Welcome to
Mark Washburne
Running for Congress

• I am running in the June 5, 2018  Primary as a Democrat to represent New Jersey's 11th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives.

• History and Political Science Professor for the last twenty-five years in the Morris County area. 

• Graduated from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science in 1978 and with a Master's Degree in the same subject in 1979. 

• Graduated from Fairleigh Dickinson in Madison, New Jersey with an M.B.A. in 1986.

• Author of a seven-volume biography on Illinois Civil War Congressman Elihu Washburne, a distant cousin, who was a close political and personal friend to both Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant (Please see https://www.amazon.com/Mark-Washburne/e/B00JBFSAWU/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_8?qid=1508788262&sr=1-8.)

• My books and research have been cited in other historian's works including two Pulitzer Prize winning authors. Ron Chernow, who is best to known for writing about  Alexander Hamilton and was the inspiration behind the Broadway hit play “Hamilton," cites my work in his latest 2017 book  “Grant.” Prolific writer and another Pulitzer Prize winning author, David McCullough, also cited my work in his 2011 book  “The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris.” 

• Born in Illinois, my family moved to Madison, New Jersey when I was 6 months old and stayed until was 2 years old before returning to Illinois.

•  In 1969, my family moved to Chatham, New Jersey. I have lived and worked most of my life in Morris County that is part of the 11th Congressional District.

• Graduated from St. Patrick's Grade School in Chatham and Bayley-Ellard High School in Madison. 

• For many years, I lived in Morris Township. In 2004, I moved to Mendham where I live today.

• In 1979-1980, I lived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and worked for a construction company involved with building a new international airport in that city. 

• From Saudi Arabia, I returned to the United States and held various positions in Marketing and as a Stock Broker for the next decade.

• In 1992, I was hired as an adjunct professor to teach World Geography at Berkeley College of Business in Woodbridge. From that part-time position at Berkeley, I was able to secure other college teaching positions.

• For the next few years, I taught at five different colleges as an adjunct professor. I taught no fewer than thirty courses (not credits) a year. One semester (the fall of 1999), I taught a record fourteen courses in various Business, Economics, History, and Political Science subjects.

• In 2001, I was promoted to a full-time position at the County College of Morris as an Associate Professor of History and Political Science.  

• I have been very active in the running community in New Jersey and around the world. 

• I was the Race Director for the Run for the Roses 10K in Denville from 1991 to 2002. The race was a fundraiser for the Dope Open, which was established by Mary Mulholland in 1968 to fight drug and alcohol abuse in northern New Jersey.

• In 2010, I founded the Do Run Running Club (DRR) in Randolph. DRR holds weekly Saturday runs/walks from Freedom Park in Randolph starting at 8:30a.m. 

• In an article appearing under the “Editor’s Desk” in the April 11, 2010 edition of the Morristown Daily Record by James Flachsenhaar, I was nominated as one of the “Morris [County] Connectors.” The nomination read,” Mark Washburne, associate professor of history and political science at County College of Morris, also nominated by a reporter. Mark is a Mendham resident, who recently launched a new running club in the county. . . He is very involved in the N.J. running community.”

• Completed over 800 races, including 34 marathons, since first pinning on a race number to my shirt in 1984.  

• Completed the last 13 consecutive Boston Marathons from 2005 to 2017.

• In 2013, I had already finished the Boston Marathon and was about a block away when two bombs exploded at the finish line of the race. Despite the horrific events of that day, I have returned to Boston every year since the bombing to run the marathon as a statement to the terrorists that their actions will not frighten us.

• Accepted for the 2018 Boston Marathon, I have also met my age/gender qualifying time for the 2019 Boston Marathon.

• Streak runner that has run every day, without missing a day, at least three miles a day, since December 31, 1989. 

• In 2011, I became the President of the United States Running Streak Association (USRSA). 

• In 2012, I founded Streak Runners International (SRI), an association that keeps track of over a thousand streak runners from around the world.

• In March 2017, I appeared on a regional TV program called Chasing News (among the stations the program appeared was My9 NJ , Fox29 Philly, and Fox5 NY) as my running streak approached 10,000 days. Please click here to see the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqY4Bf7L_BM 

• Married to Diane, who has been a business executive for such companies as the National Basketball Association, Sesame Street, and HarperCollins Children's Book. Diane currently is a marketing executive for The Quarto Group and commutes to Manhattan by train for her work. [Improving public transportation is something that is a major concern to our family and others. I am committed to improving our aging infrastructure for trains and roads.] 

"All were asked if they would vote to impeach President Trump. Only Washburne said he would definitely vote yes."

[Quote from Fred Snowflack, Insider NJ, "2018 Kickoff: 11th Congressional District Candidates Joust for a Shot at Frelinghuysen," November 30, 2017.]

In drafting the 1787 United States Constitution, our Founding Fathers anticipated that we would have a rogue President from time to time as they had experience dealing with rogue kings. They purposely established a three branch government with checks and balances. The drafters of the Constitution assigned Congress the task of being the check on a rogue President.

