Jimmy Fitzmorris
Encyclopedia
James Edward "Jimmy" Fitzmorris, Jr. (born November 15, 1921), is a New Orleans businessman and civic leader who was the Democratic
Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana
from 1972–1980. He was the first full-time lieutenant governor in state history, and in his first term, prior to implementation of the Constitution of 1974, he was the last lieutenant governor whose duties included presiding over the Louisiana State Senate
.
In 1979, he ran third in the nonpartisan blanket primary for governor. In 1983, he was unsuccessful is his effort to regain the lieutenant governor's office.
and attended Loyola University of New Orleans in 1946, but did not graduate. In 1940, at the age of eighteen, Fitzmorris went to work for the Kansas City Southern Railroad
as a messenger boy. He was in the U.S. Army
from 1942–1945 and rose from the rank of private to major.
In 1945, he married the former Gloria Lopez (July 7, 1923–July 1995), and they had a daughter, Lisa Marie, who is now married to Bruce Clement. He has two granddaughters, Madeline Gloria and Meredith Rose Clement.
By 1946, not only had he returned to KCS, but he had entered management and was recognized as one of the youngest railroad executives in the nation. Fitzmorris, who served as vice president of the KCS Railroad for many years, is currently serving as a consultant to the railroad providing more than sixty years of experience.
, Fitzmorris challenged incumbent Mayor
Victor Schiro in the Democratic primary and appeared to have a strong chance of success. He was endorsed by the New Orleans Times-Picayune
. Former Louisiana state senator, secretary of state, and insurance commissioner James H. "Jim" Brown maintains that Fitzmorris would have unseated Schiro had not Hurricane Betsy
struck New Orleans on September 10, 1965. The storm changed the dynamics of the race, as the media depicted President Lyndon B. Johnson
with Mayor Schiro offering repeated personal assistance to hurricane victims, Brown explained. Fifty people died, and thousands of homes were destroyed. The mere challenger, Councilman Fitzmorris, was by virtue of his position nearly outside the loop. "But such is politics, and after it's over you learn to laugh it off, which I did," Fitzmorris said, of Hurricane Betsy and the dashing of his mayoral hopes.
. He led in the Democratic primary with 59,301 votes. Maurice "Moon" Landrieu
was second with 33,093, and future state attorney general and newly-elected State Senator William J. "Billy" Guste, Jr.
, was third with 29,487 votes. Nine other candidates shared some 50,000 votes as well. In the primary runoff, Landrieu prevailed, 89,554 (53.9 percent) to Fitzmorris's 76,725 (46.1 percent). Landrieu then won the general election in the spring of 1970 over the Republican
nominee, Ben C. Toledano, a member of a prominent family whose origins date to the earliest years of New Orleans. A number of Fitzmorris's organizers defected to Toledano.
(1915–1987) of Franklin
in St. Mary Parish
. Fitzmorris went into a runoff with three-term State Senator Jamar William Adcock
(1917–1991), a Monroe
banker. Other Democratic candidates were Minden
businessman Edward Kennon
, two state representatives, Parey Branton
of Shongaloo
and P.J. Mills
of Shreveport
, and Pete Heine
, the mayor of Baker
in East Baton Rouge Parish.
Fitzmorris won the runoff by a wide margin and then faced the Republican former state representative Morley A. Hudson
of Shreveport, who ran on a ticket headed by David C. Treen
, then of Jefferson Parish
. Fitzmorris scored a knockout over Hudson and went on to serve two terms in the state's second highest office. He polled 815,794 votes (76.8 percent) to Hudson's 218,169 ballots (20.5 percent). Hudson failed to win a single parish but fared best in his home base of Caddo
. (A third candidate in the race, Gertrude L. Taylor, also of Shreveport, nominee of George C. Wallace's former American Independent Party
, received 2.7 percent of the vote.)
