Robert J. Barham

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Robert Jocelyn Barham (born January 25, 1949) is a Louisiana farmer and a Republican state senator who represents Claiborne, Morehouse, Union, and West Carroll parishes, all of which border Arkansas in the northernmost section of his state. In 2002, Barham was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States House of Representatives.

1 Early years, education, military
2 Barham in municipal and state politics
3 The congressional race of 2002
4 References

[edit] Early years, education, military

Barham was born in Monroe to Erle M. "Ninety" Barham (1916-1976) and the former Rosalie Smith (1913-1999). He grew up on the family plantation in Oak Ridge in Morehouse Parish along with an older brother, Erle Edwards Barham (born 1937), who held this same Senate seat as a Republican from 1976-1980. Edwards Barham was the first Republican elected to the Louisiana Senate since Reconstruction.

Barham graduated from Oak Ridge High School. He received a bachelor's degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. In 1970, he entered the U.S. Army for a two-year stint as a medic in South Vietnam. In 1999, he became a colonel in the Louisiana National Guard. Barham also obtained a master's degree from the University of Louisiana at Monroe (then Northeast Louisiana State University). In 1994, he completed the "Agricultural Leadership Program" at LSU. He began full-time farming, Robert Barham Farms, Inc., in Oak Ridge in 1972. Barham and his wife, the former Melba Pipes (born 1954) have three children, Robert Erle, Rebecca, and Henry.

[edit] Barham in municipal and state politics

Barham was elected mayor of Oak Ridge (population 142 in 2000 census) in 1983 and served until 1988, when he became a village council member instead. He vacated the municipal post when he took his state Senate seat late in 1994. His affiliations include Ducks Unlimited, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Rifle Association, Louisiana Cotton Producers, and the American Legion. He is a member of the Masonic lodge and is also a Shriner. Barham is Baptist.

Barham was first elected as a Democrat in a special election for an unexpired term held on November 8, 1994, a heavily Republican election year nationally. He defeated then fellow Democrat Johnny Dollar, 13,932 votes (56 percent) to 10,765 (44 percent). He was reelected with 93 percent of the vote in the fall of 1995 for a full four-year term and was unopposed in 1999. Thereafter, he switched parties. In 2002, he ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the vacant Fifth District U.S. House seat. He was unopposed again for the state Senate in 2003. Barham is term-limited and cannot seek reelection to the Senate in the 2007 elections.

As a lawmaker, Barham has been particularly identified with the need to stop the dissolution of Louisiana's coastal wetlands. He noted in a Senate speech that people in his section of the state often work offshore by the week and commute to their homes. Barham and other members of his family are known as strong conservationists. His father helped to establish the Tensas Wildlife Refuge near Delhi in Richland Parish.

[edit] The congressional race of 2002

Barham sought to succeed U.S. Representative John Cooksey of Monroe in 2002, when Cooksey made an ill-fated run for the U.S. Senate. He entered the jungle primary with two other major Republican candidates, former Congressman Clyde C. Holloway of Forest Hill in Rapides Parish, who had served in the defunct Eighth District from 1987-1993, and the young Monroe businessman Dewey Lee Fletcher, who had been Cooksey's former administrative assistant. Barham ran fourth in the primary, with 34,522 (19 percent).