William J. Guste
Encyclopedia
William J. "Billy" Guste, Jr., (born May 26, 1922) 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 office into a model of integrity and efficiency. In 1976, he helped Jimmy Carter
win Louisiana and served as the first elector in the state for the Carter-Mondale
slate.
men's organization, the Knights of Columbus
. Guste, Jr., graduated from law school at Loyola University in New Orleans. He served on the New Orleans Metropolitan Crime Commission, at the invitation of then Mayor deLesseps Story Morrison, Sr., from 1956 to 1957. Guste was a member and chairman of the Juvenile Court Advisory Committee of Orleans Parish in 1961-1962.
Guste is married to Dorothy S. Guste (born 1924). He is widely viewed as a quiet, unassuming, almost shy man with dark wavy hair, in sharp contrast to the flamboyant, in-your-face image of his predecessor Jack Gremillion. Voters rewarded Guste's competence and integrity and kept him in the attorney general's position for two decades. He is therefore the longest-serving attorney general in modern Louisiana history.
, with 33,093 votes, and James Edward Fitzmorris, Jr.
, with 59,301 ballots, went into a runoff primary. Guste polled 29,487 votes, just 3,606 ballots behind Landrieu. Landrieu then scored a come-from-behind victory over Fitzmorris. Landrieu then went on to defeat the Republican
mayoral candidate, Ben C. Toledano, in the general election
held in the spring of 1970.
The state senators were elected at-large until 1972, and Guste was replaced by either Olaf M. Fink or Fritz Windhorst
.
In addition to Guste and Gremillion, the other candidates included Guste's state Senate colleague, George T. Oubre, Sr., from St. James Parish, who also represented St. Charles and St. John the Baptist
parishes. Also running was J. Minos Simon
(1922–2004), an articulate Lafayette
lawyer known for his theatrics, humor, and yet stern demeanor in the courtroom. Waiting to face the winner of the Democratic primaries was Thomas Eaton "Tom" Stagg, Jr.
, of Shreveport, the first Republican to wage an active contest for Louisiana attorney general in modern history. Stagg would later become a long-serving U.S. District judge on the appointment of President Richard M. Nixon.
Guste and Oubre went into a primary runoff in which Guste was a comfortable winner. Guste then overwhelmed Stagg, whose campaign, while blessed by Republican gubernatorial nominee David C. Treen
, then of Jefferson Parish, fell far short. Guste prevailed in the general election with 763,276 votes (74.1 percent) to Stagg's 270,038 (25.9 percent). Stagg won only his native Caddo Parish with 54 percent of the ballots cast. The other 63 parishes backed Guste, most by margins of more than 57 percent.
Once in office, Guste placed on his staff the attorney Joseph A. Sims
of Hammond
, a former legal advisor to Governor Earl Kemp Long, who had "rescued" Long from his confinement at Southeastern Louisiana State Hospital in Mandeville
in the summer of 1959. Sims died a year after his appointment. Sims had run unsuccessfully for attorney general in 1952.
" in their lessons if the theory of evolution
is also presented. The law neither required the teaching of evolution or creation science, but the instruction of both if the other were taught. Guste, regardless of his personal views on the matter, as attorney general was compelled to defend the Louisiana law. He argued that teachers should be able to present evidence favoring creation because the Supreme Court recognizes that teachers "already possess" the "flexibility to teach all the scientific evidence about the origins of life." Guste noted that the monitoring of state textbooks and science curricula would continue under the creation-science law.
The high Court ruled 7-2 in Edwards v. Aguillard in 1987, long after the initial issue had arisen, that creation science is "not science" but "religion" in the name of "science." The "Edwards" in the case referred to Governor Edwin Washington Edwards, who had returned to office in 1984, by having unseated David Treen in the primary the preceding fall. The Supreme Court found that the Louisiana legislature's actual intent was "to discredit evolution by counterbalancing its teaching at every turn with the introduction of creationism, a religious belief." Therefore, the court held that creation science instruction would be a violation of the "establishment clause" of the First Amendment. Defending the Louisiana law were then Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Antonin Scalia
, who argued that the court had no reason to interfere with a state law regarding school instruction. Scalia later said that such decisions meant that the court "bristled with hostility toward religion."
Arkansas, under Republican Governor Frank D. White
, had passed a similar law at the time. Some 15 years later, an alternative view called "intelligent design" came before federal courts for scrutiny, and lower courts ruled that intelligent design too is "not science" but a form of "religion" in the name of "science."
