Foster Campbell | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Louisiana Public Service Commission from the 5th district | |
| Assumed office January 1, 2003 | |
| Preceded by | Don Owen |
| Member of theLouisiana Senate from the 36th district | |
| In office December 1976 – December 2002 | |
| Preceded by | Harold Montgomery |
| Succeeded by | Robert Adley |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Foster Lonnie Campbell Jr. (1947-01-06)January 6, 1947 (age 79) |
| Party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Paula Wright(divorced) Gwen Wilhite |
| Children | 5, and 1 stepchild |
| Education | Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge Northwestern State University(BA) |
Foster Lonnie Campbell Jr. (born January 6, 1947) is an American politician and member of theDemocratic Party from the U.S. state ofLouisiana. Since 2003, he has been a member of theLouisiana Public Service Commission. He served in theLouisiana State Senate from 1976 to 2002.
He was an unsuccessful candidate forgovernor in the2007 election againstRepublicanBobby Jindal. He ran unsuccessfully for theUnited States House of Representatives forLouisiana's 4th congressional district three times: in 1980, 1988, and 1990. In 2016, he was an unsuccessful candidate for theopen U.S. Senate seat vacated by incumbent RepublicanDavid Vitter.
In 2012, Campbell became chairman of the five-member Public Service Commission. He was re-elected to a third term on the commission in 2014.[1] He won a fourth six-year term as Louisiana Public Service Commissioner in 2020.[2]
Campbell was born inShreveport, the son of Foster Campbell Sr. and the former Rubye Grigsby ofBossier City, both deceased.[3] He attended Bossier High School in Bossier City. Later, he graduated fromNorthwestern State University inNatchitoches. He also attendedLouisiana State University inBaton Rouge. From 1972 to 1975, he was a school teacher in Haughton, Louisiana and an agricultural products salesman. Campbell owns two insurance agencies, both of which are located in Bossier City.[4]
Campbell has six children from his first wife, Paula Wright, from whom he is divorced: Zach, Peter, Kate, Nicholas, Mary Claire, and Sarah Elizabeth. Zach died inDallas, Texas at the age of thirty-seven.[3] Campbell resides with his second wife, Gwen, in Elm Grove in south Bossier Parish, where he works as a farmer and cattleman.[5]
In 2009, Campbell was inducted into theLouisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame inWinnfield.[6]
In 1975, Campbell was elected to the Senate to succeed the retiringConservative DemocratHarold Montgomery ofDoyline inWebster Parish. In arunoff election, called the general election in Louisiana, Campbell handily defeated former Speaker of theLouisiana House of Representatives,John Sidney Garrett ofHaynesville in northernClaiborne Parish, who failed in a political comeback attempt. During his Senate service, Campbell was often allied with GovernorEdwin Washington Edwards and chaired the Select Committee on Consumer Affairs.
Campbell was sometimes at odds with Republican GovernorDavid C. Treen, whom he claimed was aiming vetoes at projects in Campbell's senatorial district, including at one point a new roof for the Webster Parish Library in Minden, which years later built a new structure.[7] In 1982, Treen rejected funding for an industrial pact sought by Campbell. In hopes of enticing labor-intensive industries to relocate to Louisiana, Campbell proposed to earmark $30 million from the oil and natural gas surplus trust fund.[8] In 1983, Treen signed into law Campbell's bill to allow members of electric co-ops to come under Public Service Commission regulation. Under the law which Treen accepted after much wrangling, 20 percent of the membership must take part in any election in regard to enabling PSC jurisdiction over a utility company.[9]
In 1985, Campbell as a state senator lobbied Democratic GovernorEdwin Edwards, who was serving his third term at the time, to establish a savings account to support the newly established Bossier Educational Excellence Fund (BEEF). As a former teacher, Campbell proposed that the Bossier Parish school system share in tax revenue from theLouisiana Downs horse racetrack. The revenues were already being divided by other local governmental entities. Edwards said that the program should be called BEEF for theWendy's restaurant refrain at the time: "Where's the Beef?" By 2018, what began as $500,000 in tax funds from Louisiana Downs had grown, with the addition ofcasino revenues, to a $50 million investment.[10]
In 1992, State Senate PresidentSammy Nunez ofChalmette appointed Campbell as chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.[11] Three years later, Nunez removed Campbell from the chairmanship of a committee established to consider a proposed oil and natural gas processing tax on foreign energy imports. Campbell criticized Nunez: "As a legislator for thirty years, he supported billions of dollars in new taxes, including taxes on food, drugs, and utilities. He finally found a tax he doesn't like." Nunez replied that the processing tax could cost the state critically needed jobs.[12]
Over the years, Campbell easily won reelection to his Senate seat. In the nonpartisan blanket 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, an oil company owner fromSpringhill born in 1942,[13] trailed with 3,400 votes (21.5 percent). Ivan J. Edwards received 474 votes (3 percent), and Republican William F. "Bill" Lott, drew the remaining 835 ballots (5.3 percent)[14] In 1995, his opponent, Webster Parish educator Ralph Lamar Rentz, a perennial candidate from Minden, died of akidney ailment two days before the election.[15] With Rentz's death, Campbell withdrew from his automatic victory, and a second election was called.[16] Campbell then polled 21,652 votes (68 percent) to defeat three Republican candidates, Neil Fox, Roy Underwood, and Helaine George,[17] who was a former unsuccessful candidate for the state House of Representatives against DemocratEverett Doerge. After this victory, Campbell eyed a run for the Senate presidency.[18] Coincidentally, the day before Campbell's 1995 reelection, his predecessor in the office, Harold Montgomery, died.[19] Campbell did not win the Senate presidency, however, the position went to neighboring colleagueRandy L. Ewing ofQuitman inJackson Parish, who endorsed Campbell in the latter's 1995 state Senate race.
