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Richard Baker | |
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| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromLouisiana's6th district | |
| In office January 3, 1987 – February 2, 2008 | |
| Preceded by | Henson Moore |
| Succeeded by | Don Cazayoux |
| Member of theLouisiana House of Representatives from theEast Baton Rouge Parish district | |
| In office 1972–1987 | |
| Preceded by |
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| Succeeded by | Michael McCleary |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Richard Hugh Baker (1948-05-22)May 22, 1948 (age 77) New Orleans,Louisiana, U.S. |
| Party |
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| Spouse | Kay Baker |
| Education | Louisiana State University (BA) |
Richard Hugh Baker (born May 22, 1948) is an American politician andlobbyist. He served as a member of theUnited States House of Representatives from 1987 to 2008,[1] representing the6th District ofLouisiana as aRepublican.
The son of aMethodist minister, Baker was born inNew Orleans and graduated fromLouisiana State University inBaton Rouge. He stayed in Baton Rouge after graduation and founded areal estate agency there. In 1971, just a year out of school, he was elected to theLouisiana House of Representatives as aDemocrat from a predominantlyblue-collar district in Baton Rouge and served eight terms. He became chairman of the Transportation Committee.
In 1986, Baker switched to the Republicans because of a long-running feud withGovernorEdwin Edwards. Soon afterwards, 6th District Republican congressmanHenson Moore, announced that he was running for theSenate seat being vacated by the retiringRussell B. Long. (Moore was defeated in that race by 7th District Democratic congressmanJohn Breaux). Moore encouraged Baker to run for the seat, which is based in Baton Rouge and includes most of that city's suburbs. Baker (51 percent) defeated DemocratsThomas H. Hudson (45 percent) and Willis Blackwell, Sr.(4 percent).[2] He became the fourth Republican to represent Louisiana in Congress sinceReconstruction and the second to win an undisputed victory in a contested election. He was reelected without opposition in 1988 and 1990. Baker quickly compiled a standard Republican voting record, in marked contrast to his Democratic roots, as evidenced by Baker's lifetime rating of 0.5 fromAmericans for Democratic Action, a progressive think tank.
In 1992, however, Louisiana lost a congressional seat as a result ofreapportionment after the 1990Census.Clyde C. Holloway ofForest Hill inRapides Parish, who had represented theAlexandria-based 8th District, was placed into Baker's district. Holloway had been elected along with Baker in 1986. Holloway led in thejungle primary with 37 percent. Baker received 33 percent and DemocratNed Randolph, then themayor of Alexandria, received 30 percent. In the Novembergeneral election, Holloway won 15 of the district's 17 parishes. Baker, however, crushed Holloway in the two largest parishes,Livingston Parish and his home base, East Baton Rouge Parish. This was enough to defeat Holloway by some 2,700 votes overall.
After being unopposed in 1994 and 1996, in 1998 Baker facedMarjorie McKeithen,daughter of longtime Republican Louisiana secretary of stateW. Fox McKeithen and granddaughter of Democratic former governorJohn McKeithen. Court-orderedredistricting before the 1996 elections had drawn considerably more blacks into the district than Baker had previously represented. Amid a nationwide backlash against Republicans for what was seen as overzealous behavior duringthe impeachment ofBill Clinton, Baker just barely held onto his seat by about one thousand votes, narrowly avoiding a runoff. He had a much easier time in 2000, winning 68 percent of the vote. Redistricting took some Democratic voters out of his district, including part ofPointe Coupee Parish, which helped Baker win against no major-party opposition in 2002 and two weak Democrats in 2004. In 2006, his only challenger was Libertarian Richard M. Fontanesi, and Baker won with 82 percent of the vote.
Baker was a former chairman of theHouse Financial Services Capital Markets Subcommittee, and served as its ranking Republican from 2007 to 2008. He was also a member of theTransportation and Infrastructure Committee andUnited States House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
According toThe Wall Street Journal, Baker caused some controversy in the aftermath ofHurricane Katrina when he was overheard tellinglobbyists: "We finally cleaned uppublic housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, butGod did." Baker, a longtime critic of the Housing Authority of New Orleans and the living conditions in New Orleans public housing, confirmed the quote and explained that his comment reflected his hope that the storm will provide an opportunity to move New Orleans's poor from decrepit public housing and into clean and safe housing.[3]
In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina andRita, Baker proposed a plan to rebuild Louisiana. Commonly known as "The Baker Plan," Baker introduced legislation to create the Louisiana Recovery Corporation. The LRC would have been initially financed by the issuance of federal government bonds and would use the funds to buy properties from homeowners and business in the most devastated areas of the state. The LRC would then clean the property and sell clean titles to developers, who would then redevelop the properties in accordance with plans developed by the local governments and civic groups. The proceeds of the sales to the developers would have been used to repay the bonds used to initial finance the LRC, paying the government back for their initial loan. The homeowners would have had the option to accept the buyout and walk away, accept the buyout and retain an option to return, or refuse to sell and repair their property themselves. On the advice of Recovery TsarDonald E. Powell, President Bush killed the LRC when he publicly announced his opposition to the bill.
On January 15, 2008, Baker announced his intention to resign from Congress to take a lobbying position with theManaged Funds Association. He left office on February 2, 2008.[1] This triggered aspecial election, won by DemocratDon Cazayoux, who defeated Republican and former DemocratWoody Jenkins. Cazayoux was defeated in the regular election later in 2008 by RepublicanBill Cassidy, who later became the state's senior U.S. senator.
{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromLouisiana's 6th congressional district 1987–2008 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former U.S. Representative | Order of precedence of the United States as Former U.S. Representative | Succeeded byas Former U.S. Representative |