In 1975, Fitzmorris was reelected in the first ever Louisiana jungle primary. One of his minor opponents, Lance A. Britton of Baton Rouge was the only Republican seeking statewide office that year. Britton polled only 67,821 votes (6 percent), compared to Fitzmorris' 924,325 (81.7 percent). At the time, there were 54,862 registered Republicans in Louisiana. Britton hence polled only about 13,000 more votes for lieutenant governor than the number of GOP registrants.
As lieutenant governor, Fitzmorris promoted tourism
and was head of the Louisiana Tourist Development Commission. He encouraged the establishment of the defunct outdoor drama Louisiana Cavalier presented in Natchitoches
on summer nights in the middle 1970s. He also encouraged industrial development, and by the late 1970s, Louisiana was among the more successful states in recruiting new businesses and industries.
Fitzmorris adhered strictly to timetables. When he chaired meetings, he always started exactly on time and finished accordingly. One of his chamber of commerce associates recalled that Fitzmorris ran committee meetings "railroad-style. When an agenda was scheduled for 9 a.m., he would look at his railroad watch and start the meeting at 9 a.m. sharp (not 9:01) - even if I was the only member who had shown up on time. If the meeting was scheduled for one hour, Jimmy Fitz would look at his watch again at 10 a.m. sharp and summarily close the meeting, even if a pontificating member was in mid-sentence! When people came in late, he would give them the kind of look that only railroad men give late passengers sprinting after a moving train."
of St. Martinville
in St. Martin Parish, Public Service Commissioner Louis J. Lambert
of Ascension Parish, House Speaker E.L. "Bubba" Henry of Jonesboro
, and State Senator Edgar G. "Sonny" Mouton, Jr., of Lafayette
. Fitzmorris had wide but somewhat shallow support and an impressive campaign reservoir.
Treen led the primary with 297,674 votes. Fitzmorris at first appeared headed into the general election with Treen, with 280,490 votes. Lambert had 279,014. Lambert correctly predicted that "there will be changes in the final results." Paul Hardy finished fourth with 225,058 votes, while Henry and Mouton trailed with 135,299 and 123,126, respectively. The official results switched the positions of Fitzmorris and Lambert: Fitzmorris polled 280,760 votes; Lambert, 283,266. Lambert hence got into the general election by a margin of some 2,000 votes over the tablulation of Fitzmorris.
The suit was heard by the only Republican judge in East Baton Rouge Parish, Douglas Gonzales, a former federal attorney. Gonzales threw out three hundred Lambert votes in three precincts in St. Helena Parish (one of the Florida parishes
) because Lambert's total in each precinct increased by one hundred votes between election night, October 27, and the release of the final tabulation on October 30. Gonzales, however, dismissed the suit and told the lieutenant governor: "You have proven your courage and integrity, but the facts have not proven your case." Gonzales added that he took his action "with a sad heart." After attempts at appeal, Fitzmorris realized that he would not achieve his lifelong dream of becoming governor. He told the media: "I am now more convinced than ever that this election was stolen from Jimmy Fitzmorris." The Fitzmorris-Lambert rivalry aided Treen in securing support in the general election against Lambert. The dispute created a major issue of the governor's race: election reform.
After the election, Treen appointed Fitzmorris as a special assistant for industrial development, a speciality that Fitzmorris had developed during his years in the "light governor" position.
in Iberville Parish was elected to succeed Fitzmorris as lieutenant governor in 1979. He defeated fellow Democrat (later Republican) James "Jim" Donelon
of Metairie, a Jefferson Parish suburb of New Orleans. In 1998, Donelon, then a state representative, would be the defeated Republican candidate against popular Senator John Breaux
. Donelon became insurance commissioner
in 2006.
Freeman prevailed in the general election, held on the Saturday before Thanksgiving Day, with 627,224 votes (59.7 percent) to Fitzmorris' 424,091 (40.3 percent). Some 400,000 who had balloted in the primary did not participate in the lieutenant governor's general election.
