Mike McCurry
Encyclopedia
Mike McCurry is best known as the former press secretary
for Bill Clinton
's administration. He is a Washington-based communications consultant and is associated with the firm Public Strategies Washington, Inc. He is also active within the administration of the United Methodist Church
, serving as a lay delegate to the Church General Conference and on various denominational boards. Born in Charleston, South Carolina
, he was educated at Princeton University
and Georgetown University
. McCurry is married, with three children, and lives in Kensington, Maryland
.
. McCurry received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University in 1976 and a Master of Arts degree from Georgetown University in 1985. He began his political career as press secretary to the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, as well as press secretary to Senator Harrison A. Williams
from 1976 to 1981. Between 1981 and 1983, he served as press secretary to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan
.
From 1988 to 1990, McCurry served as director of communications for the Democratic National Committee
, and served as press secretary for the presidential campaigns of John Glenn
(1984), Bruce Babbitt
(1988), and Bob Kerrey
, (1992), as well as the 1988 vice-presidential campaign for Lloyd Bentsen
.
Prior to serving in the White House
as press secretary to Clinton, McCurry served as spokesman for the Department of State from 1993 to 1995, as well as chief spokesman for Warren Christopher
.
, the Junior Statesmen Foundation
, Children's Scholarship Fund
, the Wesley Theological Seminary
, United Methodist Communications and the White House Historical Association
. He is co-chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates
.
Those close to McCurry spoke highly of his famous dry humor, his competency, and his kindness as a person. He once responded to the Taco Liberty Bell
incident by saying that the federal government was also "selling the Lincoln Memorial
to Ford Motor Co.
and renaming it the Lincoln-Mercury Memorial." He was well respected by the press corps during his tenure. However, his honesty and competency were not always appreciated by his colleagues. In 1998, he expressed doubts about Bill Clinton's fitness to remain in office.
Starting May 2005, McCurry was a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post
. As of November, 2008, his most recent contribution was dated May, 2006. In December, 2008, McCurry contributed "How my party found God" to The Daily Beast
. In the biographical blurb with the column, it was reported that he was a graduate student at Wesley Theological Seminary.
McCurry is a partner at the influential Washington, D.C. based government relations firm Public Strategies Washington, Inc. In 2006, in his position as co-chairman of Hands Off the Internet, he lobbied against Internet regulations in the controversial network neutrality
debate.
On April 15, 2009 it was announced that McCurry and George W. Bush
press secretary Ari Fleischer
would both work as temporary media aides to Conservative
Prime Minister of Canada
Stephen Harper
. The two aides were enlisted by the PMO to elevate Harper's and Canada's profiles with American news outlets.
In a later round of the network neutrality fight, in 2011, McCurry came out in favor of the Stop Online Piracy Act
(SOPA)/Protect IP Act
, representing them as a way to combat theft on-line. In an opinion piece in Politico on the subject, which drew a favorable comment from the MPAA, McCurry said the new proposals addressed concerns of past critics. On June 15, 2011, McCurry and Arts + Labs co-chair Mark McKinnon
sponsored the "CREATE -- A Forum on Creativity, Commerce, Copyright, Counterfeiting and Policy" conference with members of Congress, artists and information-business executives.
White House Press Secretary
The White House Press Secretary is a senior White House official whose primary responsibility is to act as spokesperson for the government administration....
for Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
's administration. He is a Washington-based communications consultant and is associated with the firm Public Strategies Washington, Inc. He is also active within the administration of the United Methodist Church
United Methodist Church
The United Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination which is both mainline Protestant and evangelical. Founded in 1968 by the union of The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church, the UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley...
, serving as a lay delegate to the Church General Conference and on various denominational boards. Born in Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, he was educated at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
and Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
. McCurry is married, with three children, and lives in Kensington, Maryland
Kensington, Maryland
Kensington is a town in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. The population was 1,873 at the 2000 census. Greater Kensington encompasses the entire 20895 zip code and its population is an order of magnitude larger than that of the town at its center....
.
