Michigan Democrat VanderVeen dies (succeeded Gerald Ford in US House)

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., March 3 (UPI) -- Richard VanderVeen, the only Democrat in 96 years to represent Western Michigan in the U.S. House of Representatives, has died at the age of 83.

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He won a special election to serve the final 10 months of Gerald Ford's House term after Ford was appointed Richard Nixon's vice president in 1973. VanderVeen won the seat in the regular 1974 election but the district went back to its Republican roots in 1976. VanderVeen remains the only Democrat to hold the region's House seat since 1910.

VanderVeen sought a U.S. Senate seat in 1978, but lost the Democratic nomination to Carl Levin, who won the Senate position he still holds.

Levin issued a statement in Washington, saying, "Dick VanderVeen served the people of western Michigan with civility, decency and integrity. ... For one brief moment during the 1978 Democratic primary, Dick and I were political rivals, but our friendship was strengthened by the experience. With his passing, I lost a great friend and Michigan lost a great public servant."