The governor's race that year between Treen and Edwin Washington Edwards, making his third-term comeback, had been decided in the jungle primary in favor of Edwards by a wide margin. The irony was that Fitzmorris had won twice as lieutenant governor with Edwards at the top of the ballot. This time Edwards supported Freeman. It was a political oddity that was devastating to Fitzmorris. He never politically recovered from the defeat.
in the spring of 1964. Fitzmorris was a board member of the Chep Morrison Memorial Scholarship Fund. In 1965, he was presented with the Morrison Memorial Award.
Fitzmorris has also been a leader in civic affairs for many years. In 1950, he was named "Outstanding Young Man of New Orleans". He served on the New Orleans Board of Public Welfare. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce of Greater New Orleans. He has won the "Leadership Award" of the Leukemia Society. In his early years as lieutenant governor, he was chairman of the state employees division of the United Way. He is Roman Catholic.
Through it all, Fitzmorris retained his indomitable spirit, clinging to the notion that the measure of the man is not how high he climbs but how many times he can get back up after being knocked down.
"Nobody has gotten back up more than Jimmy Fitz, and few have climbed higher. [At his 80th birthday celebration in 2001], hundreds of friends from his five decades of public life packed the Mount Carmel High School gym . . . The party was supposed to be held in the school auditorium, which bears his name, but so many people RSVP'd for the party that it had to be moved to the larger gymnasium. That, too, is a measure of Jimmy Fitzmorris.
"I admit to a bias in favor of Fitz. It goes all the way back to my childhood, when I would listen to my father discussing politics with the men of the neighborhood. My dad was one of the few business owners in our little community. He . . . knew most of the established as well as aspiring political leaders of his day. Other men in the neighborhood naturally sought his opinion at election time. He loved to talk politics, but there were few politicians whose integrity he would vouchsafe unconditionally. Jimmy Fitzmorris was one of them.
"I remember seeing TV coverage of Fitzmorris' stunning defeat in the 1969 mayor's race. What I remember most was a very gracious concession speech.
"Two years later he bounced back and became Louisiana's first full-time lieutenant governor. . . . Fitzmorris served as lieutenant governor from 1972–1980 [and headed] up Louisiana's economic development efforts. It's hard to imagine now, but back then our state was tops in the nation in economic development."
Fitzmorris'city council papers are in the municipal archives of the New Orleans Public Library.
In 1999, Fitzmorris was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame
in Winnfield
.
In 2001, Fitzmorris was also honored by the naming of the "Jimmy Fitzmorris Presidential Suite" at the New Orleans Sheraton Hotel. Mobashir Ahmed, managing director of the New Orleans Sheraton, declared: "We are pleased to honor one of Louisiana's greatest living citizens in this special and unique way. For many years Jimmy has represented the best in public service, touching the lives of thousands of citizens through his dedication to making our community a better place to live. We believe that he exemplifies the kind of positive energy that provides lasting positive change.
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...
Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana
Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana
The Office of Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana is the second highest state office in Louisiana. The current Lieutenant Governor is Jay Dardenne, a Republican...
from 1972–1980. He was the first full-time lieutenant governor in state history, and in his first term, prior to implementation of the Constitution of 1974, he was the last lieutenant governor whose duties included presiding over 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...
.
In 1979, he ran third in the nonpartisan blanket primary for governor. In 1983, he was unsuccessful is his effort to regain the lieutenant governor's office.
Early years
Fitzmorris was born in New Orleans to James Edward Fitzmorris, Sr., and the former Romolia E. Hanning. He graduated from Jesuit High SchoolJesuit High School (New Orleans)
Jesuit High School is an all-male Catholic high school in New Orleans, Louisiana. The school was founded in 1847. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans....
and attended Loyola University of New Orleans in 1946, but did not graduate. In 1940, at the age of eighteen, Fitzmorris went to work for the Kansas City Southern Railroad
Kansas City Southern Railway
The Kansas City Southern Railway , owned by Kansas City Southern Industries, is the smallest and second-oldest Class I railroad company still in operation. KCS was founded in 1887 and is currently operating in a region consisting of ten central U.S. states...
as a messenger boy. He was in the U.S. Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
from 1942–1945 and rose from the rank of private to major.
