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| Affiliation | Democratic |
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| <- |
2000-01-01 |
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| Name | Zell B. Miller |
| Address | 709 Miller Street
Young Harris, Georgia 30582, United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
February 24, 1932
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| Died | March 23, 2018
(86 years)
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| Contributor | COSDem |
| Last Modifed | IndyGeorgia
Oct 23, 2022 12:42pm |
| Tags |
Caucasian - Married - Marine Corps - NRA - Methodist - Straight -
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| Info | In a career of public service spanning more than four decades, Zell Miller has focused on the kitchen-table issues of working families to get results for Georgia and for the nation.
He was one of the nation's most popular governors, and he is now enjoying huge popularity back home for his work in the United States Senate.
Senator Miller credits two major influences in his life for his success: his strong mother and the U.S. Marine Corps.
After finishing two terms as governor in 1999 with an 85 percent approval rating, Miller headed back to the college classroom and back home to his beloved north Georgia mountains. His retirement from public service was cut short when Gov. Roy Barnes asked Miller to accept an appointment to the U.S. Senate after the untimely death of Sen. Paul Coverdell in July 2000.
Miller accepted, and was immediately thrust into another statewide election. In November 2000, Miller won a seven-person race with 58 percent of the vote for the right to serve the remaining four years of Sen. Coverdell's term through 2004.
In his brief time in the Senate, Miller has tried to fulfill his pledge to represent all 8 million Georgians and no single party. He has regularly reached across the aisle and worked with the White House to lower taxes, improve education and give our Commander in Chief his full support in the war on terrorism.
It is Miller's ability to tap into the kitchen-table issues of working families that gained him national prominence and made him Georgia's most popular governor in modern history.
The Washington Post in 1998 called Miller the most popular governor in America, and Governing Magazine named him Governor of the Year in 1998.
His HOPE Scholarship program was dubbed by the Los Angeles Times as "the most far-reaching scholarship program in the nation.'' And his pre-kindergarten program won an award for innovation from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
Born Feb. 24, 1932, in Young Harris, Georgia, Miller followed his parents' footsteps into the teaching profession and into politics. He was raised by his single mother after his father died when Miller was only 17 days old.
Miller gets his hard-work ethic and his appreciation for the arts from Birdie Miller, an art teacher and one of Georgia's first female mayors. She hauled stones from a mountain creek to build the family home that Sen. Miller still lives in today.
Though he never knew his father, Stephen Grady Miller, Sen. Miller followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a University of Georgia graduate, a history professor at Young Harris College and a state senator.
Miller began his career in public service in 1959 with a term as mayor of Young Harris. In 1960, he was elected to the Georgia Senate at the age of 28. In 1974, he won the first of four consecutive terms as Georgia's lieutenant governor. Then in 1990, Miller ran for governor and won the first of two terms he would serve as the state's top leader.
Governor Miller makes the case for eliminating the sales tax from groceries as aides Rick Dent and Steve Wrigley look on. (1996)
Miller walked into the governor's office facing shrinking state revenues and an empty rainy-day fund. By the end of Miller's two terms, Georgia's coffers were full and he had eliminated the sales tax on groceries and cut the income tax twice. The tax savings for Georgians added up to more than $1 billion.
The centerpiece of Miller's legacy as governor is his lottery-funded HOPE scholarship, which has sent more than 500,000 Georgians to college and forever changed the way Georgians think about higher education. In 1997, President Clinton borrowed Miller's idea in announcing a national HOPE scholarship program.
Governor Miller accepts a check for $1.1 billion from Georgia Lottery Director Rebecca Paul. Miller used the lottery to pay for HOPE scholarships and his Pre-K program. (1996)
To ensure that young children are ready for school, Miller created the nation's first voluntary pre-kindergarten program, available to all parents who want their 4-year-olds to attend. This lottery-funded program has served more than 372,000 4-year-olds, and studies show those children are thriving as they move into kindergarten and beyond.
Miller's passions are education, history, baseball and music. He is a walking baseball encyclopedia who is equally at home at the Grand Ol' Opry or Symphony Hall. When he learned that the classical music he loves could help foster development in newborns, he distributed classical music CDs to parents of newborns in a nationally acclaimed program called "Beethoven for Babies.'' He has written five books, including "Corps Values: Everything You Need To Know I Learned in the Marines'' about how his three-year enlistment in the Marines turned his life around as a young man in the 1950s.
After leaving the governor's office in 1999, Miller taught at Emory University and at his alma maters, the University of Georgia and Young Harris College. He also served on several corporate boards before being appointed to the U.S. Senate in July 2000.
Miller has been married to Shirley Carver since 1954. They have two sons, Murphy Carver and Matthew Stephen, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. He also has two yellow Labradors, Gus and Woodrow, named after characters in one of his favorite books, Lonesome Dove.
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| Date | Firm | Approve | Disapprove | Don't Know |
| 06/00/2004-06/00/2004 |
Insider Advantage |
64.00% ( 0.0) |
0.00% ( 0.0) |
0.00% ( 0.0) |
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| Start Date |
End Date |
Type |
Title |
Contributor |
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| ENDORSEMENTS |
| GA US Senate - Nov 08, 2016 |
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Johnny Isakson |
| GA US Senate - Nov 04, 2014 |
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| GA US Senate - Nov 05, 2002 |
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D |
Roy Barnes |
| Solicitor General of the United States - May 24, 2001 |
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Theodore Bevry Olson |
| Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security - May 08, 2001 |
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| US Secretary of the Interior - Jan 30, 2001 |
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| GA US President - D Primary - Mar 03, 1992 |
D |
Bill Clinton |
| US President - D Primaries - Jul 01, 1992 |
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| US President - D Primaries - Jul 01, 1988 |
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| US President National Vote - Nov 02, 1948 |
D |
Harry S. Truman |
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