Louis Lambert

Louis Joseph Lambert Jr. (born December 21, 1940), is a Louisiana attorney, businessman, and politician. He served as a former member and chairman of the Louisiana Public Service Commission, and was elected to the Louisiana State Senate, serving one term 1972-1974, and again from 1994 to 2004.

While serving on the PSC, Lambert ran for and lost the 1979 gubernatorial race to incumbent Republican U.S. Representative David C. Treen, then of Jefferson Parish in Louisiana's 3rd congressional district. In an indication of changing alliances among conservative whites, Lambert was the first Louisiana Democrat to lose to a Republican candidate in a statewide general election, popularly called the runoff.

Lambert represented District 18 in the Louisiana State Senate from 1994 until 2004. His district encompassed parts of East Baton Rouge, Ascension, Livingston, St. James, and St. John the Baptist parishes. He lives in Prairieville (Ascension Parish) with his wife, Mary Gayle S. Lambert.

Lambert was expected to be a major candidate in the November 4, 2008, general election for District Attorney in the 23rd Judicial District, which encompasses Ascension, Assumption, and St. James parishes. He faced a fellow Democrat, assistant district attorney Ricky Babin (born ca. 1962). In the October 4 jungle primary, Babin received 11,540 votes (34.8 percent) to Lambert's 9,370 votes (28.3 percent). ^[1] Citing political divisiveness, Lambert withdrew from the race, and Babin won by default.^[2]

Early life and education

Lambert graduated from the Capital Page School in Washington, D.C., and attended the St. Amant School in St. Amant in Ascension Parish. He obtained his undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and his law degree from Loyola University in New Orleans.

Lambert served as a captain in the Louisiana National Guard.

Constitutional convention delegate, 1973

Lambert was elected on a nonpartisan ballot in the summer of 1972 as a delegate to the state constitutional convention, which met in Baton Rouge during 1973. The convention produced a new governing document for the state, which voters approved in 1974.

Political career

Lambert began his political career when elected as the Gonzales town attorney. In the 1971-1972 election cycle, he won a state Senate seat from a district that then included Ascension, Livingston, and St. James parishes. At the age of thirty-one, he succeeded state Senator George T. Oubre, who ran unsuccessfully for attorney general in the Democratic primary. William J. Guste Jr. of New Orleans won the state AG position.

However, Lambert resigned in 1974, about halfway through that Senate term (when he had also been a constitutional convention delegate).

He was elected to the Public Service Commission that year, after the regulatory body was expanded from three to five members under the Louisiana Constitution of 1974. Lambert won the PSC District 3 seat based around Baton Rouge.

Lambert also served as chairman of the PSC for several terms. During one of these terms, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Lafayette, was the PSC vice-chairman when Lambert was chairman. She served on the PSC from 1988 to 1996. Blanco was elected as the state's first woman governor in 2003.

In Lambert's last election to the PSC in 1986, he defeated Republican Archie Mollere by the lopsided margin of 171,872 (86 percent) to 28,420 (14 percent). Lambert was succeeded on the PSC from District 3 by Irma Muse Dixon, its first African-American member.

Gubernatorial election, 1979

Lambert decided to run for the 1979 gubernatorial race. Three previous governors had served on the PSC before winning the office: Huey Pierce Long Jr., Jimmie Houston "Jimmie" Davis, and John Julian McKeithen. Lambert sought to succeed two-term-limited Governor Edwin Washington Edwards. Republican David Treen led the balloting against the divided field of Democrats but was far short of an outright majority.

Lambert faced a legal challenge to secure his general election berth. Lieutenant Governor James Edward Fitzmorris Jr. of New Orleans initially led for the second spot, but when a retabulation put Lambert ahead of Fitzmorris by some 2,500 votes, the lieutenant governor went to court. He alleged that Lambert had benefited from fraudulent votes in certain parishes as well as improper counting procedures. Republican Judge Douglas Gonzales, of the 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge, said in the hearing that he sympathized with the lieutenant governor's position. However, Gonzalez found that Fitzmorris had not located sufficient numbers of questionable votes cast for Lambert to replace him with Fitzmorris in the general election.

Fitzmorris and three other major Democratic gubernatorial candidates all endorsed Treen: Secretary of State Paul J. Hardy, originally from St. Martinville; state Senator Edgar G. "Sonny" Mouton Jr. of Lafayette; and outgoing House Speaker Edgerton L. "Bubba" Henry of Jonesboro in north Louisiana. Lambert's four major intraparty rivals backed the Republican candidate.

