David C. Treen
Encyclopedia
David Conner "Dave" Treen, Sr. (July 16, 1928 – October 29, 2009), 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. House of Representatives from his state.
A narrow victor in the gubernatorial general election held in 1979, Treen served as governor from 1980–84. He lost his bid for reelection in 1983 to his long-time rival, Democrat
Edwin Edwards
. He served in Congress from 1973 to 1980. Treen grew up as a Democrat, but became a Republican in 1962 when there were only about ten thousand registered Republicans in the state. At the time of Treen's death in 2009, only a few other living Louisiana Republicans had exceeded his length of tenure in the GOP
.
to Joseph Paul Treen, Sr. (1900–1986), and the former Elizabeth Speir (1899–1990). He graduated in 1945 from Alcee Fortier High School in New Orleans. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1948 in history and political science
from Tulane University
in New Orleans. While at Tulane, he was a brother of Kappa Sigma
fraternity. In 1950, he graduated from Tulane Law School and was admitted to the bar. In 1951, he wed the former Dolores "Dodi" Brisbi (November 23, 1929 – March 19, 2005), a graduate of Newcomb College in New Orleans, whom he met while he was attending Tulane. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1951 to 1952. Treen joined the law firm of Deutsch, Kerrigan & Stiles. He was also a vice president of the Simplex Manufacturing
Corporation of New Orleans from 1952–57.
The Treens had three children, Jennifer Treen Neville (born ca. 1952), Dr. David C. Treen, Jr. and Cynthia Treen Lunceford (born April 2, 1954), and nine grandchildren. He had two brothers, Joseph Paul Treen, Jr. (deceased) and John Speir Treen
. Treen's eldest grandson, Jason Stewart Neville (born May 21, 1979), was one of the founding members of the Green Party
of Louisiana and ran unsuccessfully in 2003 for the Louisiana State Senate.
and John F. Kennedy
as president and ran as an elector for the Louisiana States' Rights Party
, which supported Virginia
Democratic U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. In addition to Treen, the States' Rights electors included former State Senator William M. Rainach
of Claiborne Parish (a defeated 1959 gubernatorial candidate) and Plaquemines Parish Judge Leander Perez
, who was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church because of his outspoken opposition to racial integration. Another elector was the "Radical Right" figure Kent Courtney
of New Orleans and later Alexandria
. Still another was the anti-Long former Congressman Jared Y. Sanders, Jr.
, of Baton Rouge, son of former Governor Jared Y. Sanders, Sr.
Treen made it clear that his states' rights group was not affiliated with the National States' Rights Party
, a group considered neo-Nazi, and, in Treen's words, "a disgrace to the term 'states rights.'" Treen's elector slate polled 169,572 ballots (21%) statewide. Jefferson Parish, Treen's residence, which would later support him in most of his campaigns, rejected the States' Righters and instead supported Kennedy with 51.8%. Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
electors received 230,980 (28.6%) in Louisiana, and Kennedy-Johnson won the state's ten electoral votes with 407,339 (50.4%). One of the Kennedy electors was popular State Attorney General Jack P.F. Gremillion
, a part of the Earl Kemp Long organization, who would fall to scandal a dozen years later. Another was Edmund Reggie
of Crowley, Louisiana
, a confidant of future Governor Edwin Edwards and future father-in-law of Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts
.
(1914–1972), of New Orleans though Treen's father had urged him instead to challenge Boggs for renomination in the Democratic primary. Treen, as a young Democrat in 1956, had supported then Republican congressional nominee George R. Blue
in Blue's failed race against Boggs that year. Blue later switched to the Democrats and won election to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1964.
Treen joined the Republican Party at a time when it was all but nonexistent in Louisiana. Under the circumstances, Treen was able to raise only $11,000 for his 1962 and polled 27,791 votes (32.8 percent) to Boggs' 57,395 (67.2 percent).
In 1964, Treen again challenged Boggs and improved on his earlier showing, helped by the popularity in Louisiana of the presidential candidacy of U.S. Senator Barry M. Goldwater and by Boggs' vote for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, even as most Southern Democrats voted against it. In that campaign, Treen polled 62,881 (45 percent) to Boggs' 77,009 (55%). In 1966, Treen did not run for Congress; the GOP fielded the attorney Leonard L. Limes of New Orleans, who was badly defeated by Boggs. So, Treen tried again in 1968– his third and final campaign against Boggs, then the House majority whip. Boggs became majority leader in 1971 and was in line for Speaker. California Governor Ronald Reagan
came into the district to campaign for Treen. This time, Treen almost defeated Boggs, receiving 77,633 votes (48.8%) to Boggs' 81,537 ballots (51.2%).
Treen attributed Boggs' victory to the supporters of former Alabama
Governor George C. Wallace, who ran for president on the American Independent Party
ticket. Treen claimed that Wallace supporters "became very cool to my candidacy. We couldn't really believe they would support Boggs, but several Democratic organizations did come out for Wallace and Boggs, and he received just enough Wallace votes to give him the election". Treen did not contest the election.
in Franklin Parish
, who grew up in Mangham
in Richland Parish in north Louisiana. Ross graduated from Mangham High School in 1951 and procured a bachelor of science degree in agriculture from Louisiana State University
in Baton Rouge. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force
, fought in the Vietnam War
, and was a major in the Air Force Reserves. After his military service, Ross returned to Mangham, where he was involved in a number of small businesses, including a mobile home
park. In the 1971 primary, Treen carried the support of the party leadership, including chairman Charles deGravelles
of Lafayette
. Treen received 92 percent of the vote (9,732 votes) to Ross's 8% percent (839 votes). Ross challenged Treen again for governor in 1983 and ran far behind in races for the United States Senate in 1984 and 1986.
, a son of GOP pioneer Charlton Lyons
of Shreveport, withdrew after Edwards predicted his own victory based on the premise that Lyons and Treen would split the more conservative vote. Lyons said that his decision to leave the race was intended to allow conservatives to unite behind Treen.
Treen also shared the Republican ticket with other candidates. Morley A. Hudson
and Tom Stagg
, both of Shreveport
, ran for lieutenant governor and attorney general
respectively, against Jimmy Fitzmorris
and William J. Guste
. Robert L. Frye
, a native of Webster Parish
in northwest Louisiana and a professor at Southeastern Louisiana University
in Hammond
, ran for state education superintendent against the Democratic nominee Louis J. Michot
. Edwards scoffed at his challenger: "If Treen had been a registered Democrat in the November 6 Democratic primary, he'd have gotten lost in the shuffle. Yet, while his only claim of any kind of legitimacy is that he's a Republican, he deliberately avoids use of the word 'Republican' on any of his campaign paraphernalia. He's apparently ashamed of the fact that he'a a Republican."
Treen polled 480,424 ballots (42.8%) to Edwards's 641,146 (57.2%) Treen carried twenty-seven parishes, mostly in the northern part of the state, with margins exceeding 60 percent in ten of those parishes. His tally was some 5 percentage points higher than what Charlton Lyons
had scored in 1964 against John McKeithen
. The confident and charismatic Edwards proclaimed that his administration would be an "Era of Excellence". The Shreveport Times and its sister publication, the former Monroe Morning World (now Monroe News Star
), analyzed the gubernatorial returns and concluded that Edwards received 202,055 black votes to only 10,709 for Treen. As Edwards' statewide margin was 160,000, the survey concluded that African Americans made the difference. The newspapers said that Treen received some 30,000 more votes from whites than did Edwards. Another source said that Treen, who was named Republican national committeeman after his gubernatorial race, received the backing of 55% of white voters but only 2% among African Americans.
Numerous Republican legislative candidates ran on the Treen ticket but most outside of Shreveport, Baton Rouge, and Jefferson Parish were defeated. The Treen loyalist Bob Reese
, for instance, failed in a state senate race from Natchitoches Parish
against the Democrat Paul L. Foshee
.
and National Committeewoman Virginia Martinez
of New Orleans. Martinez was also the treasurer of the national party conventions in 1980 and 1984.
In the fall of 1972, based in part on the strength of his losing gubernatorial race, Treen ran for the open Third District House seat vacated by conservative Democrat Patrick T. Caffery
of New Iberia, the seat of Iberia Parish in south Louisiana. He was a surprise winner, helped in part by the popularity of the Nixon-Agnew
ticket, which carried sixty-three of the sixty-four parishes (the exception being: West Feliciana Parish) in traditionally Democratic Louisiana. Treen defeated Democrat J. Louis Watkins, Jr., of Houma
, 71,090 (54%) to 60,521 (46%). His home parish of Jefferson helped to push Treen over the top with a 73% share of the vote.
