Jim McCrery

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Jim McCrery
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana's 4th district
Incumbent
Assumed office  April 16, 1988 –
Preceded by	Buddy Roemer
Born	September 18, 1949 (1949-09-18) (age 58) Shreveport, Louisiana
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Johnette McCrery
Religion	Methodist

James Otis "Jim" McCrery, III (born September 18, 1949) is an American politician and a departing Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, having served since Apri 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 in New York City. On December 7, 2007 he announced that he would not seek reelection in 2008.[1]

[edit] Before Congress

McCrery was born in Shreveport, Louisiana and grew up in Leesville, the seat of Vernon Parish. He graduated from Leesville High School in 1967. In 1971, McCrery earned a bachelor of arts 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 was 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] Congressional career

After Roemer resigned from Congress to become governor, 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 2007 Tiner was a Pulitzer Prize–winning executive editor and vice president of the Biloxi-Gulfportm Mississippi, newspaper, The Sun Herald.) 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 twenty-six years when he was elected 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 1988, he handily defeated Adeline McDade Roemer (born 1923), the Democratic mother of his former benefactor Buddy Roemer.

In 1992, Louisiana lost a district as a result of sluggish population growth during the 1980s. Also, the state was ordered to draw a second black-majority district by the Justice Department. The legislature responded by shifting most of Shreveport and Bossier City's black voters into a new 4th District. Most of McCrery's former territory was merged with the 5th District, represented by 16-year incumbent Jerry Huckaby. On paper, McCrery was in serious danger, since Huckaby retained nearly all of his former territory. However, the old 4th was considerably more urbanized than the old 5th, and 60 percent of the new 5th's voters had been represented by McCrery. Also, the new 5th was only 5 percent African American (compared with a 30 percent black population in the old 5th). McCrery was thus such a heavy favorite that national Democratic leaders wrote off the seat as a loss and urged Huckaby to retire. Huckaby chose to stay in the race and was heavily defeated. To date, McCrery is the only Louisiana Republican to have unseated a Democratic incumbent at the federal level.

McCrery has not faced serious opposition since he defeated Huckaby. His district was renumbered as the 4th again in 1997, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the majority-black, Alexandria-to-Baton Rouge 4th was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

In the mid-term election of 2006, McCrery defeated Democratic challengers Patti Cox and Artis Cash and Republican Chester T. Kelley,^[1] a Shreveport businessman who advertises his catfish restaurant on the Rush Limbaugh radio program and who has been interviewed on the statewide Moon Griffon radio talk show.

McCrery now serves as the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee.

[edit] Subcommittees and laws

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

• Health
• Human Resources
• Social Security (chairman)

McCrery has sponsored or cosponsored six public bills in the 109th Congress that 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

On August 3, 1991, McCrery married the former Johnette Hawkins (born 1966), a former television newswoman. They have two children, Scott and Clark. McCrery is a Methodist.

[edit] Political controversies

During the China-U.S trade talks of March 2007, McCrery and New York Democrat Charles Rangel committed a gaffe when they accidentally insulted the Chinese Vice Premier, Wu Yi by referring to her as the Vice Premier of the "Republic of China" in a letter. The Republic of China is a name for the self-ruling government on the island of Taiwan, which the PRC considers a rogue province. ^[2]

[edit] 2008 Presidential support

In 2007, in the early stages of the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination for 2008, McCrery announced his endorsement of Mitt Romney for president.^[3]

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Congressman Jim McCrery official U.S. House website

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• Profile at SourceWatch Congresspedia
• Election Central Guide to 2008