35 Facts About Mark Foley

Mark Adam Foley was born on September 8,1954 and is an American former politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives.

Mark Foley was born in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Frances and Edward Joseph Mark Foley, Jr.

Mark Foley was elected to the US House in 1994 with 58 percent of the vote, defeating Democrat John Comerford.

Mark Foley was re-elected in 1996 with 64 percent of the vote against Democrat Jim Stuber and again in 1998.

Mark Foley was re-elected in 2000 with 60 percent of the vote against Democrat Jean Elliott Brown and Reform Party candidate John McGuire.

Mark Foley was re-elected in 2002 with 79 percent of the vote and in 2004 with 68 percent of the vote.

Mark Foley spent most of his tenure in Congress as a member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

Mark Foley was the first public figure to imply that Vice President Al Gore claimed to have invented the Internet.

Mark Foley did not invent the Internet but he sure did tax it.

In late 2000, Foley played a large role in aiding George W Bush during the Presidential election recount controversy in Florida.

In 2006, Mark Foley was a member of the Republican House leadership, serving as deputy whip.

In 2003, Mark Foley was widely considered the Republican front-runner for Bob Graham's Senate seat, especially after Graham had announced his retirement.

However, longstanding rumors surfaced that Mark Foley was either homosexual or bisexual and was in a long-term homosexual relationship.

Mark Foley had raised $3 million in campaign contributions before withdrawing.

Mark Foley had served as chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children.

Mark Foley succeeded in getting a law passed that allows volunteer youth-serving organizations like the Boy Scouts of America and Boys and Girls Clubs to have access to FBI fingerprint background checks.

Mark Foley supported the Patriot Act, the death penalty and strict sentencing for hate crimes.

Mark Foley was a member of Christine Todd Whitman's It's My Party Too and the Republican Main Street Partnership.

Mark Foley helped secure the first-ever financial commitment from Congress for the preservation of Florida's Everglades.

Mark Foley helped pass legislation that expedites the deportation of non-violent criminal aliens serving their sentences in federal prisons; and helped eliminate federal prohibitions on notifying a campus community when a student commits a violent crime.

Mark Foley worked to pass legislation to help surviving heirs of Holocaust victims who have been unable to collect on life insurance policies owed to them.

On September 28,2006, ABC News Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross reported that in 2005, Mark Foley had sent email messages from his personal AOL account to a former Congressional page, asking the page to send a photo of himself to Mark Foley, among other things.

Kirk Fordham, chief of staff to Tom Reynolds and former chief of staff to Mark Foley, said that he was with Mark Foley on September 29,2006, when ABC confronted him with the explicit messages before they were publicized.

Hastert and Reynolds let it be known that if Mark Foley didn't resign, he would be expelled from the House.

That same day, Mark Foley tendered his resignation to Hastert as well as Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

Mark Foley had been warned about the matter in 2005 by another House Republican and the House Clerk.

Mark Foley explained that he had a drinking problem and had made the communications while intoxicated.

Mark Foley checked himself into a rehab clinic on October 2,2006.

Mark Foley resigned from the US Congress on Friday, September 29,2006.

On October 19,2006, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune stated that a disgraced abusive homosexual Catholic priest named Anthony Mercieca told the newspaper about an intimate two-year relationship he had with Mark Foley when the congressman was a teenage altar boy living in Lake Worth, Florida.

Florida officials have closed the investigation of Mark Foley, stating they found "insufficient evidence" to file criminal charges since the page was over the age of consent.

Shortly after Mark Foley resigned, the Republican Party of Florida named State Representative Joe Negron to run as the Republican replacement candidate to face Mahoney.

Mark Foley came out publicly and was in a relationship with Palm Beach dermatologist Layne Nisenbaum until Nisenbaum's death in 2012.

On September 22,2009, Mark Foley debuted as host in his own radio show, "Mark Foley on Politics," on Seaview AM 960 in North Palm Beach, Florida.

Mark Foley's name was the one on the ballot as noted above.