In 1945, he married the former Gloria Lopez (July 7, 1923–July 1995), and they had a daughter, Lisa Marie, who is now married to Bruce Clement. He has two granddaughters, Madeline Gloria and Meredith Rose Clement.
By 1946, not only had he returned to KCS, but he had entered management and was recognized as one of the youngest railroad executives in the nation. Fitzmorris, who served as vice president of the KCS Railroad for many years, is currently serving as a consultant to the railroad providing more than sixty years of experience.
City council and first mayoral bid
Fitzmorris was a Democratic member of the New Orleans City Council from 1954–1966. He was the District 6 member from 1954–1962 and councilman at-large from 1962–1966. In the election of 1965New Orleans mayoral election, 1965
The New Orleans mayoral election of 1965 resulted in the re-election of Victor Schiro to his second full term as mayor of New Orleans. No runoff was needed, as Schiro received over 50% of the vote.- Results :Democratic Party Primary, November 6, 1965...
, Fitzmorris challenged incumbent Mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
Victor Schiro in the Democratic primary and appeared to have a strong chance of success. He was endorsed by the New Orleans Times-Picayune
New Orleans Times-Picayune
The Times-Picayune is a daily newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.-History:Established as The Picayune in 1837 by Francis Lumsden and George Wilkins Kendall, the paper's initial price was one picayune—a Spanish coin equivalent to 6¼¢ .Under Eliza Jane Nicholson, who inherited the...
. Former Louisiana state senator, secretary of state, and insurance commissioner James H. "Jim" Brown maintains that Fitzmorris would have unseated Schiro had not Hurricane Betsy
Hurricane Betsy
Hurricane Betsy was a Category 4 hurricane of the 1965 Atlantic hurricane season which caused enormous damage in the Bahamas, Florida, and Louisiana. Betsy made its most intense landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River, causing significant flooding of the waters of Lake Pontchartrain into...
struck New Orleans on September 10, 1965. The storm changed the dynamics of the race, as the media depicted President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
with Mayor Schiro offering repeated personal assistance to hurricane victims, Brown explained. Fifty people died, and thousands of homes were destroyed. The mere challenger, Councilman Fitzmorris, was by virtue of his position nearly outside the loop. "But such is politics, and after it's over you learn to laugh it off, which I did," Fitzmorris said, of Hurricane Betsy and the dashing of his mayoral hopes.
Losing to Moon Landrieu
Fitzmorris ran again for mayor in the election of 1969New Orleans mayoral election, 1969-70
The New Orleans mayoral election of 1969-1970 resulted in the election of Moon Landrieu as mayor of New Orleans. This election also saw an unexpectedly strong showing for a Republican candidate; the party had previously had negligible support in the city....
. He led in the Democratic primary with 59,301 votes. Maurice "Moon" Landrieu
Moon Landrieu
Maurice Edwin "Moon" Landrieu is a Democratic politician from Louisiana who served as Mayor of New Orleans from 1970–1978. He also is a former judge...
was second with 33,093, and future state attorney general and newly-elected State Senator William J. "Billy" Guste, Jr.
William J. Guste
William J. "Billy" Guste, Jr., is a New Orleans attorney, businessman and popular Democratic attorney general of Louisiana from 1972 to 1992. He succeeded the scandal-plagued Jack P.F. Gremillion, a fellow Democrat who had held the position since 1956. Guste received recognition for molding the...
, was third with 29,487 votes. Nine other candidates shared some 50,000 votes as well. In the primary runoff, Landrieu prevailed, 89,554 (53.9 percent) to Fitzmorris's 76,725 (46.1 percent). Landrieu then won the general election in the spring of 1970 over the 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...
nominee, Ben C. Toledano, a member of a prominent family whose origins date to the earliest years of New Orleans. A number of Fitzmorris's organizers defected to Toledano.
