Michael Parker
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Michael Parker (born October 31, 1949) is a politician from the state of Mississippi. He served in Congress as a member of both the Democratic and, later, the Republican parties. He later served as Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Army, with authority over the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
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[edit] Biography
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 hard-fought primary with a wide field of contenders. The district included Jackson, Vicksburg, Nachez, McComb, and Brookhaven, Mississippi.
[edit] Party switch
During Parker's successful 1992 general election campaign, he did not endorse Democratic party Presidential candidate Bill Clinton. After his re-election in November 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 completed his switch away from the Democrats and 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 as the Republican candidate 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.
[edit] Army Corps
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. In recent years Parker has been a Washington lobbyist, specializing in infrastructure issues.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Wayne Dowdy |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Mississippi's 4th congressional district 1989–1999 |
Succeeded by Ronnie Shows |
