Clyde C. Holloway

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Clyde Cecil Holloway (born November 28, 1943) is a small businessman from the village of Forest Hill in Rapides Parishwho was a conservative Republican congressman from central Louisiana between 1987 and 1993. Although he won three consecutive elections to the United States House of Representatives from an historically Democratic district, he has lost eight elections, six consecutively, in his public career and is frequently regarded as a perennial candidate for office.

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[edit] Rural Development Director

On October 19, 2006, Holloway was named Louisiana state director for the Office of Rural Development in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In making the appointment, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said that Holloway, who had been a member of the House Agriculture Committee during his six years in Congress "brings a wealth of knowledge to USDA." The agency seeks to increase economic opportunity and improve the quality of life in rural communities. The agency has invested some $72 billion since 2001 to provide equity and technical assistance to finance and foster growth in homeownership, business development, and critical community and technology infrastructure. The agency claisms to haved created or saved some 1.2 million jobs nationwide.

In the summer of 2006, the Ouachita Citizen in West Monroe in Ouachita Parish reported that current Fifth District Republican Congressman Rodney Alexander of Quitman in Jackson Parish drafted and circulated a letter in support of Holloway for the post. According to John Maginnis of lapolitics.com, Alexander could be returning a favor from when Republican Holloway, who ran third in the 2002 jungle primary, endorsed Alexander, then a Democrat, over Republican Lee Fletcher in the general election. Alexander narrowly won the runoff, and two years later switched to the Republican Party.

[edit] Early years

Holloway was one of seven children born in the small town of Lecompte (pronounced LEH COUNT) in Rapides Parish to James Cecil Holloway (October 15, 1909- September 26, 2006), formerly from Arizona, and the former Ever Christina Barker (December 7, 1912 - December 11, 2006). The Holloways later moved to Forest Hill just west of Lecompte and south of Alexandria in Rapides Parish. James Holloway earned his living as an electrician at Camp Claiborne and was later employed at the Meeker Sugar Cooperative. He retired as a Rapides Parish school bus driver. The senior Holloways were married for 71 years; he preceded her in death by less than three months. Mrs. Holloway was the daughter of Charlie and Emma Barker. The Holloways are buried in Butters Cemetery in Forest Hill.

Clyde Holloway attended the National Aeronautics School in Kansas City, Kansas. He owns a tree and shrub nursery in Forest Hill. He is also the chairman of the board of the private Forest Hill Neighborhood School. He is married to Catherine F. "Cathie" Holloway (born 1943). He has four children, Timothy A. Holloway (born 1970), Mark R. Holloway (born 1971), Rebecca L. Holloway, and Sara E. Holloway (born 1979), and three grandchildren (Caleb, John Thomas and Ava Holloway). He is a member of the Elwood Baptist Church in Forest Hill. One of his brothers, Charlie David Holloway (born 1941), is a former member of the Rapides Parish School Board.

[edit] The first congressional campaign, 1980

Holloway first ran for Congress in 1980 against entrenched Democratic incumbent Gillis William Long. Holloway depicted himself as a Reagan conservative and an opponent of Republican U.S. District Judge Nauman Scott's cross-parish school busing orders. Robert Mitchell, the Republican loser to Long in the 1978 race, also ran again. Long prevailed with 75,433 votes (68.9 percent) to Holloway's 27,816 (25.4 percent) and Mitchell's 6,243 (5.7 percent). As it turned out, Holloway was laying the groundwork in the 1980 campaign for his eventual three elections to the U.S. House.

[edit] Choosing a successor to Gillis Long

In 1985, Gillis Long died on the day of Reagan's second inauguration. A special election was held to fill out the term, and Holloway entered as the lone Republican candidate. Long's widow, Mary Catherine Small Long (born 1924), and Alexandria attorney John W. "Jock" Scott, (born 1947), a state representative in his third and final term, also ran. "Cathy" Long, a native of Dayton, Ohio, was a landslide winner, with 61,791 votes (57.8 percent). Scott finished second with 27,138 (25.4 percent), and Holloway trailed with 18,013 votes (16.8 percent).

