Preceded by Ben Nevers Residence Franklinton, Louisiana | Political party Republican Occupation Businesswoman | |
Full Name Mary Beth Sherman Spouse(s) James Robert Mizell (married 1971-2012, his death) Children Josh Mizell
Julie M. Stewart | ||
Mary Beth Sherman Mizell, known as Beth Sherman Mizell (born January 1952), is a businesswoman from Franklinton, Louisiana, who is a Republican member of the Louisiana State Senate for District 12, which encompasses the parishes of St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, and Washington, part of the Florida Parishes of southeastern Louisiana. On January 11, 2016, she succeeded the term-limited Democrat Ben Nevers, who instead joined the new administration of Governor John Bel Edwards.
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Background
Mizell was married for forty-one years until his death of cancer to James Robert "Bob" Mizell (1948-2012). He is interred at the Plainview Baptist Church Cemetery in her native Bogalusa in Washington Parish, along with his father, Arvelee Mizell (1922-1991). Bob Mizell's surviving mother is Kathleen N. Mizell (born 1925).
Mizell has two children, Julie Mizell Stewart, a teacher, and Joshua Mizell, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps Both reside with their spouses in Laurel in Jones County in southeastern Mississippi. She is a Southern Baptist.A former preschool operator, Mizell is the director of The Children's Cottage in Mandeville in St. Tammany Parish.
Political life
Mizell won the state Senate position in the general election held on November 21, 2015, when she defeated the Democrat Mickey Murphy, 19,404 votes (58 percent) to 14,033 (42 percent), a former teacher and college dean. In 2011, Mizell had made a strong but losing showing for the Senate against Ben Nevers. She finished with 4,764 votes (49.4 percent) to his 15,116 (50.6 percent). I
In the 2015 campaign, Murphy supported the establishment of a reservoir in Senate District 12, but Mizell voiced her opposition to the project on the gournds that it would require eminent domain of private land in violation of the wishes of many of the impacted property owners.
Mizell was earlier an organizer of the Franklinton Tea Party movement and has been the president of Republican Women of Franklinton.
Mizell sits on the House committees on (1) Education, (2) Retirement, (3) Commerce, Consumer Protection, and International Affairs. She is also the vice chair of the select committees of: (1) Vocational and Technical Education and (2) Women and Children. The National Rifle Association rated Mizell 86 percent in 2015, based on her campaign promises.
In March 2016, Mizell joined eight other Republican state senators and the Democrat John Milkovich of Caddo Parish to oppose the bipartisan majority backing a one-cent increase in the state sales tax for a five-year period. Senators voted 29-10 for the tax hike, a part of the revenue-raising measures pushed by Governor John Bel Edwards. A House and Senate conference committee subsequently trimmed the five years to twenty-seven months, effective from April 1, 2016 to June 30, 2018. Even the sale of Bibles and religious publications and Girl Scout cookies became taxable.
Mizell submitted legislation to create a state historical protection commission. Her action is a response to the pending dismantling of Confederate monuments in New Orleans. However, her measure was doomed before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, where five African-American Democrat senators, led by committee chairman Karen Carter Peterson, hold the majority vote.