John Neely Kennedy

John Neely Kennedy (born November 21, 1951) is the Republican state treasurer of Louisiana. He was re-elected without opposition to his fourth term as State Treasurer on September 8, 2011.

Early life and career

Kennedy was born in Centreville near McComb in southwestern Mississippi. He was reared in Zachary in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. In the summer of 1969, Kennedy represented Louisiana at Boys Nation in Washington, D.C.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1973, a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law at Charlottesville, Virginia in 1977, and an advanced law degree (B.C.L.) in 1979 from the University of Oxford in England. While a student at Vanderbilt, he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and senior class president. Prior to entering state politics, he was a partner in the law firm of Chaffe, McCall, Phillips, Toler, and Sarpy, working in the Baton Rouge and New Orleans offices of the firm.

Political career

In 1988, Kennedy became special counsel to Governor Buddy Roemer.^[1] In 1991, he was appointed cabinet secretary and served in that post until 1992. In 1991, he was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for state attorney general to succeed the retiring William J. Guste. Democrat Richard Ieyoub of Lake Charles won the position. Following his first stint in state government, Kennedy returned to the private practice of law until 1996. That same year, he was appointed Secretary of the state Department of Revenue in the cabinet of Republican Governor Mike Foster.^[2]

Kennedy left the Foster administration when he was elected State Treasurer in 1999, having unseated the incumbent Democrat Kenneth "Ken" Duncan, 621,796 (55.6 percent) to 497,319 (44.4 percent).^[3] Kennedy was reelected as treasurer without opposition in 2003.

In 2004 he was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the United States Senate. He ran a distant third in Louisiana's unique nonpartisan blanket primary, losing to the outright winner, Republican U.S. Representative David Vitter who polled more votes than Kennedy (15 percent), State Senator Arthur Morrell (3 percent), and Democratic U.S. Representative Christopher John (29 percent) combined to win in the primary for the seat without a formal general election, popularly called the runoff in Louisiana.

After being courted by the Republican party for months, Kennedy announced in a letter to his constituents that he was leaving the Democratic Party and joining the Republicans, effective August 27, 2007. In his letter, he announced that he would run again for state treasurer.

In 2008 Kennedy ran again for the United States Senate, this time as a Republican, against incumbent Senator Mary Landrieu. He lost 52.1 to 45.7 percent.^[4]

During the term to which he was elected in 2007, Kennedy devised twenty-four points by which the State of Louisiana could save money.^[5]

Kennedy was elected as a Republican to the state treasurer's office at the same time that Bobby Jindal won the governor's race against two Democrats, Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell and then State Senator Walter Boasso. In the following years, Kennedy spoke out against Jindal's practice of using one-time funds as part of the annual operating budget. In June 2012, Jindal used the line item veto to reduce the state treasurer's office budget by $511,279. Jindal said that Kennedy can "streamline" his own department. Many ideas that Kennedy had suggested were originally proposals that came from the Louisiana Commission for Streamlining Government, on which the treasurer was a member.^[6]

Personal life

In addition to his duties as state treasurer, Kennedy is an adjunct law professor at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and a volunteer substitute teacher in the East Baton Rouge Parish public schools. He is married to the former Rebecca Ann Stulb, an attorney who also worked in the Chaffe McCall law firm. The couple lives with their son, Preston Kennedy, in Madisonville, a town in St. Tammany Parish.

He is Methodist. He is unrelated to the Kennedy family of Massachusetts.

Considered an expert on state finance, Kennedy often appears on media programs to discuss public issues, including The Moon Griffon Show, a radio talk show based from Monroe.

See also

• United States Senate election in Louisiana, 2008

References

External links

• Louisiana Department of the Treasury - John Neely Kennedy, State Treasurer official state site
• John Kennedy for State Treasurer official campaign site

• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
• Follow the Money - John Kennedy
  • 2007 2005 2003 1999 Louisiana Treasurer campaign contributions
  • John Maginnis. Treasure the Moment, Gambit Weekly, March 13, 2001.
• Jan Moller, Treasurer Bolts to GOP The Times Picayune, August 27, 2007