Mrs. Long was as liberal as her husband had been in politics. William J. "Bill" Dodd, an astute observer of Louisiana politics, called her "the perfect political wife." She told the Alexandria Daily Town Talk that a U.S. representative's main responsibility is to bring as much national funding home to the congressional district as possible, a view at odds with those conservatives who abhor pork-barrel spending. She decided not to seek the seat for a full term in 1986.

[edit] Mr. Holloway goes to Congress, 1987

In 1986, Holloway was the lone Republican in the jungle primary to succeed Mrs. Long. His principal opponent was Faye Williams, a black liberal Democratic woman attorney from Alexandria, who supported abortion and expanded social programs.

The other contenders were Morgan Godeau, Joe Sevario, and Carson K. Killen, of St. Amant in Ascension Parish, who had been an aide to Gillis Long and presumably Long's choice as his successor. Killen was later elected to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and was the executive director of the Louisiana Police Jury (the equivalent of a county commission in other states) Association. Williams led Holloway in the primary, 46,025 (26 percent) to 41,618 (23 percent), a margin of 4,407 votes. Goudeau was third with 36,304 ballots (20 percent), followed by Sevario with 34,847 votes (19 percent), and Killen with 21,116 votes (12 percent).

Polls indicated that Williams would defeat Holloway in the general election in part because the district was 90 percent historically Democratic. High turnout, particularly in the large black community, was expected to benefit Williams. Holloway, however, pulled an upset. He received 102,276 votes (51.4 percent) to Mrs. Williams' 96,864 (48.6 percent). He was heavily dependent on Avoyelles Parish and his native Rapides Parish. He was estimated to have received 73 percent of the white vote and 1 percent of the black vote. Williams would presumably have won if she had received 29 or 30 percent of the white vote, instead of the 27 percent that she obtained. Williams may have been damaged by reports that her black ex-husband had murdered her white boyfriend. The high turnout in fact helped Holloway more than it did Williams.

On the same day that Holloway was elected to the U.S. Congress, another Republican, Richard Hugh Baker of Baton Rouge, won a U.S. House seat. Holloway and Baker would be only the fourth and fifth Republicans to have served in the U.S. House from Louisiana since Reconstruction, following David C. Treen in 1973, Henson Moore (Baker's predecessor) in 1975 and Bob Livingston in 1977.

However, Holloway was only the second Louisiana Republican to win an undisputed victory in a contested congressional election since Reconstruction. Moore and Livingston had run in disputed elections in 1974 and 1976, respectively, only entering the U.S. House through special elections. Baker had run unopposed, and as it turned out did not face a Democratic opponent, Marjorie McKeithen, until 1998.

In the U.S. House, Holloway was considered a "protectionist" and an opponent of "free trade" policies, which he believes have contributed to economic troubles in Louisiana. He supported efforts to restrict abortion, with a goal of ultimate elimination. He voted to cut government spending. He was skeptical of international organizations which undermined U.S. sovereignty. He portrayed himself as the champion of the middle class, much as Long had done during his heyday. He advocated rolling back "big government," cutting taxes to spur economic growth, restoring school prayer, and ending abortion.

In 1988, Williams and Holloway again squared off in the general election. Holloway was helped by the presence of the successful Republican presidential nominee, George Herbert Walker Bush. This time, Holloway defeated Williams in a single round. He received 116,241 votes (57 percent) to her 88,564 ballots (43 percent). After her defeats, Williams left Alexandria and relocated to Washington, D.C. In the primary in 1988, former Alexandria Mayor John K. Snyder also ran and polled only 1 percent of the vote, as his controversial political career continued to unravel.

In 1990, Holloway defeated two state senators in the jungle primary, Cleo Fields of Baton Rouge and William Joseph "Joe" McPherson, Jr., the latter of Holloway's own Rapides Parish. Holloway polled 113,607 votes (56 percent) to 59,511 (30 percent) for Fields, and 18,170 (14 percent) for McPherson.

