Mark F. Miller

Mark Miller was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1943, but moved to Wisconsin 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 in 1968, and serving 14 years in the Wisconsin State Assembly.[1][2] 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 in 1966 and became an aircraft pilot, he remained in the Guard until 1995. He married second-generation Japanese American Jo Oyama in 1968, just after the Supreme Court case of Loving v. Virginia struck down prohibitions against interracial marriage. 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. Miller referred to this experience as formative in discussing his perspective on marriage equality in the context of Wisconsin amending its Constitution to ban same-sex marriages in 2006.[3] Miller and Jo have three children and reside in Monona, Wisconsin.

Miller obtained his Bachelor's degree in 1973, at age 30, from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He worked in real estate and entered politics in 1996, when he was elected to the Dane County Board of Supervisors.

In 1998, Miller ran for Wisconsin State Assembly 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 in the 16th district, where incumbent Charles Chvala was facing criminal indictment.[4] Miller faced fellow-Assemblymember Tom Hebl 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.[5]

• Senator Mark Miller at the Wisconsin State Legislature
  • constituency site
• Mark Miller official campaign site
• Profile at Vote Smart
• Mark Miller at Ballotpedia
• 16th Senate District, Senator Miller in the Wisconsin Blue Book (2005–2006)
• 48th Assembly District, Assemblyman Miller in the Wisconsin Blue Book (2003–2004)
• Campaign 2008 campaign contributions at Wisconsin Democracy Campaign
• Edward Ernst Miller at Find a Grave
• Mary E. Scoon Miller at Find a Grave