Information AboutMike Parker |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT MIKE PARKER | |
| 1949 births | |
| parker, mike | |
| living people | |
| members of the united states house of representatives from mississippi | |
| mississippi politicians | |
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Parker was born in Laurel, Mississippi and he graduated from William Carey College with a BA in English in 1970. Before entering politics, Parker owned and operated a funeral home business, insurance companies, land and timber companies, and a sand, clay and gravel business. Parker was elected to the House Of Representatives as a Democrat in 1988 following a dynamic primary with a wide field of able and funded contenders. The district included Jackson, Vicksburg, Nachez, McComb, and Brookhaven Mississippi. During his successful general election campaign, a comedy of errors caused Parker to refuse endorsing Democratic party Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis who was only the de facto nominee at the time (i.e., before the nominating convention but after Dukakis had secured the votes for nomination). However the dust-up ultimately had a positive impact on Parker's campaign. Parker faced a primary challenge in 1994. Parker voted 'Present' in the election for Speaker Of The House in 1995 instead of voting for the House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt . In November 1995, Parker joined the Republican Party . Parker easily won re-election in 1996 and did not run for re-election in 1998. The district that Parker represented was eliminated from Mississippi after the 2000 redistricting process. Parker ran for Governor of Mississippi in 1999 against Ronnie Musgrove . Parker had almost 9,000 fewer votes than Musgrove, but Musgrove didn't have a majority of the popular vote and he didn't have a majority of the state electoral votes (based on State house districts). The Mississippi House Of Representatives elected Musgrove governor by an 86-36 vote along partisan lines. Parker was appointed by George W. Bush as Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works), with oversight of the Army Corps of Engineers, which has numerous projects in Parker's home state of Mississippi. Parker was one of the first political casualties of the Bush administration's heavily centralized management style when he spoke out to promote the corp of engineers priorities and was then asked to leave in the summer of 2002.
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