. He submitted an amicus curiae brief in the 1986-1987 case Johnson v. Transportation Agency of Santa Clara County, California on behalf of a female county employee who was promoted over an equally qualified male employee. The plan provided that, in making promotions to positions within a traditionally segregated job classification in which women have been significantly underrepresented, the transportation agency was authorized to consider as one factor the sex of a qualified applicant. The agency said that women were represented in numbers far less than their proportion of the county labor force. Therefore, the county plan was intended to achieve a statistically measurable yearly improvement in the hiring, training, and promotion of minorities and women. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed with the county government that the voluntary affirmative-action plan did not violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
.
In his dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia, who sided with the Reagan administration, said that the Santa Clara County plan was "not established to remedy prior sex discrimination by the agency, but imposed racial and sexual tailoring that would, in defiance of normal expectations and laws of probability, give each protected racial and sexual group a governmentally determined 'proper' proportion of each job category," or, in other words, racial or sexual quotas.
. In 1989, in his last term in office, he filed an amicus curiae brief in the Webster v. Reproductive Health Services. The Supreme Court in this case reversed an appeals court decision that required public hospitals to offer abortion services. The case stemmed from Missouri, which has such facilities in St. Louis
and Kansas City
, but had the appeals ruling stood, it would have applied in the other 49 states as well. The "Webster" in the case was Missouri's Republican Attorney General William Webster
. Abortion rights groups around the country rallied on behalf of the defendant. The result is that state hospitals need not provide elective abortions except in cases of impregnation by rape, incest, or in situations where the medical personnel cannot save the lives of both the woman and the child.
Guste was often involved in litigation referring to Louisiana's shrinking coastline, or wetlands. In such cases, he often took the environmentalist position, with the view that once such wetlands are lost, they cannot be reclaimed. Property rights advocates, however, often quarreled with Guste by taking the view that he defined "wetlands" too broadly.
Guste defended Tulane University
in New Orleans in one of his advisory opinions, which have the force of law, unless the legislature rules otherwise. He said that the institution was tax-exempt under a law, and that the exemption applied to sales and use taxes too, unless the legislature stipulated otherwise.
Risley C. Triche
, a colorful figure from Napoleonville
, the seat of Assumption Parish in south Louisiana, 672,065 (63 percent) to 398,088 (37 percent).
In his last election for attorney general, Guste secured his fifth term by a closer vote than what he had become accustomed. He had two opponents in the jungle primary
, both Democrats, Orleans Parish District Attorney Harry A. Connick, Sr.
, (the father of the popular entertainer Harry Connick, Jr.
,) and Manuel A. "Manny" Fernandez. Guste led the October 1987 balloting with 655,979 votes (47 percent), and Connick trailed with 440,865 ballots (31 percent). Fernandez drew a significant 309,065 votes (22 percent). In the November 1987 general election (usually called a "runoff" in Louisiana), with a much lower turnout, Guste prevailed over Connick, 516,658 (54 percent) to 440,984 (46 percent). It was a striking statistical quirk that Connick received just under 441,000 ballots in both the primary and the general election. The Guste-Connick contest pleased many in New Orleans because the city could offer to the rest of the state two of its most famous and successful men.
Guste, who was nearing 70 at the time, did not seek a sixth term in the 1991 primary. He was succeeded by fellow Democrat Richard Phillip Ieyoub
of Lake Charles
, the seat of Calcasieu Parish. Ieyoub defeated Republican Ben Bagert, a state senator from New Orleans, in the general election by a 69-31 percent margin.
, of which more than a million orders have been served since the business opened in the nineteenth century.
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...
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...
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...
from 1972 to 1992. He succeeded the scandal-plagued 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 fellow Democrat who had held the position since 1956. Guste received recognition for molding the office into a model of integrity and efficiency. In 1976, he helped 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...
win Louisiana and served as the first elector in the state for the Carter-Mondale
Walter Mondale
Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale is an American Democratic Party politician, who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States , under President Jimmy Carter, and as a United States Senator for Minnesota...
slate.
Early years
Guste was born to a wealthy New Orleans couple, William J. Guste, Sr., and the former Marie Louise Alciatore. The senior Guste was an attorney and a high ranking member of the CatholicCatholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
men's organization, the Knights of Columbus
Knights of Columbus
The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization. Founded in the United States in 1882, it is named in honor of Christopher Columbus....
