John Cooksey

John Cooksey
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana's 5th district
In office January 3, 1997 – January 3, 2003
Preceded by	Jim McCrery
Succeeded by	Rodney Alexander
Personal details
Born	(1941-08-20) August 20, 1941 Alexandria, Louisiana
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Ann Grabill Cooksey
Children	Three children
Residence	Monroe, Louisiana, United States
Alma mater	La Salle High School Louisiana State University LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans University of Texas at Austin
Occupation	Ophthalmologist

John Charles Cooksey, M.D. (born August 20, 1941), is an ophthalmologist who from 1997 to 2003 was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives for Louisiana's 5th congressional district.

Early life

Cooksey was born in Alexandria in Rapides Parish in Central Louisiana. He graduated from La Salle High School in Olla in LaSalle Parish, where his father operated a sawmill. He attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and received his M.D. degree from the LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans in 1966. Much later, in 1994, he received a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Texas at Austin. From 1967 until 1969, he was in the United States Air Force, largely in Texas but briefly in Thailand. He was in the Air Force Reserve from 1969 until 1972.

Career

He was elected to Congress in 1996 and represented Louisiana's Fifth District for three terms, traditionally based in the northeastern quadrant of the staqte about Monroe. Cooksey first won the seat by defeating the Democratic state legislator Francis C. Thompson of Delhi in Richland Parish. Cooksey had edged past former U.S. Representative Clyde C. Holloway of Forest Hill in Rapides Parish in the jungle primary. In that campaign, Cooksey pledged to serve no more than three terms in the House, a pledge that he kept.^[1]

Cooksey opposed abortion as a congressman but would not support efforts to address the issue through a constitutional amendment. He said that the nation already had too many "federal bureaucrats" making and interpreting policy and he distrusted the use of constitutional amendments to address most public policies.

In 2002, Cooksey was an unsuccessful candidate in the Republican primary for the United States Senate seat held until 2015 by the Democrat Mary Landrieu. In the campaign, Cooksey made a derogatory remark about Arabs — comparing turbans to diapers fastened by fan belts ^[2] — which was attacked by his opponents as racist. He never overcame the blunder. In the November general election, the losing Republican candidate was Cooksey's intraparty rival, Suzanne Haik Terrell of New Orleans.

In addition to the reelection of Landrieu, the Democrats temporarily regained Cooksey's House seat in the same general election balloting. Democrat Rodney Alexander defeated Cooksey's choice, his former aide, Dewey Lee Fletcher, by fewer than one thousand votes. Alexander, however, defected to the GOP in 2004 and then defeated an intraparty rival, John Wyeth "Jock" Scott II, of Alexandria for the congressional seat.

Personal life

Cooksey retired from politics and resumed his medical practice. He and his wife, the former Ann Grabill (born 1943), have three children. He is Methodist and a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.

References

• United States Congress. "John Cooksey (id: C000735)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Vote 2002 profile, PBS
• Congress freshmen 1997 profile, CNN
• Appearances on C-SPAN