I first met Walter Jones Jr when he was running for the Democratic Nomination for the North Carolina house of representatives in 1984 he had just been appointed to the seat after the death of Sam Bundy who won the seat after Walter Jones Sr gave it up to run for the U S House in 1960. Jones Jr server in the state house with distinction but he ruffled some feathers when he became part of a group of maverick Democrats called the Maveretic 20. Current Governor Roy Cooper was also a member. This lead to Jones Jr switching parties something I urged him to not do. Walter Jones Jr like his father ran on of the best congressional offices in the country. I can not say I always agreed with his votes but if I called his office for help I got great service as did anyone in the district. After the gulf war he spoke out against the war against the wishes of his party and paid a political price. He passed away today and he will probably be replaced by a Republican who will blindly follow the Gop.