Rob Couhig

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Robert Emmet "Rob" Couhig, Jr., (born 1949) is a New Orleans lawyer, businessman, entrepreneur, and longtime Louisiana Republican Party activist. A former partner of the Adams and Reese law firm, he now heads his own Couhig Partners. Couhig has twice lost races for the United States House of Representatives. A persistent Republican in a heavily Democratic city, he was defeated in a race for mayor of New Orleans in the spring of 2006. He is also remembered as the man who brought the baseball team the New Orleans Zephyrs to the city.

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[edit] Education and family

Couhig was born in Baptist Hospital in New Orleans to Robert Emmet Couhig, Sr., and the former Marcelle Reese. Couhig, Sr., came to New Orleans from Massachusetts after World War II. He was hired by the Orkin Company to manage two area pest-control offices. He eventually became the top executive of a four-state territory. In the mid-1960s, Rollins Environmental Services, Inc., bought Orkin and transferred Couhig to its Atlanta office.

After a year-long relocation to Georgia, Couhig, Sr., left the company and moved his family to their previously-acquired Asphodel Plantation in West Feliciana Parish. The Couhigs lived in one part of the plantation and operated a restaurant and gift shop until the later 1980s in the other part of the house. The senior Couhig thereafter formed his own pest-control company in St. Francisville.

Rob Couhig spent a few years at the Catholic Jesuit High School while the family still lived in New Orleans. However, after the move to West Feliciana Parish, he graduated from St. Francisville High School in 1967. He won a scholarship to study international economics at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C. He completed his bachelor's degree from Georgetown and then obtained his Juris Doctor from Tulane University in New Orleans.

Couhig married the former Susan Mullins of New York. The couple has two sons, Robert E. Couhig, III, and Benjamin Couhig. Over time, Couhig said that the pressures of politics, business, and travel adversely affected his family life. He and Susan first separated and then divorced. After being single again for some fifteen years, Couhig married Michelle "Missy" Aleman in 2003.

[edit] Law and business career

Couhig practiced law in the areas of antitrust, casualty and personal injury litigation, products liability, class action litigation, and appellate matters. He was a partner in the firm Adams and Reese from 1975 until 2003. He was involved in the expansion of the firm into Baton Rouge, Houston, Jackson, Mississippi, and Washington, D.C.

Couhig was also the the principal owner of Couhig-Southern Environmental of New Orleans, Inc., one of the largest Louisiana-owned pest and termite control companies. This was the company begun by his father, whom Couhig bought out before selling himself in 2001 to a firm based in Lafayette.

Though continuing to practice law, Couhig now speaks more about building viable companies than engaging in litigation. He left Adams and Reese on the day after Labor Day, 2003. Couhig and two other attorneys started Couhig Partners in September 2003 as a firm that works with entrepreneurs. As of 2006 the firm has more than twenty lawyers, a consulting group, and an office in Baton Rouge headed by former Louisiana Attorney General Richard Ieyoub. Couhig is also the managing partner of Couhig Investments, LLC which invests in small businesses in Louisiana.

[edit] Sports businessman

In the early 1990s, Couhig decided to bring a minor league baseball team to New Orleans (which had been without a baseball team since the demise of the New Orleans Pelicans). He negotiated with the owner of the Denver Zephyrs with the goal of bringing the team to New Orleans. He lobbied three governors for a stadium off Airline Highway in Jefferson Parish. In 1995, Couhig put together an investor group to buy the team at an undisclosed price. The new Zephyr Field opened on April 11, 1997.

Couhig also developed an interest in soccer. He and other investors created the "New Orleans Storm." Though the team had promise, it was a failure financially and was disbanded. Couhig told Kathy Finn that he probably lost $1 million on the failed soccer investment.

Couhig sold his remaining stake in the Zephyrs in 2000, and the next year he sold his pest-control company. Couhig enrolled in the executive MBA course at Tulane in 2002, after he decided that he might benefit from some formal business education, given some of his recent adverse business decisions.

[edit] Political career

[edit] Republican political activist

Couhig has been active in Louisiana politics since 1971. He was the campaign manager in the election of his half-brother Sam LeBlanc, a Democrat, in 1971 and 1975. LeBlanc left the legislature in 1980.

