and overseas trade.
In 1988, he co-sponsored a much-debated bill to permanently set aside 1.4 million acres of public land as wilderness, while opening an additional 4 million acres to logging, drilling, mining and tourism.
President Ronald Reagan vetoed the wilderness bill just days before the election that Melcher lost to Republican Conrad Burns.
We stand on the shoulders of giants. Case in point: Senator Melcher