When Edwin Edwards died earlier this month after serving four terms as governor of Louisiana in his heyday, the state was left with only one living former governor.
Three ex-governors died in less than two years before Edwards lost his long battle with respiratory problems on July 12 at age 93.
Buddy Roemer, who defeated Edwards in 1987 with the slogan of “slay the dragon,” died on May 17 just a couple of months before Edwards’ death.
Mike Foster, the multi-millionaire sugar cane farmer who had extensive oil and gas holdings but was portrayed as the blue collar candidate when he was elected in 1995, died in October of 2020.
Kathleen Blanco, the only woman elected as governor of the state, died of cancer in August of 2019. She succeeded Foster in the governor’s mansion in 2004.
The state’s only living former governor now is Bobby Jindal, the Ivy League policy wonk who served two terms from 2008 to 2016 and flirted for a few months with a campaign for the presidency.
Recognized over the decades for its intense statewide political climate and colorful candidates for public offices, Louisiana lost an inestimable wealth of governmental knowledge and experience with the death of the four ex-governors in such a short time frame.
All of them had accumulated extensive prowess and expertise in other elected positions in addition to being governor.
Edwards served three terms in the U.S. House from 1966 until 1972 and had earlier been elected to the Louisiana State Senate and the Crowley City Council.
Roemer spent four terms in Congress before becoming governor, and Foster served eight years in the State Senate leading up to his elevation to the state’s top political job.
Blanco had been lieutenant governor for eight years and a member of both the Louisiana House of Representatives and the state Public Service Commissioner before becoming governor.
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the state when she was in office, and Blanco decided not to seek a second term.
As Louisiana’s lone surviving ex-governor, Jindal was twice elected to the U.S. House and served in appointed positions as head of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals and president of the University of Louisiana System.
Jindal and the four former governors who died in the past two years had personal and political connections to Northwestern and Natchitoches themselves or through advisers and staff members.
NSU alumnus Danny Walker was the political consultant who had Roemer staffers wearing rubber bands around their wrists. They popped themselves when they had negative thoughts.
Roy Fletcher, a Northwestern grad and one of the state’s top political advisers for years, came up with the commercials of Foster riding a tractor and welding that helped the wealthy candidate connect with working class folks.
Blanco’s husband, Ray, was a huge political asset for her. He coached football at what was then the University of Southwestern Louisiana. Known statewide as “Coach,” he was at NSU often, had many friends here and recruited frequently in Natchitoches.
Edwards called Natchitoches “a microcosm of Louisiana” and liked to campaign here. Local State Senator Don Kelly was his chief floor leader, and he had kinfolks here among the Brouillette family that had roots in Edwards’ home parish of Avoyelles.
Jindal was in Natchitoches and at NSU numerous times in the late 1990s when he was president of the University of Louisiana System, which includes Northwestern and eight other schools.
He played tennis with local folks and enjoyed the restaurants here. Former Northwestern president Dr. Jim Henderson now serves in the statewide higher education post Jindal once held.
The loss in less than two years of long-time public figures like Edwin Edwards, Buddy Roemer, Kathleen Blanco and Mike Foster will diminish the state’s fascinating and colorful political culture.
REPRINTED FROM THE NATCHITOCHES TIMES