| Alan Ray Ater | |
|---|---|
| Louisiana State Representative from District 21 (now Concordia, East Carroll, Madison, and Tensas parishes) | |
| In office 1984–1992 |
|
| Preceded by | William B. Atkins |
| Succeeded by | Bryant Hammett |
| Acting Louisiana Secretary of State | |
| In office July 2005 – November 2006 |
|
| Preceded by | Fox McKeithen |
| Succeeded by | Jay Dardenne |
| Personal details | |
| Born | December 15, 1953 Decatur, Illinois |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | (1) Missing (2) Susie Beard Ater |
| Children | Whitney Lauren Ater Thomas Alan Ater |
| Residence | Ferriday, Concordia Parish, Louisiana, USA |
| Alma mater | Huntington High School |
| Occupation | Farmer; Businessman |
| Religion | United Methodist |
Alan Ray Ater (born December 15, 1953), known as Al Ater, is a farmer and businessman from Ferriday, Louisiana, who served from 1984-1992 as a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from District 21 in the eastern portion of his state.[1]
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First elected at the age of twenty-nine in the 1983 nonpartisan blanket primary, Ater filled the House seat vacated by William B. Atkins, a Democrat from Jonesville in Catahoula Parish, who in the same election unseated then Democratic State Senator Dan Richey of Ferriday, who years later switched to Republican affiliation. Ater was unopposed for a second term in 1987 but did not run in the primary held in October 1991. He was succeeded by fellow Democrat Bryant Hammett, an engineer, also from Ferriday in Concordia Parish. In 2001, Ater became the first assistant in the office of his friend since their legislative days, Louisiana Secretary of State Fox McKeithen, a Republican. There, Ater was influential in the merging of the former elections department into the secretary of state’s office.[2]
Ironically, the elections department had existed within the secretary of state’s office prior to 1957, when then Governor Earl Kemp Long made elections a separate department headed by the "custodian of voting machines", later renamed the "elections commissioner". Long appointed Drayton Boucher of Springhill to the post, and after a year, Boucher resigned and was replaced by Douglas Fowler of Coushatta in Red River Parish, who was elected to the post for the following twenty years.[3]
In 2004, Ater joined the Department of Insurance under commissioner Robert Wooley, a Democrat. In March 2005, he returned to McKeithen's office as first assistant. Four months later, upon McKeithen's untimely death from complications of a household fall earlier in the year, Ater became the interim secretary of state.[2]
As secretary of state, Ater was called upon to monitor the municipal elections in New Orleans held some eight months after Hurricane Katrina. The primary election was to have been conducted on February 4, 2006. Newspaperman Sam Hanna, Jr., of the Ouachita Citizen said that Ater "oversaw probably the cleanest mayor's election in modern times in New Orleans' long, fabled history. . . . He mowed down the political establishment on both sides of the aisle, which tried in vain to manipulate the election process in the Crescent City for its own selfish reasons. Yes, Ater stood out as a leader with a backbone among a host of local and state officials, who, quite frankly, have appeared spineless throughout the catastrophe caused by Katrina."[4] Former Secretary of State James H. "Jim" Brown, also a Ferriday native, said he believed the elections could have been held on February 4 and that the delays sought by Ater were unnecessary. Brown said polling locations could be moved as needed and that voting machines can be located elsewhere as required. Out-of-town voters can still file for absentee ballots,Brown said.[5]
Ater, as secretary of state, questioned a provision of Louisiana law which had required a voter who registered by mail to cast his ballot in person at least once before he could file an absentee ballot. "I could see the headlines across America right now, They'll say it's another thing that Louisiana can't handle on its own," Ater said.[6] The law had been intended to protect against voter fraud, but Ater said the hurricane had temporarily changed the dynamics of voting.[6] Ater's handling of the election was honored by the Louisiana chapter of the interest group, Common Cause, which held a ceremony in his honor. Also feted was then State Senator Walter Boasso of St. Bernard Parish, who consolidated the actions of the affected levee boards following the hurricane.[7]
Ater served until November 2006, when he was succeeded by the current secretary, Republican Jay Dardenne, the winner of the special election to fill the vacancy left by McKeithen. Ater did not run in the special election in which Dardenne defeated then State Senator Francis C. Heitmier of New Orleans and former Louisiana state Republican chairman Mike Francis of Crowley for the right to fill the remainder of McKeithen's last term.