Twice elected lieutenant governor
In 1971, Fitzmorris entered a crowded Democratic primary for lieutenant governor to fill the position being vacated by gubernatorial hopeful Clarence C. "Taddy" AycockClarence C. Aycock
Clarence C. "Taddy" Aycock , a conservative Democrat from Franklin in St. Mary Parish, was the only three-term lieutenant governor in modern Louisiana history. He served from 1960 to 1972. Aycock failed in his only bid for governor in the 1971 Democratic primary...
(1915–1987) of Franklin
Franklin, Louisiana
Franklin is a city in and the parish seat of St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 8,354 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Morgan City Micropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
in St. Mary Parish
St. Mary Parish, Louisiana
St. Mary Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Franklin. As of 2000, the population was 53,500.The Morgan City Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of St. Mary Parish.-Geography:...
. Fitzmorris went into a runoff with three-term State Senator Jamar William Adcock
Jamar Adcock
Jamar William Adcock was a high-profile banker and a Democratic state senator from Monroe, Louisiana, who served from 1960 to 1972...
(1917–1991), a Monroe
Monroe, Louisiana
Monroe is a city in and the parish seat of Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 53,107, making it the eighth largest city in Louisiana. A July 1, 2007, United States Census Bureau estimate placed the population at 51,208, but 51,636...
banker. Other Democratic candidates were Minden
Minden, Louisiana
Minden is a city in the American state of Louisiana. It serves as the parish seat of Webster Parish and is located twenty-eight miles east of Shreveport, the seat of Caddo Parish. The population, which has been stable since 1960, was 13,027 at the 2000 census...
businessman Edward Kennon
Edward Kennon
Francis Edward Kennon, Jr. , usually known as Ed Kennon is a multi-millionaire Shreveport real-estate developer and a former Democratic member of the Louisiana Public Service Commission, the regulatory body for oil, natural gas, and utilities. He represented north Louisiana on the commission for...
, two state representatives, Parey Branton
Parey Branton
Parey Pershing Branton, Sr. , was a businessman from Shongaloo, Louisiana, who was from 1960 to 1972 a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from what is now District 10 in Webster Parish...
of Shongaloo
Shongaloo, Louisiana
Shongaloo is a village in Webster Parish, Louisiana, United States.West of Shongaloo on Louisiana Highway 2 is Munn Hill, a homestead of Daniel and Rebecca Munn, established on July 26, 1900....
and P.J. Mills
P.J. Mills
Percy Joseph Mills, Jr., known as P. J. Mills , is a retired businessman residing in New Orleans, Louisiana, who served from 1968-1972 as a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Shreveport, the seat of Caddo Parish in the northwestern corner of the state.Known as one of the...
of 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....
, and Pete Heine
Pete Heine
Norman E. Heine, known as Pete Heine , is a former Democratic mayor of the East Baton Rouge Parish city of Baker, located east of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, having served from 1964–1976 and again from 1981-1992...
, the mayor of Baker
Baker, Louisiana
Baker is a city in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, United States, and a part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 13,793 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Baker is located at...
in East Baton Rouge Parish.
Fitzmorris won the runoff by a wide margin and then faced the Republican former state representative Morley A. Hudson
Morley A. Hudson
Morley Alvin Hudson , was a Shreveport businessman, engineer, civic leader, and a pioneer of the modern Republican Party in Louisiana.Hudson was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Oscar Hudson and the former Ruth Morley...
of Shreveport, who ran on a ticket headed by David C. Treen
David C. Treen
David Conner "Dave" Treen, Sr. , was an American attorney and politician from Mandeville, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana – the first Republican Governor of the U.S. state of Louisiana since Reconstruction. He was the first Republican in modern times to have served in the U.S...