Treen served in the congressional seat from 1973 until 1980, when he resigned to become governor. As a congressman, he voted right-of-center and usually in accord with his party. He was considered a team player among House Republicans. In 1974, Treen won a comfortable reelection in a nationally Democratic year. He defeated State Representative Charles Grisbaum, Jr.
, of Jefferson Parish, who became a close friend. Grisbaum later switched parties, and when Treen became governor in 1980, Grisbaum served as one of Treen's floor leaders in the Louisiana House. In 1975, Treen was joined by his first Louisiana Republican colleague in the U.S. House when Henson Moore
(born 1939) won the Sixth Congressional District seat based in and about Baton Rouge and the Florida Parishes
. Moore won the seat formerly held by the Democrat John Rarick
. In 1976, Treen polled 73.3 percent in a race against a nominal Democratic opponent while the Democrat Jimmy Carter
carried Louisiana over Gerald R. Ford.
of Ascension Parish (282,708 votes) and outgoing Lieutenant Governor James E. "Jimmy" Fitzmorris, Jr.
, of New Orleans (280,412 votes).
In the Treen-Lambert general election, the defeated Democratic candidates, including the disappointed Fitzmorris, House Speaker E. L. Henry
of Jonesboro
, and State Senators Paul Hardy
of St. Martinville
and Edgar G. "Sonny" Mouton, Jr., of Lafayette
, all endorsed Treen. Their support helped him to defeat Lambert by 9,557 votes. Treen received 690,691 (50.3%) to Lambert's 681,134 (49.7%). He won 22 parishes in victory, compared to 27 parishes in defeat in 1972. Only ten parishes that had voted for Treen in 1972 stuck with him in 1979. His strongest parishes in victory were all in south Louisiana: Plaquemines, Lafayette, St. Tammany, and Iberia.
In the losing 1972 campaign, all of Treen's strong parishes were in north Louisiana. The election of 1979 seemed to indicate that Lafayette would in time replace Shreveport as the new growth center of the Louisiana GOP. Treen's victory came from Republican inroads made in the Edwards stronghold of Acadiana
, particularly Lafayette, Iberia, Terrebonne
, Acadia, and St. Martin parishes, where the GOP nominee overcame large deficits from 1972 to win in 1979. Treen received only 3.1% of the black vote in victory, nearly identical to his black support in 1972 in defeat.
In March 1980, aged 51, Treen became the 51st governor of his state. He made full use of his power to appoint members of state boards and commissions. He named the Alexandria businessman and philanthropist Roy O. Martin, Jr., to the Louisiana Board of Commerce and Industry. He named John Henry Baker
to the Louisiana Athletic Commission, since renamed the Louisiana State Boxing and Wrestling Commission. Martin and Baker were both delegates to the 1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit, Michigan. He named the Louisiana Tech University
English professor Robert C. Snyder
to the Louisiana State Ethics Commission, a position that Snyder held for twenty-six years, including a stint as chairman.
Treen reappointed Shreveport attorney Robert G. Pugh
to the Louisiana Board of Regents
created by the Constitution of 1974, which Pugh had helped to write. Pugh, who was an advisor to Treen on numerous issues, also presented a plan to preserve coastal wetlands through a tax on energy, but the legislature declined to approve it. He appointed Robert DeBlieux
, the outgoing Democratic mayor of Natchitoches as the state's chief preservation officer. DeBleiux had been instrumental in obtaining designation of the Natchitoches Historic District
in the middle 1970s. When Treen assumed office, only 10 of the 105 members of the Louisians House of Representatives
were Republican, and all 39 state senators were Democrats.
, a statewide high school on the campus of Northwestern State University
in Natchitoches
for the gifted, the establishment of the Department of Environmental Quality, and the appointment of more minorities to state positions. Two Treen campaign confidants, John H. Cade, Jr.
, of Alexandria and William "Billy" Nungesser of New Orleans, worked as unpaid advisors in the administration. Cade had also managed Treen's successful congressional races in 1972, 1974, 1976, and 1978. He directed the successful 1979 gubernatorial race as well as the disastrous 1983 reelection attempt. Cade was the Republican state chairman from 1976 to 1978, and Nungesser chaired the GOP central committee as well from 1988 to 1992.
Treen rewarded all of the Democratic gubernatorial candidates who endorsed him. Jimmy Fitzmorris became Executive Assistant for Economic Development. Edgar Mouton was named executive counsel to Treen, but he later abandoned the administration and endorsed the return of Edwin Edwards to the governorship in 1983. Speaker E.L. Henry became the powerful Commissioner of Administration. Louisiana Secretary of State Paul Hardy became secretary of the Department of Transportation and Development, with the former Republican mayor of Minden
, Tom Colten
, as his assistant. Edwards loyalist George Fischer was named secretary of the Department of Health and Human Resources, one of the largest departments in state government. Many of the Democrat legislators remained loyal to Edwards, who operated a "shadow government" from the sidelines. Edwards said on leaving office in 1980 that he was on "a brief, mandated hiatus and would be back" in 1983.
Treen obtained legislative passage of his "Professional Improvement Program" (or PIPs) for public school teachers, but the program was dropped in the next Edwards administration. PIPs allowed instructors to obtain small pay increases for taking college-level courses and/or attending intensive workshops to improve teaching performance. Problems developed when numerous teachers signed up only for classes with few academic requirements and shunned the more rigorous courses. Such action thereby negated the purpose of Treen's reform.
Treen signed into law a measure authored by State Senator Bill P. Keith
of Shreveport which required balanced treatment in public school instruction regarding evolution
and creation science
. The measure was struck down in 1987, after Treen had left office, by the United States Supreme Court in the case Edwards v. Aguillard
.
Treen worked with the Lafayette delegation, including Representatives Mike Thompson and Ron Gomez
, for construction of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Ragin' Cajuns stadium, the Cajundome
. Construction began in 1982 and was completed and dedicated late in 1985, by which time Edwards had returned to the office.
During his gubernatorial term, Treen developed a reputation for indecision and micromanagement of details which frustrated supporters and angered adversaries.His failure to push for strong conservative policies and governmental reforms disappointed many Republican allies, as did his refusal to oust from his administration allies of former governor and his past and future rival, Democrat Edwin Edwards.
Treen had difficulty with the lieutenant governor, Democrat Robert "Bobby" Freeman, a former state representative from Plaquemine
in Iberville Parish. Freeman, considered a liberal by Louisiana standards, vowed to exercise gubernatorial powers, as permitted under the state constitution, whenever Treen left the state, either on business or pleasure. In 1983, Freeman supported the return of Edwin Edwards as governor. Freeman easily won re-election in 1983 by defeating Edwards' first lieutenant governor, Democrat Jimmy Fitzmorris.
Treen presided over resumption of use of the capital punishment in Louisiana. Two convicts were executed by electric chair
during his tenure.
case– which supported him in all three of his gubernatorial bids. Treen received 586,643 (36.3%) to Edwards' 1,008,282 (62.4%). Another 1.3% was cast for minor candidates, one of whom was Robert Ross, who had also been Treen's primary rival in 1971. Treen polled roughly 104,000 fewer votes in losing in 1983 than he had in winning in 1979. Edwards polled more than 400,000 votes beyond what Louis Lambert had received four years earlier.
Billy J. Guin, a Shreveport Republican leader who managed Treen's northwest Louisiana campaign in 1972, said that Treen refused to show favoritism to anyone and went out of his way to demonstrate fairness to his political opponents. "It got to the point that he would not take phone calls from his longtime supporters because he did not want to tell them 'No'. This of course alienated his own supporters and contributed to his defeat in 1983", Guin said. Guin blamed the legislature, still largely under the domination of Edwards even during the Treen years, for contributing to Treen's defeat.In addition to Treen's own defeat, several Democratic allies of the Republican governor were unseated in the state Senate, including Dan Richey
of Ferriday
in Concordia Parish and Edward G. "Ned" Randolph, Jr.
, of Alexandria in Rapides Parish.
in New Orleans created by the death of veteran Judge Albert Tate, Jr.
