Jim McCrery | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Ranking Member of theHouse Ways and Means Committee | |
| In office January 3, 2007 – January 3, 2009 | |
| Preceded by | Charlie Rangel |
| Succeeded by | Dave Camp |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromLouisiana | |
| In office April 16, 1988 – January 3, 2009 | |
| Preceded by | Buddy Roemer |
| Succeeded by | John Fleming |
| Constituency | 4th district (1988–1993) 5th district (1993–1997) 4th district (1997–2009) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | James Otis McCrery III (1949-09-18)September 18, 1949 (age 76) Shreveport,Louisiana, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic (before 1988) Republican (1988–present) |
| Spouse | Mary Johnette Hawkins (divorced) |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | Louisiana Tech University (BA) Louisiana State University (JD) |
McCrery voicing concerns with reauthorizing theState Children's Health Insurance Program. Recorded September 25, 2007 | |
James Otis McCrery III (born September 18, 1949) is an American lawyer, politician and lobbyist who served as aRepublican member of theUnited States House of Representatives from 1988 to 2009. He represented the4th District ofLouisiana, based in the northwestern quadrant of the state.
McCrery was a ranking member on theHouse Ways and Means Committee. 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 veteranDemocratCharles Rangel ofHarlem inNew York City. He was also a member of the Executive Committee of theNational Republican Congressional Committee and theRepublican Main Street Partnership, a group ofModerate Republicans.
McCrery did not seek reelection in 2008[1] and was succeeded as Representative byJohn C. Fleming, a fellow Republican.
McCrery was born in Shreveport and reared inLeesville, the seat ofVernon Parish in western Louisiana. He graduated in 1967 fromLeesville High School. In 1971, McCrery earned aBachelor of Arts degree in bothEnglish andhistory fromLouisiana Tech University inRuston inLincoln Parish. Thereafter in 1975, he obtained a degree from the Louisiana State UniversityPaul M. Hebert Law Center inBaton Rouge. McCrery joined the law firm of Jackson, Smith & Ford in Leesville, where he worked from 1975 to 1978.
From January through August 1979, he was a staff member of U.S. RepresentativeBuddy Leach, a Leesville native. McCrery resigned from Rep. Leach's staff in August 1979 to join the staff of the Shreveport City Attorney's office. After Leach was unseated in 1980 byBuddy Roemer of Bossier City, McCrery was hired as district manager and later legislative director for Representative Roemer. In 1984, McCrery returned to Louisiana to work forGeorgia Pacific Corporation, a forest products company. He remained there until his election to Congress four years later.
After Roemer resigned from Congress to become governor, McCrery ran for his former boss's seat as a Republican.
In 1992, Louisiana lost a district as a result of sluggish population growth during the 1980s. Also, the state was ordered, temporarily, to draw a second black-majority district by theJustice Department. The legislature responded by shifting most of Shreveport and Bossier City's black voters into a new 4th District that stretched in roughly a "Z" shape all the way toBaton Rouge. Most of McCrery's former territory was merged with the 5th District, represented by 16-year incumbent DemocratJerry Huckaby, who is now retired in Lincoln Parish. On paper, McCrery was in serious danger, since Huckaby retained nearly all of his former territory. However, the new Fifth was significantly more urbanized than its predecessor because of the presence of Shreveport. McCrery retained 55 percent of his former constituents. Also, since the new 4th had absorbed most of the old 5th's blacks as well, the new 5th District was only 16 percentAfrican American; the old 5th was 30 percent black. 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, carrying only one parish in the district. McCrery thus became the first Louisiana Republican to unseat a Democratic incumbent at the federal level.
McCrery was reelected seven more times with no substantive opposition and was completely unopposed in 1996, 1998, and 2004. His district was renumbered as the 4th again in 1997, after theUnited States Supreme Court ruled the 4th was an unconstitutional racialgerrymander.
In themid-term election of 2006, McCrery defeated Democratic challengers Patti Cox and Artis Cash and Republican Chester T. "Catfish" Kelley.[2]
From 2007 to 2009, McCrery was the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee. During the China–U.S trade talks of March 2007, McCrery and New York Democrat Charles Rangel accidentally insulted Chinese Vice PremierWu 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 ofTaiwan, which thePRC considers a rogue province.[3]
In 2007, in the early stages of the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination for 2008, McCrery announced his endorsement of candidateMitt Romney, the formergovernor of Massachusetts for the party's nomination, a designation Romney won in 2012, not 2008.[4]
On December 7, 2007, McCrery announced his decision not to seek reelection in 2008.[1]Closed primaries were held by both parties in the fall of 2008 to begin the process ofchoosing a successor to McCrery. In the Republican primary,physicianJohn C. Fleming ofMinden inWebster Parish, beat McCrery's preferred successor,Jeff R. Thompson, aBossier City attorney.
Congressman McCrery sat on the followingHouse Ways and Means subcommittees:
McCrery 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 hurricanesKatrina,Rita, andWilma.
In January 2009, McCrery joined a top lobbying firm, Capitol Counsel inWashington, D.C.[5]He is the lead Republican in the company.[6] Among his clients isGeneral Electric.
On August 3, 1991, McCrery married the former Mary Johnette Hawkins (born December 1966), a Republican,[7] a former television newswoman and communications specialist from Shreveport.[8] The couple has two sons, Scott and Otis McCrery.[9] The McCrerys subsequently divorced.
McCrery is aUnited Methodist.[10]
In August 2014,GovernorBobby Jindal, who once worked as a summer intern on McCrery's congressional staff, appointed McCrery to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of John George, a Shreveport physician, to the influentialLouisiana State University Board of Supervisors.[11]
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromLouisiana's 4th congressional district 1988–1993 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromLouisiana's 5th congressional district 1993–1997 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromLouisiana's 4th congressional district 1997–2009 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Ranking Member of theHouse Ways and Means Committee 2007–2009 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former U.S. Representative | Order of precedence of the United States as Former U.S. Representative | Succeeded byas Former U.S. Representative |
| 1st district |   | |
|---|---|---|
| 2nd district | ||
| 3rd district | ||
| 4th district | ||
| 5th district | ||
| 6th district | ||
| 7th district | ||
| 8th district | ||
| At-large | ||
| Territory | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