[edit] The ill-fated gubernatorial race, 1991

Holloway's three consecutive House victories, two with more than 55 percent of the vote, made him feel secure in running for governor in 1991; he could run statewide in an off year from congressional races without surrendering his House seat. He won the endorsement of state Republican delegates against the sitting Republican governor, Charles E. "Buddy" Roemer, III, who had been elected as a Democrat in 1987 in the primary. In the 1991 primary, Holloway finished a weak fourth, with 82,683 (5.3 percent).

Instead, the general election featured unendorsed Republican David Duke slugging it out with former Governor Edwin Washington Edwards. Holloway refused to endorse either Duke or Edwards. Edwards won a clear victory for a fourth term in part because the third place candidate, Roemer, endorsed Edwards in the showdown with Duke, who was unpopular among many Republicans because of his Ku Klux Klan ties to the "Radical Right." Had Holloway not run for governor and had his supporters all voted for Roemer, then Roemer, not Duke, would have faced Edwards in the general election. One reason Holloway supporters rejected Roemer was the outgoing governor's support for abortion.

[edit] Winning 15 of 17 parishes and still losing

After his gubernatorial disaster, Holloway mapped plans to seek reelection to Congress in 1992. Louisiana lost a congressional district as a result of the 1990 Census, and Holloway's Alexandria-based Eighth District was eliminated. His home in Forest Hill was drawn into a revised Sixth District stretching from Baton Rouge on the south to Alexandria on the north. He faced two opponents, fellow Republican Representative Richard Baker and the Democratic mayor of Alexandria, Edward G. "Ned" Randolph, Jr. Holloway led in the jungle primary with 52,012 votes (37 percent) to Baker's 46,990 (33 percent), and Randolph's 42,819 (30 percent).

In the general election held on the day of the Bill Clinton-George Herbert Walker Bush presidential contest, Holloway won 15 of the new district's 17 parishes. However, Baker won large majorities in the two largest parishes, Livingston Parish and his home base, East Baton Rouge Parish. That was enough for Baker to win the seat, 123,953 votes (51 percent) to Holloway's 121,225 (49 percent). This narrow loss was devastating to Holloway. Had he been able to hold down Baker's margin in East Baton Rouge Parish, he would have secured a fourth House term.

The Sixth Congressional District had been drawn in such a way that the winner was likely to have been a Republican, since black residents of the surrounding area had been drawn into the majority-black Fourth Congressional District. (Ironically, that district was won by Cleo Fields, Holloway's unsuccessful opponent in 1990.) Tens of thousands of Democrats in the once historically Democratic Sixth District were forced through the jungle primary to choose between two Republican candidates for Congress or to skip that race on the ballot. Apparently most of the Democrats in this district supported Baker. While Baker was only slightly less conservative than Holloway, Democratic voters saw him as the lesser of two evils. Such a dilemma for Democrats was not what Edwards had in mind when he fashioned the jungle primary some fifteen years earlier.

[edit] The making of a perennial candidate

Holloway has since waged losing but determined campaigns to return to Congress. In the heavily Republican year of 1994, he moved to the Lafayette-based Seventh Congressional District in southwestern Louisiana and ran against Democratic Congressman Jimmy Hayes. Hayes polled 72,424 votes (53 percent) to Holloway's 54,253 (40 percent). Another 7 percent of voters supported a candidate who ran as "no party." Hayes surprised many observers by becoming a Republican himself in 1995.

In 1996, Holloway entered the race for the revised (again) Fifth District, which covered the northeast quadrant of Louisiana, stretching to south of Alexandria to include his Forest Hill residence. Holloway ran third in the primary to fellow Republican John Cooksey, a Monroe ophthalmologist, and Democratic State Senator Francis Thompson, a large landowner in Delhi in Richland Parish.

