Upon learning of the death of former Rep. Jack Cunningham, R-Wash., months after it occurred (March 28, a day after his 94th birthday), Newsmax contacted several onetime colleagues of his to seek reminiscences of the conservative lawmaker and his stint in Congress.

"I only remember that I liked him," former Rep. Bob Livingston, R-La. "He won the fourth special election in 1977. I won the third, and we had that in common. But I can't recall much in the way of detail."

Those were the standard responses to queries about Cunningham.

"He arrived the same year I did," said former Rep. Bob Walker, R-Pa., who came to Congress in 1976. "I knew him but we were not close. Unfortunately, I do not recall any stories."

When one considers we were asking about someone who last served in Congress 47 years ago and never held office again, it is not surprising.

Among the past three generations of U.S. representatives, John E. Cunningham, III is a face in the crowd and one who had less than one full term (May 1977 to January 1979).

But in winning a nationally watched special election as a conservative Republican in the Evergreen State's solidly Democrat 7th District in 1977 following the resignation of veteran Rep. Brock Adams, D-Wash., to be President Jimmy Carter's secretary of transportation, Cunningham — University of San Francisco basketball star, U.S. Air Force veteran, chemist, and entrepreneur, who served as state representative and then state senator — became an overnight political star.

Cunningham's stunning (54%) victory was also one of the early examples of the modern conservative movement — the so-called "New Right" — flexing its increasingly powerful muscles and showing its disparate factions could work together and win.

"[Direct mail kingpin] Richard Viguerie did all of our direct-mail," Cunningham campaign manager Merrill Jacobs recalled to Newsmax. "In those days, technology in campaigns was just beginning, so we relied on targeted mail to supporters."

Also in its infancy was the "New Right," which weighed in strongly for Cunningham's candidacy.

National political action committees such as the Conservative Victory (CVF) chaired by Rep. John Ashbrook, R-Ohio, the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress (CSFC) founded by Paul Weyrich, and the Washington State-based Citizens Committee For the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) run by veteran Second Amendment advocate Alan Gottlieb all gave major cash donations or in-kind assistance to underdog conservative hopeful Cunningham.

Also getting into the Washington-7 contest with a maximum legal contribution was the Citizens for the Republic (CFTR), which Ronald Reagan formed with the surplus of donations left over from his almost-successful bid for the Republican presidential nomination a year before.

(With federal regulations on the financing of campaigns for federal office less than three years old, many campaigns at the time either ignored or truly did not understand the newfound "rules of the campaign" — oversights that today would almost surely result in massive fines and even a jail sentence. As Don Devine, an operative in Reagan's 1976 presidential effort, put it: "Their campaign finance rules were almost brand new in 1976, and I think we broke nearly all of them.")

Cunningham campaign quarterback Jacobs himself came out of the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC).

Republicans did get something of a break when, in a major upset, environmental lawyer Marvin Durning, who had lost the Democrat nomination for governor a year before, won an upset victory in the primary for the open 7th District over organized labor's favorite state Sen. Martin Durkan.

Cunningham hit hard at Durning's record of environmental activism and charged that the Democrat's views on conservation would cost jobs in the Seattle-area district. Another local issue underscored by the GOP nominee was opposition to land claims by Indian tribes.

Where Durning took a strong pro-choice position, devout Roman Catholic Cunningham was a vigorous foe of abortion and his stance was spelled out in a districtwide mailing signed by well-known pro-lifer and Rep. Robert K. Dornan, R-Calif.

Cunningham defeated Durning handsomely and his victory appeared to spell bad tidings for the Carter administration in the midterm elections of 1978 as well as the presidential race in 1980 — both of which came to be.

The new congressman from Washington State voted the conservative line on the Kemp-Roth across-the-board tax cuts (which became part of President Reagan's tax and budget agenda in 1981 and just about every issue before him).

One exception he made, and that of other Catholic Republicans, was his support for repeal of the death penalty.

In the general election of 1978, Cunningham faced a different type of Democrat from Durning. King County Councilman Mike Lowry styled himself a "Hubert Humphrey Democrat," invoking the name of the one-time vice president and Minnesota senator who championed organized labor.

Lowry slammed Cunningham for opposing the Humphrey-Hawkins bill to achieve full employment and rallied unions as Durning could not do. Lowry, who went on to serve as governor of Washington from 1992-96, won with 52%.

Since his defeat of Cunningham, the 7th District has never sent a Republican to Congress.

Cunningham never sought office again, returned to private business, and devoted his retirement years to wife Maggie and their nine children, 24 grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

Remote to onetime colleagues and to pundits and pols of today, he nonetheless remains an example of how a candidate can defy the odds with firm convictions that motivate people to his cause.

John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.