Pappageorge was married for thirty-five years to his first wife, Helen. She died in 1993 of pancreatic cancer. He married Cristina Burnard (now Cristina Pappageorge) in 1997.[2] Pappageorge has a son and two daughters.[3] His son George is an Army reserve Lieutenant Colonel who has served in Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.[2]
Congressional campaigns
1992 election
In 1992, he ran for the United States House of Representatives against Sander Levin. This was the first serious Republican opposition against Levin, after his congressional district absorbed a Republican-leaning spur of Oakland County in redistricting. Levin won by 7%.
In his third consecutive run against Levin, he was not able to shore up as much support, losing 57.4%-40.5%.
Michigan House of Representatives
Pappageorge served in the Michigan State House of Representatives from 1999 to 2004, when he retired due to term limits.[5] He spent four years on the House Appropriations Committee, and served his final two years as Chair of the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules and as a member of the Employment Relations, Training and Safety Committee, the Judiciary Committee, the Senior Health, Security, and Retirement Committee, and the Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security Committee.[2]
In 2000, he was re-elected facing nominal opposition with no primary challengers.
2002 election
He was again re-elected again to his final term under term-limits in 2002 in the newly created 41st District (through decennial redistricting), a district which composed roughly the same area. He faced nominal opposition and no primary challengers.
2004 election remarks
In 2004, Pappageorge was quoted in the Detroit Free Press as saying "If we do not suppress the Detroit vote, we're going to have a tough time in this election cycle." The New York Times cited this comment in an editorial on the "suppression of minority votes." Detroit's population is more than 80 percent African American, and tends to vote heavily Democratic.[6]
2006 State Senate campaign
Pappageorge was persuaded by the Michigan Republican Party to run for the 13th District State Senate seat after Congressman Sander Levin's son, Andy Levin announced he was going to enter the race.[7]
After Pappageorge joined the race, Gosselin dropped out in order to run for County Commissioner in Troy. Pappageorge won the August Republican primary 58.5% to Taub's 41.5%.
Charges of mudslinging and dirty politics continued in the general election between Pappageorge and Levin.[8] The race became hotly contested, with over $2 million spent by the two campaigns, and with negative television ads from each side (a rarity in State Senate races in metro-Detroit).
The Michigan Republican Party, on behalf of Pappageorge's campaign, distributed flyers alleging that Levin had stances on issues, including same-sex marriage, illegal immigration and gun control, that were too liberal for the district. They also accused Levin of being a carpetbagger, as Levin had recently moved back to Michigan after working for the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C. Levin's campaign fired back, claiming that Pappageorge cut more than $500 million from schools in Michigan and was fired from the Bush Presidential campaign in 2004.
Pappageorge defeated Levin in November by a slim margin, 776 votes.[9] Pappageorge's margin of victory was less than the number of votes obtained by Green Party candidate Kyle McBee, who received 3,118 votes.[10]
2010 State Senate campaign
In the 2010 election, Pappageorge was the only incumbent in Oakland County to seek re-election. He defeated two challengers in the August 3 primary.[11]
In the general election, Pappageorge was challenged by newcomer Aaron Bailey, a West Point graduate and Afghanistan veteran.[12] Days before the election, Bailey received the endorsement of the Detroit Free Press.[13]
Colonel