A native of Decatur, Illinois, Ater was a son of Donald Edward Ater (1923–1974)[8] and the former Ruth LaVonne Chapman (December 16, 1920–October 28, 2004), both Illinois natives. Ruth Chapman attended Lindenwood College for Women in St. Charles, Missouri. The Aters married, farmed in the area about Cisco, Illinois, and owned International Harvester dealerships in Kankanee and Oreana, Illinois. In 1957, the Aters purchased the Coola Coosa Plantation near Tallulah on Lake St. John, an oxbow lake on the Mississippi River. They were thereafter the founders and operators of Ater Warehouse, Inc., and the Don Ater Chevrolet dealership in Ferriday. While the Aters resided in Tallulah, the seat of Madison Parish, Mrs. Ater became involved in the American National Cattlewomen's Organization, formerly the CowBelles. She was both Madison Parish and the statewide president of the organization. In 1975, as the national CowBelles president, she organized and chartered groups in thirteen states and spoke at state conventions in thirty-nine states. She headed the committee that wrote the history of the organization. Mrs. Ater was one of three women inducted into the Louisiana Spur Club for contributions to the cattle industry. After the death of first husband Donald Ater, Ruth married Fred Joseph Wedam (1916–1991) of Klamath Falls, Oregon, where she lived until after his death. She then returned to Ferriday for her final years.[9]
Ater's four older siblings are Marcia Kay Ater Goeggle, who was married to William Jack Goeggle;[8] Donald Willard Ater (born 1945) and his wife, Fran; Lynette Ater Tanner, and her husband, George or "Buddy", and Edward William Ater (born 1952) and his wife, Mignonne.[9] Ater farms corn, cotton, and soybeans through his Lakeland Planting Company.[10] He serves on the board of the Concordia Parish Farm Bureau and Catalyst Energy in Vidalia, the Concordia Parish seat of government.[2] He has also farmed about Waterproof in southern Tensas Parish.[11] Ater also recently purchased Johnston Cotton Company in Sicily Island, Louisiana.
Ater and his second wife, the former Susie Beard (born 1958), a pharmacist originally from Vidalia, live on Lake St. John near Ferriday. Ater graduated in 1971 from the private Huntington High School in Ferriday and then attended Northwestern State University in Natchitoches. He has three children, Whitney Lauren Ater (born 1978) of California from a first marriage, and Thomas Alan Ater (born 1987), and Elliott Andrew Ater (born 1989), from the second marriage, both of Ferriday. Thomas and Elliott both attend Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi.[2][12]
Sam Hanna, Jr., son of the late publisher Sam Hanna, Sr., questioned why Ater walked away from "a promising political career more than 20 years in the making [to] head home to Concordia Parish--to Ferriday--to farm some 6,000 acres of land and tend to his other business interests? Well, Ater's no fool, and he recognized a dead-end job when he saw it in serving as secretary of state, especially on the heels of his performance during one of Louisiana's darkest moments. It's always best to leave while you're on top."[4]
Ater remains an active Democratic donor, having contributed a total of $8,900 in 2008 to U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, the congressional campaign of Paul Carmouche of Shreveport, for senatorial candidate Ronnie Musgrove of Mississippi, and for the defeated Democrat Don Cazayoux in the Baton Rouge-based U.S. House district.[13]
In 2009, Ater was among inductees into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.[14]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by William B. Atkins |
Louisiana State Representative from District 21 (Concordia, East Carroll, Madison, and Tensas parishes) 1984–1988 |
Succeeded by Bryant Hammett |
| Preceded by Fox McKeithen |
Louisiana Secretary of State 2005–2006 |
Succeeded by Jay Dardenne |