Chris John

Christopher Charles "Chris" John (born January 5, 1960) is American politician who was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1997 to 2005, representing Louisiana's 7th congressional district.

Early life

John was born in Crowley, the seat of Acadia Parish, one of six children, and reared as a Roman Catholic. He is of Lebanese, French, and German extraction. He attended Notre Dame Catholic High School and Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He was a house page while his father, John N. John, Jr., was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives. He later was elected to and served on the Crowley City Council in the early 1980s.

State politics

Chris John first became a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives before he entered the U.S. House. In what was considered a major upset at the time, John defeated the state House incumbent, the former director of the Louisiana State Police, Donald Thibodeaux, in October 1987, by 54-46 percent.

Thibodeaux had won a full term in 1983 after having won a special election the year before to fill the unexpired term of John's father, who died in an automobile accident.

Chris John served in the state house until 1996, when he finished third with 15 percent of the statewide vote in the 1995 race for lieutenant governor behind the eventual winner (and, who, eight years later, in 2003, became Louisiana's first distaff chief executive) Kathleen Babineaux Blanco. John narrowly lost the general election berth against Blanco to a fellow state representative, Republican Suzanne Mayfield Krieger of Slidell in St. Tammany Parish.

Terms in Congress: Representative, and run for Senate

In 1996, John was elected to Congress. He defeated fellow Democrat Hunter Lundy in a runoff — officially the general election in Louisiana. Lundy had won the runoff berth by only twelve votes over the Republican candidate, David Thibodaux, a member of the Lafayette Parish School Board. Lundy's wife was later elected Sheriff of Calcasieu Parish. Congressman Jimmy Hayes, a former conservative Democrat who had changed parties after being courted by the Republican leadership, chose to run for the United States Senate in 1996 and finished third behind eventual winner Mary Landrieu. This created the "open seat" opportunity for John to run for the congressional seat.

In 2004, John surrendered his "safe" House seat to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by popular Democrat and fellow Crowley native John Breaux, who endorsed him.

Despite the endorsement of Breaux, the most prolific vote-getter in the history of Louisiana, Chris John was defeated by Republican David Vitter of the New Orleans suburbs in the primary, Vitter garnering 51 percent of the vote, compared to only 29 percent for John. The remainder of the ballots was split between State Treasurer John Neely Kennedy and then-state senator Arthur Morrell, both Democrats. Additionally, John's seat in the House fell into Republican hands, as Charles Boustany, married to Crowley native Bridget Edwards, the niece of former governor Edwin Edwards, won the 7th district with 55% of the vote against Democrat Willie Mount.^[1]

Post-political career

John is married to Payton Smith of Leesville, whose father, John Smith, was a member of the Louisiana legislature. They have two sons, twin boys. John has worked as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C since his defeat, making his home in Lafayette, Louisiana, while commuting to Washington. In August 2007, Chris John made public his acceptance of the top lobbying job with The Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, allowing him to move permanently back to Louisiana (Morning Advocate).

In 2009, John was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.^[2]

Electoral history

References

External links

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Financial information at OpenSecrets.org