Ron Gomez
Encyclopedia
Ronald James Gomez, Sr., known as Ron Gomez (born October 18, 1934), is a veteran print and broadcast journalist
, author
, and business
man 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 the cabinet of Governor Buddy Roemer
. In 1992, Gomez, as a Democrat
, launched a strong but unsuccessful campaign for mayor
of Lafayette. He ran for office each time as a "good government reform" candidate without emphasis on party affiliation.
and Spanish
descent and spoke both languages form birth. He married a fully French woman named Marie Griffon, Gomez's grandmother. Gomez's third novel
. entitled Neat, is based on the life of his grandfather, who lived to be 101. Gomez's maternal grandfather was John Alleman, fully French, and married to a French woman by the name of Lambert. She died when Gomez's mother was only twelve. Gomez's heritage is hence at least three-fourths French but he has an Hispanic
surname. Gomez was born and reared in Baton Rouge
to Laurence Fletcher Gomez (1897–1964) and the former Anastasie Marie Alleman (1896–1983), originally from Donaldsonville
, the seat of Ascension Parish
. The senior Gomez served during World War I
in the United States Army
infantry
in France
. Laurence Gomez had nine siblings and spoke only French until he entered school. Similarly, Anastasie Gomez and her six siblings were brought up speaking only French. Originally a farm couple, the Gomezes moved to Baton Rouge in the 1920s and reared five children. Laurence Gomez first worked for the Standard Oil Company refinery
in Baton Rouge but prior to the Great Depression
procured a position as a rural letter carrier from the downtown United States Post Office in Baton Rouge. Ron Gomez says that his father could have been jobless during the depression had he not found the low-paying but steady postal position. Ron Gomez was born at home in the 1800 block of Highland Road in Baton Rouge, the last baby that Mrs. Gomez's physician delivered at home; thereafter, the doctor handled all of his deliveries in a hospital. In 1940, the family moved to a house on Ferndale Avenue in the University Gardens subdivision near the Louisiana State University
campus.
When Huey Pierce Long, Jr., was assassinated in September 1935, Gomez was less than a year old. His mother placed him in a stroller and went to the new Louisiana State Capitol
building to stand in line as citizens shuffled through to pay their respects. Gomez said that his mother was not necessarily a Long supporter but wanted to participate in an historic event of such magnitude. It was Long who had directed the building of the skyscraper-shaped capitol in only fifteen months from 1930-1931.
As a boy growing up in Baton Rouge, Gomez said that he felt a kinship with the capitol building because of its physical, political, and cultural dominance of the city. He played in the downtown area during the 1940s, spending time in parks and theaters, while his mother worked as a seamstress at a department store
. His two brothers, Griffin (1923–2009) and Hewitt Gomez, and two sisters, Dorothy Frazee and Elaine Cortelloni, were already grown by that time; both brothers served in World War II
.
Gomez graduated in 1952 from Baton Rouge High School
and attended Louisiana State University
(LSU) for one year before enlisting in the United States Air Force
. Thereafter, he enrolled for a single semester at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette
.
voice of the UL Lafayette (then University of Southwestern Louisiana) Ragin' Cajuns football
and basketball
teams from 1961-1979. The Cajuns football team played in the Grantland Rice Bowl
in 1973, and that game was televised but apparently reached a smaller audience than Gomez's audio coverage of the regular games. In 1978, Gomez was the president of the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce, from which position he laid the groundwork for construction of the popular Cajundome
sports complex. Representative Gomez worked to secure funding for the stadium in the David C. Treen administration, but it was not opened and dedicated until November 10, 1985, by which time Edwin Washington Edwards had returned to the governorship.
Gomez appeared on Lafayette's KATC-TV from 1963-1965 on an early morning show called simply "A.M.", with Bob Hamm, Frank Hosea, and John Plauche. He also continued with the radio play-by-play and hosted a weekly coach's program until 1977, with assistance from coaches Russ Faulkinberry and Augie Tammariello. In the spring of 1965, Gomez became the KPEL radio station manager, with ownership of 10 percent of the company.