, then of Jefferson Parish
Jefferson Parish, Louisiana
Jefferson Parish is a parish in Louisiana, United States that includes most of the suburbs of New Orleans. The seat of parish government is Gretna....
. Fitzmorris scored a knockout over Hudson and went on to serve two terms in the state's second highest office. He polled 815,794 votes (76.8 percent) to Hudson's 218,169 ballots (20.5 percent). Hudson failed to win a single parish but fared best in his home base of Caddo
Caddo Parish, Louisiana
Caddo Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Shreveport; as of 2000, the population was 252,161...
. (A third candidate in the race, Gertrude L. Taylor, also of Shreveport, nominee of George C. Wallace's former American Independent Party
American Independent Party
The American Independent Party is a right-wing political party of the United States that was established in 1967 by Bill and Eileen Shearer. In 1968, the American Independent Party nominated George C. Wallace as its presidential candidate and retired Air Force General Curtis E. LeMay as the vice...
, received 2.7 percent of the vote.)
In 1975, Fitzmorris was reelected in the first ever Louisiana jungle primary. One of his minor opponents, Lance A. Britton of Baton Rouge was the only Republican seeking statewide office that year. Britton polled only 67,821 votes (6 percent), compared to Fitzmorris' 924,325 (81.7 percent). At the time, there were 54,862 registered Republicans in Louisiana. Britton hence polled only about 13,000 more votes for lieutenant governor than the number of GOP registrants.
As lieutenant governor, Fitzmorris promoted tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
and was head of the Louisiana Tourist Development Commission. He encouraged the establishment of the defunct outdoor drama Louisiana Cavalier presented 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...
on summer nights in the middle 1970s. He also encouraged industrial development, and by the late 1970s, Louisiana was among the more successful states in recruiting new businesses and industries.
Fitzmorris adhered strictly to timetables. When he chaired meetings, he always started exactly on time and finished accordingly. One of his chamber of commerce associates recalled that Fitzmorris ran committee meetings "railroad-style. When an agenda was scheduled for 9 a.m., he would look at his railroad watch and start the meeting at 9 a.m. sharp (not 9:01) - even if I was the only member who had shown up on time. If the meeting was scheduled for one hour, Jimmy Fitz would look at his watch again at 10 a.m. sharp and summarily close the meeting, even if a pontificating member was in mid-sentence! When people came in late, he would give them the kind of look that only railroad men give late passengers sprinting after a moving train."
Running for governor
Fitzmorris entered the October 27, 1979, jungle primary for governor amid a large field, including then Republican Congressman David C. Treen, outgoing Democratic secretary of state Paul HardyPaul Hardy
Paul Jude Hardy is a Baton Rouge attorney who was the first Republican to have been elected lieutenant governor of Louisiana since Reconstruction...
of St. Martinville
St. Martinville, Louisiana
St. Martinville is a city in and the parish seat of St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on Bayou Teche, sixteen miles south of Breaux Bridge, eighteen miles southeast of Lafayette, and nine miles north of New Iberia. The population was 6,989 at the 2000 census. It is part of the...
in St. Martin Parish, Public Service Commissioner Louis J. Lambert
Louis Lambert
Louis Joseph Lambert, Jr. , is a Louisiana attorney, businessman, former member and chairman of the Louisiana Public Service Commission, and a former Louisiana state senator....
of Ascension Parish, House Speaker E.L. "Bubba" Henry of Jonesboro
Jonesboro, Louisiana
Jonesboro is a town in and the parish seat of Jackson Parish in the northern portion of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The population was 3,914 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Ruston Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
, and State Senator Edgar G. "Sonny" Mouton, Jr., of 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...
. Fitzmorris had wide but somewhat shallow support and an impressive campaign reservoir.