It is clear that President Trump lacks any recognizable moral compass and has engaged in a pattern of deceit and obstruction of justice that needs to be stopped. The current Congressman from New Jersey's 11th District refuses to fulfill his Constitutional duties by speaking out and being a check on this rogue President.  If elected to Congress, I will speak out and hold President Trump accountable for his often dangerous, unethical, and illegal behavior.

Trump's False & Misleading Statements

Please click here to see the Washington Post's website concerning false and misleading statements by Donald Trump since becoming President: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.fa1640290173

My Support of Moving Toward Medicare for All

In 2010, the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare expanded health insurance to millions more people without coverage due their jobs not offering the benefit or being denied because they had a pre-existing condition. 

While Obamacare was an improvement in that it covered more people, it did not end the debate on health coverage. 

Republicans in Congress voted numerous times during Obama’s Presidency to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

In 2016, Donald Trump was elected as our 45th President of the United States and Republicans took controll of both Houses of Congress.

While Trump and his Republican colleagues failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, they are doing everything they can to sabotage Obamacare and throw millions of people off of health coverage.

This is one of the reasons I decided to run to represent New Jersey's 11th Congressional District and replace a Republican Congressman who voted with his party to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Should I win and should the Democrats win control of Congress again, I think the next step should be to strengthen the Affordable Care Act to ensure that more – not less – people are covered.

Once that is done and we stabilize the healthcare market again, I think we Democrats should have a serious conversation with the American people on whether counting on employers to provide us with health insurance in the future is the way to go.

Most companies – big and small – no longer want to deal with the headache of trying to offer health coverage to their workers.

While it is hardly ever mentioned, as consumers we are paying what amounts to a hidden tax every time we purchase a good or service in America.

Built into the price of all our products is an extra fee we all pay to cover somebody’s health insurance.

In personal terms, my students would have lower tuition if my college did not cover my health insurance and others.

In other words, we all pay for health insurance in higher prices whether we personally get health insurance or not.

Besides paying these hidden fees as consumers, we also pay more for our health coverage than people living in other countries.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the United States spent more on health care per capita ($9,403), and more on health care as percentage of its GDP (17.1%), than any other nation in 2014.

Last year, according to research by the Kaiser Family Foundation, average premiums for family coverage for employees rose to $18,764, an increase of 19% since 2012.

Workers are also increasingly paying a greater share of those costs and now pay 30% of the premium, in addition to higher deductibles and growing co-payments.

Moreover, unpaid medical bills are still the #1 cause of U.S. bankruptcies, outpacing credit-card bills or late mortgage payments.

Given all these problems with employer-based healthcare, I would be in favor of gradually – not tomorrow but over time – moving our country towards a Medicare for all type system.

My Support for Universal Background Checks, Sensible Gun Control, and Once Again Allowing the C.D.C. to Study Gun Violence in America 

Does having a gun at home protect your family or not? 

"The landmark study in 1993 [at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] showed that bringing a gun into the home puts everyone at much greater risk. . . The N.R.A. pushed Congress in 1995 to stop the C.D.C. from spending taxpayer money on research that advocated gun control. Congress passed the Dickey Amendment in 1996, and cut funding that effectively ended the C.D.C.'s study of gun violence as a public health issue."  

I support rescinding the Dickey Amendment and allowing the C.D.C. to once again be able to study firearm violence in America. I also support universal background checks before someone is allowed to purchase a firearm and sensible gun control measures to remove weapons meant for war off American streets.  

Please click here to read the article on "The Case for Studying Gun Violence" found in the March 13, 2018 "Science Times" section of the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/12/health/gun-violence-research-cdc.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=sectionfront

News Stories about my Run for Congress

Runner's World: "Why Are So Many Runners Getting Into Politics?"   https://www.runnersworld.com/newswire/why-are-so-many-runners-getting-into-politics?utm_content=2018-01-26&utm_campaign=Rundown&utm_source=runnersworld.com&utm_medium=newsletter&smartcode=YN_0001652734_0001653029&sha1hashlower=011b9583145b69ed3379e34876a61e35cd1e77b2&md5hash=0baf7879028ec13bb54ca993b18dfee9

Morristown Daily Record: "Mendham runner, CCM professor challenging Frelinghuysen"

https://www.dailyrecord.com/story/news/local/morris-county/2017/11/08/mendham-runner-ccm-professor-challenging-frelinghuysen/836695001/

Patch.com: "Longtime Mendham Runner Now Running For Congress -

History professor and prolific runner Mark Washburne will announce his candidacy for Congress in NJ's 11th district Wednesday." https://patch.com/new-jersey/mendham-chester/longtime-mendham-runner-now-running-congress

Newark Star-Ledger (NJ.com): "He's run every day since 1989, now he's running for Congress." http://www.nj.com/morris/index.ssf/2017/11/man_who_runs_every_day_is_running_for_congress.html