However, the appointment was delayed by Democratic senators on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee who objected to Treen's past membership in the States' Rights Party and also to other unsubstantiated allegations. Treen withdrew his name from consideration in late April 1988, saying that he "could not afford to defer my professional and business activities" any longer, and that "some persons on the Democrat-controlled committee would just as soon see the vacancy go unfilled until after the election....in the hope that a Democrat will succeed to the White House." However, the Senate wound up confirming Reagan's second choice, attorney John Malcolm Duhé, Jr.
, a New Iberia
, later Lafayette, lawyer, who was the son-in-law of New Orleans Congressman F. Edward Hebert and former law partner of retired 3rd District Congressman Patrick T. Caffery. Another of Congressman Caffery's former law partners, Eugene Davis, was named to the federal bench in 1976 by President Gerald Ford and now sits on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, where Duhé had served.
sman and state Representative David Duke
, by then a perennial candidate
who was troublesome to the GOP and the business community. Though Duke claimed to have ended his ties to the KKK, there was lingering suspicion that he was still in contact with neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic, and other radical elements. Ironically, Duke won his single victory for public office, a seat in the state House of Representatives, by narrowly defeating Treen's brother, John S. Treen
, a home builder in Jefferson Parish. Many Republicans blamed John Treen's lackluster campaign in that race for Duke's emergence as a major player in the 1990 U.S. Senate race, when he made a noticeable bid against incumbent Johnston, and in the 1991 gubernatorial election, when Duke secured a general election berth. A new interest group, the Louisiana Coalition against Racism and Nazism, appeared to fight the Duke gubernatorial candidacy. Among its leaders was the Republican political activist and longtime Treen supporter, Beth Rickey
of New Orleans.
, who left Congress in a sex scandal amid the House vote on the impeachment
of President Bill Clinton
. This was the eighth election that Treen's name appeared on a Louisiana ballot for Congress.
In the special election with David Duke, also trying to score a comeback, and Republican state Representative David Vitter
, Treen finished first with 36,719 votes (25%) to Vitter's 31,741 (22%) and Duke's 28,055 (19%). (Six other candidates, including New Orleans businessman Rob Couhig
, shared the remaining 33% of the votes cast.) In the low-turnout special election runoff, Vitter defeated Treen, 61,661 ballots (51%) to 59,849 (49%), a margin of 1,812 votes. The race against Vitter was a bitter contest, with attacks flying back and forth. Many of Vitter's colleagues in the state legislature, including Republicans, supported Treen and charged that Vitter was difficult to work with as a legislator. Duke endorsed Treen over Vitter, perhaps to get back at Treen, hoping to defeat him, because Treen had supported Edwards against Duke in 1991. Vitter ultimately won the seat. In 2005, Vitter left the House to become the first Republican to be elected to the U.S. Senate from Louisiana since Reconstruction.
, at the age of 75, but the party leadership coalesced behind Bobby Jindal
. Treen withdrew from the pre-primary race and worked for Jindal's election. Jindal lost the general election to Democratic Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Lafayette (who actually lost Lafayette Parish in the election). A year later, Jindal filled the House seat that Vitter vacated to become senator, the same seat that Treen had lost in his last campaign for elective office. Treen even discussed running for governor again in 2007 but never filed candidacy papers. In 2007, Jindal won the governor's election outright in the primary. Treen's old rival and reluctant ally, Edwin Edwards, meanwhile, went to prison for racketeering connected with his fourth gubernatorial term, the one that Treen had reluctantly blessed in preference to his greater nemesis, David Duke. Treen had urged then President George W. Bush
to pardon Edwards or to commute his sentence to the time already served.
There was also speculation that Edwards actually voted for Treen in the 1979 election because he preferred to face Treen again in 1983, rather than the other Democratic possibilities who were running for governor against Treen. Earl Long similarly often quietly voted for the "anti-Long" gubernatorial candidate himself to set up a potential new governor for failure. Long would then run for governor again four years later against the "failed" (in Long's eyes) governor's stand-in. That was before Louisiana governors could succeed themselves in office.
In 1997, Treen became the first Republican inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame
in Winnfield.
to succeed Bobby Jindal
, who was elected governor. He cited his experience and political ties in Washington, D.C. as reasons for his candidacy.
Treen had lost a race for this same seat in a 1999 special election to current U.S. Senator David Vitter
. Four Republicans filed for the seat, and two faced an April 5 runoff election restricted to registered party members: State Representative Timothy G. Burns
and State Senator Steve Scalise
. Scalise won the runoff and a month later defeated Democrat Gilda Reed, a favorite of organized labor and the party's constituent groups.
Treen withdrew from consideration on January 28. Treen endorsed the reelection of Democratic U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu
in her 2008 race against Republican state Treasurer John Neely Kennedy, who resided in Mandeville, where Treen lived at the time.
in Metairie. Condolences and kinds words poured in from around the state, typified by Southeastern Louisiana University
president John L. Crain
's tribute that Treen "was a true Louisiana icon, a Republican governor in Louisiana before it was cool". His body lay in state at the Louisiana State Capitol
following a memorial service on November 2, 2009. A second memorial service was held at St. Timothy United Methodist Church in Mandeville
on November 3. The family requested memorials to, among several charities, the Methodist Children's Home in Mandeville.
Republican State Chairman Roger F. Villere, Jr.
, of Metairie called the former governor "a courageous man who loved our country and our state. He fought the political establishment in the 1960s and 1970s when it was very difficult to elect a Republican in our state, and his career in political office was marked with integrity and fiscal discipline. It is important for younger voters to understand that Louisiana's commitment to high ethical standards and the existence of a viable two-party system in our state are relatively new developments. Just a quarter century ago, neither existed in a significant way. Dave Treen laid the foundation to change all that, and for that, millions of Louisiana citizens owe him a profound debt of gratitude."
Mandeville, Louisiana
Mandeville is a city in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 12,421 in 2008. Mandeville is located on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain, south of Interstate 12. It is across the lake from the city of New Orleans and its southshore suburbs...
– the first 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...
Governor of the U.S. state of Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
since Reconstruction. He was the first Republican in modern times to have served in the U.S. House of Representatives from his state.
A narrow victor in the gubernatorial general election held in 1979, Treen served as governor from 1980–84. He lost his bid for reelection in 1983 to his long-time rival, Democrat
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...
Edwin Edwards
Edwin Edwards
Edwin Washington Edwards served as the Governor of Louisiana for four terms , twice as many terms as any other Louisiana chief executive has served. Edwards was also Louisiana's first Roman Catholic governor in the 20th century...
. He served in Congress from 1973 to 1980. Treen grew up as a Democrat, but became a Republican in 1962 when there were only about ten thousand registered Republicans in the state. At the time of Treen's death in 2009, only a few other living Louisiana Republicans had exceeded his length of tenure in the GOP
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...
.
Early years and family
Treen was born in Baton RougeBaton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...
to Joseph Paul Treen, Sr. (1900–1986), and the former Elizabeth Speir (1899–1990). He graduated in 1945 from Alcee Fortier High School in New Orleans. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1948 in history and political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
from Tulane University
Tulane University
Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...
in New Orleans. While at Tulane, he was a brother of Kappa Sigma
Kappa Sigma
Kappa Sigma , commonly nicknamed Kappa Sig, is an international fraternity with currently 282 active chapters and colonies in North America. Kappa Sigma has initiated more than 240,000 men on college campuses throughout the United States and Canada. Today, the Fraternity has over 175,000 living...
fraternity. In 1950, he graduated from Tulane Law School and was admitted to the bar. In 1951, he wed the former Dolores "Dodi" Brisbi (November 23, 1929 – March 19, 2005), a graduate of Newcomb College in New Orleans, whom he met while he was attending Tulane. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1951 to 1952. Treen joined the law firm of Deutsch, Kerrigan & Stiles. He was also a vice president of the Simplex Manufacturing
Manufacturing
Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...
Corporation of New Orleans from 1952–57.
The Treens had three children, Jennifer Treen Neville (born ca. 1952), Dr. David C. Treen, Jr. and Cynthia Treen Lunceford (born April 2, 1954), and nine grandchildren. He had two brothers, Joseph Paul Treen, Jr. (deceased) and John Speir Treen
John S. Treen
John Speir Treen is a retired homebuilder from Metairie in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, who lost a 1989 special election for the Louisiana House of Representatives to the former Ku Klux Klansman David Duke. Treen is the older brother of the late David C. Treen, the first Republican governor of...