In his 2000 autobiography, My Name Is Ron And I Am a Recovering Legislator, Gomez recalls how his early interest in communications came to fruition:
"My earliest ambition was to be a radio announcer, specifically, a play-by-play sportscaster. I was fortunate enough to fulfill that ambition at an early age. In my [since fifty-seven] years in the broadcasting industry, I worked in almost every position, commercial announcer, disc jockey, copywriter, news and sports reporter, sales representative, manager, and finally, owner of three South Louisiana radio stations", KPEL and KTDY in Lafayette and KTQQ in Sulphur
near Lake Charles
. In 1979, Gomez was named "Louisiana Broadcaster of the Year.". He sold the stations in 1988.
In 2008, Gomez became operating partner and publisher of a free, weekly, conservative newspaper, The Acadiana Gazette, which is distributed primarily in Broussard
, Youngsville
, and south Lafayette. In addition to his memoir and the novel Neat, Gomez has published two other books, Pelican Games, a novel based on a Louisiana gubernatorial campaign, and Slam Dunked, based on the behind-the-scenes story of the basketball suspension of USL by the NCAA
in 1973.
ran successfully that year for the state Senate seat vacated by failed gubernatorial candidate Edgar G. "Sonny" Mouton, Jr. of Lafayette. In the 1979 general election
Gomez defeated a Republican woman, Mary Regan, the wife of a prominent Lafayette psychiatrist
. She had been a volunteer nurse at the state Capitol and had developed an interest in politics through that experience. Gomez led in the nonpartisan blanket primary with 42 percent of the vote, and Regan trailed with 20 percent. Gomez recalled Regan as having "a very sweet demeanor, and I really didn't look forward to having to debate her" throughout a second election. Gomez ultimately defeated Regan, 76-24 percent. He prevailed again in 1983 with 82 percent of the vote against a single Democratic opponent with the unlikely name of Cleophile "Bobby" Babineaux, who carried the backing of organized labor.
Though a Democrat in the legislature, Gomez opposed most populist and liberal measures pushed by his party. He worked closely with fellow Lafayette representative, Mike Thompson, a Democrat-turned-Republican who was unseated in 1987 in a bitter campaign by an Independent, Don Bacque.
Gomez worked in 1986 to repeal the Louisiana blue laws
, among the last Sunday-closing requirements in the nation. Gomez determined that retailers along the borders of Louisiana were operating at a disadvantages because the surrounding states had already ended their restrictions on Sunday shopping. After debate centering upon business and religion issues, the legislature ended the blue laws, effective December 1, 1986. Gomez commented: "When I drive past large shopping centers and malls now on Sundays and see their parking lots overflowing with shoppers' vehicles, it's hard to believe that could not be seen in Louisiana just over [twenty] years ago. Gomez also obtained passage of a regional banking bill despite opposition from then U.S. Representative Buddy Roemer, a former banker.
Gomez failed in attempts to obtain tort reform
. The House Committee on Civil Law consisted mostly of plaintiff trial attorneys, and the Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association mobilized its membership against the reform. The association invited consumer advocate Ralph Nader
to appear at a committee hearing and to hold a press conference opposing Gomez's bills. Gomez also noted the lack of grass roots support for his reform proposals: "Most people had no idea what we were trying to do. Only individuals who had been sued or business owners who were fighting the liberal tort laws for survival could relate." In 1992, Gomez became executive director of Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, an interest group which worked to educate the public on the abuse of the civil justice system through what Gomez termed "decades of liberal legislators, governors, judges, and a small put politically powerful group of plaintiff trial attorneys." Several of the reforms that Gomez had sought were later enacted in the administration of Republican Governor Murphy J. "Mike" Foster, Jr.
, and House colleague Kevin Reilly
of Baton Rouge. In his book Gomez explains:
"Louisiana doesn't need a governor threatening to quit if he doesn't get his way (Edwards had said if we didn't pass his gambling proposals he would resign.), a business leader (Steimel) insinuating the state's education system sucks, or an influential legislator (Reilly) portraying Louisiana's people as 'plain dumb.' . . . I think we need the governor to govern, he's a brilliant man. We need him to use that brilliance to try to solve the problems in ways other than [threatening resignation]. . . . We need to stop blaming and start working toward solutions. I feel as though there is a group of us in the middle of all this who are trying to calm down the rhetoric, trying to tell the governor, 'you can't get gambling passed, so please use your brilliance to do something else.'"