Treen led the primary with 297,674 votes. Fitzmorris at first appeared headed into the general election with Treen, with 280,490 votes. Lambert had 279,014. Lambert correctly predicted that "there will be changes in the final results." Paul Hardy finished fourth with 225,058 votes, while Henry and Mouton trailed with 135,299 and 123,126, respectively. The official results switched the positions of Fitzmorris and Lambert: Fitzmorris polled 280,760 votes; Lambert, 283,266. Lambert hence got into the general election by a margin of some 2,000 votes over the tablulation of Fitzmorris.
Fitzmorris sues Lambert
Five days after the jungle primary, on November 2, 1979, Fitzmorris filed suit against Lambert. He claimed that he, not Lambert, deserved the general election position to challenge Treen. Should the court declare Lambert the winner of the second spot, Fitzmorris requested nullification of the primary results. "I do not understand how in just a few days, I could have lost over 2,000 votes, while Mr. Lambert gains as many," said Fitzmorris. The suit listed thousands of alleged acts of election fraud and irregularities in twenty parishes. To win the suit, Fitzmorris had to prove that there enough votes cast under questionable circumstances to make a difference in the total. Fitzmorris declared that he believed "in miracles" and expressed confidence that the election could be re-staged, or the results nullified.The suit was heard by the only Republican judge in East Baton Rouge Parish, Douglas Gonzales, a former federal attorney. Gonzales threw out three hundred Lambert votes in three precincts in St. Helena Parish (one of the Florida parishes
Florida Parishes
The Florida Parishes , also known as the North Shore region, are eight parishes in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Louisiana, which were part of West Florida in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Unlike much of Louisiana, this region was not part of the Louisiana Purchase, as it had been...
) because Lambert's total in each precinct increased by one hundred votes between election night, October 27, and the release of the final tabulation on October 30. Gonzales, however, dismissed the suit and told the lieutenant governor: "You have proven your courage and integrity, but the facts have not proven your case." Gonzales added that he took his action "with a sad heart." After attempts at appeal, Fitzmorris realized that he would not achieve his lifelong dream of becoming governor. He told the media: "I am now more convinced than ever that this election was stolen from Jimmy Fitzmorris." The Fitzmorris-Lambert rivalry aided Treen in securing support in the general election against Lambert. The dispute created a major issue of the governor's race: election reform.
Endorsing Treen in 1979
Treen and Louis Lambert hence went into the general election. Treen realized that he was fortunate in that Fitzmorris may well have been a stronger opponent than Lambert. Fitzmorris, Hardy, Henry, and Mouton, all losing Democrats in the primary, then surprised the Louisiana political world by endorsing Treen to a man. Still, Treen won by fewer than ten thousand votes. Lambert said that he believed that Fitzmorris' suit had cost Lambert the governorship.After the election, Treen appointed Fitzmorris as a special assistant for industrial development, a speciality that Fitzmorris had developed during his years in the "light governor" position.
Freeman succeeds Fitzmorris
Democratic State Representative Robert Louis "Bobby" Freeman of PlaqueminePlaquemine, Louisiana
Plaquemine is a city in and the parish seat of Iberville Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 7,064 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area....
in Iberville Parish was elected to succeed Fitzmorris as lieutenant governor in 1979. He defeated fellow Democrat (later Republican) James "Jim" Donelon
Jim Donelon
James J. "Jim" Donelon has been the Republican insurance commissioner of Louisiana since February 15, 2006.Donelon won a full-term as commissioner in the October 20, 2007 nonpartisan blanket primary. He finished with 606,534 votes and defeated three opponents, the closest of whom, Democrat Jim...
of Metairie, a Jefferson Parish suburb of New Orleans. In 1998, Donelon, then a state representative, would be the defeated Republican candidate against popular 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...
. Donelon became insurance commissioner
Insurance commissioner
Insurance commissioner is an executive office in many U.S. states, some in the state cabinet. The office differs state by state:...
in 2006.