. Guste, Jr., graduated from law school at Loyola University in New Orleans. He served on the New Orleans Metropolitan Crime Commission, at the invitation of then Mayor deLesseps Story Morrison, Sr., from 1956 to 1957. Guste was a member and chairman of the Juvenile Court Advisory Committee of Orleans Parish in 1961-1962.
Guste is married to Dorothy S. Guste (born 1924). He is widely viewed as a quiet, unassuming, almost shy man with dark wavy hair, in sharp contrast to the flamboyant, in-your-face image of his predecessor Jack Gremillion. Voters rewarded Guste's competence and integrity and kept him in the attorney general's position for two decades. He is therefore the longest-serving attorney general in modern Louisiana history.
Running for mayor of New Orleans, 1969
Guste was a one-term state senator from Orleans Parish from 1968 to 1972, but he had ambition beyond the legislature and ran unsuccessfully for mayor of New Orleans in the 1969 Democratic primary. Two other candidates, Maurice "Moon" LandrieuMoon Landrieu
Maurice Edwin "Moon" Landrieu is a Democratic politician from Louisiana who served as Mayor of New Orleans from 1970–1978. He also is a former judge...
, with 33,093 votes, and James Edward 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...
, with 59,301 ballots, went into a runoff primary. Guste polled 29,487 votes, just 3,606 ballots behind Landrieu. Landrieu then scored a come-from-behind victory over Fitzmorris. Landrieu then went on to defeat the 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...
mayoral candidate, Ben C. Toledano, in the 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...
held in the spring of 1970.
The state senators were elected at-large until 1972, and Guste was replaced by either Olaf M. Fink or Fritz Windhorst
Fritz Windhorst
Fritz Heinrich Windhorst is a Gretna, Louisiana, attorney who served from 1972 to 1992 as a member of the Louisiana State Senate from Jefferson and Orleans parishes, originally District 8, and later District 7. Windhorst was a conservative Democrat from 1972 to 1985, when he switched to...
.
Election as attorney general, 1971-1972 and 1975
In 1971, Guste did not seek reelection to the state Senate but instead entered a crowded Democratic field for attorney general. Gremillion was seeking a fifth term, but it was believed that the corruption allegations then pending against him, which later resulted in conviction and a prison sentence, would doom his candidacy.In addition to Guste and Gremillion, the other candidates included Guste's state Senate colleague, George T. Oubre, Sr., from St. James Parish, who also represented St. Charles and St. John the Baptist
St. John the Baptist parish
St. John the Baptist parish may refer to one of a number of religious organisations:In the district of Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland:* The Church of Ireland Parish of Clontarf* The senior Parish of Clontarf...
parishes. Also running was J. Minos Simon
J. Minos Simon
Joseph Minos Simon was an author, a lecturer, an aviator, a sportsman, and particularly a Louisiana attorney known for his courtroom theatrics and demeanor.-Early years and education:...
(1922–2004), an articulate 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...
lawyer known for his theatrics, humor, and yet stern demeanor in the courtroom. Waiting to face the winner of the Democratic primaries was Thomas Eaton "Tom" Stagg, Jr.
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...
, of Shreveport, the first Republican to wage an active contest for Louisiana attorney general in modern history. Stagg would later become a long-serving U.S. District judge on the appointment of President Richard M. Nixon.
Guste and Oubre went into a primary runoff in which Guste was a comfortable winner. Guste then overwhelmed Stagg, whose campaign, while blessed by Republican gubernatorial nominee David C. Treen
David C. Treen
David Conner "Dave" Treen, Sr. , 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...
, then of Jefferson Parish, fell far short. Guste prevailed in the general election with 763,276 votes (74.1 percent) to Stagg's 270,038 (25.9 percent). Stagg won only his native Caddo Parish with 54 percent of the ballots cast. The other 63 parishes backed Guste, most by margins of more than 57 percent.
Once in office, Guste placed on his staff the attorney Joseph A. Sims
Joseph A. Sims
Joseph Arthur Sims, Sr. , was a Democratic operative from Hammond, Louisiana, who was associated with his state's Long political faction. As the legal advisor to Governor Earl Kemp Long, he obtained Long's discharge from the Southeast Louisiana State Hospital in Mandeville in St...
of 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...
