Before Mark was a Congressman, he was the Chief of Staff for Representative John Porter (who was a very powerful member of the Appropriations Committee for years and years). When Porter announced that he was retiring in late 1998, Mark came to my dad and said “time to run.” My dad has long been politically active, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity (he also seriously considered the Senate run against Obama). My mother put the kibosh on that with four words: “You run, we divorce.”
And that was that! My dad served as Mark’s finance chairperson, I worked on the campaign and in the DC office, and my parents remained married. I think it was a win-win.