Education and early career
McCurry attended San Carlos High School on the San Francisco Peninsula from 1969 to 1971 and then transferred to the racially diverse Ravenswood High School in East Palo Alto, where he graduated in 1972. During his senior year in high school, McCurry served as the governor of the California Junior State, a student-run mock government that today is better known as the Junior State of AmericaJunior State of America
The Junior State of America is an American non-partisan student-run youth organization. It is also the largest high school student-run organization in the country...
. McCurry received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University in 1976 and a Master of Arts degree from Georgetown University in 1985. He began his political career as press secretary to the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, as well as press secretary to Senator Harrison A. Williams
Harrison A. Williams
Harrison Arlington "Pete" Williams, Jr. was a Democrat who represented New Jersey in both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate . Williams was convicted on May 1, 1981 for taking bribes in the Abscam sting operation, and resigned from the U.S. Senate in 1982...
from 1976 to 1981. Between 1981 and 1983, he served as press secretary to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Daniel Patrick "Pat" Moynihan was an American politician and sociologist. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first elected to the United States Senate for New York in 1976, and was re-elected three times . He declined to run for re-election in 2000...
.
From 1988 to 1990, McCurry served as director of communications for the Democratic National Committee
Democratic National Committee
The Democratic National Committee is the principal organization governing the United States Democratic Party on a day to day basis. While it is responsible for overseeing the process of writing a platform every four years, the DNC's central focus is on campaign and political activity in support...
, and served as press secretary for the presidential campaigns of John Glenn
John Glenn
John Herschel Glenn, Jr. is a former United States Marine Corps pilot, astronaut, and United States senator who was the first American to orbit the Earth and the third American in space. Glenn was a Marine Corps fighter pilot before joining NASA's Mercury program as a member of NASA's original...
(1984), Bruce Babbitt
Bruce Babbitt
Bruce Edward Babbitt , a Democrat, served as United States Secretary of the Interior and as the 16th governor of Arizona, from 1978 to 1987.-Biography:...
(1988), and Bob Kerrey
Bob Kerrey
Joseph Robert "Bob" Kerrey was the 35th Governor of Nebraska from 1983 to 1987 and a U.S. Senator from Nebraska . Having served in the Vietnam War, earning the Medal of Honor for his actions, he moved into politics. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992...
, (1992), as well as the 1988 vice-presidential campaign for Lloyd Bentsen
Lloyd Bentsen
Lloyd Millard Bentsen, Jr. was a four-term United States senator from Texas and the Democratic Party nominee for Vice President in 1988 on the Michael Dukakis ticket. He also served in the House of Representatives from 1949 to 1955. In his later political life, he was Chairman of the Senate...
.
Prior to serving in the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
as press secretary to Clinton, McCurry served as spokesman for the Department of State from 1993 to 1995, as well as chief spokesman for Warren Christopher
Warren Christopher
Warren Minor Christopher was an American lawyer, diplomat and politician. During Bill Clinton's first term as President, Christopher served as the 63rd Secretary of State. He also served as Deputy Attorney General in the Lyndon Johnson administration, and as Deputy Secretary of State in the Jimmy...
.
Post-Clinton career
McCurry serves on numerous boards or advisory councils for organizations including Share Our StrengthShare our Strength
Share Our Strength is a national organization working to end childhood hunger in the United States. Share Our Strength holds culinary events, solicits individual donations, and utilizes social media efforts to raise funds which are then used to fund long-term solutions to the hunger problem...
, the Junior Statesmen Foundation
Junior State of America
The Junior State of America is an American non-partisan student-run youth organization. It is also the largest high school student-run organization in the country...
, Children's Scholarship Fund
Children's Scholarship Fund
The Children's Scholarship Fund is a privately-funded tuition assistance program in the United States. The fund allows low-income children to attend private schools. Almost 25,500 students in Kindergarten to 8th Grade receive the fund's scholarships. It was founded in 1998 by Theodore J. Forstmann...