. Treen's eldest grandson, Jason Stewart Neville (born May 21, 1979), was one of the founding members of the Green Party
Green Party (United States)
The Green Party of the United States is a nationally recognized political party which officially formed in 1991. It is a voluntary association of state green parties. Prior to national formation, many state affiliates had already formed and were recognized by other state parties...
of Louisiana and ran unsuccessfully in 2003 for the Louisiana State Senate.
States' Rights Party elector candidate, 1960
In 1960, Treen opposed the election of both Richard NixonRichard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
and John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
as president and ran as an elector for the Louisiana States' Rights Party
Dixiecrat
The States' Rights Democratic Party was a short-lived segregationist political party in the United States in 1948...
, which supported Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
Democratic U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. In addition to Treen, the States' Rights electors included former State Senator William M. Rainach
William M. Rainach
William Monroe Rainach, Sr., known as Willie Rainach , was a state legislator from rural Summerfield in Claiborne Parish who led Louisiana's "Massive Resistance" to desegregation during the last half of the 1950s...
of Claiborne Parish (a defeated 1959 gubernatorial candidate) and Plaquemines Parish Judge Leander Perez
Leander Perez
Leander Henry Perez, Sr. , was the Democratic political boss of Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes in southeastern Louisiana during the middle third of the 20th century. Officially, he served as a district judge, later as district attorney, and as president of the Plaquemines Parish Commission...
, who was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church because of his outspoken opposition to racial integration. Another elector was the "Radical Right" figure Kent Courtney
Kent Courtney
Kent Harbinson Courtney was a leading figure in the "Radical Right" of American politics from the 1950s to the 1970s. Courtney was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, but his family moved to New Orleans, when he was a young child...
of New Orleans and later Alexandria
Alexandria, Louisiana
Alexandria is a city in and the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes....
. Still another was the anti-Long former Congressman Jared Y. Sanders, Jr.
Jared Y. Sanders, Jr.
Jared Young Sanders, Jr. , was a prominent Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, the Louisiana State Senate, and the United States House of Representatives, perhaps best known for his conservative opposition to legendary Governor and U.S...
, of Baton Rouge, son of former Governor Jared Y. Sanders, Sr.
Jared Y. Sanders, Sr.
Jared Young Sanders, Sr. , was a journalist and attorney from Franklin, the seat of St. Mary Parish in south Louisiana, who served as his state's House Speaker , lieutenant governor , the 34th Governor , and U.S. representative...
Treen made it clear that his states' rights group was not affiliated with the National States' Rights Party
National States' Rights Party
National States' Rights Party was a far right, white supremacist party that briefly played a minor role in the politics of the United States.-Foundation:...
, a group considered neo-Nazi, and, in Treen's words, "a disgrace to the term 'states rights.'" Treen's elector slate polled 169,572 ballots (21%) statewide. Jefferson Parish, Treen's residence, which would later support him in most of his campaigns, rejected the States' Righters and instead supported Kennedy with 51.8%. Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. was a Republican United States Senator from Massachusetts and a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, South Vietnam, West Germany, and the Holy See . He was the Republican nominee for Vice President in the 1960 Presidential election.-Early life:Lodge was born in Nahant,...
electors received 230,980 (28.6%) in Louisiana, and Kennedy-Johnson won the state's ten electoral votes with 407,339 (50.4%). One of the Kennedy electors was popular State Attorney General Jack P.F. Gremillion
Jack P.F. Gremillion
Jack Paul Faustin Gremillion, Sr. , was the Democratic attorney general of Louisiana from 1956-1972. He was a member of the Earl Kemp Long political faction. Though he opposed school desegregation, he was a party loyalist and was an elector for the John F. Kennedy--Lyndon B. Johnson presidential...
, a part of the Earl Kemp Long organization, who would fall to scandal a dozen years later. Another was Edmund Reggie
Edmund Reggie
Edmund M. Reggie, Sr. , is a Democratic politician and former city judge from Louisiana. Reggie is originally from the rice-growing city of Crowley, the seat of Acadia Parish, but resides in Lafayette. He still claims that he maintains the record of being the youngest person to serve as a judge in...
of Crowley, Louisiana
Crowley, Louisiana
Crowley is a city in and the parish seat of Acadia Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 14,225 at the 2000 census. The city is noted for its annual International Rice Festival. Crowley has the nickname of "Rice Capital of America", because at one time it was a major center for...
, a confidant of future Governor Edwin Edwards and future father-in-law of Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
.
Republican for Congress, 1962, 1964, and 1968
Treen joined the Republican Party (GOP), then still small in Louisiana, in 1962 to run for the U.S. House of Representatives against Second District Democrat Hale BoggsHale Boggs
Thomas Hale Boggs Sr. , was an American Democratic politician and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Orleans, Louisiana...
(1914–1972), of New Orleans though Treen's father had urged him instead to challenge Boggs for renomination in the Democratic primary. Treen, as a young Democrat in 1956, had supported then Republican congressional nominee George R. Blue
George R. Blue
George R. Blue, Sr. , was a New Orleans attorney who served from 1964 to 1972 a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Jefferson Parish in the New Orleans suburbs....
in Blue's failed race against Boggs that year. Blue later switched to the Democrats and won election to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1964.
Treen joined the Republican Party at a time when it was all but nonexistent in Louisiana. Under the circumstances, Treen was able to raise only $11,000 for his 1962 and polled 27,791 votes (32.8 percent) to Boggs' 57,395 (67.2 percent).
In 1964, Treen again challenged Boggs and improved on his earlier showing, helped by the popularity in Louisiana of the presidential candidacy of U.S. Senator Barry M. Goldwater and by Boggs' vote for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, even as most Southern Democrats voted against it. In that campaign, Treen polled 62,881 (45 percent) to Boggs' 77,009 (55%). In 1966, Treen did not run for Congress; the GOP fielded the attorney Leonard L. Limes of New Orleans, who was badly defeated by Boggs. So, Treen tried again in 1968– his third and final campaign against Boggs, then the House majority whip. Boggs became majority leader in 1971 and was in line for Speaker. California Governor Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
came into the district to campaign for Treen. This time, Treen almost defeated Boggs, receiving 77,633 votes (48.8%) to Boggs' 81,537 ballots (51.2%).
Treen attributed Boggs' victory to the supporters of former Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
Governor George C. Wallace, who ran for president on the 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...
ticket. Treen claimed that Wallace supporters "became very cool to my candidacy. We couldn't really believe they would support Boggs, but several Democratic organizations did come out for Wallace and Boggs, and he received just enough Wallace votes to give him the election". Treen did not contest the election.
Primary opposition from Robert M. Ross
Treen was challenged in the only Republican gubernatorial closed primary ever held in Louisiana. His opponent was Robert Max Ross (August 5, 1933 – September 15, 2009), a native of BaskinBaskin, Louisiana
Baskin is a village in Franklin Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 188 at the 2000 census. Baskin is located north of the parish seat of Winnsboro.-History:...
in Franklin Parish
Franklin Parish, Louisiana
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 21,263 people, 7,754 households, and 5,706 families residing in the parish. The population density was 34 people per square mile . There were 8,623 housing units at an average density of 14 per square mile...
, who grew up in Mangham
Mangham, Louisiana
Mangham is a village in Richland Parish in northeastern Louisiana, United States. The population was 595 at the 2000 census. Mangham was established in 1890. It is named for Wyley P...
in Richland Parish in north Louisiana. Ross graduated from Mangham High School in 1951 and procured a bachelor of science degree in agriculture from Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
in Baton Rouge. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
, fought in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, and was a major in the Air Force Reserves. After his military service, Ross returned to Mangham, where he was involved in a number of small businesses, including a mobile home
Mobile home
Mobile homes or static caravans are prefabricated homes built in factories, rather than on site, and then taken to the place where they will be occupied...
park. In the 1971 primary, Treen carried the support of the party leadership, including chairman Charles deGravelles
Charles deGravelles
Charles Camille deGravelles, Jr., known as Charlie deGravelles , was a Lafayette oil and gas landman who was a pioneer in the development of the Republican Party in the formerly historically Democratic state of Louisiana. Known as the “Mr...
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...
. Treen received 92 percent of the vote (9,732 votes) to Ross's 8% percent (839 votes). Ross challenged Treen again for governor in 1983 and ran far behind in races for the United States Senate in 1984 and 1986.
1972 general election against Edwin Edwards
For the general election against Edwards held on February 1, 1972, Treen campaigned vigorously with billboards which said, "Make a Real Change," and television spots too, but he still lost. His chances seemed to improve when the American Party nominee, Hall M. Lyons (1923–1998) of LafayetteLafayette, 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...
