Jim McCrery

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Jim McCrery
Jim McCrery
In office
1988-present
Preceded by Cleo Fields
Succeeded by Incumbent
Born September 18, 1949
Shreveport, Louisiana
Political party Republican
Spouse Johnette McCrery
Religion Methodist

James Otis "Jim" McCrery, III, (born September 18, 1949, in Shreveport, Louisiana), is an American politician and has been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 1988; he represents the 4th District of Louisiana (map). McCrery is the ranking member on the House Ways and Means Committee. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Republican Main Street Partnership (a group of moderate Republicans). Had the Republicans maintained control of the U.S. House in 2007, he would have been in line to chair the Ways and Means Committee. Instead, the slot went to the veteran Democrat Charles Rangel of Harlem, New York.

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[edit] Before Congress

McCrery grew up in Leesville, the seat of Vernon Parish. He graduated from Leesville High School in 1967. In 1971, McCrery earned a bachelor's degree in both English and history from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston in Lincoln Parish. Thereafter, he obtained a law degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge in 1975. McCrery joined the law firm of Jackson, Smith & Ford in Leesville, where he worked from 1975 to 1978, and served in Shreveport as an assistant city attorney from 1979 to 1980.

From 1981 to 1984, McCrery worked as a district manager and later as a legislative director for then Democratic Congressman Charles Elson "Buddy" Roemer, III. He returned to Louisiana in 1984 to work for Georgia Pacific Corporation, where he remained until his election to Congress four years later.

[edit] Special election, 1988

After Roemer resigned from Congress to become governor of Louisiana, McCrery ran for his former boss' seat as a Republican.

McCrery emerged from the special election in a runoff with Democratic State Senator Foster L. Campbell, Jr., of Elm Grove in Bossier Parish. A third contender, Shreveport journalist and then public relations man Stanley R. Tiner, was eliminated in the first round of voting. (As of 2006, Tiner was a Pulitzer Prize-winning executive editor and vice president of the Biloxi-Gulfport newspaper, the Sun Herald.) Tiner was considered the most liberal of the three major candidates. Campbell had also run for this House seat in 1980 but failed to make the general election. In 2002, Democrat Campbell vacated the state Senate after 26 years on his election to the Louisiana Public Service Commission. McCrery became only the sixth Republican to represent Louisiana in the House since the end of Reconstruction.

In his bid for a full term in 1990, he handily defeated Adele Roemer, the Democratic mother of his former benefactor Buddy Roemer. In 1992, his district was renumbered as the 5th after Louisiana lost a district in the 1990 United States Census (it was renumbered the 4th District once again in 1997 after a court-ordered mid-decade redistricting). As a result of redistiricting, McCrery was thrown into a race with Democrat Jerry Huckaby, who had previously represented a Monroe-based district for eight terms. McCrery defeated Huckaby by an unexpectedly large margin. To date, he is the only Louisiana Republican to have unseated a Democratic House incumbent. He has not faced serious opposition since he defeated Huckaby. In the mid-term election of 2006, McCrery defeated Democratic challengers Patti Cox and Artis Cash and conservative Republican Chester T. Kelley, a Shreveport businessman who advertises his catfish restaurant on the Rush Limbaugh radio program.

[edit] Subcommittees and laws

Congressman McCrery sits on the following House Ways and Means subcommittees:

McCrery has sponsored or co-sponsored six public bills in the 109th Congress which have been signed into law by the president, all of which involved disaster mitigation and assistance in response to 2005 hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.

[edit] Family and personal life

McCrery married the former Johnette Hawkins on August 3, 1991. She is a former television newswoman. They have two children, Scott and Clark. McCrery is a Methodist.

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Charles Elson "Buddy" Roemer, III, (D)		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Louisiana's 4th district
April 16, 1988 – present		 Incumbent
Louisiana's current delegation to the United States Congress
Senators: Mary Landrieu (D), David Vitter (R)

Representative(s): Bobby Jindal (R), William J. Jefferson (D), Charles Melancon (D), Jim McCrery (R), Rodney Alexander (R), Richard H. Baker (R), Charles Boustany (R)

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