Louis Lambert

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Louis Joseph Lambert, Jr. (born December 21, 1940), is a Louisiana attorney and businessman who is best remembered for having been the first Democrat since Reconstruction to have lost a contested gubernatorial general election to a Republican candidate. Only two other Democrats, state Senator (and former congressman) Cleo Fields and Congressman William Jefferson, both blacks, have similarly lost gubernatorial races to a Republican.

Lambert, then a member of the Louisiana Public Service Commission, lost the 1979 governor's race to Republican U.S. Representative David C. Treen, then of Jefferson Parish in the Third Congressional District. A switch of 4,979 votes out of nearly 1.4 million cast, however, would have made Lambert governor by a one-vote margin.

Lambert represented District 18 in the Louisiana state Senate from 1994 until 2004. His district encompassed parts of East Baton Rouge, Ascension, Livingston, St. James, and St. John the Baptist parishes. He maintains a law office, specialty in personal injury cases, in Gonzales and lives in Prairieville (Ascension Parish) with his wife, Mary Gayle S. Lambert.

1 Early years and education
2 Constitutional convention delegate, 1973
3 Public Service Commissioner Lambert
4 Winning a general election slot, 1979
5 Lambert's traditional Democratic campaign
6 Returning to the state Senate, 1994
7 References

[edit] Early years and education

Lambert graduated from the Capital Page School in Washington, D.C. and attended the St. Amant School in St. Amant in Ascension Parish. He obtained his undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and his law degree from Loyola University in New Orleans.

Lambert is a retired captain in the Louisiana National Guard. He is a member of the Ascension Chamber of Commerce, the East Ascension Sportsman League, and is affiliated with the River Region Cancer Clinic. He lists his religion as "Christian."

[edit] Constitutional convention delegate, 1973

Lambert was elected on a nonpartisan ballot in the summer of 1972 as a delegate to the state constitutional convention, which met in Baton Rouge during 1973. The convention produced a new governing document for the state, which voters handily approved in 1974. Lambert in fact was chairman of the convention.

Among the members of the convention were state Representative Louis E. "Woody" Jenkins of Baton Rouge, state senator and future Secretary of State and Insurance Commissioner James H. "Jim" Brown, then of Ferriday in Concordia Parish, future Governor Charles E. "Buddy" Roemer, III, of Bossier Parish, and Mayor Tom Colten and State Representative R. Harmon Drew, Sr., both of Minden in Webster Parish.

[edit] Public Service Commissioner Lambert

Lambert began his political career as the Gonzales town attorney. Then in the 1971-1972 election cycle, he won a state Senate seat which then included Ascension, Livingston, and St. James parishes. At the age of 31, he succeeded state Senator George T. Oubre, who ran unsuccessfully for attorney general in the Democratic primary. (Oubre lost to William J. Guste, Jr., of New Orleans.)

However, Lambert resigned halfway through that Senate term (when he had also been a constitutional convention delegate) after his election to the Louisiana Public Service Commission. The rate-regulatory body expanded from three to five members under the new state constitution. Lambert won the District 3 seat, which was centered about Baton Rouge.

Lambert was chairman of the PSC for several terms. For a time, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Lafayette, who was elected as the state's first woman governor in 2003, was the PSC vice-chairman during one term when Lambert was chairman. She served on the PSC from 1988-1996.

In his last election to the PSC in 1986, Lambert defeated the Republican Archie Mollere by the lopsided margin of 171,872 (86 percent) to 28,420 (14 percent).

[edit] Winning a general election slot, 1979

Lambert eyed the 1979 gubernatorial race with confidence and perhaps with history on his side. Three previous governors had served on the PSC prior to their gubernatorial victories: Huey Pierce Long, Jr., Jimmie Houston "Jimmie" Davis, and John Julian McKeithen. Lambert sought to succeed two-term-limited Governor Edwin Washington Edwards. He drew support among blacks, organized labor, the poor -- in short, the traditional liberal base of his party, sufficient strength to gain the second-place slot in the jungle primary. Republican David Treen led the balloting against the divided field of Democrats but was far short of an outright majority.

Lambert, the favorite of organized labor, faced a legal challenge to secure his general election berth. Then Lieutenant Governor James Edward Fitzmorris, Jr., of New Orleans had initially led for the second spot, but when a retabulation put Lambert ahead of Fitzmorris by some 2,500 votes, Fitzmorris went to court. He alleged that Lambert had benefited from fraudulent votes in certain parishes as well as improper counting procedures. State District Judge Douglas Gonzalez of Baton Rouge, a Republican, said in the hearing brought about by Fitzmorris' suit that he sympathized with the lieutenant governor's position. However, Gonzalez found that Fitzmorris had not located sufficient numbers of questionable votes for Lambert to put Fitzmorris, rather than Lambert, into the general election.