, a former legal advisor to Governor Earl Kemp Long, who had "rescued" Long from his confinement at Southeastern Louisiana State Hospital 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...
in the summer of 1959. Sims died a year after his appointment. Sims had run unsuccessfully for attorney general in 1952.
Defending creation science
In the Treen gubernatorial administration (1980–1984), the legislature passed a law permitting public school teachers to instruct the tenets of "creation scienceCreation 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...
" in their lessons if the theory of 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...
is also presented. The law neither required the teaching of evolution or creation science, but the instruction of both if the other were taught. Guste, regardless of his personal views on the matter, as attorney general was compelled to defend the Louisiana law. He argued that teachers should be able to present evidence favoring creation because the Supreme Court recognizes that teachers "already possess" the "flexibility to teach all the scientific evidence about the origins of life." Guste noted that the monitoring of state textbooks and science curricula would continue under the creation-science law.
The high Court ruled 7-2 in Edwards v. Aguillard in 1987, long after the initial issue had arisen, that creation science is "not science" but "religion" in the name of "science." The "Edwards" in the case referred to Governor Edwin Washington Edwards, who had returned to office in 1984, by having unseated David Treen in the primary the preceding fall. The Supreme Court found that the Louisiana legislature's actual intent was "to discredit evolution by counterbalancing its teaching at every turn with the introduction of creationism, a religious belief." Therefore, the court held that creation science instruction would be a violation of the "establishment clause" of the First Amendment. Defending the Louisiana law were then Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Antonin Scalia
Antonin Scalia
Antonin Gregory Scalia is an American jurist who serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. As the longest-serving justice on the Court, Scalia is the Senior Associate Justice...
, who argued that the court had no reason to interfere with a state law regarding school instruction. Scalia later said that such decisions meant that the court "bristled with hostility toward religion."
Arkansas, under Republican Governor Frank D. White
Frank D. White
Frank Durward White was the 41st Governor of the U.S. state of Arkansas since Reconstruction. He served a single two-year term from 1981 to 1983. He is one of only two people to have defeated President Bill Clinton in an election. Frank Durward White (June 4, 1933 – May 21, 2003) was...
, had passed a similar law at the time. Some 15 years later, an alternative view called "intelligent design" came before federal courts for scrutiny, and lower courts ruled that intelligent design too is "not science" but a form of "religion" in the name of "science."
Support for affirmative action
Guste pleased liberals by being a strong defender of affirmative actionAffirmative action
Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...
. He submitted an amicus curiae brief in the 1986-1987 case Johnson v. Transportation Agency of Santa Clara County, California on behalf of a female county employee who was promoted over an equally qualified male employee. The plan provided that, in making promotions to positions within a traditionally segregated job classification in which women have been significantly underrepresented, the transportation agency was authorized to consider as one factor the sex of a qualified applicant. The agency said that women were represented in numbers far less than their proportion of the county labor force. Therefore, the county plan was intended to achieve a statistically measurable yearly improvement in the hiring, training, and promotion of minorities and women. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed with the county government that the voluntary affirmative-action plan did not violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...
.
In his dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia, who sided with the Reagan administration, said that the Santa Clara County plan was "not established to remedy prior sex discrimination by the agency, but imposed racial and sexual tailoring that would, in defiance of normal expectations and laws of probability, give each protected racial and sexual group a governmentally determined 'proper' proportion of each job category," or, in other words, racial or sexual quotas.
Prolife activities
Guste, like many Louisiana Democrats in the 1980s, pleased conservatives by taking a pro-life position on abortionAbortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
. In 1989, in his last term in office, he filed an amicus curiae brief in the Webster v. Reproductive Health Services. The Supreme Court in this case reversed an appeals court decision that required public hospitals to offer abortion services. The case stemmed from Missouri, which has such facilities in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
and Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, but had the appeals ruling stood, it would have applied in the other 49 states as well. The "Webster" in the case was Missouri's Republican Attorney General William Webster
William L. Webster
William L. Webster is a former American politician and convicted felon from Missouri.-Early life and career:William Webster is the son of the late Richard M. Webster, who was a prominent Missouri State Senator and Janet Webster. Webster was born and raised in Carthage, Missouri and was a graduate...
. Abortion rights groups around the country rallied on behalf of the defendant. The result is that state hospitals need not provide elective abortions except in cases of impregnation by rape, incest, or in situations where the medical personnel cannot save the lives of both the woman and the child.
