19 Facts About Jim McCrery

James Otis McCrery III was born on September 18,1949 and is an American lawyer, politician and lobbyist who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1988 to 2009.

Jim McCrery represented the 4th District of Louisiana, based in the northwestern quadrant of the state.

Jim McCrery was a ranking member on the House Ways and Means Committee.

Jim McCrery was a member of the Executive Committee of the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Republican Main Street Partnership, a group of Moderate Republicans.

Jim McCrery was born in Shreveport and reared in Leesville, the seat of Vernon Parish in western Louisiana.

In 1971, Jim McCrery earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in both English and history from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston in Lincoln Parish.

In 1984, Jim McCrery returned to Louisiana to work for Georgia Pacific Corporation, a forest products company.

Jim McCrery remained there until his election to Congress four years later.

On paper, Jim McCrery was in serious danger, since Huckaby retained nearly all of his former territory.

Jim McCrery was thus such a heavy favorite that national Democratic leaders wrote off the seat as a loss and urged Huckaby to retire.

Jim McCrery thus became the first Louisiana Republican to unseat a Democratic incumbent at the federal level.

Jim McCrery was reelected seven more times with no substantive opposition and was completely unopposed in 1996,1998, and 2004.

Jim McCrery's district was renumbered as the 4th again in 1997, after the United States Supreme Court ruled the 4th was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

From 2007 to 2009, Jim McCrery was the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee.

In 2007, in the early stages of the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination for 2008, Jim McCrery announced his endorsement of candidate Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts for the party's nomination, a designation Romney won in 2012, not 2008.

On December 7,2007, Jim McCrery announced his decision not to seek reelection in 2008.

Congressman Jim McCrery sat on the following House Ways and Means subcommittees:.

Jim 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 hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.

In January 2009, Jim McCrery joined a top lobbying firm, Capitol Counsel in Washington, DC He is the lead Republican in the company.