John B. Anderson

John B. Anderson, a former Illinois congressman whose eloquent and quixotic 1980 presidential campaign as an independent helped propel Ronald Reagan to the White House, has died at his home in Washington. He was 95.

His death Sunday was confirmed by his daughter Diane Anderson.

A 10-term congressman, Anderson waged an independent campaign in 1980 against President Jimmy Carter and his Republican challenger Reagan.

Anderson received 7 percent of the vote, enough, observers believed, to tilt the election.

In his later years, Anderson became a lecturer and spokesman for political reform, drawing attention every four years as he was called on to discuss other third-party presidential candidates.

Anderson was a Republican for nearly all of his elected political career, but his views became more liberal as his party shifted rightward.

He left the party altogether when, as a GOP presidential candidate in 1980, he lost several primaries and decided to go it alone as an independent.

Carter refused to debate Anderson, but Reagan, who had been California’s governor, agreed to a televised confrontation, making Anderson the first third-party presidential candidate to debate a major-party opponent on TV.

In November 1980, Anderson’s National Unity Party platform drew nearly 7 percent of the nationwide popular vote, sapping more support from Carter than from Reagan and handing Reagan a landslide victory.

Tribune News Service The Associated Press

SAVANNAH — Savannah police are crediting an officer with saving the life of a choking newborn baby by racing to her apartment and then using chest compressions to restart the infant’s breathing.

Dramatic video from an officer’s body-worn camera shows the infant’s desperate mother, Tina Adkins, holding her unresponsive 29-day-old baby on Friday. Savannah-Chatham police Officer William Eng raced up three flights of stairs to perform CPR.

Eng finally saw Bella move, “and I heard a little cry,” he told The Savannah Morning News.

“I stopped and I turned her to my face and saw her eyes open and she started moving,” Eng said. “I was so relieved.” Will Peebles /

Savannah-Chatham police officer William Eng (right) plays with 29-day-old Bella Adkins while her mother, Tina Adkins, holds her at Savannah-Chatham police headquarters. Eng performed life-saving CPR on the infant.

When Bella began choking, she turned beet red and also blue, her mother recalled in an interview with the Savannah newspaper.

“I just thank God for him,” Adkins said of the officer. “Without him, she may not have been here today, so I thank God for him.” Savannah Morning News via AP

Eng did not hesitate to come to the family’s aid, said his supervisor, Savannah-Chatham police Sgt. Phillip Collard.

“Because of his compassionate and quick response, he saved the life of this little girl,” Collard said.