Campbell was an early critic of Republican GovernorMike Foster. He chastised the governor for refusal to keep schools open during the summer of 1996 and for other extended hours on the grounds that remediation services were needed in light of poor test scores for fourth graders. He also opposed Foster's proposed tax relief for the oil industry.[20]
In 1988, Campbell narrowly lost the congressional race to a former Roemer aide, RepublicanJim McCrery, a native and resident of Shreveport who was reared in Leesville. Roemer, however, was not supporting McCrery, but instead the DemocratStanley R. Tiner, the former editor of the since defunctShreveport Journal, a native of Webster Parish, andUnited States Marine veteran of theVietnam War.[21] During thatspecial election campaign, triggered by Roemer's resignation to become governor, Campbell was seriously injured in a single vehicle car crash when he drove the wrong way down an unfinished, unopened section ofInterstate 49 nearNatchitoches. His car dropped more than a foot in a section where concrete was missing from the roadway. The accident left him blind in his right eye and with several broken facial bones.[22] Campbell missed several days of campaigning and was forced to apologize for being on the closed highway: "I was wrong; that's all you can say. I made a mistake, and I'm paying for it."[23]
In that 1988 race, Campbell was challenged about his support for Governor Edwin Edwards' $1 billion tax hike. Campbell said that he voted for less than a third of the tax increases Edwards sought: "I told him to cut the budget, and he didn't."[24] Campbell ultimately lost to McCrery by some 1,500 votes, 50.2-49.8 percent.[25]In 1990, Campbell made this third and final 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 RepublicanJohn C. Fleming, a physician and businessman fromMinden, who held the seat for eight years.)
In 1984, Campbell considered running for the Public Service Commission when the two-term incumbent,Edward Kennon ofMinden, stepped down, but he did not seek the position at that time.[26]
In 2002, Campbell was elected from District 5 to the Public Service Commission, the statewide regulatory body in charge of public utilities and the petroleum industry. He narrowly unseated incumbentDonald Lynn "Don" Owen, a nativeOklahoman and a former news anchorman forKSLA-TV, theCBS affiliate in Shreveport. Campbell prevailed with 123,749 votes (50.7 percent) to Owen's 120,413 (49.3 percent).[27]
Campbell garnered 198,033 votes to Monroe Republican challenger Shane Smiley's 177,228 votes to claim his fourth six-year term representing the Fifth District on the Louisiana Public Service Commission in the November 3, 2020 election.[2]
In November 2006, Campbell informed the press that he was considering challenging incumbent GovernorKathleen Blanco, a fellow Democrat, in the 2007 primary election. He subsequently toured the state, raised money, and hired political consultant George Kennedy, who has been described by LAPolitics.com as "the state's hottest political consultant." The centerpiece of Campbell's platform was a proposal to repeal theexcise 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 fordiscretionary spending.
On March 19, 2007, in a press conference held in New Orleans, Campbell officially announced his gubernatorial candidacy. The next day, in apparent response to opinion polls showing that she would be unlikely to win re-election over Jindal, whom she had defeated in 2003, Blanco announced that she would not seek a second term as governor. Former U.S. SenatorJohn Breaux, a Democrat, was expected to announce his candidacy, but he bowed out on April 13. On April 26, another gubernatorial contender,Walter Boasso, the Republican state senator fromSt. Bernard Parish in south Louisiana, announced that he was returning to the Democratic Party. Campbell faced Jindal and Boasso in the nonpartisan blanket primary as well as aliberalindependent,John Georges of New Orleans. When asked to cite some of the differences between him and front-runner Jindal, Campbell says, "I understand rural people and agriculture. He has no idea what's going on in rural communities and agriculture. I work withblack people very well. I don’t think that he has a lot of communication with the black community."
In the gubernatorial race, Campbell polled 161,425 votes (12 percent) and won two parishes:Red River andBienville, both nearShreveport. He lost his home parish ofBossier Parish (20 percent) to the successful Republican candidate, Bobby Jindal (60 percent).
Had he been elected governor, Campbell would have been the fifth public service commissioner to move into the state's top position. Previously,Huey P. Long Jr.,Jimmie Davis,John McKeithen, and Blanco were public service commissioners.
Campbell was a Democratic candidate for theUnited States Senate vacated in January 2017 by David Vitter. The primary election coincided with thepresidential general election. Campbell's opponents included Republican U.S. RepresentativesJohn Fleming of Campbell's ownLouisiana's 4th congressional district andCharles Boustany ofLouisiana's 3rd congressional district,State TreasurerJohn Neely Kennedy, former U.S. RepresentativeJoseph Cao ofLouisiana's 1st congressional district, and Colonel Rob Maness ofMadisonville, a leader in theTea Party movement. Another Democrat, Caroline Fayard ofNew Orleans, also ran for the Senate seat, but Campbell carried the endorsement of GovernorJohn Bel Edwards, for whom he has been an advisor and for whom Campbell campaigned in the2015 election[28] against Senator Vitter, who subsequently announced his retirement from politics after his loss in the governor's race.[29]
The race received national attention: Campbell was invited for interviews onMSNBC andCNN.[30] Campbell faced Treasurer John Kennedy in the December 10 runoff contest; Kennedy, boosted by campaign appearances from U.S. President-electDonald Trump and Vice President-electMike Pence, won the runoff contest by twenty-one points.
THE INDEPENDENT WEEKLY 8/29/2007
| Louisiana State Senate | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theLouisiana Senate from the 36th district 1976–2002 | Succeeded by |
| Civic offices | ||
| Preceded by | Member of theLouisiana Public Service Commission from the 5th district 2003–present | Incumbent |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forU.S. Senator fromLouisiana (Class 3) 2016 | Most recent |
