David Parks
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
David Parks (born 22 December 1943 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American politician from Nevada. A Democrat, he is a member of the Nevada Assembly, representing the state's 41st district in Clark County.
Educated at the University of New Hampshire, Parks went into the United States Air Force between 1967 and 1971, being stationed at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas. He then took an MBA at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
A former assistant director of Clark County's Regional Transportation Commission, he was first appointed to the Paradise Town Advisory Board in 1991, serving three terms. He was elected the board's chairman in 1992 and served in that role until his election to the State Assembly in November 1996. He has been re-elected every two years ever since. Assuming he is re-elected in 2008, term limits will prevent him from seeking an eighth term in 2010.
In 2002, longtime Republican opponent Tony Dane (who Parks handily defeated in 1996) convinced a man also called David Parks to run for the Democratic nomination in District 41, against the three-term incumbent. Challenger Parks' name was removed from the ballot when a judge ruled that he was not a resident of Nevada; Dane having brought him in from Southern California. Incumbent Parks won the general election convincingly.
He was appointed to the Governor’s Statewide AIDS Advisory Task Force in 1987 (serving until 1994) and again in 2002 (still serving). He is openly gay and was the first ever openly gay member of the Nevada Legislature. He is also currently the only publicly gay elected official in the state of Nevada and has benefitted from the support of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund.