After the 1986 session, Gomez was listed as the "Most Valuable Player" to business. The columnist John Maginnis wrote: "Gomez . . . is not an attorney, but he sponsored the liability reform package before the lawyer-packed House Civil Law Committee, a heretic before the inquisition. He mastered and cogently argued the issue in committee -- to no avail, though the fault was in the lobbying, not in the sponsorship. Gomez also guided through the interstate banking bill which will change the face of banking, again, in Louisiana."
Gomez did not endorse gubernatorial candidates but attended more than one reception for Mouton for governor in 1979. He later disclosed that he had voted in 1983 for the incumbent Republican Governor Dave Treen, who was decisively unseated by the return of Democrat Edwin Edwards. At a political gathering in Lafayette in which most in attendance went to the microphone to say "I endorse Edwin Edwards for governor", Gomez declined to do so, having hence acquired the wrath of Edwards' brother, Marion Edwards, who had organized the event. Representative Raymond "La La" Lalonde of Sunset
also refused to endorse Edwards before the gathering. Like Gomez, Lalonde eventually became a Republican.
Edwards had long been critical of Gomez, having once called the lawmaker "a good-government son-of-a-bitch". and claimed that Gomez had been "f______ the poor people." Gomez said that he had initially been "persuaded by Edwards' 1983 campaign rhetoric. I thought he really was ready to change. I had been made a floor leader in my freshman term under Dave Treen partly through the efforts of his executive counsel 'Sonny' Mouton and partly because I was older and thus presumably more mature than . . . the other freshman legislators. That gave me a taste for being in the center of the action. I believe in my leadership abilities and believed that Edwards truly wanted to use his vast powers and personal talents to right the ship of state. [Because of] the state's economic woes and his own personal traits, Dave Treen [had not been] an effective governor."
As his tenure as natural resources secretary ended, Gomez entered the Lafayette mayor's race held on March 10, 1992, in conjunction with the presidential primaries in Louisiana. The incumbent Republican Dud Lastrapes
, a former journalist and an insurance agent who later became his party's state chairman, did not seek a fourth term. Gomez led the primary field with 12,127 votes (40 percent) and went into a second race with former Mayor Kenny Bowen
, a Republican-turned-Democrat, who had previously held the position from 1972-1980. Bowen trailed in the first primary with 10,301 (34 percent). Two other candidates also ran, Democrat Kathy Ashworth, with 7,344 (24 percent) and Republican Emile Vidrine, with 603 votes (2 percent).
In the all-Democratic general election allowed under the Louisiana primary system and held on April 11, Bowen defeated Gomez by 166 votes, 14,677 to 14,511. Gomez described his opponent, Mayor Bowen as "acrimonious" [with a] usual confrontational, self-serving, and cynical mode."
d from the former Purdy Linton, now Purdy Gers of Baton Rouge. In 1975, he married his second and current wife, the former Carol Ross, a USL graduate originally from King of Prussia
, Pennsylvania
, who assists him in the current operation of The Acadiana Gazette. Carol Gomez has an advertising agency known as Edge Communications. Her clients include the Lafayette Surgical Specialty Hospital. Gomez has three living children from the previous marriage, Ronald James "Jimmie" Gomez, Jr., of Baton Rouge, Nanette Oliver of Lafayette, and Laurence Hughes Gomez of Austin
, Texas
. He held the custody of the children after the divorce. A third son, Gregory Stephen Gomez, died in 1996 in Austin in an accident at the age of thirty-three. As of 2010, Gomez had six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Gomez recalls his mother's warning to him as a guiding light to integrity when he announced for state representative in 1979: "If you're not careful, you'll end up just as crooked as all those other politicians." Gomez said, "I never forgot her warning. The honesty, integrity and humility of this saintly woman as well as my father's simple but solid principles were pounded into all five children with regularity."
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, and business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
man from 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...
, 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...
, who served in the Louisiana 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...
from Lafayette Parish
Lafayette Parish, Louisiana
Lafayette Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Lafayette. According to the 2010 Census, its population was recorded as 221,578....
, from 1980-1989. From 1990-1992, he was the secretary of natural resources in the cabinet of Governor Buddy Roemer
Buddy Roemer
Charles Elson "Buddy" Roemer III is an American politician who served as the 52nd Governor of Louisiana, from 1988 to 1992. He was elected as a Democrat but switched to the Republican Party on March 11, 1991...
