Foster Campbell
Encyclopedia
Foster L. Campbell, Jr. (born January 6, 1947), is a Democratic
member of the Louisiana Public Service Commission
, a former 26-year member of the Louisiana State Senate
, and an unsuccessful candidate for governor in the October 20, 2007, jungle primary
. Campbell polled 161,425 votes (12 percent) and won two parishes: Red River and Bienville, both near Shreveport
. He lost his home parish of Bossier Parish (20 percent) to the successful candidate, Bobby Jindal
(60 percent).
Born in Shreveport, Campbell graduated from Northwestern State University
in Natchitoches
with a Bachelor of Science
degree. He became a salesman of agricultural supplies until 1976, when he founded the Campbell Insurance Agency in Bossier City
.
That same year, he was elected to the Senate to succeed the retiring conservative Democrat Harold Montgomery
of Doyline
in Webster Parish. In a lopsided general election
outcome, Campbell defeated former Speaker
of the Louisiana House of Representatives
, John Sidney Garrett
of Haynesville
in northern Claiborne Parish
, who failed in a comeback attempt. During his Senate service, Campbell was often allied with Governor Edwin Washington Edwards. Campbell chaired the Select Committee on Consumer Affairs.
Ron Gomez
, a member of the Louisiana House from Lafayette
and at the time a Democrat prior to later switching parties, describes Campbell, when he was a state senator, as "always having some populist, usually anti-business legislation moving through the process. Persistent is his middle name."."
Over the years, Campbell easily won reelection to his Senate seat. In the jungle primary held on October 24, 1987, for instance, he polled 11,080 votes (70.2 percent) over two Democrats and a Republican
opponent. Democrat (later Republican) Garland Mack Garrett trailed with 3,400 votes (21.5 percent. Ivan J. Edwards received 474 votes (3 percent), and the Republican William F. "Bill" Lott, drew the remaining 835 votes (5.3 percent)
Campbell first ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in 1980, when the seat went to future Governor Buddy Roemer
, who unseated incumbent Buddy Leach. Other unsuccessful candidates in that race were former State Representative Jimmy Wilson, who lost to Leach by a narrow margin in 1978, State Representative Forrest Dunn
of Shreveport, former State Senator Cecil K. Carter, Jr.
, of Shreveport, and Rogers M. "Mickey" Prestridge, the Bossier City municipal judge.
In 1988, Campbell lost the congressional race to a former Roemer aide, Republican Jim McCrery
. During that special election campaign, triggered by Roemer's resignation to become governor, Campbell was seriously injured in a single vehicle car crash weeks before the 1988 runoff election when he drove the wrong way down an unfinished, and not yet opened, section of Interstate 49
. The accident left him blind in his right eye. In 1990 Campbell made this third race for the U.S. House, but he was again defeated by McCrery, who solidified his hold on the district. (McCrery retired in January 2009 and was succeeded by the Republican John C. Fleming
.)
In 2002, Campbell was elected to the Public Service Commission (District 5), the statewide regulatory agency in charge of public utilities and the oil industry. He unseated popular incumbent Donald Lynn "Don" Owen, a former news anchorman for KSLA-TV
in Shreveport.
In November 2006, Campbell informed the press that he was considering challenging incumbent Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, a fellow Democrat, in the primary. He subsequently toured the state, raised money, and hired political consultant George Kennedy—described by LAPolitics.com as "the state's hottest political consultant." The centerpiece of Campbell's platform was a proposal to repeal the excise tax
levied by the state on domestic oil production and replace it with a 6 percent processing fee on all oil and natural gas that passes through the state. Campbell estimated that this fee would raise $5.5 billion per year, enough to eliminate the state's income tax with nearly $2 billion per year left for discretionary spending
.
On March 19, 2007, in a press conference held in New Orleans, Campbell officially announced his gubernatorial campaign. The next day, in apparent response to opinion polls showing that she would be unlikely to win re-election over Jindal, Blanco announced that she would not seek re-election. (Blanco had defeated Jindal in the 2003 general election.) Former U.S. Senator John Breaux
, a Democrat, was expected to also announce his candidacy, but he bowed out on April 13. On April 26, another gubernatorial contender, Walter Boasso
, the Republican state senator from St. Bernard Parish in south Louisiana, announced that he was returning to the Democratic Party. Campbell faced Jindal and Boasso in the primary as well as an independent
, John Georges
of New Orleans. When asked to cite some of the differences between him and frontrunner Jindal, Campbell says, “I understand rural people and agriculture. He has no idea what’s going on in rural communities and agriculture. I work with black people very well. I don’t think that he has a lot of communication with the black community.”
