as well as some criminal defense. Nonetheless, his early interest in Chicago clearly was politics:One of the stories that is told about my start in politics is that on the way home from law school one night in 1948, I stopped by the ward headquarters in the ward where I lived. There was a street-front, and the name Timothy O'Sullivan, Ward Committeeman, was painted on the front window. I walked in and I said, "I'd like to volunteer to work for [Adlai] Stevenson and [Paul] Douglas." This quintessential Chicago ward committeeman took the cigar out of his mouth and glared at me and said, "Who sent you?" I said, "Nobody sent me." He put the cigar back in his mouth and he said, "We don't want nobody that nobody sent." This was the beginning of my political career in Chicago. He spent ten years, 1956–1966, in the Illinois House of Representatives. He was defeated for reelection in 1966, but "reinvented himself" as a community activist, winning election to the United States Congress in 1968. He served in the U.S. House from 1969 to 1973 and 1975 to 1979. Mikva was part of the Kosher Nostra, a group of independent, clean Democrats that included future United States Senator and Presidential candidate Paul Simon, future Illinois Comptroller and candidate for Governor Dawn Clark Netsch, and Representative Anthony Scariano. He first represented Illinois's 2nd District, which included the South Side's lakefront wards including Hyde Park, his residence and the University of Chicago. Both parties attempted to redistrict Mikva out of Congress. The redistricting for the 1972 elections put Hyde Park in the 1st District for the first time since 1903. This would have pitted Mikva against Democratic incumbent Ralph Metcalfe in a nearly 90% black district; moving to stay in the 2nd District would have matched him against Democratic incumbent Morgan F. Murphy, who had previously represented the 3rd District. Mikva instead moved to the North Shore's 10th District. After he was defeated by Republican Samuel H. Young in 1972, he ran in the 1974 Democratic wave election and beat Young with 50.9% of the vote; his status was enhanced in the predominantly Republican, suburban district because he was viewed as critical of the Chicago Democratic establishment. In 1976, he was reelected by 201 votes against Young in a rematch that was one of the most expensive congressional races up to that time.