Jason Altmire is a firm believer in setting goals and plotting a course to reach them. But he learned a long time ago that life sometimes has its own plans. On Jan. 4 in Washington, D.C., Altmire will be sworn in as the U.S. representative for Pennsylvania's 4th Congressional District. It is a goal that political observers thought unattainable by the 38-year-old Lower Burrell native for one reason: three-term Republican incumbent Melissa Hart of Bradford Woods. "I never could understand why people didn't think this was a winnable race," Altmire, a Democrat, said during a recent interview. "I left my job 18 months before the election and spent 16 months trying to convince people I could win." He did, pulling in 52 percent of the votes to Hart's 48 percent. In the process, he ousted an incumbent who was considered one of the rising stars in the national Republican Party. To those who do not know Altmire, it likely was a surprising political upset. For those who do know him, the only surprise would have been if he had lost. Youthful passion People who have known Altmire for a long time often use similar words to describe him: determined, focused, intelligent. Don Ryan, of Lower Burrell, is a lifelong friend who knows all about those attributes. Ryan's family lived along Lower Burrell's Fairhaven Drive while Altmire, an only child, lived in Hartford Square, a neighboring townhouse development, with his mother, Arlene. "Jason and I grew up and went to school together from kindergarten all the way through high school graduation," Ryan said. They remained close through the years and when each got married, the other served as best man. Sports is what bound them together early on in life and carried them into their years at Burrell High School. Ryan played on the varsity basketball team. Altmire played wide receiver on the football team and competed on the track team, setting the school record in the triple jump that stood for a number of years. But football was Altmire's real passion, according to Ryan. "He was consumed with being good at it," he said. "He's absolutely tireless. He is also highly motivated. "In high school we would be out partying on a Friday night, but Jason would be home doing push-ups and situps. Why• Because he wanted to become a great athlete." After being a solid starter for Burrell in his junior year, big things were expected of the now 6-foot-3, 190-pound Altmire heading into his senior season. "The only thing I wanted to do was play football," Altmire said. "That's all I did was work out and get ready for football." With colleges such as Maryland, West Virginia and North Carolina State showing interest in him, Altmire was primed for a big senior season in 1985. Life, however, had other ideas. Devastating event Altmire cannot remember what school the Burrell Bucs lined up against in a scrimmage a week before his senior season began. But, he remembers the play. "I caught a pass," he recalled. "Nick Como had thrown it to me, I made the cut and blew my knee out." Altmire had torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee. In an instant, his high school football career was over. "I was devastated," Altmire said. "I didn't sleep, I didn't eat. As I recall, I lost almost 40 pounds almost immediately. I was a mess." He underwent surgery and then faced the prospect of a long, tough recovery. John Bonaroti, a physical therapist and director of East Suburban Sports Medicine in Monroeville and Murrysville, worked with Altmire on his rehabilitation and remembers him well. "That was a time when ACL treatment was much more primitive," Bonaroti said. Now, after surgery, the course of treatment is to restore mobility as quickly as possible, he said. In 1985, the approach was to immobilize the knee in a cast for three or four weeks to allow it to heal. But, by the time Altmire's cast came off, his leg had atrophied and was very stiff, Bonaroti said. "The motion that people get back within a week now, it probably took him six to eight weeks to get back," he said. Altmire, whose youthful looks today would allow him to blend into a college campus, speaks in an articulate, thoughtful manner, with a steady, even voice that gives the impression of being almost unemotional. But in recounting that high school football injury, a subtle flash in his brown eyes seems to betray an anger that may have cooled but still lingers 20 years later. "That was my moment," Altmire said, slightly emphasizing the last two words. "I was only 17 and had worked all my life for that." "It was a really difficult time in my life," he said. "I definitely didn't handle it well. It changed my life and sent me in a different direction." The injury cast him into a state of depression for which he received treatment. Ryan and another longtime friend and fellow athlete, Ray Sharick, tried to keep his spirits up by visiting him often at home. But it may have well been the challenge of rehabilitation and reaching a revived goal -- playing football at a major college -- that ultimately restored Altmire's spirit and his will. Pain, sweat, effort "He was just very focused and knew what he wanted to do," Bonaroti said. "He didn't take any shortcuts, he just did what he had to do." That involved several two-to-three hour therapy sessions per week requiring pain, effort and sweat, he said. By that time, Altmire already had decided not only would he try to play football again but he was going to do it in one of the premier programs in the country, Florida State University. "If he had gone to a Division II school and been successful, he would always be wondering if he could compete at the Division I level," Ryan said. "He wanted to test himself again at the highest level of athlete that he could." "He put a lot of effort into just getting his function back and getting his strength back," Bonaroti said. "He never wavered in his goal of playing for Florida State. There were a lot of people who didn't think he could do it, but he did." Altmire enrolled at Florida State and by the fall of his junior season, he had made the team as a walk-on, albeit at a spot way down on the depth chart. He never got to play in a regular game but practiced with the team, going against the great Deion Sanders, a defensive back who likely will be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. That team also included quarterback Brad Johnson who went on to win a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and