Mark Gordon (politician)
| Mark Gordon | |
|---|---|
| Treasurer of Wyoming | |
| Assumed office November 1, 2012 |
|
| Governor | Matt Mead |
| Preceded by | Joseph Meyer |
| Personal details | |
| Born | March 14, 1957 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Sarah Hildreth Gilmore (1981–1993) Jennie Muir (2000–present) |
| Children | 4 |
| Alma mater | Middlebury College |
Mark Gordon (born 1957) is the treasurer of the U.S. state of Wyoming. A Republican, he was appointed to the position by Governor Matt Mead on October 26, 2012, to fill the vacancy created by the death of Joseph B. Meyer.
Contents
Background
Gordon is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Crawford Gordon, ranchers from Kaycee[1] in Johnson County in north central Wyoming. Reared on the Gordon Ranch, Gordon is still affiliated with the 48 Ranch Partnership in Kaycee.[2]
He graduated from St. Paul's School, an Episcopalian boarding school in Concord, New Hampshire, and Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, where he met his first wife, the former Sarah Hildreth Gilmore. The couple married on March 7, 1981 in the Second Congregational Church in Greenfield, Massachusetts, where her parents resided.
At the time of this marriage, owing to a longstanding friendship with energy strategist Amory Lovins and a desire to enlighten what he considered to be the environmental community’s misguided antipathy towards ranching, the 23-year-old Gordon was named the chairman of the Wyoming chapter of the Sierra Club and the representative from his home state to the environmental group Friends of the Earth, with headquarters in San Francisco, California.[1] Gordon's activities with these groups diminished through the 1980s and ceased with the passing of his wife in August 1993.
Gordon and his current wife, the former Jennie Muir, own the Merlin Ranch east of Buffalo, also in Johnson County,.[2] In 2009, their ranch received the Society for Range Management Wyoming Section "Excellence in Rangeland Stewardship" award.[3] He was employed by Apache Corporation, a Houston based oil and gas fortune 500 company. Gordon is a former director of the District 10 Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City, Missouri, which serves Wyoming. Gordon is a former chairman of the Wyoming Environmental Quality Council. He has also served on the board of the Wyoming chapter of The Nature Conservancy. Until becoming treasurer, he served on the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resources Trust Board and the Johnson County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees.[4] He has served on the board of Volunteers of America Northern Rockies and as vice-chair of the Wyoming Stock Growers Taxation Committee.
Congressional race
In 2008, Gordon was an unsuccessful candidate in the Republican primary for the United States House of Representatives for the at-large seat now held by fellow Republican Cynthia Lummis, also a former state treasurer and the wife of a Democratic former state representative, Alvin Wiederspahn.[4] His congressional candidacy drew criticism from many of the state's conservatives, who questioned his past political contributions to the Democratic National Committee and such individual Democrats as presidential nominee John Forbes Kerry of Massachusetts (also a St. Paul's School graduate) and that party's congressional nominees in 1996, 2004, and as recently as 2006. Had Gordon defeated Lummis for the congressional nomination, he would have faced the same Democrat, Gary Trauner, to whom he had contributed two years earlier.[5]
Bill Cubin, son of former U.S. Representative Barbara Cubin and chairman in 2008 of the Natrona County Republican organization, said that "It doesn't make sense to give $2,500 to the Democratic National Committee and support John Kerry over George W. Bush, out of step with Wyoming voter attitudes."[5] A flier by an unknown author which circulated in 2008 "awarded" Gordon the "Academy Award" for "Best supporting Republican role in the Democratic Party."[5]
However, former U.S. Senator Alan K. Simpson of Cody, considered a moderate Republican, defended Gordon's candidacy though he stopped short of an outright endorsement because he is also friendly with Lummis. Nevertheless, former U.S. Senator Malcolm Wallop did endorse Gordon as did the late Joseph B. Meyer, who was serving as State Treasurer at the time.[6] In the primary, Gordon garnered the endorsements of the Wyoming's two most prominent statewide newspapers: The Casper Star-Tribune[7] and the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.[8] Though polls and the financial advantage rested with Gordon in the primary campaign, he nevertheless lost the party nomination to Lummis.[5]
Appointment as state treasurer
Governor Mead said that his selection of Gordon as the state treasurer over two other candidates proposed by the Wyoming Republican State Central Committee is based on Gordon's financial background and his long-term commitment to the state. The treasurer manages the state's $15 billion in investments. Severance taxes on energy production are particularly important to the state budget.[4][9]
After his swearing in as treasurer on November 1, 2012, by Wyoming Supreme Court Justice William Hill,[9] Gordon said that no one can truly replace Meyer, whom he called "a great part of Wyoming, in fact almost synonymous with Wyoming." Gordon added that he has an advantage in his new role because Meyer left him with "a great staff."[10]
Gordon plans to run for the treasurer's position for a full four-year term in the 2014 Republican primary election.[9]
References
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External links
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Treasurer of Wyoming 2012–present |
Incumbent |
