Mark F. Miller
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Mark F. Miller (born February 1, 1943) is a retired American politician. A
Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...
, he served 16 years in the
Wisconsin Senate The Wisconsin Senate is the upper house of the Wisconsin State Legislature. Together with the larger Wisconsin State Assembly they constitute the legislative branch of the state of Wisconsin. The powers of the Wisconsin Senate are modeled after t ...
(2005–2021) and was majority leader in 2012. He also served 6 years in the
Wisconsin State Assembly The Wisconsin State Assembly is the lower house of the Wisconsin Legislature. Together with the smaller Wisconsin Senate, the two constitute the legislative branch of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Representatives are elected for two-year terms, ...
.


Early life and family

Mark Miller was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1943, but moved to
Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
as a child and graduated from Middleton High School in Middleton. His father, Ed Miller, worked as a professor at the University of Wisconsin. His mother died in 1961, and, in 1963, Miller's father married Marjorie Leeper, who would later become well known in Wisconsin politics as Midge Miller. Midge became a significant activist in Wisconsin, running the Wisconsin presidential primary campaign of U.S. Senator
Eugene McCarthy Eugene Joseph McCarthy (March 29, 1916December 10, 2005) was an American politician, writer, and academic from Minnesota. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the United States Senate from 1959 to 1971. ...
in 1968, and serving 14 years in the
Wisconsin State Assembly The Wisconsin State Assembly is the lower house of the Wisconsin Legislature. Together with the smaller Wisconsin Senate, the two constitute the legislative branch of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Representatives are elected for two-year terms, ...
. Mark Miller later credited his stepmother's example as important in his decision to go into public service. Miller joined the
Wisconsin Air National Guard The Wisconsin Air National Guard (WI ANG) is the aerial militia of the State of Wisconsin, United States of America. It is, along with the Wisconsin Army National Guard, an element of the Wisconsin National Guard. As state militia units, the unit ...
in 1966 and became an aircraft pilot, he remained in the Guard until 1995. He married second-generation
Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...
Jo Oyama in 1968, just after the
Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
case of ''
Loving v. Virginia ''Loving v. Virginia'', 388 U.S. 1 (1967), was a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark civil rights decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that Anti-miscegenation laws in the United States, laws ban ...
'' struck down prohibitions against
interracial marriage Interracial marriage is a marriage involving spouses who belong to different races or racialized ethnicities. In the past, such marriages were outlawed in the United States, Nazi Germany and apartheid-era South Africa as miscegenation. In 19 ...
. Wisconsin never had a law prohibiting interracial marriage, but the couple lived for a time in Alabama, where Miller had been stationed with the
Air National Guard The Air National Guard (ANG), also known as the Air Guard, is a federal military reserve force of the United States Air Force, as well as the air militia of each U.S. state, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the ter ...
. Miller referred to this experience as formative in discussing his perspective on marriage equality in the context of Wisconsin amending its
Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...
to ban
same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...
s in 2006. Miller and Jo have three children and reside in Monona, Wisconsin. Miller obtained his
Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...
in 1973, at age 30, from the
University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...
. He worked in
real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...
and entered politics in 1996, when he was elected to the
Dane County Dane County is a county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 561,504, making it the second-most populous county in Wisconsin. The county seat is Madison, which is also the state capital. Dane County is the ...
Board of Supervisors.


Political career

In 1998, Miller ran for
Wisconsin State Assembly The Wisconsin State Assembly is the lower house of the Wisconsin Legislature. Together with the smaller Wisconsin Senate, the two constitute the legislative branch of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Representatives are elected for two-year terms, ...
in a crowded Democratic primary to replace Doris Hanson, who had resigned to take a new job in the state government. Miller prevailed in the primary over Monona attorney Helen Marks Dicks, Madison city budget analyst Dan Bohrod, and Madison activist Barbara Pennington. In the general election, he faced Republican Madison consultant Kevin Miller, and won 68% of the vote in the Democrat-friendly district. Miller was re-elected in his Assembly seat in 2000 and 2002, and continued his education during this time, attending the Bowhay Institute for Legislative Leadership Development and the Flemming Fellows Leadership Institute. In 2004 he seized an opportunity to run for the
Wisconsin State Senate The Wisconsin Senate is the upper house of the Wisconsin State Legislature. Together with the larger Wisconsin State Assembly they constitute the legislative branch of the state of Wisconsin. The powers of the Wisconsin Senate are modeled after t ...
in the 16th district, where incumbent
Charles Chvala Charles Joseph "Chuck" Chvala (born December 5, 1954) is an American real estate dealer, lawyer, and former politician. He served 20 years in the Wisconsin State Senate, representing Dane County, and was the Democratic leader from 1995 through ...
was facing criminal indictment. Miller faced fellow-Assemblymember
Tom Hebl Tom Hebl (born November 14, 1945) is an American Democratic politician from Wisconsin. Born in Madison, Wisconsin, Hebl graduated from University of Wisconsin–Whitewater and received his Juris Doctor degree from John Marshall Law School in ...
in the Democratic primary and prevailed with about 58% of the vote. Miller rose through the ranks in the Democratic caucus and was chosen as caucus chairman when the Democrats took the majority in 2007. Later that year, he became co-chair of the powerful Joint Finance Committee.