Had he been elected governor, Campbell would have been the fifth public service commissioner to become governor. Previously, Huey Long
, Jimmie Davis
, John McKeithen
, and Blanco were public service commissioners.
Campbell is a divorced father of six children. He resides in Elm Grove in south Bossier Parish and raises cattle.
In 2008, Campbell was reelected to a second term on the Public Service Commission. In 2009, he was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame
in Winnfield
.
THE INDEPENDENT WEEKLY 8/29/2007
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
member of the Louisiana Public Service Commission
Louisiana Public Service Commission
Louisiana Public Service Commission is an independent regulatory agency which manages public utilities and motor carriers in Louisiana. The commission has five elected members chosen in single-member districts for staggered six-year terms...
, a former 26-year member of the Louisiana State Senate
Louisiana State Legislature
The Louisiana State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 representatives, and the upper house, the Louisiana Senate with 39 senators...
, and an unsuccessful candidate for governor in the October 20, 2007, jungle primary
Jungle primary
A nonpartisan blanket primary is a primary election in which all candidates for elected office run in the same primary regardless of political party. Under this system, the top two candidates who receive the most votes advance to the next round, as in a runoff election...
. Campbell polled 161,425 votes (12 percent) and won two parishes: Red River and Bienville, both near Shreveport
Shreveport, Louisiana
Shreveport is the third largest city in Louisiana. It is the principal city of the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana and is the 109th-largest city in the United States....
. He lost his home parish of Bossier Parish (20 percent) to the successful candidate, Bobby Jindal
Bobby Jindal
Piyush "Bobby" Jindal is the 55th and current Governor of Louisiana and formerly a member of the United States House of Representatives. He is a member of the Republican Party....
(60 percent).
Born in Shreveport, Campbell graduated from Northwestern State University
Northwestern State University
Northwestern State University, known as NSU, is a four-year public university primarily situated in Natchitoches, Louisiana, with a nursing campus in Shreveport and general campuses in Leesville/Fort Polk and Alexandria. It is a part of the University of Louisiana System.NSU was founded in 1884 as...
in Natchitoches
Natchitoches, Louisiana
Natchitoches is a city in and the parish seat of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States. Established in 1714 by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis as part of French Louisiana, the community was named after the Natchitoches Indian tribe. The City of Natchitoches was first incorporated on February...
with a Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
degree. He became a salesman of agricultural supplies until 1976, when he founded the Campbell Insurance Agency in Bossier City
Bossier City, Louisiana
Bossier City is a city in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, United States.As of the 2010 Census, the city had a total population of 61,315. Bossier City is closely tied to its larger sister city Shreveport, located on the western bank of the Red River. The Shreveport-Bossier City metropolitan area is the...
.
That same year, he was elected to the Senate to succeed the retiring conservative Democrat Harold Montgomery
Harold Montgomery
A. Harold Montgomery, Sr. , was an agricultural businessman and a Louisiana state senator, who is remembered as an outspoken conservative within his state's dominant Democratic Party...
of Doyline
Doyline, Louisiana
Doyline is a village in southwestern Webster Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 841 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Minden Micropolitan Statistical Area....
in Webster Parish. In a lopsided general election
General election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
outcome, Campbell defeated former Speaker
Speaker (politics)
The term speaker is a title often given to the presiding officer of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body. The speaker's official role is to moderate debate, make rulings on procedure, announce the results of votes, and the like. The speaker decides who may speak and has the...
of the Louisiana House of Representatives
Louisiana State Legislature
The Louisiana State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 representatives, and the upper house, the Louisiana Senate with 39 senators...
, John Sidney Garrett
John Sidney Garrett
John Sidney Garrett was a conservative Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives who served from 1948 to 1972 under four gubernatorial administrations. Garrett was a successful businessman in the small town of Haynesville in Claiborne Parish south of the Arkansas state line...
of Haynesville
Haynesville, Louisiana
Haynesville is a town in northern Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, United States, located just south of the Arkansas border. The population was 2,679 at the 2000 census....
in northern Claiborne Parish
Claiborne Parish, Louisiana
Claiborne Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Homer and as of 2000, the population is 16,851.-History:The parish is named for the first Louisiana governor, William C. C. Claiborne....