, a son of GOP pioneer Charlton Lyons
Charlton Lyons
Charlton Havard Lyons, Sr., also known as Big Papa Lyons , was a Shreveport oilman who in 1964 waged the first determined Republican bid for the Louisiana governorship since Reconstruction. Lyons also made a strong but losing bid for the United States House of Representatives in a special election...
of Shreveport, withdrew after Edwards predicted his own victory based on the premise that Lyons and Treen would split the more conservative vote. Lyons said that his decision to leave the race was intended to allow conservatives to unite behind Treen.
Treen also shared the Republican ticket with other candidates. 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...
and Tom Stagg
Tom Stagg
Thomas Eaton "Tom" Stagg, Jr. , is a Louisiana attorney, businessman, politician, and jurist who has served as a United States federal judge for the Western District of Louisiana since his appointment by President Richard Nixon in the spring of 1974...
, both 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....
, ran for lieutenant governor and attorney general
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
respectively, against Jimmy Fitzmorris
Jimmy Fitzmorris
James Edward "Jimmy" Fitzmorris, Jr. , is a New Orleans businessman and civic leader who was the Democratic Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana from 1972–1980...
and William J. Guste
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...
. Robert L. Frye
Robert L. Frye
Robert Lafayette Frye was an educator and politician from the U.S. state of Louisiana.-Early years and education:Frye was born to Jennings Bryan Frye, Sr...
, a native of Webster Parish
Webster Parish, Louisiana
Webster Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The seat of the parish is Minden. In 2010, its population was 41,207....
in northwest Louisiana and a professor at Southeastern Louisiana University
Southeastern Louisiana University
Southeastern Louisiana University is a state-funded public university in Hammond, Louisiana, United States. It was founded in 1925 by Linus A. Sims, the principal of Hammond High School, as Hammond Junior College, located in a wing of the high school building. Sims succeeded in getting the campus...
in Hammond
Hammond, Louisiana
Hammond is the largest city in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 20,049 at the 2009 census. It is home to Southeastern Louisiana University...
, ran for state education superintendent against the Democratic nominee Louis J. Michot
Louis J. Michot
Louis Joseph Michot, Jr. , is a prominent Lafayette, Louisiana, businessman, entrepreneur of the former Burger Chef restaurant chain, philanthropist, and a former Democratic state representative , member of the Louisiana Board of Education , and Louisiana State Education Superintendent...
. Edwards scoffed at his challenger: "If Treen had been a registered Democrat in the November 6 Democratic primary, he'd have gotten lost in the shuffle. Yet, while his only claim of any kind of legitimacy is that he's a Republican, he deliberately avoids use of the word 'Republican' on any of his campaign paraphernalia. He's apparently ashamed of the fact that he'a a Republican."
Treen polled 480,424 ballots (42.8%) to Edwards's 641,146 (57.2%) Treen carried twenty-seven parishes, mostly in the northern part of the state, with margins exceeding 60 percent in ten of those parishes. His tally was some 5 percentage points higher than what Charlton Lyons
Charlton Lyons
Charlton Havard Lyons, Sr., also known as Big Papa Lyons , was a Shreveport oilman who in 1964 waged the first determined Republican bid for the Louisiana governorship since Reconstruction. Lyons also made a strong but losing bid for the United States House of Representatives in a special election...
had scored in 1964 against 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...
. The confident and charismatic Edwards proclaimed that his administration would be an "Era of Excellence". The Shreveport Times and its sister publication, the former Monroe Morning World (now Monroe News Star
Monroe News Star
The News-Star is the principal newspaper of Monroe and northeastern Louisiana. Its circulation area ranges over some dozen parishes from Ruston, the seat of Lincoln Parish, on the west, to Tallulah in Madison Parish on the east, to the Arkansas state line on the north, and to Ferriday in Concordia...
), analyzed the gubernatorial returns and concluded that Edwards received 202,055 black votes to only 10,709 for Treen. As Edwards' statewide margin was 160,000, the survey concluded that African Americans made the difference. The newspapers said that Treen received some 30,000 more votes from whites than did Edwards. Another source said that Treen, who was named Republican national committeeman after his gubernatorial race, received the backing of 55% of white voters but only 2% among African Americans.
Numerous Republican legislative candidates ran on the Treen ticket but most outside of Shreveport, Baton Rouge, and Jefferson Parish were defeated. The Treen loyalist Bob Reese
Bob Reese
Bobby Lynn Reese, known as Bob Reese , was a home builder, architectural designer, portrait painter, and businessman in Natchitoches, Louisiana, who was a co-chairman of the Natchitoches Parish Republican Party from 1968–2004, during an era in which Democrats dominated his region of the state,...
, for instance, failed in a state senate race from Natchitoches Parish
Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana
Natchitoches Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Natchitoches. As of 2000, the population was 39,080. This is the heart of the Cane River Louisiana Creole community...
against the Democrat Paul L. Foshee
Paul L. Foshee
Paul Lee Foshee, Sr. , is a retired crop duster from Natchitoches, Louisiana, who served nonconsecutively in both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature during the 1960s and 1970s. From 1960 to 1964, beginning at the age of twenty-seven, Foshee served a single four-year term as a state...
.
Election to Congress, 1972
After a decade of service on the Republican State Central Committee, Treen was named as the Louisiana Republican national committeeman for a two-year stint that began in 1972. His friend, James H. Boyce, a Baton Rouge industrialist, served as state party chairman while Treen was national committeeman. Over the years, Treen was the beneficiary of a group of dedicated party officials who worked on his behalf, such as National Committeeman Frank Spooner of MonroeMonroe, 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...
and National Committeewoman Virginia Martinez
Virginia Martinez (Louisiana politician)
Virginia Morse Martinez, usually known as Ginny Martinez , was a long-term Louisiana Republican Party official who is credited with having landed her party's 1988 national convention in her adopted home city of New Orleans. Delegates nominated the Bush-Quayle ticket...
of New Orleans. Martinez was also the treasurer of the national party conventions in 1980 and 1984.
In the fall of 1972, based in part on the strength of his losing gubernatorial race, Treen ran for the open Third District House seat vacated by conservative Democrat Patrick T. Caffery
Patrick T. Caffery
Patrick Thomson Caffery is a retired Louisiana politician and former United States Representative from Louisiana's 3rd congressional district....
of New Iberia, the seat of Iberia Parish in south Louisiana. He was a surprise winner, helped in part by the popularity of the Nixon-Agnew
Spiro Agnew
Spiro Theodore Agnew was the 39th Vice President of the United States , serving under President Richard Nixon, and the 55th Governor of Maryland...
ticket, which carried sixty-three of the sixty-four parishes (the exception being: West Feliciana Parish) in traditionally Democratic Louisiana. Treen defeated Democrat J. Louis Watkins, Jr., of Houma
Houma, Louisiana
Houma is a city in and the parish seat of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, and the largest principal city of the Houma–Bayou Cane–Thibodaux Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's powers of government have been absorbed by the parish, which is now run by the Terrebonne Parish...
, 71,090 (54%) to 60,521 (46%). His home parish of Jefferson helped to push Treen over the top with a 73% share of the vote.
Treen served in the congressional seat from 1973 until 1980, when he resigned to become governor. As a congressman, he voted right-of-center and usually in accord with his party. He was considered a team player among House Republicans. In 1974, Treen won a comfortable reelection in a nationally Democratic year. He defeated State Representative Charles Grisbaum, Jr.
Charles Grisbaum, Jr.
Charles H. Grisbaum, Jr. is the retired chief judge of the Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the New Orleans suburbs. The court is located in Gretna, the seat of Jefferson Parish...
, of Jefferson Parish, who became a close friend. Grisbaum later switched parties, and when Treen became governor in 1980, Grisbaum served as one of Treen's floor leaders in the Louisiana House. In 1975, Treen was joined by his first Louisiana Republican colleague in the U.S. House when Henson Moore
Henson Moore
William Henson Moore III , is a retired attorney and businessman who is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, having represented the Baton Rouge-based Sixth Congressional District, from 1975-1987. He is only the second Republican to have represented Louisiana in the House since...
(born 1939) won the Sixth Congressional District seat based in and about Baton Rouge and 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...
. Moore won the seat formerly held by the Democrat John Rarick
John Rarick
John Richard Rarick was a lawyer who served as a Louisiana state district court judge from 1961 to 1966 in St. Francisville, Louisiana, the seat of West Feliciana Parish, and as a Democratic U.S. representative from the Sixth Congressional District from 1967 to 1975...