. In 1992, Gomez, as a 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...
, launched a strong but unsuccessful campaign for mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Lafayette. He ran for office each time as a "good government reform" candidate without emphasis on party affiliation.
Early years and education
Gomez's paternal grandfather was Antoine "Neat" Gomez, who was of both FrenchFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Spanish
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
descent and spoke both languages form birth. He married a fully French woman named Marie Griffon, Gomez's grandmother. Gomez's third novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
. entitled Neat, is based on the life of his grandfather, who lived to be 101. Gomez's maternal grandfather was John Alleman, fully French, and married to a French woman by the name of Lambert. She died when Gomez's mother was only twelve. Gomez's heritage is hence at least three-fourths French but he has an Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
surname. Gomez was born and reared in Baton Rouge
Baton 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 Laurence Fletcher Gomez (1897–1964) and the former Anastasie Marie Alleman (1896–1983), originally from Donaldsonville
Donaldsonville, Louisiana
Donaldsonville is a city in and the parish seat of Ascension Parish, Louisiana, United States, along the west bank of the Mississippi River. The population was 7,605 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:Acadians began to settle in the area in...
, the seat of Ascension Parish
Ascension Parish, Louisiana
Ascension Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the fastest growing parish in the state. Its population is 107,215 which is 39.9% greater than the 2000 census...
. The senior Gomez served during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Laurence Gomez had nine siblings and spoke only French until he entered school. Similarly, Anastasie Gomez and her six siblings were brought up speaking only French. Originally a farm couple, the Gomezes moved to Baton Rouge in the 1920s and reared five children. Laurence Gomez first worked for the Standard Oil Company refinery
Refinery
A refinery is a production facility composed of a group of chemical engineering unit processes and unit operations refining certain materials or converting raw material into products of value.-Types of refineries:Different types of refineries are as follows:...
in Baton Rouge but prior to the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
procured a position as a rural letter carrier from the downtown United States Post Office in Baton Rouge. Ron Gomez says that his father could have been jobless during the depression had he not found the low-paying but steady postal position. Ron Gomez was born at home in the 1800 block of Highland Road in Baton Rouge, the last baby that Mrs. Gomez's physician delivered at home; thereafter, the doctor handled all of his deliveries in a hospital. In 1940, the family moved to a house on Ferndale Avenue in the University Gardens subdivision near the 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...
campus.
When Huey Pierce Long, Jr., was assassinated in September 1935, Gomez was less than a year old. His mother placed him in a stroller and went to the new 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...
building to stand in line as citizens shuffled through to pay their respects. Gomez said that his mother was not necessarily a Long supporter but wanted to participate in an historic event of such magnitude. It was Long who had directed the building of the skyscraper-shaped capitol in only fifteen months from 1930-1931.
As a boy growing up in Baton Rouge, Gomez said that he felt a kinship with the capitol building because of its physical, political, and cultural dominance of the city. He played in the downtown area during the 1940s, spending time in parks and theaters, while his mother worked as a seamstress at a department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
. His two brothers, Griffin (1923–2009) and Hewitt Gomez, and two sisters, Dorothy Frazee and Elaine Cortelloni, were already grown by that time; both brothers served in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Gomez graduated in 1952 from Baton Rouge High School
Baton Rouge Magnet High School
Baton Rouge Magnet High School is a magnet school in the East Baton Rouge Parish School System of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It was founded in the early 1890s. The current school building was built in 1928, and, as Baton Rouge High School, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986...
and attended 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...
(LSU) for one year before enlisting 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...
. Thereafter, he enrolled for a single semester at 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...
.
Journalist and civic leader
After several years of broadcasting high school football play-by-play, Gomez was selected as the 'color' announcer for J. C. Politz, when he broadcast LSU games in 1958. He thereafter became the radioRadio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
voice of the UL Lafayette (then University of Southwestern Louisiana) Ragin' Cajuns football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
and basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
teams from 1961-1979. The Cajuns football team played in the Grantland Rice Bowl
Grantland Rice Bowl
The Grantland Rice Bowl was an annual college football bowl game, one of four regional NCAA college division championships from 1964 to 1972. It was the Mideast Regional championship, played in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, from 1964 to 1968...
in 1973, and that game was televised but apparently reached a smaller audience than Gomez's audio coverage of the regular games. In 1978, Gomez was the president of the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce, from which position he laid the groundwork for construction of the popular 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...
sports complex. Representative Gomez worked to secure funding for the stadium in the David C. Treen administration, but it was not opened and dedicated until November 10, 1985, by which time Edwin Washington Edwards had returned to the governorship.