2011 Wisconsin protests

The 2010 elections gave Republicans full control of state government with Scott Walker as Governor and new majorities in the Legislature. Miller was chosen as the new leader for Senate Democrats in the minority, and expressed interest in working with the new majority to advance the business of the state. However, Governor Walker's Budget Repair Bill—ending
collective bargaining Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The i ...
rights for public employee unions—was seen as so radical that it provoked massive protests at the
State Capitol This is a list of state and territorial capitols in the United States, the building or complex of buildings from which the government of each U.S. state, the District of Columbia and the organized territories of the United States, exercise its ...
. As Republicans signaled their intent to quickly pass the legislation despite the protests, Miller fled the state with the 13 other Democratic State Senators, to deny the Senate a quorum. As the bill was nonetheless being passed during the evening hours of March 9, 2011, Miller commented acidly, "In 30 minutes, 18 senators undid 50 years of
civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
". A series of recall elections followed the Budget Repair Bill controversy, as Democrats were targeted for leaving the state and Republicans were targeted for the legislation itself. Miller was one of the senators subject to a recall movement. Organizers of the recall came within 268 votes of recalling him and had the option of merging their signatures with those collected by the Utah-based group American Patriot Recall Coalition in order to meet the minimum number of signatures required. However, the group decided not to do so because they claimed "the APRC is a front group for either wrecking conservative causes or for simple money making."


Joint Senate Leader

Other recalls were more successful, and following the removal of two Republican senators in the 2011 recall elections and the resignation of Republican Senator Pam Galloway, the two parties were each left with 16 seats in the senate. A joint leadership then emerged with Miller, as the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, and
Scott L. Fitzgerald Scott Lawrence Fitzgerald (born November 16, 1963) is an American politician and former newspaper publisher. A Republican, he represents in the U.S. House of Representatives. The district includes many of Milwaukee's northern and western suburb ...
, the leader of the Republicans in the Senate, as co-leaders. Democrats claimed the majority in July 2012 after a third Republican senator was defeated in a
recall election A recall election (also called a recall referendum, recall petition or representative recall) is a procedure by which, in certain polities, voters can remove an elected official from office through a referendum before that official's term of offi ...
, but as Republicans had already passed new
redistricting Redistribution (re-districting in the United States and in the Philippines) is the process by which electoral districts are added, removed, or otherwise changed. Redistribution is a form of boundary delimitation that changes electoral dist ...
legislation which locked in a majority through
gerrymandering In representative democracies, gerrymandering (, originally ) is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries with the intent to create undue advantage for a party, group, or socioeconomic class within the constituency. The m ...
, the Democrats recall gains were wiped away in the 2012 general election. Miller stood down as leader after the election and supported the election of first term Milwaukee Senator
Chris Larson Christopher J. Larson (born November 12, 1980) is an American Democratic politician and a member of the Wisconsin Senate, representing southeast Milwaukee County since 2011. He was Senate Minority Leader from 2013 through 2014, and currently s ...
as the Democrats' leader for the 2013-2014 session.


Retirement

In January 2020, Senator Miller announced he would not seek re-election to a fifth term in the Senate. He left office in January 2021.


Electoral history


Wisconsin Assembly (1998, 2000, 2002)

, colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", Primary Election, September 8, 1998 , colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", General Election, November 3, 1998


Wisconsin Senate (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016)

, colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", Primary Election, September 14, 2004 , colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", General Election, November 3, 2004


References


External links


Senator Mark Miller
at the
Wisconsin State Legislature The Wisconsin Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The Legislature is a bicameral body composed of the upper house, Wisconsin State Senate, and the lower Wisconsin State Assembly, both of which have had Republican ...

constituency siteMark Miller
official campaign site * *
16th Senate District, Senator Miller
in the
Wisconsin Blue Book The ''Wisconsin Blue Book'' is a biennial publication of the Wisconsin's Legislative Reference Bureau. The ''Blue Book'' is an almanac containing information on the government, economics, demographics, geography and history of the state of Wisc ...
(2005–2006)
48th Assembly District, Assemblyman Miller
in the
Wisconsin Blue Book The ''Wisconsin Blue Book'' is a biennial publication of the Wisconsin's Legislative Reference Bureau. The ''Blue Book'' is an almanac containing information on the government, economics, demographics, geography and history of the state of Wisc ...
(2003–2004)
Campaign 2008
campaign contributions at ''Wisconsin Democracy Campaign'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Mark F. Democratic Party Wisconsin state senators Democratic Party members of the Wisconsin State Assembly Politicians from Boston People from Monona, Wisconsin 1943 births Living people 21st-century American politicians