. In 1976, Treen polled 73.3 percent in a race against a nominal Democratic opponent while the Democrat Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
carried Louisiana over Gerald R. Ford.
Election as governor, 1979
In 1979, Treen filed for the nonpartisan blanket primary for governor. He finished with 297,469 votes, almost the exact numbers posted by Charlton Lyons in 1964—284 fewer votes in fact than Lyons had in a two-candidate field. The second spot was hotly contested between Public Service Commissioner Louis LambertLouis 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 (282,708 votes) and outgoing Lieutenant Governor James E. "Jimmy" Fitzmorris, Jr.
Jimmy Fitzmorris
James Edward "Jimmy" Fitzmorris, Jr. , is a New Orleans businessman and civic leader who was the Democratic Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana from 1972–1980...
, of New Orleans (280,412 votes).
In the Treen-Lambert general election, the defeated Democratic candidates, including the disappointed Fitzmorris, House Speaker E. L. Henry
E. L. Henry
Edgerton L. "Bubba" Henry is a Baton Rouge attorney, lobbyist, and partner of the high-powered firm Adams and Reese who served as a Democrat in the House of Representatives from 1968-1980. He was Speaker from 1972–1980. Henry was Governor Edwin Washington Edwards's choice for Speaker...
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 Senators Paul Hardy
Paul 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...
and 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...
, all endorsed Treen. Their support helped him to defeat Lambert by 9,557 votes. Treen received 690,691 (50.3%) to Lambert's 681,134 (49.7%). He won 22 parishes in victory, compared to 27 parishes in defeat in 1972. Only ten parishes that had voted for Treen in 1972 stuck with him in 1979. His strongest parishes in victory were all in south Louisiana: Plaquemines, Lafayette, St. Tammany, and Iberia.
In the losing 1972 campaign, all of Treen's strong parishes were in north Louisiana. The election of 1979 seemed to indicate that Lafayette would in time replace Shreveport as the new growth center of the Louisiana GOP. Treen's victory came from Republican inroads made in the Edwards stronghold of Acadiana
Acadiana
Acadiana, or The Heart of Acadiana, is the official name given to the French Louisiana region that is home to a large Francophone population. Of the 64 parishes that make up Louisiana, 22 named parishes and other parishes of similar cultural environment, make up the intrastate...
, particularly Lafayette, Iberia, Terrebonne
Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana
Terrebonne Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Houma. Its population was 111,860...
, Acadia, and St. Martin parishes, where the GOP nominee overcame large deficits from 1972 to win in 1979. Treen received only 3.1% of the black vote in victory, nearly identical to his black support in 1972 in defeat.
In March 1980, aged 51, Treen became the 51st governor of his state. He made full use of his power to appoint members of state boards and commissions. He named the Alexandria businessman and philanthropist Roy O. Martin, Jr., to the Louisiana Board of Commerce and Industry. He named John Henry Baker
John Henry Baker
John Henry Baker, III , is a semiretired farmer and landowner from Franklin Parish in northeastern Louisiana who was active in the rebirth of the Republican Party in his state during the 1970s and 1980s. Baker was his party's nominee for the District 22 seat in the Louisiana State Senate in 1972...
to the Louisiana Athletic Commission, since renamed the Louisiana State Boxing and Wrestling Commission. Martin and Baker were both delegates to the 1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit, Michigan. He named the Louisiana Tech University
Louisiana Tech University
Louisiana Tech University, often referred to as Louisiana Tech, LA Tech, or Tech, is a coeducational public research university located in Ruston, Louisiana. Louisiana Tech is designated as a Tier 1 school in the national universities category by the 2012 U.S. News & World Report college rankings...
English professor Robert C. Snyder
Robert C. Snyder
Robert Craven Snyder, Sr. , was a professor and professor emeritus of English at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, the seat of Lincoln Parish in north Louisiana...
to the Louisiana State Ethics Commission, a position that Snyder held for twenty-six years, including a stint as chairman.
Treen reappointed Shreveport attorney Robert G. Pugh
Robert G. Pugh
Robert Gahagan Pugh, Sr., known as Bob Pugh , was a prominent attorney in Shreveport, Louisiana, who, as his local bar association president in 1970–1971, initiated the first prepaid legal services plan in the United States...
to the Louisiana Board of Regents
Louisiana Board of Regents
The Louisiana Board of Regents is a government agency in the U.S. state of Louisiana that is responsible for coordination of all public higher education in the state...
created by the Constitution of 1974, which Pugh had helped to write. Pugh, who was an advisor to Treen on numerous issues, also presented a plan to preserve coastal wetlands through a tax on energy, but the legislature declined to approve it. He appointed Robert DeBlieux
Robert DeBlieux
Robert Buford DeBlieux, usually known as Bobby DeBlieux , was an historian, preservationist, painter, author, businessman, and a former Democratic mayor of Natchitoches, the oldest city in the U.S...
, the outgoing Democratic mayor of Natchitoches as the state's chief preservation officer. DeBleiux had been instrumental in obtaining designation of the Natchitoches Historic District
Natchitoches Historic District
Natchitoches Historic District, also known as Natchitoches National Historic Landmark District is a historic district in Natchitoches, Louisiana, the oldest permanent settlement in Louisiana. Natchitoches was founded by the French in 1714...
in the middle 1970s. When Treen assumed office, only 10 of the 105 members of the Louisians 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...
were Republican, and all 39 state senators were Democrats.
Accomplishments as governor
A few hallmarks of the Treen administration were the creation of the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the ArtsLouisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts
The Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts is located in Natchitoches, Louisiana on the campus of Northwestern State University . It is a member of the National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science and Technology .- Background :LSMSA is the brainchild of...
, a statewide high school on the campus of 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...
for the gifted, the establishment of the Department of Environmental Quality, and the appointment of more minorities to state positions. Two Treen campaign confidants, John H. Cade, Jr.
John H. Cade, Jr.
John Hamilton Cade, Jr. , was an Alexandria businessman and a pioneer in the development of the modern American Republican Party in Louisiana. Though he never held elected office himself, Cade was the GOP national committeeman and thereafter the Louisiana party chairman from 1976–1978...
, of Alexandria and William "Billy" Nungesser of New Orleans, worked as unpaid advisors in the administration. Cade had also managed Treen's successful congressional races in 1972, 1974, 1976, and 1978. He directed the successful 1979 gubernatorial race as well as the disastrous 1983 reelection attempt. Cade was the Republican state chairman from 1976 to 1978, and Nungesser chaired the GOP central committee as well from 1988 to 1992.
Treen rewarded all of the Democratic gubernatorial candidates who endorsed him. Jimmy Fitzmorris became Executive Assistant for Economic Development. Edgar Mouton was named executive counsel to Treen, but he later abandoned the administration and endorsed the return of Edwin Edwards to the governorship in 1983. Speaker E.L. Henry became the powerful Commissioner of Administration. Louisiana Secretary of State Paul Hardy became secretary of the Department of Transportation and Development, with the former Republican mayor of 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...
, Tom Colten
Tom Colten
Arthur Thomas Colten, known as Tom Colten , was a Louisiana politician from the 1960s to the 1990s who rose from a small-town mayoralty position to head his state's Department of Transportation and Development under three governors from both parties...
, as his assistant. Edwards loyalist George Fischer was named secretary of the Department of Health and Human Resources, one of the largest departments in state government. Many of the Democrat legislators remained loyal to Edwards, who operated a "shadow government" from the sidelines. Edwards said on leaving office in 1980 that he was on "a brief, mandated hiatus and would be back" in 1983.
Treen obtained legislative passage of his "Professional Improvement Program" (or PIPs) for public school teachers, but the program was dropped in the next Edwards administration. PIPs allowed instructors to obtain small pay increases for taking college-level courses and/or attending intensive workshops to improve teaching performance. Problems developed when numerous teachers signed up only for classes with few academic requirements and shunned the more rigorous courses. Such action thereby negated the purpose of Treen's reform.
Treen signed into law a measure authored by State Senator Bill P. Keith
Bill Keith (Louisiana politician)
Billy P. Keith, known as Bill Keith , is an author of fiction and nonfiction in Longview, Texas, who served from 1980 to 1984 as a Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate...
of Shreveport which required balanced treatment in public school instruction regarding evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
and creation science
Creation science
Creation Science or scientific creationism is a branch of creationism that attempts to provide scientific support for the Genesis creation narrative in the Book of Genesis and disprove generally accepted scientific facts, theories and scientific paradigms about the history of the Earth, cosmology...
