Rep. Santini, leader in mining and tourism, dies
By Ray Hagar, Reno Gazette-Journal
Former Rep. Jim Santini, the last man to represent the entire state of Nevada in the House of Representatives, died Tuesday at a hospice center in Rockville, Md., after being diagnosed with advanced-stage esophageal cancer.
Santini was a graduate of Bishop Manogue High School, the UNR and the University of California Hastings College of Law in San Francisco. He was 78.
“Today, Nevada lost a historic figure,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said on the floor of the Senate Sept. 22. “Early this morning, former Congressman James Santini of Nevada died. He was a remarkably good person, a tremendous person who understood Nevada so well.”
Santini, who was born in Reno in 1937, served as Nevada’s lone U.S. representative in Congress as a Democrat from 1974 until 1983. He left politics after losing a close battle with Reid for a U.S. Senate seat in 1986.