, who failed in a comeback attempt. During his Senate service, Campbell was often allied with Governor Edwin Washington Edwards. Campbell chaired the Select Committee on Consumer Affairs.
Ron Gomez
Ron Gomez
Ronald James Gomez, Sr., known as Ron Gomez , is a veteran print and broadcast journalist, author , and businessman from Lafayette, Louisiana, who served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from Lafayette Parish, from 1980-1989. From 1990-1992, he was the secretary of natural resources in...
, a member of the Louisiana House from Lafayette
Lafayette, Louisiana
Lafayette is a city in and the parish seat of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, United States, on the Vermilion River. The population was 120,623 at the 2010 census...
and at the time a Democrat prior to later switching parties, describes Campbell, when he was a state senator, as "always having some populist, usually anti-business legislation moving through the process. Persistent is his middle name."."
Over the years, Campbell easily won reelection to his Senate seat. In the jungle primary held on October 24, 1987, for instance, he polled 11,080 votes (70.2 percent) over two Democrats and a Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
opponent. Democrat (later Republican) Garland Mack Garrett trailed with 3,400 votes (21.5 percent. Ivan J. Edwards received 474 votes (3 percent), and the Republican William F. "Bill" Lott, drew the remaining 835 votes (5.3 percent)
Campbell first ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in 1980, when the seat went to future Governor Buddy Roemer
Buddy Roemer
Charles Elson "Buddy" Roemer III is an American politician who served as the 52nd Governor of Louisiana, from 1988 to 1992. He was elected as a Democrat but switched to the Republican Party on March 11, 1991...
, who unseated incumbent Buddy Leach. Other unsuccessful candidates in that race were former State Representative Jimmy Wilson, who lost to Leach by a narrow margin in 1978, State Representative Forrest Dunn
Forrest Dunn
George Forrest Dunn, Jr. , is the retired administrator of the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum in Shreveport and a former Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, having served from 1972 to 1984 in the now majority African American District 3 seat. In 1980, Dunn made an ill-fated...
of Shreveport, former State Senator Cecil K. Carter, Jr.
Cecil K. Carter, Jr.
Cecil Kay Carter, Jr., known as C. Kay Carter, Jr., or C. K. Carter , is a businessman from Shreveport, Louisiana, who served as a Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate from 1972 to 1976....
, of Shreveport, and Rogers M. "Mickey" Prestridge, the Bossier City municipal judge.
In 1988, Campbell lost the congressional race to a former Roemer aide, Republican Jim McCrery
Jim McCrery
James Otis "Jim" McCrery, III , is an American lawyer who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1988 to 2009; he represented the 4th District of Louisiana, based in the northwestern quadrant of the state.McCrery was a ranking member on the House Ways and...
. During that special election campaign, triggered by Roemer's resignation to become governor, Campbell was seriously injured in a single vehicle car crash weeks before the 1988 runoff election when he drove the wrong way down an unfinished, and not yet opened, section of Interstate 49
Interstate 49
Interstate 49 is currently an intrastate Interstate Highway located entirely within the state of Louisiana in the southern United States. Its southern terminus is in Lafayette, Louisiana, at Interstate 10 while its northern terminus is in Shreveport, Louisiana, at Interstate 20.-Route...
. The accident left him blind in his right eye. In 1990 Campbell made this third race for the U.S. House, but he was again defeated by McCrery, who solidified his hold on the district. (McCrery retired in January 2009 and was succeeded by the Republican John C. Fleming
John C. Fleming
John Calvin Fleming, Jr. is a Minden, Louisiana physician, the author of the book Preventing Addiction, and the Republican U.S. representative from Louisiana's 4th congressional district...
.)
In 2002, Campbell was elected to the Public Service Commission (District 5), the statewide regulatory agency in charge of public utilities and the oil industry. He unseated popular incumbent Donald Lynn "Don" Owen, a former news anchorman for KSLA-TV
KSLA-TV
KSLA, virtual channel 12, is the CBS-affiliated television station for Shreveport, Louisiana and the Ark-La-Tex region. Owned by Raycom Media, it broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 17. The sole transmitter is located in Mooringsport, Louisiana...
in Shreveport.