. The measure was struck down in 1987, after Treen had left office, by the United States Supreme Court in the case Edwards v. Aguillard
Edwards v. Aguillard
Edwards v. Aguillard, was a legal case about the teaching of creationism that was heard by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1987. The Court ruled that a Louisiana law requiring that creation science be taught in public schools, along with evolution, was unconstitutional because the law...
.
Treen worked with the Lafayette delegation, including Representatives Mike Thompson and 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...
, for construction of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette, or UL Lafayette, is a coeducational, public research university located in Lafayette, Louisiana, in the heart of Acadiana...
Ragin' Cajuns stadium, the Cajundome
Cajundome
The Cajundome is a 13,500 seat multi-purpose arena in Lafayette, Louisiana. It is home to the Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns basketball teams of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette Wildcatters of the Southern Indoor Football League and the Louisiana high school basketball state...
. Construction began in 1982 and was completed and dedicated late in 1985, by which time Edwards had returned to the office.
During his gubernatorial term, Treen developed a reputation for indecision and micromanagement of details which frustrated supporters and angered adversaries.His failure to push for strong conservative policies and governmental reforms disappointed many Republican allies, as did his refusal to oust from his administration allies of former governor and his past and future rival, Democrat Edwin Edwards.
Treen had difficulty with the lieutenant governor, Democrat Robert "Bobby" Freeman, a former state representative from Plaquemine
Plaquemine, 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. Freeman, considered a liberal by Louisiana standards, vowed to exercise gubernatorial powers, as permitted under the state constitution, whenever Treen left the state, either on business or pleasure. In 1983, Freeman supported the return of Edwin Edwards as governor. Freeman easily won re-election in 1983 by defeating Edwards' first lieutenant governor, Democrat Jimmy Fitzmorris.
Treen presided over resumption of use of the capital punishment in Louisiana. Two convicts were executed by electric chair
Electric chair
Execution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body...
during his tenure.
Facing Edwin Edwards again, 1983
Treen and Edwards were known as fierce rivals. During the 1983 election campaign, Edwards remarked that Treen is so slow that "it takes him an hour and a half to watch 60 Minutes". Similarly, when asked for a scenario in which he could lose to Treen, Edwards replied nonchalantly, "If I'm caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy." In 1983, Treen lost to Edwin Edwards, who secured the third of his four terms as governor. In that race, Treen won only a handful of parishes, including rural La Salle Parish in north Louisiana– scene of the Jena SixJena Six
The Jena Six were six black teenagers convicted in the beating of Justin Barker, a white student at Jena High School in Jena, Louisiana, on December 4, 2006. Barker was injured in the assault by the members of the Jena Six, and received treatment for his injuries at an emergency room...
case– which supported him in all three of his gubernatorial bids. Treen received 586,643 (36.3%) to Edwards' 1,008,282 (62.4%). Another 1.3% was cast for minor candidates, one of whom was Robert Ross, who had also been Treen's primary rival in 1971. Treen polled roughly 104,000 fewer votes in losing in 1983 than he had in winning in 1979. Edwards polled more than 400,000 votes beyond what Louis Lambert had received four years earlier.
Billy J. Guin, a Shreveport Republican leader who managed Treen's northwest Louisiana campaign in 1972, said that Treen refused to show favoritism to anyone and went out of his way to demonstrate fairness to his political opponents. "It got to the point that he would not take phone calls from his longtime supporters because he did not want to tell them 'No'. This of course alienated his own supporters and contributed to his defeat in 1983", Guin said. Guin blamed the legislature, still largely under the domination of Edwards even during the Treen years, for contributing to Treen's defeat.In addition to Treen's own defeat, several Democratic allies of the Republican governor were unseated in the state Senate, including Dan Richey
Dan Richey
Daniel Wesley "Dan" Richey is a Baton Rouge-based political consultant for "pro-family" candidates and organizations, including Louisiana Family Forum. From 1997 to 2004, Richey served under appointment of Republican Governor Murphy J...
of Ferriday
Ferriday, Louisiana
Ferriday is a town in Concordia Parish in northeastern Louisiana, United States. The population, which is three-fourths African American, was 3,723 at the 2000 census....
in Concordia Parish and Edward G. "Ned" Randolph, Jr.
Ned Randolph
Edward Gordon "Ned" Randolph, Jr. , is a veteran Democratic politician who served as the mayor of Alexandria in central Louisiana from 1986 to 2006. Randolph was also a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1972 to 1976 and the Louisiana State Senate from 1976 to 1984...
, of Alexandria in Rapides Parish.
Failed nomination to the Fifth Circuit
After Treen's defeat for governor, President Reagan nominated him on July 22, 1987 for a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth CircuitUnited States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* Eastern District of Louisiana* Middle District of Louisiana...
in New Orleans created by the death of veteran Judge Albert Tate, Jr.
Albert Tate, Jr.
Albert Tate Jr. was a long-serving Louisiana judge known for his leadership of the legal profession. A Democrat, Tate served on the Louisiana First and Third Circuit Courts of Appeal, the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans , and the Louisiana Supreme Court , also in New...
However, the appointment was delayed by Democratic senators on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee who objected to Treen's past membership in the States' Rights Party and also to other unsubstantiated allegations. Treen withdrew his name from consideration in late April 1988, saying that he "could not afford to defer my professional and business activities" any longer, and that "some persons on the Democrat-controlled committee would just as soon see the vacancy go unfilled until after the election....in the hope that a Democrat will succeed to the White House." However, the Senate wound up confirming Reagan's second choice, attorney John Malcolm Duhé, Jr.
John Malcolm Duhé, Jr.
John Malcolm Duhé, Jr. is a retired senior judge on the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. He currently practices law in Lafayette....
, a New Iberia
New Iberia, Louisiana
New Iberia is a city in and the parish seat of Iberia Parish, Louisiana, United States, 30 miles southeast of Lafayette. In 1900, 6,815 people lived in New Iberia; in 1910, 7,499; and in 1940, 13,747...
, later Lafayette, lawyer, who was the son-in-law of New Orleans Congressman F. Edward Hebert and former law partner of retired 3rd District Congressman Patrick T. Caffery. Another of Congressman Caffery's former law partners, Eugene Davis, was named to the federal bench in 1976 by President Gerald Ford and now sits on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, where Duhé had served.
Other political bids considered
Nonetheless, Treen maintained political ambitions even after his landslide defeat for re-election as governor. In 1984, he filed candidacy papers to oppose U.S. Senator Bennett Johnston, but quickly withdrew from the race, apparently when polls showed the popular Johnston unbeatable even in a potentially national Republican year. Treen considered, but decided against making, gubernatorial bids in 1991, 1995, and 2003.Treen endorses Edwards
In 1991, despite their differences, Treen endorsed Edwards' bid for a fourth term because the Republican choice in the state's jungle primary fell on former Ku Klux KlanKu Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
sman and state Representative David Duke
David Duke
David Ernest Duke is a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan an American activist and writer, and former Republican Louisiana State Representative. He was also a former candidate in the Republican presidential primaries in 1992, and in the Democratic presidential primaries in...
, by then a perennial candidate
Perennial candidate
A perennial candidate is one who frequently runs for public office with a record of success that is infrequent, if existent at all. Perennial candidates are often either members of minority political parties or have political opinions that are not mainstream. They may run without any serious hope...
who was troublesome to the GOP and the business community. Though Duke claimed to have ended his ties to the KKK, there was lingering suspicion that he was still in contact with neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic, and other radical elements. Ironically, Duke won his single victory for public office, a seat in the state House of Representatives, by narrowly defeating Treen's brother, John S. Treen
John S. Treen
John Speir Treen is a retired homebuilder from Metairie in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, who lost a 1989 special election for the Louisiana House of Representatives to the former Ku Klux Klansman David Duke. Treen is the older brother of the late David C. Treen, the first Republican governor of...
, a home builder in Jefferson Parish. Many Republicans blamed John Treen's lackluster campaign in that race for Duke's emergence as a major player in the 1990 U.S. Senate race, when he made a noticeable bid against incumbent Johnston, and in the 1991 gubernatorial election, when Duke secured a general election berth. A new interest group, the Louisiana Coalition against Racism and Nazism, appeared to fight the Duke gubernatorial candidacy. Among its leaders was the Republican political activist and longtime Treen supporter, Beth Rickey
Beth Rickey
Elizabeth Ann "Beth" Rickey was a Republican political activist from Louisiana who exposed the neo-Nazi connections of former State Representative David Duke, who ran for the U.S...
of New Orleans.
