Mark Taylor | |
---|---|
10th Lieutenant Governor of Georgia | |
In office January 11, 1999 –January 8, 2007 | |
Governor | Roy Barnes Sonny Perdue |
Preceded by | Pierre Howard |
Succeeded by | Casey Cagle |
Member of the Georgia Senate from the 12th district | |
In office May 1987 –January 1999 | |
Preceded by | Al Holloway |
Succeeded by | Mike von Bremen |
Personal details | |
Born | Mark Fletcher Taylor May 7,1957 Albany,Georgia,U.S. |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse | Sacha Wilbanks |
Education | Emory University (BA) University of Georgia (JD) |
Mark Fletcher Taylor (born May 7,1957) is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served two terms between 1999 and 2007 as the 10th lieutenant governor of Georgia. Taylor was the Democratic nominee for governor of Georgia in 2006,losing in the general election to Republican incumbent Sonny Perdue.
Taylor was born on May 7,1957,in Albany,Georgia. He is a graduate of Deerfield-Windsor School in Albany. Taylor earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Emory University and received his Juris Doctor from the University of Georgia. At Emory,Taylor joined the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.
Taylor is married to the former Sacha Wilbanks of Lavonia,Georgia. Taylor has one adult son,Fletcher. Taylor is a member of the Porterfield Methodist Church in Albany.
During the administration of Governor Joe Frank Harris,Taylor was elected to the Georgia Senate. He won a special election on May 3,1987,and succeeded to Democratic incumbent Al Holloway as the state senator representing the 12th district,which encompasses the city of Albany and Dougherty County. He won re-election in 1988,1990,1992,1994 and 1996. [1]
Taylor became floor leader under Harris' successor,Zell Miller. In that role,he marshalled bipartisan support for Miller's HOPE Scholarship program in 1993. Taylor also worked to help create the Peachcare program,which provides health care assistance to uninsured children of low income families.
During the early 1990s,Taylor made crime reduction a major priority. He secured passage of the "Victim's Bill of Rights" as well as the "Two Strikes" law,at the time the strictest anti-violent crime measure in the country. Taylor also successfully advocated for Georgia's first DNA database,which has now solved more than 300 previously unsolved crimes.
Taylor declined running for re-election as a state senator in 1998 to pursue a run for the office of Lieutenant Governor. He defeated Republican candidate Mitch Skandalakis and took office on January 11,1999. He won re-election in 2002 over Republican nominee Steve Stancil and was sworn in for a second term on January 13,2003.[ citation needed ]
In 2005, Taylor announced his intention to seek the Democratic nomination for the office of Governor of Georgia, and officially announced his candidacy on April 18, 2006. He built his campaign around his record on education and health care issues, which he felt that incumbent Republican Sonny Perdue had not adequately addressed. Taylor was opposed by Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox and two other minor candidates in the Democratic primary election on July 18, 2006. Taylor garnered approximately 52 percent of the vote in the primary election, gaining him the right to oppose Governor Perdue in the 2006 Georgia gubernatorial election.
In the general election Perdue defeated Taylor, 57.94% to 38.22%.
On April 26, 2006, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that a paragraph based on opposition research had been inserted into the Wikipedia article on Mark Taylor about the 2005 arrest of Taylor's son on charges of driving under the influence, causing an accident in which a passenger in his car was killed. According to the Associated Press, Internet entrepreneur and Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales told reporters that the edit had been traced back to an IP registered to the Cox campaign, but said he had no way of knowing who made the change. After the story broke, Cox denied any knowledge of the alleged actions and said she had instructed her staff to not make the incident an issue. Her campaign manager, Morton Brilliant, resigned shortly thereafter. [2] [3]
Taylor is chief executive officer of the Fred Taylor Company, an Albany transportation and warehousing firm, as well as several of its subsidiaries. [4]
George Ervin "Sonny" Perdue III is an American politician, veterinarian, and businessman who served as the 31st United States secretary of agriculture from 2017 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 81st governor of Georgia from 2003 to 2011 and as a member of the Georgia State Senate from 1991 to 2002.
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Ralph Eugene Reed Jr. is an American political consultant and lobbyist, best known as the first executive director of the Christian Coalition during the early 1990s. He sought the Republican nomination for the office of Lieutenant Governor of Georgia but lost the primary election on July 18, 2006, to state Senator Casey Cagle. Reed started the Faith and Freedom Coalition in June 2009. Reed and his wife JoAnne Young were married in 1987 and have four children. He is a member of the Council for National Policy.
United States gubernatorial elections were held on November 7, 2006, in 36 states and two territories. The elections coincided with the midterm elections of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives.
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Paul N. Bennecke is an American political consultant for candidates of the Republican Party and partner in the Atlanta-based public-affairs firm, Connect South. He is the former executive director of the Republican Governors Association (RGA). He was appointed to that position in December 2014 and ended his term on December 31, 2018. Previously, he served as deputy executive director and political director of the RGA from January 2007 to January 2011 and led two US Senate campaigns for David Perdue.
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Several elections took place in the U.S. state of Georgia in 2022. The general election was held on November 8, 2022. A runoff election for one of Georgia's seats in the United States Senate was held on December 6, 2022. The runoff was scheduled because none of the candidates for Senate received 50% of the statewide vote in the general election. In addition to the Senate seat, all of Georgia's seats in the United States House of Representatives were up for election. Also up for election were all of Georgia's executive officers and legislative seats, as well as one seat on the Georgia Public Service Commission. The Republican Party decisively won every single statewide office in Georgia except for the Federal Senate race which narrowly went Democratic in 2022.
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