The disappointed Fitzmorris and three other major Democratic gubernatorial candidates all endorsed Treen: Secretary of State Paul J. Hardy, originally from St. Martinville, state Senator Edgar G. "Sonny" Mouton, Jr., of Lafayette, and outgoing House Speaker E.L. "Bubba" Henry of Jonesboro in Jackson Parish in north Louisiana. Lambert seemed to stand alone while his four major intraparty rivals backing the Republican choice for governor.

[edit] Lambert's traditional Democratic campaign

Lambert waged a traditional Democratic campaign for governor though he had previously been considered somewhat moderate in his political views. "I have always run against the politicians, the power brokers, and the political bosses," Lambert said. He predicted that his state's overwhelming Democratic registration would provide him with a margin of victory despite the defection of prominent individuals to the Treen camp.

Lambert was endorsed by both President Jimmy Carter, who had won in Louisiana in 1976, and Carter's own 1980 intraparty rival, Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who would later marry a native Louisianian, the former Victoria Reggie of Crowley, daughter of legendary Judge Edmund Reggie. "Let's keep Louisiana Democratic," Kennedy said in a letter to the state's voters. John F. Kennedy had also won in Louisiana in 1960.

Lambert won the support of Governor Edwards and former Governor John Julian McKeithen, who had supported Hardy in the primary. Edwards explained his stand this way:

"Those that support the Republican philosophy believe that government exists to do as little as possible for people. Those of us who are populists, so to speak, and real Democrats, believe that government exists to help people. It's that simple."

Some, however, speculated that Edwards did not mind that Treen won the election because Edwards wanted to challenge a "Governor Treen" in the 1983 jungle primary for his own potential third term.

McKeithen warned that "if this Republican [Treen] is elected, school may be out for . . . Louisiana Democratic officeholders too," a prognostication that proved premature.

Another Lambert backer, R.H. "Bill" Strain, a state representative, told a rally in Hammond in Tangipahoa Parish (a part of the "Florida Parishes") that unless Lambert were elected "the state's working people, the poor, and others might just as well move to Mississippi."

One of the surprises of the campaign was that Lambert ran well in north Louisiana, winning more than a dozen parishes which had supported Treen in his earlier 1972 campaign against Edwards, such as Morehouse and Webster parishes. Treen dominated the suburban parishes around Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Lambert's weakness, however, was to the west of his home base: Acadiana, where Treen ran strongly in Lafayette and the sugar parishes. Factions which had supported Hardy and Mouton in the primary agreed to work for Treen. In an appearance in Lafayette, Treen told the Acadiana audience that his campaign reached across party, racial, and geographic lines. Mouton, who had been an Edwards loyalist, said at the rally: "Did you ever think you would see this sight -- a bunch of Acadiana Democrats cheering a Republican?"

Treen finished with 690,691 (50.3 percent) to Lambert's 681,134 (49.7 percent). Treen won only 22 of the 64 parishes in victory, whereas he had carried 27 parishes in defeat in 1972. Only ten parishes supported Treen in both 1972 and 1979, including Caddo, Ouachita, Lincoln, Bossier, and East Baton Rogue parishes. Treen's victory is attributed to his Acadiana margins -- Lafayette, Iberia, Terrebonne, Acadia and St. Martin parishes, where he overcame huge deficits from 1972 to win in 1979.

Lambert blamed his defeat principally on Fitzmorris' lawsuit: "If it hadn't been for that lawsuit, I would have beat him 55 percent to 45 percent." Lambert never again sought statewide office. He remained a public service commissioner until 1992.

[edit] Returning to the state Senate, 1994

In 1994, Lambert returned to the state Senate, when the longterm incumbent Joseph E. Sevario, III, resigned. Lambert won the special election over his fellow Democrat "Jeff" Diez, 9,068 (57 percent) to 6,965 (43 percent). He was reelected in 1995 over the Republican Kirk T. Harrison, 37,876 (80 percent) to 9,655 (20 percent). Lambert was unopposed in 1999, but he did not seek another term in 2003.

Lambert was chairman of the Senate Environmental Committee. He worked closely with Republican Senator Robert J. Barham of Oak Ridge in Morehouse Parish on various environmental questions, including the preservation of the state's shrinking wetlands. Lambert even donated to Barham's unsuccessful congressional campaign in 2002.

In 2002, Lambert was appointed as one of the sixteen members of the prestigious Louisiana State University Board of Supervisors by Republican Governor Murphy J. "Mike" Foster, Jr. Lambert and Foster had been state senators together during 1995. The six-year term on the LSU board ends on June 1, 2008.

Preceded by George T. Oubre (D)	Louisiana State Senator from Ascension, Livingston, and St. James parishes Louis J. Lambert, Jr., (D) 1972–1974	Succeeded by Ralph Falsetta (D)

Preceded by Joseph A. Sevario, III, (D)	Louisiana State Senator from District 18 (Parts of Ascension, East Baton Rouge, Livingston, St. James, and St. John the Baptist parishes) Louis J. Lambert, Jr., (D) 1994–2004	Succeeded by Jody Amedee (D)