Early Career
Following graduation, he taught junior high school social studies at public and Catholic schools, and has said that "teaching kids ... about the constitution and government" stirred his interest in politics.
LaHood was director of the Rock Island County Youth Services Bureau and then district administrative assistant for U.S. congressman Tom Railsback, a Moline, Illinois Republican, from 1977 to 1982. He was appointed in 1982 to fill a vacant seat in the Illinois House of Representatives, serving for nine months, and running for the seat in November 1982, but losing to Democrat Bob DeJaegher. LaHood then became administrative assistant and ultimately the chief of staff to U.S. House minority leader Robert Michel, serving from 1982 until 1994.
Read more about this topic: Ray LaHood
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or career:
“All of Western tradition, from the late bloom of the British Empire right through the early doom of Vietnam, dictates that you do something spectacular and irreversible whenever you find yourself in or whenever you impose yourself upon a wholly unfamiliar situation belonging to somebody else. Frequently its your soul or your honor or your manhood, or democracy itself, at stake.”
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