Henson Moore

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William Henson Moore, III (born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, on October 4, 1939), is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, having represented the Baton Rouge-based Sixth Congressional District, from 1975-1987. He is only the second Republican to have represented Louisiana in the House since Reconstruction, the first having been David C. Treen, then of Jefferson Parish.

In 1986, Moore was the unsuccessful Republican candidate in the race to replace the retiring U.S. Senator Russell B. Long. He lost to Democrat John B. Breaux of Crowley, the seat of Acadia Parish in southwestern Louisiana.

After his House service, U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan named Moore commissioner of the Panama Canal Consultative Committee, 1987-1989. He then became deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy from 1989 to 1992 and then deputy chief of staff for U.S. President George H.W. Bush during Bush's last year in office.

From 1992 to 1995, he was a partner in the Texas-based law firm of Bracewell & Giuliani. Afterwards, he was the president and CEO of the American Forest & Paper Association. He was also the president of the International Council of Forest & Paper Associations. He retired in 2007, and he and his wife are building a new home in Baton Rouge.

1 Early years and education
2 In Congress
3 1986 U.S. Senate campaign
4 References

[edit] Early years and education

Moore graduated from Baton Rouge High School in 1958. He received his bachelor of arts degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge in 1961 and his J.D. from the LSU Law School in 1965. He also obtained a master's degree from LSU in 1973.

He served in the U.S. Army from 1965-1967. A practicing attorney, he was elected to and served on the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee from 1971-1975. He was a delegate to the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas.

[edit] In Congress

Moore was initially elected to Congress in the heavily Democratic election of November 1974 to succeed John Robert Rarick of St. Francisville in West Feliciana Parish north of Baton Rouge. Rarick, a conservative at odds with his national party leadership, had lost the Democratic primary to Jeff LaCaze, a young liberal broadcaster who declared himself a "national Democrat". Moore and LaCaze squared off in the general election. Because the margin was 14 votes (61,034 to 61,020), there was a special election rematch ordered by the Louisiana courts.

Moore won the special election held in January 1975 with a decisive 74,802 votes (54.1 percent) to LaCaze's 63,366 ballots (45.9 percent). Moore gained 13,768 votes in the second election, while LaCaze netted only an additional 2,346 ballots. Moore fared best in Washington Parish and his parish of residence, East Baton Rouge. He also won that part of Livingston Parish within the district as well as Tangipahoa Parish. He lost in East Feliciana, St. Helena, and West Feliciana parishes. West Feliciana had been the only parish to support George McGovern for president in 1972. Moore's share of the vote in West Feliciana, a heavily African-American region, was 32.4 percent.

In 1976, Moore faced a spirited Democratic challenger in liberal State Senator J.D. DeBlieux (1913-2005) of Baton Rouge, who had opposed the late Senator Allen J. Ellender in the 1966 Democratic primary. Moore polled 99,780 (65.2 percent) to DeBlieux's 53,212 (34.8 percent). Moore won most of the traditionally Democratic parishes in the district despite the popularity of the Jimmy Carter-Walter Mondale ticket. Between 1978 and 1984, Moore did not face strong challenges from the Democrats.

In Congress, Moore compiled a conservative voting record.

[edit] 1986 U.S. Senate campaign

Moore gave up his House seat to enter the race to succeed Senator Long. In the jungle primary, Moore led Seventh District Democratic Congressman John Breaux, with 529,433 votes (44.2 percent) to 447,328 (37.3 percent). State Senator Samuel B. Nunez polled another 73,504 votes (6.7 percent). Also on the ballot was the Republican Robert Max Ross (born 1933), a businessman from tiny Mangham in Richland Parish in northeast Louisiana, who had earlier opposed David Treen for governor in 1971 and 1983 and J. Bennett Johnston, Jr., for the U.S. Senate in 1984. During the 1986 campaign, Democrats accused the Louisiana GOP of attempting to establish schemes to depress black turnout in the general election. The Republicans replied that they were merely trying to remove names from the rolls of those who had not voted in four years, a procedure required by Louisiana law.

In the general election, Breaux turned the tables on Moore: 723,586 (52.8 percent) to 646,311 (47.2 percent), a margin of 77,275 ballots. Nationally, the Democrats regained control of the Senate for the two remaining years of the Ronald Reagan administration. Breaux held the Senate seat for eighteen years. Moore's House seat was then taken by a fellow Republican, state Representative Richard H. Baker, also of Baton Rouge.

Moore serves on the boards of directors of the American Council for Capital Formation and the United States-New Zealand Council.

In 2002, he was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.

Preceded by John Robert Rarick	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana's 6th congressional district 1975–1987	Succeeded by Richard H. Baker