Gomez appeared on Lafayette's KATC-TV from 1963-1965 on an early morning show called simply "A.M.", with Bob Hamm, Frank Hosea, and John Plauche. He also continued with the radio play-by-play and hosted a weekly coach's program until 1977, with assistance from coaches Russ Faulkinberry and Augie Tammariello. In the spring of 1965, Gomez became the KPEL radio station manager, with ownership of 10 percent of the company.
In his 2000 autobiography, My Name Is Ron And I Am a Recovering Legislator, Gomez recalls how his early interest in communications came to fruition:
"My earliest ambition was to be a radio announcer, specifically, a play-by-play sportscaster. I was fortunate enough to fulfill that ambition at an early age. In my [since fifty-seven] years in the broadcasting industry, I worked in almost every position, commercial announcer, disc jockey, copywriter, news and sports reporter, sales representative, manager, and finally, owner of three South Louisiana radio stations", KPEL and KTDY in Lafayette and KTQQ in Sulphur
Sulphur, Louisiana
Sulphur is a city in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 22,512 at the 2000 census. Sulphur is a suburb of Lake Charles, and is part of the Lake Charles Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
near Lake Charles
Lake Charles, Louisiana
Lake Charles is the fifth-largest incorporated city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, located on Lake Charles, Prien Lake, and the Calcasieu River. Located in Calcasieu Parish, a major cultural, industrial, and educational center in the southwest region of the state, and one of the most important in...
. In 1979, Gomez was named "Louisiana Broadcaster of the Year.". He sold the stations in 1988.
In 2008, Gomez became operating partner and publisher of a free, weekly, conservative newspaper, The Acadiana Gazette, which is distributed primarily in Broussard
Broussard, Louisiana
Broussard is a small city in Lafayette and St. Martin parishes in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The population was 6,754 from the 2005 Census Est.Broussard is part of the Lafayette Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
, Youngsville
Youngsville, Louisiana
Youngsville is a city in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 5,289 as of the 2005 Census Bureau estimates. It is part of the Lafayette Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Youngsville is located at ....
, and south Lafayette. In addition to his memoir and the novel Neat, Gomez has published two other books, Pelican Games, a novel based on a Louisiana gubernatorial campaign, and Slam Dunked, based on the behind-the-scenes story of the basketball suspension of USL by the NCAA
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
in 1973.
Lafayette legislator
The open seat in District 44 developed when Representative Allen BaresAllen Bares
Allen Ray Bares, Sr. was a Lafayette lawyer who served as a conservative Democrat in both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature between 1972 and 1992. He is particularly remembered for his strong support of the pro-life cause and the Boy Scouts of America...
ran successfully that year for the state Senate seat vacated by failed gubernatorial candidate Edgar G. "Sonny" Mouton, Jr. of Lafayette. In the 1979 general election
General election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
Gomez defeated a Republican woman, Mary Regan, the wife of a prominent Lafayette psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
. She had been a volunteer nurse at the state Capitol and had developed an interest in politics through that experience. Gomez led in the nonpartisan blanket primary with 42 percent of the vote, and Regan trailed with 20 percent. Gomez recalled Regan as having "a very sweet demeanor, and I really didn't look forward to having to debate her" throughout a second election. Gomez ultimately defeated Regan, 76-24 percent. He prevailed again in 1983 with 82 percent of the vote against a single Democratic opponent with the unlikely name of Cleophile "Bobby" Babineaux, who carried the backing of organized labor.
Though a Democrat in the legislature, Gomez opposed most populist and liberal measures pushed by his party. He worked closely with fellow Lafayette representative, Mike Thompson, a Democrat-turned-Republican who was unseated in 1987 in a bitter campaign by an Independent, Don Bacque.