now is with the Minnesota Vikings. But, as the Seminoles prepared to play in the Sugar Bowl, Altmire suffered another knee injury, this time to his right knee, and his football career was over. This time he was more mature and much better prepared to deal with the injury and to start thinking about the future. A fortunate stop As Altmire was finishing his undergraduate degree in political science at Florida State in 1990, life again intervened, this time in a small way that carried major consequences for him. Leaving his final political science class, his professor called him back into the room. She told him there was a Democratic candidate in a Florida congressional race who was looking for interns to work on the campaign. The professor did not think the candidate, Douglas "Pete" Peterson, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, would win but said it was a chance to gain some valuable political experience. "He was a fantastic candidate," Altmire said. He joined Peterson's campaign and traveled around Florida's 2nd Congressional District with the former POW as he battled two-term incumbent Republican Bill Grant. It was during that first campaign that Altmire met his wife, Kelly, who also was working on Peterson's campaign. Peterson won and would go on to serve three terms before becoming America's first ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam. He now is retired from government service and lives in Victoria, Australia, where he operates a consulting business and a charitable foundation. "It turned out that Jason was one of the stars on my campaign and I asked Jason to come with me to Washington," Peterson said. "He was one of my legislative directors. He handled primarily health care issues but had a larger portfolio and handled other issues as they came up." "I had never set foot in Washington until I interviewed with his chief of staff," Altmire said. While working for Peterson, Altmire became a health care expert and earned a master's degree in health care administration from George Washington University. In 1993, at age 25, he was appointed to one of the working groups for President Bill Clinton's Task Force on National Health Care Reform and also worked on drafting health care legislation for Peterson. In a number of ways, the die was cast for Altmire's future when he decided to join Peterson's campaign and he has an appreciation for how it all came about. "If that teacher doesn't catch me on my way out the door, I don't meet my wife, I don't get into politics and I don't go to Washington, D.C.," he mused. A big risk When Peterson left Congress, the Altmires stayed on in Washington for a while. Kelly was working for the Democratic National Committee. Jason had taken a position with the Federation of American Hospitals, broadening his health care portfolio with expertise on legislation regarding hospital ownership. In 1998, they moved back to the Pittsburgh region and Jason accepted an administrative position with UPMC. At 30, he became the youngest vice president in UPMC history, specializing in government relations and overseeing the office of charitable giving. Seven years later, life was good. He was well-established and making a $130,000 salary. He and Kelly had been married for 10 years and now had two daughters, Natalie and Grace. But Altmire was frustrated with what he was seeing in Washington, particularly from Hart, whose district was changed in 2000 to include the neighborhood where Altmire lives in McCandless. "I looked at the demographics of the district and her voting record -- they didn't match," he said. "When I looked at it, I thought: this is a pretty Democratic district and it's being represented by somebody who is a far-right Republican." "It was just that she was a rubber stamp for the president," Altmire said. "They both came in after the 2000 election and she was in lock step with him. It was everything they did, the energy bill and allowing the acceptable level of arsenic in drinking water to increase, and voting against the McCain campaign finance reform bill after she had campaigned with him and saying she would support it." He had reached a critical juncture and needed to make a decision. Right thing to do "Leaving a good job like that was a tough decision, it was a big risk," Altmire said of the UPMC post. But there was an even bigger one in his mind. "I knew it in my heart that if I sat back and watched, and someone else lost in a close race, it would have bothered me, knowing in my heart that I could have won," he said. He resigned from UPMC and announced his candidacy. "I knew he probably would do it and for him, it was the right thing to do." Ed Turner remembers Altmire from the honors English class he taught at Burrell. "I thought he was going to do some great things," Turner said. "I don't see him as an advocate of any strata of society," Turner said. "I see him as an advocate for what is right for America. What is right, what is rational and workable. Whatever he does is going to be ethical and well-thought-out." Bonaroti saw a lot of the dogged determination he showed during his recovery from his knee injury during the campaign. "He just had that athlete's mentality that drives people to reach beyond their limits," said Bonaroti, who lunched with Altmire as the campaign reached its peak. "He never even considered not winning. If more people live that way, a lot more would get done. "He's proven that he can overcome all kinds of challenges and I think he'll take them head-on. He won't dodge anybody, he'll stick to his morals and his beliefs and win as many battles as he can." While he gave Altmire some help and advice along the way, Peterson credits Altmire with generating his campaign, his success. "Absolutely. They didn't know he was out there," Peterson said. " This was his own campaign. He generated it himself, this wasn't a campaign out of Washington. "He took out a strong incumbent in his own way, with his own ability, and what he stands for, and I think that is a remarkable achievement." Like Turner, Peterson thinks Altmire's character will serve him, the district and the country well in Congress. "I think it is that character that we have always sought in those who are willing to serve their country," he said. "I think people like him are starting to recognize that they have to get involved."

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