Michael was born in Shelbyville, Tennessee in 1961 and primarily raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee. His family members were considered “yellow dog Democrats,” a colloquial reference to southern Democrats who would “rather vote for a yellow dog than a Republican.”
Michael has always been fascinated by politics. His first foray into politics occurred early when he worked for the Bill Clinton presidential campaign. Michael was an early member of the Thornbury Township Democratic Committee, which he saw develop from a few devoted individuals to a cohesive fully-functioning committee. He served several terms as Chair.
Michael attended Emory College in Atlanta, where he earned a double degree in English and History. More importantly, it was at Emory that he was lucky enough to meet his future wife, Marcy Power. After college, Michael attended Temple Law School. His early legal practice involved numerous areas of the law, including insurance defense, bankruptcy, and medical malpractice defense. Michael opened his own legal practice in Delaware County in 1995, specializing in consumer law, including consumer fraud claims, lemon law, and warranty litigation.
Michael moved from Philadelphia to Thornton, Pennsylvania in 1993. He has been fortunate enough to have raised three wonderful, very different children: Daniel, Lis, and Andrew.
Michael has been actively involved in the Delaware County Democratic Committee for many years. He has served as Treasurer for the Committee for 8 years. In his role as treasurer, he has provided training and advice, both legal and practical, to treasurers of other municipal committees and candidate committees. He has also served as treasurer for numerous PACs and candidate committees.
Personal interests include travel, reading, cooking, movies, good conversation and, of course, politics.