February 15, 2006
Dewhurst
Spokesman Miner Making Move
to Private Sector as Consulting Firm VP
Veteran communications pro Mark Miner
is leaving his job as communications
director for Lieutenant Governor David
Dewhurst and entering the private sector
as a member of a firm that advises corporate clients,
professional associations and a long list of GOP
candidates and committees on the state and national
levels.
Miner - a former communications adviser for the
Republican National Committee - will remain in
Dewhurst's shop until early March when he switches
to his new post as a vice president for Mercury
Public Affairs in a new Austin office that he
will be opening. Miner's new duties are expected
to run the gamut from lobbying to consulting for
political campaigns.
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Mark
Miner |
The Republican lieutenant governor, who's running
for re-election to another four-year term this
year, has not yet announced who will direct his
press office after Miner bids farewell next month.
That decision could be made sometime this month.
Miner has been a key member of the lieutenant
governor staff at the Texas Capitol since Dewhurst
became the Senate's presiding officer in January
2003. Miner teamed with longtime media adviser
Dave Beckwith in the press office
during Dewhurst's first year on the job when legislators
were in regular session and redrawing the state's
congressional districts in special sessions later
that year. Miner was press secretary until Dewhurst
elevated him to communications director in late
2003 after Beckwith left Texas to return to Washington
D.C.
Dewhurst said that Miner had served with "dedication
and distinction" as a valuable member of
his team. "I look forward to continuing to
receive his insight, and I wish him well in his
new role," the lieutenant governor said.
Miner joined Dewhurst's staff after a stint as
a deputy campaign manager for Bill Simon
in his bid for California governor in 2002. Simon,
the son of former Treasury Secretary William
Simon, won an upset victory in the Republican
primary that year before losing to the incumbent,
Democrat Gray Davis, in the general
election. Miner had served as press secretary
to Jim Gilmore while he was governor
and attorney general in Virginia - and he worked
as a public information officer in the commerce
and labor departments during the administration
of President George H.W. Bush.
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