Robert Kostelka

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Robert William "Bob" Kostelka (born February 18, 1933) is a former district attorney, district judge, and circuit judge, and, currently, a conservative Republican state senator from Monroe, Louisiana, who has represented Ouachita, Lincoln, and Jackson parishes in Senate District 35 since 2004. Kostelka retired from his circuit judgeship in 2003, when he reached the age of 70, as required by an amendment to the Louisiana Constitution.

In 1992, Kostelka was nominated by then President George Herbert Walker Bush for the federal judgeship held by the retiring Richard Nixon appointee Thomas E. Stagg, Jr., of Shreveport in Caddo Parish. The nomination died with the election of Democrat William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton as president.

1 Early years, education, affiliations
2 Two defeats for district attorney
3 Election to state judgeships
4 Election to the state senate, 2003
5 Defending traditional marriage
6 Kostelka goes after deadbeat parents
7 References

[edit] Early years, education, affiliations

Kostelka was born in Shreveport. He graduated from C.E. Byrd High School, as have numerous political figures, including former U.S. Senator J. Bennett Johnston, Jr., of Louisiana and sitting Senator Saxbe Chambliss of Georgia. After high school, Kostelka attended the Methodist-affiliated Centenary College in Shreveport. He then transferred to Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where he received his bachelor's degree. In 1957, Kostelka obtained his law degree from LSU. He later received training for prosecuting attorneys at the Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago. He was a member of Kappa Alpha social fraternity and the Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity. He is a member of the American Bar, Louisiana Bar, and the Appellate Judges' associations.

Kostelka has long been a member of the Salvation Army, was the Monroe chairman for three terms, and was named "Citizen of the Year" in 1971. He has been a member of the Rotary Club in Monroe since 1968. He was worked in Boy Scouts of America and the YMCA. He is a member of the National Rifle Association, Ducks Unlimited, Bass Research Foundation, National Wildlife Federation, the Arthritis Foundation, and the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Kostelka has been a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Monroe since 1968. He is an elder and a former Sunday school teacher.

Kostelka has been twice married. His first wife was the former Bobbie Ann Morales (1936-1983) of Port Allen in West Baton Rouge Parish, a victim of breast cancer. She was the mother of four of his children, including R. Clifton Kostelka of San Antonio, who died of AIDS in 1995. Kostelka later married the former Felicia Marie Danna (born 1958) of West Monroe, also in Ouachita Parish. Bob and Felicia Kostelka have one child from their marriage.

When he has time, Kostelka enjoys backpacking and hiking, bass and trout fishing, jogging and tennis, and outdoor and wildlife photography.

[edit] Two defeats for district attorney

Kostelka was an assistant district attorney and then the appointed Democratic district attorney for the Louisiana Fourth District Court from 1964-1971. He ran in the November 6, 1971, Democratic primary for an unexpired term as district attorney. He made "social conservatism" a centerpiece of his campaign even before the term was widely used. He vowed to use the district attorney's office to prosecute violators of obscenity laws. Kostelka, however, was defeated by J. Carl Parkerson, 21,639 (57.2 percent) to 16,203 (42.8 percent).

By 1972, Kostelka had switched to Republican affiliation and ran in the general election to challenge Parkerson for a full six-year term, and he lost again, even though he supposedly would have benefited from the successful Nixon-Agnew ticket in Louisiana. Kostelka received 16,518 votes the second time, almost identical to his raw votes as a Democrat. Parkerson again prevailed with 25,556 votes (60.7 percent). Kostelka's percent of the vote declined by 3.5 points even though his actual vote was stable from one election to the next. On vacating the D.A.'s office, he established a private law practice in Monroe.

[edit] Election to state judgeships

Kostelka was first elected on December 18, 1982, to the Fourth Judicial District Court, consisting of Ouachita and Morehouse parishes. He was reelected in 1984, 1990 and 1996, with minimal or no opposition.

In 1998, however, he left the district court when he was elected without opposition to the Louisiana State Second Circuit Court of Appeal, based in Monroe. He retired from the judgeship and ran for the state Senate in 2003. Kostelka was succeeded as district judge by state Representative Jimmy Dimos, a Democrat who had served as Speaker of the state House of Representatives in the Charles E. Roemer, III, administration from 1988-1992.

[edit] Election to the state senate, 2003

Kostelka challenged freshman Senator William "Bill" Jones (not to be confused with sitting Democratic state Senator Charles Jones). He stressed his conservative and generally pro-business views, as opposed to the moderate to even liberal and pro-labor votes that Jones had cast in his one legislative term. Still, Kostelka won only by a narrow margin, 17,331 (52 percent) to 6,964 (48 percent), according to official returns from 112 precincts in the three parishes.

In the Senate, Kostelka is a member of the Insurance, Judiciary A, and Homeland Security committees.

Kostelka has demonstrated the ability to work with a Democratic-majority Senate. One of his colleagues, Robert Adley, a Democrat from Bossier City in Bossier Parish, affectionately referred to Kostelka as "my lawyer." Adley's remark came when Kostelka slipped Adley a note during debate, which said that a compromise on an oil cleanup bill was almost completed, and the issue then before the Senate should be tabled.

[edit] Defending traditional marriage

In 2004, in his first term in the Senate, Kostelka sponsored an amendment to the Louisiana Constitution to limit the meaning of "marriage" to the union of one male and one female and to forbid same-sex unions. He was able to personalize the debate on the Senate floor, when he clashed with Senator Kip Holden, a Baton Rouge Democrat, who later in the year would be elected mayor-president of the City of Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish. The liberal Holden had argued that the Kostelka amendment could easily be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Kostelka said that a federal constitutional ban on marriage between homosexuals is required, but he also favored addressing the matter in the state constitution. The purpose of marriage is to continue the human species, he noted. Kostelka also noted that he "had a son who died of AIDS. I loved my son, and I cherish his memory, but, as I told him, I could never accept his life-style."

Four senators in committee, two from each party, joined Kostelka in voting for the proposal, which the legislature and then the Louisiana electorate approved in 2004. Holden and fellow liberal black Senator Cleo Fields, also of Baton Rouge, opposed the amendment.

[edit] Kostelka goes after deadbeat parents

Kostelka sponsored legislation to make it illegal for a man or woman intentionally to withhold child support payments. He got the bill passed, and Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco signed it into law.

However, Kostelka ran afoul of a fellow conservative, state Representative Shirley Bowler, a Republican from Harahan in Jefferson Parish, and several groups who represented parents who do not have custody of their children. Many of the affected parents claim that the other parent misuses child support payments by spending the money on himself or herself, rather than on the needs of the child.

The "Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act" makes nonpayment of child support a criminal offense that could send a non-paying parent to jail. Bowler predicted that the new law will have no impact on the collection of overdue support payments. Incarcerating a parent could cost the person his job and make it even harder for the individual to find another livelihood, she said. Kostelka and other supporters, however, said that the fear of criminal penalties could compel more who are in arrears to catch up with their payments. At the time, the amount of child support in arrears in Louisiana was believed to be approximately $800 million. The law applies to parents who either owe more than $5,000 or have gone more than a year without making payments.