In 1976, Couhig defected to the Republican Party. In 1977, he became the campaign coordinator for Republican Robert L. "Bob" Livingston, who for the second time sought to represent the First Congressional District in the U.S. House. Livingston had lost in the 1976 general election to Democrat Richard A. Tonry. When Tonry was forced to resign because of campaign finance violations in 1977, Livingston won the seat in a special election, with Couhig's backing, and served until 1999.

[edit] First run for Congress, 1980

In 1980, Couhig waged a failed challenge to Democratic Congresswoman Corrine Claiborne "Lindy" Boggs, popular widow of former House Majority Leader Thomas Hale Boggs, Sr., of New Orleans.

Couhig raised some $200,000 for the race, a large amount at that time for a challenger in a difficult district. Lindy Boggs was the winner; she polled 45,091 votes (63.8 percent) to Couhig's 25,512 (36.2 percent). She was never seriously challenged in all of her congressional races between 1973 and 1988, when she won her last term. Couhig was among the strongest opponents that Mrs. Boggs ever faced.

[edit] Second run for Congress, 1999

Couhig ran for Congress again in the May 1, 1999, special election in the First District to choose the successor to Bob Livingston, who resigned amid a sex scandal. He finished in fifth place with 5,149 votes (8 percent). Former Republican Governor David C. Treen was forced into a runoff for the seat with state Representative David Vitter. Vitter narrowly won the second round of balloting and held the seat from 1999-2005. Vitter then became the state's first Republican U.S. senator since Reconstruction. Couhig was even overshadowed in the House race by the controversial Republican convert David Duke.

Couhig said that he had expected Livingston to support him in 1999 in return for the help that Couhig had rendered to Livingston in the 1977 election. Couhig said that his weak showing may have been a reflection of his inability to convince voters how his vision differed from the other Republican candidates. He noted that he spent $500,000 of his own money on the race despite bleak prospects.

[edit] Running for mayor, 2006

Main article: New Orleans mayoral election, 2006

In 2005 Greater New Orleans was devastated by Hurricane Katrina and related Levee failures (see: Effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans). The majority of the city was still in ruins and the majority of the population still living elsewhere in early 2006, for what many felt was the most important election in the city's history.

Couhig and former city council member Peggy Wilson were the two Republican candidates for mayor. His campaign started with a television ads mocking the perceived leading candidates, Mitch Landrieu, Ron Forman, and incumbent Mayor C. Ray Nagin. In televised debates prior to the jungle primary, Couhig's combative style attracted attention. MSNBC pundit Chris Matthews declared Couhig the "absolute winner" of the pre-primary debate.

Couhig said that New Orleans residents should accent "self-reliance" in the post-Katrina rebuilding, rather than a sense of "entitlement". Couhig criticised Nagin for supposedly "sugar-coating" the city's woes. He claimed that Nagin was "reaping short-term political gains at the expense of the city's long-term best interests." Couhig said that his opponents were promoting a "fantasy" that the city can continue operating on a budget meant for nearly half a million people when fewer than half that many persons remained in New Orleans in the spring of 2006. Couhig said that the city could not sustain basic services in sparsely populated areas. He also chided Nagin for his use of the term "Chocolate City." He urged Nagin, who had supported the 2003 Republican gubernatorial candidate Bobby Jindal along with other Republican candidates, to "stop pandering for political gain."

Couhig finished a distant fourth in the April 22 primary with 10,312 votes (10 percent). He led in seven precincts. A second Republican, former city councilwoman Peggy Wilson received another 773 votes (1 percent). Eighty-nine percent of New Orleans voters supported a Democratic candidate in the primary.

The general election was scheduled between the top two candidates, the incumbent Nagin and Democratic Lieutenant Governor Mitchell Landrieu. Despite his earlier criticism of Nagin, Couhig enthusiastically endorsed Nagin, made television ads urging his reelection, and helped to mobilize the city's Republicans and conservatives behind the incumbent mayor.

Couhig's support may have been the "swing vote" that was critical to Nagin's reelection. Couhig said that the Landrieu "political dynasty" had failed the city. (This was a reference to Mitch Landrieu's sister Mary Landrieu and his father former mayor Moon Landrieu.) He noted that the New Orleans population peaked in 1960, even before the rise of the Landrieus to dominance.

[edit] After the election

Couhig volunteered to work unpaid for 100 days in the second Nagin administration. He co-chairs the mayor's 100-Day Initiative Plan with business owner Judith Williams.


[edit] References

Billy Hathorn, "The Republican Party in Louisiana, 1920-1980," Master's thesis (1980), Northwestern State University at Natchitoches

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