Cooksey polled 60,853 ballots (34 percent) to Holloway's 48,226 (27 percent). Thompson, with 50,144 votes (28 percent), hence went into the 1996 general election with Cooksey. Holloway's weak showing in Ouachita Parish in particular kept him from proceeding to the second round of balloting, just as his weak showing in East Baton Rouge Parish had doomed him in 1992. Thwarted once more, Holloway endorsed Cooksey, with whom he shared a similar conservative philosophy, and helped him to raise money. Cooksey went on to win the seat handily, 135,990 (58 percent) to the more liberal Thompson's 97,363 (42 percent). Cooksey served three terms before leaving the House.

[edit] 2,705 votes short

When Cooksey decided to run for the U.S. Senate against Mary Landrieu in 2002, Holloway entered the race to succeed him in the House. For a time, Holloway appeared strong. He had the support of House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois and then Majority Whip Tom DeLay of Texas. But he finished third in the jungle primary with 42,573 votes (23 percent). Leading the pack was the eventual winner, Democrat Rodney Alexander, with 52,952 votes (29 percent). Newcomer Lee Fletcher, a young Republican entrepreneur from Monroe, who had also previously been an aide to Cooksey, finished second in the primary with 45,278 (25 percent). A fourth candidate, Republican State Senator Robert J. Barham of Oak Ridge in Morehouse Parish, had 34,533 votes (19 percent). (Three minor candidates shared the remaining 5 percent.)

Alexander then defeated Fletcher in the general election by only 974 votes, 86,718 to 85,744. Holloway's endorsement of Alexander may have been the decisive movment of the campaign: he could not be congressman again, but he could choose between the two general election candidates and anoint the narrow winner. There were also reports that some disenchanted Holloway supporters in Rapides Parish, particularly Alexandria, voted for Alexander primarily to thwart young Fletcher, to "punish" him for winning the runoff berth by 2,705 votes over Holloway.

The seat stayed in Democratic hands for less than two years, however. In the summer of 2004, Alexander switched to the Republican Party and quickly gained enough support from the Republican Party establishment to end any hopes Holloway had of running in that year's election. It was Holloway's rival from 1985, Jock Scott, who decided to take on Alexander that year.

[edit] Running for lieutenant governor, 2003

In 2003, Holloway ran for lieutenant governor but was overwhelmed by the Democrat Mitch Landrieu, younger brother of Senator Mary Landrieu. He originally ran on a "ticket" with the chairman of the Louisiana Public Service Commission, John "Jay" Blossman, Jr., of suburban New Orleans. When Blossman withdrew from the gubernatorial race in light of weak poll numbers, Holloway remained a candidate for lieutenant governor. He polled 249,668 votes (only 19 percent) to Landrieu's 674,803 (53 percent). The other 28 percent was shared by several other candidates, including Melinda Schwegmann, a former Democratic lieutenant governor (1992-1996) and then serving state representative who switched to the GOP in 2003. The returns were disastrous for Holloway, who lost even Rapides Parish by some 1,000 votes, the parish that had initially sustained him in his early congressional races. He led in La Salle, Caldwell, and West Carroll parishes, all small parishes in north Louisiana. He also scored pluralities in Avoyelles and Evangeline parishes, both from his old Eighth Congressional District.

To Holloway's opponents, his string of losses makes him a perennial candidate who by good fortune won three House election but is no longer a serious politician. To his supporters, he remains a man of determination who never quits, no matter what the odds may be against him, and who believes that right will yet prevail. His acceptance of employment in the George W. Bush administration apparently means that he will not seek office in 2007 or 2008.

[edit] References

"Holloway appointed to head rural development efforts in Louisiana," Colfax Chronicle (Grant Parish), October 19, 2006

  • Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections, U.S. House
Preceded by
Mary Catherine Small "Cathy" Long (D)		 United States Representative for the 8th Congressional District of Louisiana

Clyde Cecil Holloway (R)
1987–1993

 Succeeded by
District abolished by reapportionment
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