Billy Tauzin III

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Wilbert Joseph "Billy" Tauzin III was born in 1971, son of Billy Tauzin. Although some claim that he spent some time in the United States Coast Guard, the truth is rather different. After high school, Tauzin did enroll at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. His dream, he claimed, was to be a helicopter pilot. After a couple of years at the academy, he suddenly learned that the minimum commitment for an aviator was five years, in addition to the normal requirement of five years' active duty. At age 20, Tauzin said, he was unwilling to make a decadelong commitment; he dropped out during his junior year, ending his Coast Guard "career." One of his classmates, who went on to graduate and became a Coast Guard officer, recalled another factor in his departure: Tauzin bristled under the academy's hierarchy and strict rules of conduct.

Tauzin finished his bachelor's degree at Louisiana State University. He sold wireless phones for Bell Atlantic from a kiosk in a suburban Virginia mall, then obtained a job in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, as a lobbyist and community relations specialist for BellSouth.

In a decision that provoked internal dissension in the Louisiana Republican Party executive committee, Tauzin was selected by the Republican Party establishment to fill the open seat caused by his father's 2004 retirement from the United States House of Representatives.

Tauzin, a former lobbyist for BellSouth (a nationwide provider coincidentally under the scrutiny of his father's Congressional committee), bested a crowded field in the primary, due to his father's influence and name recognition, and faced Democratic challenger Charlie Melancon, a long-time lobbyist for the sugar cane industry, in the runoff. The hotly contested race ended with both candidates garnering close to 50 percent of the vote, but Melancon won the race by 569 votes overall. Tauzin in turn earned the epithet of "Little Billy," unable to "fill his father's shoes," from a masterpiece of negative television political advertising. [1]

Tauzin continues to work for BellSouth as a district manager in his second hometown of Thibodaux, Louisiana (his first being the bedroom community of Annandale, Virginia) and in addition Tauzin is also a coach for the Lousiana State University Men's Lacrosse Club.