Gomez worked in 1986 to repeal the Louisiana blue laws
Blue Laws
The Blue Laws of the Colony of Connecticut, as distinct from the generic term "blue law" that refers to any laws regulating activities on Sunday, were the initial statutes set up by the Gov. Theophilus Eaton with the assistance of the Rev. John Cotton in 1655 for the Colony of New Haven, now part...
, among the last Sunday-closing requirements in the nation. Gomez determined that retailers along the borders of Louisiana were operating at a disadvantages because the surrounding states had already ended their restrictions on Sunday shopping. After debate centering upon business and religion issues, the legislature ended the blue laws, effective December 1, 1986. Gomez commented: "When I drive past large shopping centers and malls now on Sundays and see their parking lots overflowing with shoppers' vehicles, it's hard to believe that could not be seen in Louisiana just over [twenty] years ago. Gomez also obtained passage of a regional banking bill despite opposition from then U.S. Representative Buddy Roemer, a former banker.
Gomez failed in attempts to obtain tort reform
Tort reform
Tort reform refers to proposed changes in common law civil justice systems that would reduce tort litigation or damages. Tort actions are civil common law claims first created in the English commonwealth system as a non-legislative means for compensating wrongs and harm done by one party to...
. The House Committee on Civil Law consisted mostly of plaintiff trial attorneys, and the Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association mobilized its membership against the reform. The association invited consumer advocate Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....
to appear at a committee hearing and to hold a press conference opposing Gomez's bills. Gomez also noted the lack of grass roots support for his reform proposals: "Most people had no idea what we were trying to do. Only individuals who had been sued or business owners who were fighting the liberal tort laws for survival could relate." In 1992, Gomez became executive director of Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, an interest group which worked to educate the public on the abuse of the civil justice system through what Gomez termed "decades of liberal legislators, governors, judges, and a small put politically powerful group of plaintiff trial attorneys." Several of the reforms that Gomez had sought were later enacted in the administration of Republican Governor Murphy J. "Mike" Foster, Jr.
Murphy J. Foster, Jr.
Murphy James "Mike" Foster, Jr. served as 53rd Governor of Louisiana from January 1996 until January 2004. Foster's father was Murphy J. Foster, Jr., but Mike Foster uses "Jr." even though he is technically Murphy J. Foster, III. Foster is a businessman, landowner, and sportsman in St...
Relations with Governors Edwards and Treen
In a 1986 address before the Louisiana Broadcasters Association, Gomez criticized Governor Edwards, Edward J. Steimel, the president of the Louisiana Association of Business and IndustryLouisiana Association of Business and Industry
The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, known by the acronym LABI, is the largest and most successful business lobbying group in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It was founded in Baton Rouge in 1976, when Louisiana adopted a new right-to-work law during the administration of Democratic...
, and House colleague Kevin Reilly
Kevin Reilly (Louisiana politician)
Kevin Patrick Reilly, Sr. , a retired businessman and active philanthropist from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is the former executive officer of the Lamar Advertising Company who served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from District 68 between 1972 and 1988...
of Baton Rouge. In his book Gomez explains:
"Louisiana doesn't need a governor threatening to quit if he doesn't get his way (Edwards had said if we didn't pass his gambling proposals he would resign.), a business leader (Steimel) insinuating the state's education system sucks, or an influential legislator (Reilly) portraying Louisiana's people as 'plain dumb.' . . . I think we need the governor to govern, he's a brilliant man. We need him to use that brilliance to try to solve the problems in ways other than [threatening resignation]. . . . We need to stop blaming and start working toward solutions. I feel as though there is a group of us in the middle of all this who are trying to calm down the rhetoric, trying to tell the governor, 'you can't get gambling passed, so please use your brilliance to do something else.'"
After the 1986 session, Gomez was listed as the "Most Valuable Player" to business. The columnist John Maginnis wrote: "Gomez . . . is not an attorney, but he sponsored the liability reform package before the lawyer-packed House Civil Law Committee, a heretic before the inquisition. He mastered and cogently argued the issue in committee -- to no avail, though the fault was in the lobbying, not in the sponsorship. Gomez also guided through the interstate banking bill which will change the face of banking, again, in Louisiana."