Outgoing Governor Edwards endorsed Lambert, saying: "He is going to, more than Dave Treen, continue the programs that I'm proud of in Louisiana."^[3] Treen said that Edwards was providing the major endorsement needed by the Lambert campaign.^[4]

In a speech before the New Orleans Press Club, Lambert criticized Treen:

I am afraid that the people of Louisiana do not know Dave Treen is an insensitive man who has no concern for the poor, elderly, or the hard-working people of our state. And I intend to begin drawing the lines here and now. ... He is attempting to make people believe that he is a liberal Republican who all of a sudden favors programs and dollars for Louisiana which he has consistently voted against on the federal level. He has consistently voted with a small minority in Congress who oppose any and all programs based on their obstructionist philosophy.^[5]

Lambert criticized Treen for opposing an amendment to the popular Meals on Wheels elderly nutrition program. Treen explained that the program had been funded for $99 million but $141 million had been left unspent from the preceding year. He considered further spending for such programs to be inflationary.^[6]

Lambert was also endorsed by former Governor John McKeithen, who had supported Hardy in the primary.

Lambert ran unexpectedly well in North Louisiana, where he carried more than a dozen parishes that had supported Treen in his earlier 1972 campaign against Edwards, such as Morehouse and Webster parishes. Treen dominated the white-majority, suburban parishes around Baton Rouge and New Orleans. In Acadiana, Treen ran strongly in Lafayette and the nearby "sugar parishes". Factions that had supported Hardy and Mouton in the primary agreed to work for Treen. In an appearance in Lafayette, Treen told the audience that his campaign reached across party, racial, and geographic lines. Mouton, who had been an Edwards loyalist, said at the rally: "Did you ever think you would see this sight -- a bunch of Acadiana Democrats cheering a Republican?"

Treen finished with 690,691 (50.3 percent) to Lambert's 681,134 (49.7 percent). Treen won twenty-two of the sixty-four parishes in this 1972 he had carried twenty-seven parishes but been defeated. Ten parishes supported Treen in both 1972 and 1979, including Bossier, Caddo, Ouachita, Lincoln, and East Baton Rouge. Treen's victory is attributed to his Acadiana margins -- Lafayette, Iberia, Terrebonne, Acadia and St. Martin parishes, where he overcame huge deficits from 1972 to win in 1979.

Lambert blamed his defeat principally on Fitzmorris' lawsuit. He did not seek statewide office again. He served as a public service commissioner until 1992.

Returning to the state Senate, 1994

In 1994, Lambert returned to the state Senate, being elected after longtime incumbent Joe Sevario of Prairieville resigned. Lambert won the special election over his fellow Democrat "Jeff" Diez, 9,068 (57 percent) to 6,965 (43 percent). He was reelected in 1995 over Republican Kirk T. Harrison, 37,876 (80 percent) to 9,655 (20 percent). Unopposed in 1999, Lambert did not seek another term in 2003.

Lambert was chairman of the Senate Environmental Committee. He worked closely with Republican Senator Robert J. Barham of Oak Ridge in Morehouse Parish on various environmental issues, including efforts to preserve the state's shrinking wetlands. Lambert donated to Barham's congressional campaign in 2002, but his colleague was unsuccessful.

Louisiana State University Board of Supervisors

In 2002, Lambert was appointed as one of the sixteen members of the prestigious Louisiana State University Board of Supervisors by Republican Governor Mike Foster. Lambert and Foster had been state senators together during 1995. The six-year term on the LSU board ended on June 1, 2008.

Lambert served briefly on the 16-member University of Louisiana System board until his term expired on December 31, 2012. Governor Bobby Jindal, who had named Lambert to fill an unexpired term on the board in 2011, did not reappoint him to a full term.^[7]

References

• Shreveport Journal, November 27, December 4, 5, 10, 1979
• Shreveport Times, December 10, 1979
• https://web.archive.org/web/20060505224041/http://www.lsusystem.lsu.edu/boardofsupermembers.html#lambert#lambert
• Members of Louisiana State Senate, 1880-2004 (Baton Rouge: Secretary of State)
• http://www.sos.louisiana.gov:8090/cgibin/?rqstyp=elcms2&rqsdta=092786%5Bpermanent+dead+link%5D
• http://www.sos.louisiana.gov:8090/cgibin/?rqstyp=elcms3&rqsdta=102195%5Bpermanent+dead+link%5D
• http://www.sos.louisiana.gov:8090/cgibin/?rqstyp=elcms3&rqsdta=111503%5Bpermanent+dead+link%5D
• https://web.archive.org/web/20061111114510/http://enlou.com/officeholders/senatedistrict18.htm
• http://capitolwatch.reallouisiana.com/html/EAD58C18-6C6A-4A5A-8755-3375A8193DE6.shtml