Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.wpost From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: McMillen: From Hoops To the Hill Date: Mon, 26 Oct 92 04:30:31 EST Message-ID: <37.1992Oct26.043031@AmeriCast.com> McMillen: From Hoops To the Hill Every political candidate likes to stand out in the crowd. At 6 feet 11 inches tall, Rep. Tom McMillen (D-Md.) stands out "above" the crowd. Even McMillen sometimes cannot resist drawing attention to his height. Urging voters recently to support him, he intoned with a grin, "No one will stand taller for Maryland." Stand-up comedy, however, is not the stock and trade of the 40-year-old former Rhodes scholar. More often, the sobersided McMillen can be found quoting policy studies, voting records and congressional amend- ments as he makes his case for reelection. First elected to Congress in a tough 1986 race, McMillen since then has represented a district that covers Anne Arundel County and a part of southern Prince George's. The district he is run- ning in this year includes only part of his old territory. Before McMillen got into politics, much of his life revolved around basketball. He played for the University of Maryland, the U.S. Olympic team and the Washington Bullets. In 1985, he founded an electronic paging company that had such investors as Chicago Bulls superstar Michael Jordan and New York Knicks center Patrick Ewing. The company, McMillen Communications Corp., filed for bankruptcy last month. One day before seeking bankruptcy, the company's name was changed to Pager Communications Corp., according to the company's attor- ney, to avoid its being associated with McMillen during his reelection campaign. McMillen still has an investment in the business, although he resigned as a company director when he en- tered Congress. His love of sports, in fact, has caused him some political grief this year. He was attacked by Gilchrest this fall for his fre- quent travels. But many of his trips, McMillen said, involved speaking at sports banquets and helping to attract the 1996 Olym- pics to the United States. McMillen, who lives in Crofton in Anne Arundel County, spent large blocks of time during his three terms in the House on local affairs, including a successful ef- fort to preserve Fort Meade from housing developments and bat- tling federal taxes on luxury boats in a water-obsessed district bordering the Chesapeake Bay. "If I don't fight for the district, who will?" he said.<02:31 10-26C9999----- Copyright 1992, The Washington Post. This story is from the Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar- chived or redistributed. For more information, send-email to American Cybercasting Cor- poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)