Gomez did not endorse gubernatorial candidates but attended more than one reception for Mouton for governor in 1979. He later disclosed that he had voted in 1983 for the incumbent Republican Governor Dave Treen, who was decisively unseated by the return of Democrat Edwin Edwards. At a political gathering in Lafayette in which most in attendance went to the microphone to say "I endorse Edwin Edwards for governor", Gomez declined to do so, having hence acquired the wrath of Edwards' brother, Marion Edwards, who had organized the event. Representative Raymond "La La" Lalonde of Sunset
Sunset, Louisiana
Sunset is a town in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 2,897 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Opelousas–Eunice Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Sunset is located at ....
also refused to endorse Edwards before the gathering. Like Gomez, Lalonde eventually became a Republican.
Edwards had long been critical of Gomez, having once called the lawmaker "a good-government son-of-a-bitch". and claimed that Gomez had been "f______ the poor people." Gomez said that he had initially been "persuaded by Edwards' 1983 campaign rhetoric. I thought he really was ready to change. I had been made a floor leader in my freshman term under Dave Treen partly through the efforts of his executive counsel 'Sonny' Mouton and partly because I was older and thus presumably more mature than . . . the other freshman legislators. That gave me a taste for being in the center of the action. I believe in my leadership abilities and believed that Edwards truly wanted to use his vast powers and personal talents to right the ship of state. [Because of] the state's economic woes and his own personal traits, Dave Treen [had not been] an effective governor."
Other political moves
As Governor Roemer's human resources secretary from 1990–1992, Gomez concentrated much of his efforts on preservation of the shrinking Louisiana coast lands, managed through the Office of Coastal Restoration. He also chaired an Oil Spill Task Force which made recommendation enacted by the legislature in 1991 to reduce the impact of future oil-spillage accidents.As his tenure as natural resources secretary ended, Gomez entered the Lafayette mayor's race held on March 10, 1992, in conjunction with the presidential primaries in Louisiana. The incumbent Republican Dud Lastrapes
Dud Lastrapes
William Dudley "Dud" Lastrapes, Jr. , is a Lafayette, businessman, who was the first Republican since Reconstruction to have been elected mayor of his city, the fourth largest in Louisiana, according to the 2000 census. Lastrapes was mayor for three terms, having served from 1980-1992. Previously,...
, a former journalist and an insurance agent who later became his party's state chairman, did not seek a fourth term. Gomez led the primary field with 12,127 votes (40 percent) and went into a second race with former Mayor Kenny Bowen
Kenny Bowen
Kenneth Francis "Kenny" Bowen, Sr. was a three-term Democratic mayor of Lafayette, Louisiana, the fourth largest city in the state, according to the 2000 census...
, a Republican-turned-Democrat, who had previously held the position from 1972-1980. Bowen trailed in the first primary with 10,301 (34 percent). Two other candidates also ran, Democrat Kathy Ashworth, with 7,344 (24 percent) and Republican Emile Vidrine, with 603 votes (2 percent).
In the all-Democratic general election allowed under the Louisiana primary system and held on April 11, Bowen defeated Gomez by 166 votes, 14,677 to 14,511. Gomez described his opponent, Mayor Bowen as "acrimonious" [with a] usual confrontational, self-serving, and cynical mode."
Personal life
Gomez is divorceDivorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
d from the former Purdy Linton, now Purdy Gers of Baton Rouge. In 1975, he married his second and current wife, the former Carol Ross, a USL graduate originally from King of Prussia
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
King of Prussia is a census-designated place in Upper Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2010 census, its population was 19,936. The community took its name in the 18th century from a local tavern named the King of Prussia Inn, which was named after...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, who assists him in the current operation of The Acadiana Gazette. Carol Gomez has an advertising agency known as Edge Communications. Her clients include the Lafayette Surgical Specialty Hospital. Gomez has three living children from the previous marriage, Ronald James "Jimmie" Gomez, Jr., of Baton Rouge, Nanette Oliver of Lafayette, and Laurence Hughes Gomez of Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. He held the custody of the children after the divorce. A third son, Gregory Stephen Gomez, died in 1996 in Austin in an accident at the age of thirty-three. As of 2010, Gomez had six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Gomez recalls his mother's warning to him as a guiding light to integrity when he announced for state representative in 1979: "If you're not careful, you'll end up just as crooked as all those other politicians." Gomez said, "I never forgot her warning. The honesty, integrity and humility of this saintly woman as well as my father's simple but solid principles were pounded into all five children with regularity."