Charlie Melancon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charlie Melancon

United States Representative from Louisiana's 3rd district
In office 2005-present
Preceded by	Billy Tauzin
Succeeded by	Incumbent

Born	October 3, 1947 Napoleonville, Louisiana
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Peachy Clark
Religion	Roman Catholic

Charles Joseph "Charlie" Melancon (pronounced Meh-law-soɴ) (born October 3, 1947, in Napoleonville) is a Democrat who was elected in to represent Louisiana's 3rd congressional district.(map) in a December 4, 2004, general election.

The grandson and great-grandson of sugar cane farmers, Melancon owned and operated several small businesses (including two Baskin Robbins) before winning a 1987 special election for the Louisiana House of Representatives. After serving 2 more terms, he headed the American Sugar Cane League from 1993 to 2004. Melancon lives in the village of Napoleonville, the seat of Assumption Parish, located nearly 100 miles south of Baton Rouge. He is married to the former Peachy Clark, and they have two children, Charles Joseph (Seph) and Claire.

Melancon threw his hat into the 3rd CD ring after longtime incumbent Billy Tauzin announced his retirement. Considered an underdog for much of the race, he managed to squeak into a runoff due to an especially ugly intraparty battle between Republican candidates Wilbert Joseph Tauzin, III (the incumbent's son), and state Senator Craig Romero. In the runoff campaign, Melancon repeatedly hammered away at Tauzin, III,'s youth, inexperience, criminal record, and family ties (many members of both major parties resented Tauzin's status as frontrunner for the seat solely because his father was the incumbent). Because of the attacks on Tauzin, the makeup of the district, and Romero's refusal to endorse Tauzin, Melancon eked out a victory by 569 votes. Romero, however, set his sights on challenging Melancon in 2006. [1]

Very soon after being sworn in January of 2005, Melancon joined the Blue Dog Democrats. He is a fairly conservative Democrat by national standards -- in fact, a section of his campaign site, "Louisiana Values," detailed his opposition to gun control, abortion and same-sex marriage. He later said that the 2004 election campaign was the first time in his life that he was called a liberal.

Melancon has been a harsh critic of the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina, which devastated much of his district.

On November 7, 2006, Melancon easily defeated Romero (born 1954) to win a second term in the U.S. House. Republican Romero was unable to make effective issues against Melancon, and he was undoubtedly weakened as well in a heavily Democratic year nationally.

[2]