In November 2006, Campbell informed the press that he was considering challenging incumbent Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, a fellow Democrat, in the primary. He subsequently toured the state, raised money, and hired political consultant George Kennedy—described by LAPolitics.com as "the state's hottest political consultant." The centerpiece of Campbell's platform was a proposal to repeal the excise tax
Excise
Excise tax in the United States is a indirect tax on listed items. Excise taxes can be and are made by federal, state and local governments and are far from uniform throughout the United States...
levied by the state on domestic oil production and replace it with a 6 percent processing fee on all oil and natural gas that passes through the state. Campbell estimated that this fee would raise $5.5 billion per year, enough to eliminate the state's income tax with nearly $2 billion per year left for discretionary spending
Government spending
Government spending includes all government consumption, investment but excludes transfer payments made by a state. Government acquisition of goods and services for current use to directly satisfy individual or collective needs of the members of the community is classed as government final...
.
On March 19, 2007, in a press conference held in New Orleans, Campbell officially announced his gubernatorial campaign. The next day, in apparent response to opinion polls showing that she would be unlikely to win re-election over Jindal, Blanco announced that she would not seek re-election. (Blanco had defeated Jindal in the 2003 general election.) Former U.S. Senator John Breaux
John Breaux
John Berlinger Breaux is a former United States senator from Louisiana who served from 1987 until 2005. He was also a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1972 to 1987. He was considered one of the more conservative national legislators from the Democratic Party...
, a Democrat, was expected to also announce his candidacy, but he bowed out on April 13. On April 26, another gubernatorial contender, Walter Boasso
Walter Boasso
Walter Joseph Boasso is a wealthy businessman and former Democratic state senator from Chalmette, the seat of St. Bernard Parish in south Louisiana. He was defeated in a bid for governor in the October 20, 2007, jungle primary. Boasso won 47 percent in his own St. Bernard Parish, his sole...
, the Republican state senator from St. Bernard Parish in south Louisiana, announced that he was returning to the Democratic Party. Campbell faced Jindal and Boasso in the primary as well as an independent
Independent (politician)
In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...
, John Georges
John Georges
John Georges is a New Orleans, Louisiana, businessman who formerly served on the Louisiana Board of Regents, the body which supervises higher education in his native state....
of New Orleans. When asked to cite some of the differences between him and frontrunner Jindal, Campbell says, “I understand rural people and agriculture. He has no idea what’s going on in rural communities and agriculture. I work with black people very well. I don’t think that he has a lot of communication with the black community.”
Had he been elected governor, Campbell would have been the fifth public service commissioner to become governor. Previously, Huey Long
Huey Long
Huey Pierce Long, Jr. , nicknamed The Kingfish, served as the 40th Governor of Louisiana from 1928–1932 and as a U.S. Senator from 1932 to 1935. A Democrat, he was noted for his radical populist policies. Though a backer of Franklin D...
, Jimmie Davis
Jimmie Davis
James Houston Davis , better known as Jimmie Davis, was a noted singer of both sacred and popular songs who served two nonconsecutive terms as the 47th Governor of Louisiana...
, John McKeithen
John McKeithen
John Julian McKeithen was the 49th Governor of Louisiana, serving from 1964 to 1972. A Democrat from the town of Columbia, he was the first governor of his state in the twentieth century to serve two consecutive terms...
, and Blanco were public service commissioners.
Campbell is a divorced father of six children. He resides in Elm Grove in south Bossier Parish and raises cattle.
In 2008, Campbell was reelected to a second term on the Public Service Commission. In 2009, he was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame
Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame
The Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield, Louisiana, highlights the careers of more than a hundred of the state’s leading politicians and political journalists. Because three governors, Huey P. Long, Jr., Oscar K...
in Winnfield
Winnfield, Louisiana
Winnfield is a city in and the parish seat of Winn Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 5,749 at the 2000 census. It has long been associated with the Long faction of the Louisiana Democratic Party and was home to three governors of Louisiana.-Geography:Winnfield is located at ...
.
External links
- Foster Campbell for Governor
- Louisiana Public Service Commission Biography
- Louisiana State Senate Homepage Archive
- LAPolitics.com
- http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071208/NEWS01/712080338
THE INDEPENDENT WEEKLY 8/29/2007
- http://www.theind.com/cover2.asp?CID=-1568744565
- http://www400.sos.louisiana.gov:8090/cgibin/?rqstyp=elcms2&rqsdta=102007