Interview with Mark Burkhalter, February 5, 2018

Collection: Two-Party Georgia Oral History Project

Dublin Core

Description

Burkhalter talks about his early life and how he became politically active. Burkhalter then discusses returning to north Fulton County to work in the real estate business and explains why he ran for the Georgia House of Representatives in 1992 and how he ran a successful campaign. Burkhalter covers the major issues he worked on in the Georgia House, and he talks about how the Republicans were able to become the majority party in the early 2000s. Burkhalter gives his reasons as to why the Republican Party remained relatively dormant in Georgia and how the parties have changed since Republicans took over Georgia government.

Mark Burkhalter was born and raised in Alpharetta, Georgia. He attended the University of Georgia and simultaneously interned with Newt Gingrich’s congressional office in Washington, D.C in 1981. After graduation, he worked in Gingrich’s office for 3 years before leaving in 1984 to work on Pat Swindall’s congressional campaign. Afterward, he returned to north Fulton County, Georgia to work in the real estate and land development business. After much friction with the Fulton County government in this line of work, Burkhalter opted to run for an open Georgia House of Representatives seat in 1992. Burkhalter worked his way up through the ranks of the Republican minority, becoming Sonny Perdue’s floor leader after Perdue’s election as governor is 2002. Burkhalter became the speaker pro tempore in 2005, staying in that position until 2010 and retiring from the House altogether in 2011.

Date

2018-02-05

Identifier

RBRL425TPGA-037

Coverage

Oral History Item Type Metadata

Duration

78 minutes



Citation

Mark Burkhalter and Ashton Ellett, “Interview with Mark Burkhalter, February 5, 2018,” UGA Special Collections Libraries Oral Histories, accessed March 29, 2024, https://georgiaoralhistory.libs.uga.edu/RBRL425TPGA/RBRL425TPGA-037.

Tags