Role as attorney general
Guste was an active attorney general in many areas. Governor Edwards named him to the Governor's Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice in 1974. In 1983, President Ronald W. Reagan named Guste, despite their partisan difference, to the President's Commission on Organized Crime.Guste was often involved in litigation referring to Louisiana's shrinking coastline, or wetlands. In such cases, he often took the environmentalist position, with the view that once such wetlands are lost, they cannot be reclaimed. Property rights advocates, however, often quarreled with Guste by taking the view that he defined "wetlands" too broadly.
Guste defended Tulane University
Tulane University
Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...
in New Orleans in one of his advisory opinions, which have the force of law, unless the legislature rules otherwise. He said that the institution was tax-exempt under a law, and that the exemption applied to sales and use taxes too, unless the legislature stipulated otherwise.
Last campaign, 1987
In the first ever nonpartisan blanket primary on November 1, 1975, Guste won a second term as attorney general, having easily defeated intraparty rival, State RepresentativeLouisiana 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...
Risley C. Triche
Risley C. Triche
Risley Claiborne Triche, also known as Pappy Triche , is an attorney in Napoleonville, Louisiana, who served as a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1955-1976...
, a colorful figure from Napoleonville
Napoleonville, Louisiana
Napoleonville is a village in and the parish seat of Assumption Parish, in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The population was 686 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Pierre Part Micropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
, the seat of Assumption Parish in south Louisiana, 672,065 (63 percent) to 398,088 (37 percent).
In his last election for attorney general, Guste secured his fifth term by a closer vote than what he had become accustomed. He had two opponents in the jungle primary
Jungle primary
A nonpartisan blanket primary is a primary election in which all candidates for elected office run in the same primary regardless of political party. Under this system, the top two candidates who receive the most votes advance to the next round, as in a runoff election...
, both Democrats, Orleans Parish District Attorney Harry A. Connick, Sr.
Harry Connick, Sr.
Joseph Harry Fowler Connick, Sr. is a New Orleans attorney who is best known for serving as the district attorney of the Parish of Orleans, which contains the City of New Orleans, from 1973 to 2003....
, (the father of the popular entertainer Harry Connick, Jr.
Harry Connick, Jr.
Joseph Harry Fowler Connick, Jr. is an American singer, big-band leader/conductor, pianist, actor, and composer. He has sold over 25 million albums worldwide. Connick is ranked among the top 60 best-selling male artists in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America, with...
,) and Manuel A. "Manny" Fernandez. Guste led the October 1987 balloting with 655,979 votes (47 percent), and Connick trailed with 440,865 ballots (31 percent). Fernandez drew a significant 309,065 votes (22 percent). In the November 1987 general election (usually called a "runoff" in Louisiana), with a much lower turnout, Guste prevailed over Connick, 516,658 (54 percent) to 440,984 (46 percent). It was a striking statistical quirk that Connick received just under 441,000 ballots in both the primary and the general election. The Guste-Connick contest pleased many in New Orleans because the city could offer to the rest of the state two of its most famous and successful men.
Guste, who was nearing 70 at the time, did not seek a sixth term in the 1991 primary. He was succeeded by fellow Democrat Richard Phillip Ieyoub
Richard Ieyoub
Richard Phillip Ieyoub, Sr. , is a Baton Rouge lawyer and a Democratic politician who was the attorney general of Louisiana from 1992 to 2004. Ieyoub was the Calcasieu Parish district attorney in Lake Charles from 1984 to 1992, and is presently with the Baton Rouge firm Couhig Partners...
of 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...
, the seat of Calcasieu Parish. Ieyoub defeated Republican Ben Bagert, a state senator from New Orleans, in the general election by a 69-31 percent margin.
Antoine's Restaurant
Guste and his brother, Roy Francis Guste, Sr. (born 1924), were fourth generation proprietors of the elegant Antoine's Restaurant in New Orleans. Their two sons, cousins Roy F. Guste, Jr. (born 1951), and Bernard R. "Randy" Guste (born 1949), have split time serving the family as managers since the 1970s. The restaurant is known for many menu items, particularly Oysters RockefellerOysters Rockefeller
Oysters Rockefeller consists of oysters on the half-shell that have been topped with various other ingredients and are then baked or broiled.-History:...
, of which more than a million orders have been served since the business opened in the nineteenth century.