Congressional comeback attempt fails by 1,812 votes
In 1999, Treen attempted a political comeback by running for the U.S. House. By this time, his home in Mandeville had been drawn into the 1st District. That seat was being vacated by Representative Bob LivingstonBob Livingston
Robert Linlithgow "Bob" Livingston Jr. is a Washington, D.C.-based lobbyist and a former Republican U.S. Representative from Louisiana...
, who left Congress in a sex scandal amid the House vote on the impeachment
Impeachment
Impeachment is a formal process in which an official is accused of unlawful activity, the outcome of which, depending on the country, may include the removal of that official from office as well as other punishment....
of President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
. This was the eighth election that Treen's name appeared on a Louisiana ballot for Congress.
In the special election with David Duke, also trying to score a comeback, and Republican state Representative David Vitter
David Vitter
David Vitter is the junior United States Senator from Louisiana and a member of the Republican Party. Previously, he served in the United States House of Representatives, representing the suburban Louisiana's 1st congressional district. He served as a member of the Louisiana House of...
, Treen finished first with 36,719 votes (25%) to Vitter's 31,741 (22%) and Duke's 28,055 (19%). (Six other candidates, including New Orleans businessman Rob Couhig
Rob Couhig
Robert Emmet Couhig, Jr., known as Rob Couhig , is an attorney, businessman, entrepreneur, Republican political activist, and a former radio talk show host from New Orleans, Louisiana. His last political foray was into the 2010 New Orleans mayoral election.A former partner of the Adams and Reese...
, shared the remaining 33% of the votes cast.) In the low-turnout special election runoff, Vitter defeated Treen, 61,661 ballots (51%) to 59,849 (49%), a margin of 1,812 votes. The race against Vitter was a bitter contest, with attacks flying back and forth. Many of Vitter's colleagues in the state legislature, including Republicans, supported Treen and charged that Vitter was difficult to work with as a legislator. Duke endorsed Treen over Vitter, perhaps to get back at Treen, hoping to defeat him, because Treen had supported Edwards against Duke in 1991. Vitter ultimately won the seat. In 2005, Vitter left the House to become the first Republican to be elected to the U.S. Senate from Louisiana since Reconstruction.
Treen in retirement
Treen declared that he would run for governor again in the 2003 electionLouisiana gubernatorial election, 2003
The Louisiana gubernatorial election of 2003 resulted in the election of Kathleen Babineaux Blanco as governor of Louisiana.- Background :Elections in Louisiana—with the exception of U.S. presidential elections—follow a variation of the open primary system called the jungle primary...
, at the age of 75, but the party leadership coalesced behind 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....
. Treen withdrew from the pre-primary race and worked for Jindal's election. Jindal lost the general election to Democratic Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Lafayette (who actually lost Lafayette Parish in the election). A year later, Jindal filled the House seat that Vitter vacated to become senator, the same seat that Treen had lost in his last campaign for elective office. Treen even discussed running for governor again in 2007 but never filed candidacy papers. In 2007, Jindal won the governor's election outright in the primary. Treen's old rival and reluctant ally, Edwin Edwards, meanwhile, went to prison for racketeering connected with his fourth gubernatorial term, the one that Treen had reluctantly blessed in preference to his greater nemesis, David Duke. Treen had urged then President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
to pardon Edwards or to commute his sentence to the time already served.
There was also speculation that Edwards actually voted for Treen in the 1979 election because he preferred to face Treen again in 1983, rather than the other Democratic possibilities who were running for governor against Treen. Earl Long similarly often quietly voted for the "anti-Long" gubernatorial candidate himself to set up a potential new governor for failure. Long would then run for governor again four years later against the "failed" (in Long's eyes) governor's stand-in. That was before Louisiana governors could succeed themselves in office.
In 1997, Treen became the first Republican 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.
2008 Congressional bid
Treen announced on October 23, 2007, that he would be a candidate in the March 8 special electionLouisiana's 1st congressional district special election, 2008
Voters in voting in a special election on May 3, 2008, elected Steve Scalise as a new member of the United States House of Representatives, replacing Representative Bobby Jindal who resigned on January 14, 2008, to become Governor of Louisiana....
to succeed 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....
, who was elected governor. He cited his experience and political ties in Washington, D.C. as reasons for his candidacy.
Treen had lost a race for this same seat in a 1999 special election to current U.S. Senator David Vitter
David Vitter
David Vitter is the junior United States Senator from Louisiana and a member of the Republican Party. Previously, he served in the United States House of Representatives, representing the suburban Louisiana's 1st congressional district. He served as a member of the Louisiana House of...
. Four Republicans filed for the seat, and two faced an April 5 runoff election restricted to registered party members: State Representative Timothy G. Burns
Timothy Burns (Louisiana politician)
Timothy G. Burns , also known as Tim Burns, is a tax attorney from Mandeville, Louisiana, who is a two-term Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from District 89 in St. Tammany Parish....
and State Senator Steve Scalise
Steve Scalise
Stephen Joseph "Steve" Scalise is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2008. He is a member of the Republican Party...
. Scalise won the runoff and a month later defeated Democrat Gilda Reed, a favorite of organized labor and the party's constituent groups.
Treen withdrew from consideration on January 28. Treen endorsed the reelection of Democratic U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu
Mary Landrieu
Mary Loretta Landrieu is the senior United States Senator from the State of Louisiana and a member of the Democratic Party.Born in Arlington, Virginia, Landrieu was raised in New Orleans, Louisiana...
in her 2008 race against Republican state Treasurer John Neely Kennedy, who resided in Mandeville, where Treen lived at the time.
Death
Treen died from complications from a respiratory illness at East Jefferson General HospitalEast Jefferson General Hospital
East Jefferson General Hospital is a hospital in Metairie, Louisiana. The hospital broke ground in 1975 and is still expanding. The facility serves the people of the East Bank of Jefferson Parish.- History :...
in Metairie. Condolences and kinds words poured in from around the state, typified by Southeastern Louisiana University
Southeastern Louisiana University
Southeastern Louisiana University is a state-funded public university in Hammond, Louisiana, United States. It was founded in 1925 by Linus A. Sims, the principal of Hammond High School, as Hammond Junior College, located in a wing of the high school building. Sims succeeded in getting the campus...
president John L. Crain
John L. Crain
John Luther Crain is president of Southeastern Louisiana University at Hammond, having been appointed to the position on 2009 February 17 by the Board of Supervisors of the University of Louisiana System. He succeeded Randy Moffett.-Education:Crain holds B.S. and MBA degrees from Southeastern and...
's tribute that Treen "was a true Louisiana icon, a Republican governor in Louisiana before it was cool". His body lay in state at the Louisiana State Capitol
Louisiana State Capitol
The Louisiana State Capitol building is the capitol building of the state of Louisiana, located in Baton Rouge. The capitol houses the Louisiana State Legislature, the governor's office, and parts of the executive branch...
following a memorial service on November 2, 2009. A second memorial service was held at St. Timothy United Methodist Church in Mandeville
Mandeville, Louisiana
Mandeville is a city in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 12,421 in 2008. Mandeville is located on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain, south of Interstate 12. It is across the lake from the city of New Orleans and its southshore suburbs...
on November 3. The family requested memorials to, among several charities, the Methodist Children's Home in Mandeville.
Republican State Chairman Roger F. Villere, Jr.
Roger F. Villere, Jr.
Roger Francis Villere, Jr. is a businessman from Metairie in Jefferson Parish in suburban New Orleans who on March 26, 2004, was elected state chairman of the Louisiana Republican Party by the 144-member GOP State Central Committee. He succeeded Pat Brister of St...
, of Metairie called the former governor "a courageous man who loved our country and our state. He fought the political establishment in the 1960s and 1970s when it was very difficult to elect a Republican in our state, and his career in political office was marked with integrity and fiscal discipline. It is important for younger voters to understand that Louisiana's commitment to high ethical standards and the existence of a viable two-party system in our state are relatively new developments. Just a quarter century ago, neither existed in a significant way. Dave Treen laid the foundation to change all that, and for that, millions of Louisiana citizens owe him a profound debt of gratitude."