, the Wesley Theological Seminary
Wesley Theological Seminary
Wesley Theological Seminary is a United Methodist–affiliated seminary located in Washington, D.C., United States. The school was founded in 1882...
, United Methodist Communications and the White House Historical Association
White House Historical Association
The White House Historical Association, founded in 1961 through efforts of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy is a private, non-profit organization with a mission to enhance the public's understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment of the White House, the official home and principal workplace of the...
. He is co-chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates
Commission on Presidential Debates
The Commission on Presidential Debates began in 1987 by the Democratic and Republican parties to establish the way that presidential election debates are run between candidates for President of the United States...
.
Those close to McCurry spoke highly of his famous dry humor, his competency, and his kindness as a person. He once responded to the Taco Liberty Bell
Taco Liberty Bell
The Taco Liberty Bell was an April Fool's Day joke played by fast food restaurant chain Taco Bell. On April 1, 1996, Taco Bell took out a full-page advertisement in seven leading U.S. newspapers announcing that they had purchased the Liberty Bell to "reduce the country's debt" and renamed it the...
incident by saying that the federal government was also "selling the Lincoln Memorial
Lincoln Memorial
The Lincoln Memorial is an American memorial built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The architect was Henry Bacon, the sculptor of the main statue was Daniel Chester French, and the painter of the interior...
to Ford Motor Co.
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
and renaming it the Lincoln-Mercury Memorial." He was well respected by the press corps during his tenure. However, his honesty and competency were not always appreciated by his colleagues. In 1998, he expressed doubts about Bill Clinton's fitness to remain in office.
Starting May 2005, McCurry was a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
. As of November, 2008, his most recent contribution was dated May, 2006. In December, 2008, McCurry contributed "How my party found God" to The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast is an American news reporting and opinion website founded and published by Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker as well as the short-lived Talk Magazine. The Daily Beast was launched on October 6, 2008, and is owned by IAC...
. In the biographical blurb with the column, it was reported that he was a graduate student at Wesley Theological Seminary.
McCurry is a partner at the influential Washington, D.C. based government relations firm Public Strategies Washington, Inc. In 2006, in his position as co-chairman of Hands Off the Internet, he lobbied against Internet regulations in the controversial network neutrality
Network neutrality
Network neutrality is a principle that advocates no restrictions by Internet service providers or governments on consumers' access to networks that participate in the Internet...
debate.
On April 15, 2009 it was announced that McCurry and George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
press secretary Ari Fleischer
Ari Fleischer
On May 19, 2003, he announced that he would resign during the summer, citing a desire to spend more time with his wife and to work in the private sector...
would both work as temporary media aides to Conservative
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
Prime Minister of Canada
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
. The two aides were enlisted by the PMO to elevate Harper's and Canada's profiles with American news outlets.
In a later round of the network neutrality fight, in 2011, McCurry came out in favor of the Stop Online Piracy Act
Stop Online Piracy Act
The Stop Online Piracy Act , also known as H.R.3261, is a bill that was introduced to the United States House of Representatives on October 26, 2011, by Representative Lamar Smith and a bipartisan group of 12 initial co-sponsors. The bill expands the ability of U.S...
(SOPA)/Protect IP Act
Protect IP Act
The PROTECT IP Act is a proposed law with the stated goal of giving the US government and copyright holders additional tools to curb access to "rogue websites dedicated to infringing or counterfeit goods", especially those registered outside the...
, representing them as a way to combat theft on-line. In an opinion piece in Politico on the subject, which drew a favorable comment from the MPAA, McCurry said the new proposals addressed concerns of past critics. On June 15, 2011, McCurry and Arts + Labs co-chair Mark McKinnon
Mark McKinnon
Mark McKinnon is a Republican political advisor in the United States, Global Vice-Chairman of Hill & Knowlton, Inc., a leading international communications consultancy, providing services to local, multinational and global clients, and the President of Maverick Media. Originally a Democrat,...
sponsored the "CREATE -- A Forum on Creativity, Commerce, Copyright, Counterfeiting and Policy" conference with members of Congress, artists and information-business executives.