Failed 1983 comeback attempt
In 1983, Freeman sought reelection, and Fitzmorris tried to regain the lieutenant governorship. In the October 22, 1983, primary, Freeman led a four-candidate field, but Fitzmorris ran strongly enough to qualify for a general election berth on November 19.Freeman prevailed in the general election, held on the Saturday before Thanksgiving Day, with 627,224 votes (59.7 percent) to Fitzmorris' 424,091 (40.3 percent). Some 400,000 who had balloted in the primary did not participate in the lieutenant governor's general election.
The governor's race that year between Treen and Edwin Washington Edwards, making his third-term comeback, had been decided in the jungle primary in favor of Edwards by a wide margin. The irony was that Fitzmorris had won twice as lieutenant governor with Edwards at the top of the ballot. This time Edwards supported Freeman. It was a political oddity that was devastating to Fitzmorris. He never politically recovered from the defeat.
Fitzmorris as civic leader
Fitzmorris had been close to the late DeLesseps Story Morrison, mayor of New Orleans from 1946–1961. He was grief-stricken when Morrison and a young son died in an airplace crash in MexicoMexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
in the spring of 1964. Fitzmorris was a board member of the Chep Morrison Memorial Scholarship Fund. In 1965, he was presented with the Morrison Memorial Award.
Fitzmorris has also been a leader in civic affairs for many years. In 1950, he was named "Outstanding Young Man of New Orleans". He served on the New Orleans Board of Public Welfare. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce of Greater New Orleans. He has won the "Leadership Award" of the Leukemia Society. In his early years as lieutenant governor, he was chairman of the state employees division of the United Way. He is Roman Catholic.
Fitzmorris' long legacy
Clancy DuBos, a New Orleans political writer, recalls Fitzmorris' spectacular career: "No one in New Orleans or Louisiana politics has known as much electoral heartbreak as [Jimmy] Fitzmorris. In 1969, he was upset by the younger Moon Landrieu in a . . . race for mayor of New Orleans, and ten years later the governor's race was, in the opinion of many, stolen from him.Through it all, Fitzmorris retained his indomitable spirit, clinging to the notion that the measure of the man is not how high he climbs but how many times he can get back up after being knocked down.
"Nobody has gotten back up more than Jimmy Fitz, and few have climbed higher. [At his 80th birthday celebration in 2001], hundreds of friends from his five decades of public life packed the Mount Carmel High School gym . . . The party was supposed to be held in the school auditorium, which bears his name, but so many people RSVP'd for the party that it had to be moved to the larger gymnasium. That, too, is a measure of Jimmy Fitzmorris.
"I admit to a bias in favor of Fitz. It goes all the way back to my childhood, when I would listen to my father discussing politics with the men of the neighborhood. My dad was one of the few business owners in our little community. He . . . knew most of the established as well as aspiring political leaders of his day. Other men in the neighborhood naturally sought his opinion at election time. He loved to talk politics, but there were few politicians whose integrity he would vouchsafe unconditionally. Jimmy Fitzmorris was one of them.
"I remember seeing TV coverage of Fitzmorris' stunning defeat in the 1969 mayor's race. What I remember most was a very gracious concession speech.
"Two years later he bounced back and became Louisiana's first full-time lieutenant governor. . . . Fitzmorris served as lieutenant governor from 1972–1980 [and headed] up Louisiana's economic development efforts. It's hard to imagine now, but back then our state was tops in the nation in economic development."
Fitzmorris'city council papers are in the municipal archives of the New Orleans Public Library.
In 1999, Fitzmorris 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 ...
.
In 2001, Fitzmorris was also honored by the naming of the "Jimmy Fitzmorris Presidential Suite" at the New Orleans Sheraton Hotel. Mobashir Ahmed, managing director of the New Orleans Sheraton, declared: "We are pleased to honor one of Louisiana's greatest living citizens in this special and unique way. For many years Jimmy has represented the best in public service, touching the lives of thousands of citizens through his dedication to making our community a better place to live. We believe that he exemplifies the kind of positive energy that provides lasting positive change.