Mike Sullivan (Wyoming)

Infobox Governor

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name= Mike Sullivan


height=150px
caption=
order=29th
office= Governor of Wyoming
term_start= January 7, 1987
term_end= January 7, 1995
predecessor= Edgar J. Herschler
successor= Jim Geringer
birth_date= birth date and age |1939|9|22
birth_place= Omaha, Nebraska
death_date=
death_place=
spouse= Jane Metzler Sullivan
profession=Attorney
party= Democrat
religion=Roman Catholic
footnotes=

Michael John Sullivan, known as Mike Sullivan (born September 22, 1939, in Omaha, Nebraska) is a former two-term Democratic Governor of Wyoming, having served from 1987—1995.

His father, J. B. Sullivan, moved the family to Douglas, to open a law practice. Sullivan partnered with Frank Peasley and they opened a law office together. Mike Sullivan graduated from Douglas High School as the class salutatorian. He continued his education at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, where he earned a bachelor's degree in petroleum engineering and then a law degree.

Sullivan practiced law with the firm of Brown, Drew, Apostolos, Massey, and Sullivan for twenty years and then ran for governor in 1986. He was Governor of Wyoming from 1987 to 1995. In his 1990 reelection, he defeated the rancher and businesswoman Mary Hansen Mead (1935—1996) of Jackson, daughter of former Republican Governor and U.S. Senator Clifford P. Hansen. Sullivan received 104,638 votes (65.4 percent) to her 55,471 ballots (34.6 percent). In the general election, Mead polled only 4,311 more votes than she had in her closed primary. Hence, she was unable to reach beyond her base of support within the GOP.

Sullivan ran for the U.S. Senate in 1994, but lost 59-39% to then-Representative Craig L. Thomas, largely due to the Republican wave of 1994.

Four years after his governorship ended, Sullivan was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Ireland by President Clinton, a post he held from 1999 to 2001. [Wyoming State Archives official gubernatorial biography [http://wyoarchives.state.wy.us/governor/sullivan.htm] ]

Sullivan is currently a partner at the Casper office of the law firm of Rothgerber, Johnson, & Lyons.

ee also

*List of Governors of Wyoming

References