Mack Mattingly

{{Infobox officeholder | name=Mack Francis Mattingly | image=Mack Mattingly of GA.jpg | office=United States Senator for Georgia | party=Republican | term_start=January 3, 1981 | term_end=January 3, 1987 | preceded=Herman Talmadge | succeeded=William Wyche Fowler, Jr. | office2=United States Ambassador to the Seychelles | appointer2=George Herbert Walker Bush | term_start2=September 22, 1992 | term_end2=March 1, 1993 | preceded2=Dick Carlson | succeeded2=Carl B. Stokes |birth_date=January 7, 1931 | birth_place=Anderson, Madison County
Indiana | death_date= | death_place= | spouse=(1) Carolyn Longcamp Mattingly (married 1957-1997, her death) Afterwards, he worked for twenty years for International Business Machines in Georgia and later operated his own business, M's Inc., which sold office supplies and equipment in Brunswick, Georgia.

Career

Mattingly first became active in politics in 1964 when he served as chairman of U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater's campaign for President in Georgia's 8th congressional district. Goldwater carried Georgia but lost forty-four states to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. Two years later, Mattingly would help Howard Hollis "Bo" Callaway (1927-2014) organize the Georgia Republican Party and joined Callaway's ticket as a candidate for the United States House of Representatives against incumbent Williamson Sylvester Stuckey, Jr. (born 1935), whose father founded the Stuckeyn of gift stores. Mattingly lost the race but was elected to his party's state executive committee, of which he was the vice chairman from 1968 until 1975. He served as Chairman of the Georgia Republican Party from 1975 to 1977 when he began exploring a race for the U.S. Senate.

In 1980, Mattingly scored a historic upset by unseating the veteran Democratic Senator Herman Talmadge, a former Georgia governor and the son of Governor Eugene Talmadge. Mattingly outpolled Ronald Reagan, who lost Georgia to native son Democrat Jimmy Carter. Mattingly served in the Senate from January 1981 until January 1987, with membership on the Appropriations Committee and the subcommittee on military construction and veterans matters. Mattingly also served at various times on the Banking and the Housing and Urban Affairs committees. He was a leading proponent of the proposed line-item veto backed by Reagan but opposed by Congress. Reagan recognized Mattingly for his efforts to establish fiscal sanity in the 1985 State of the Union address.

In 1986, a heavily Democrat year nationally, Mattingly was narrowly unseated in his bid for re-election by former U.S. Representative William Wyche Fowler, Jr. (born 1935), an Atlanta liberal.

U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush appointed Mattingly assistant secretary-general for defense support for NATO in Brussels, Belgium, and then as the Ambassador to the Seychelles. He served in this position until 1993, when Democrat Bill Clinton succeeded Bush. Mattingly resides on St. Simons Island, Georgia, and remains active in Republican politics, and he serves on a number of corporate boards.