Jerry Huckaby
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Thomas Jerald "Jerry" Huckaby (born July 19, 1941) is a Virginia real estate executive who was a Democratic congressman from northeastern Louisiana between 1977 and 1993. He lost his position as a result of congressional reapportionment in 1992, when Louisiana forfeited one of its eight seats in the United States House of Representatives because the state grew in population at less than the national average during the 1980s.
[edit] His early years
Huckaby was born in Hodge in Jackson Parish. He graduated from Minden High School in Webster Parish in 1959. In high school, he was on the basketball team. He also played in the band, was active in the student council, editior of the school newspaper, and graduated fifth in his class. In 1963, he received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He was student body president of the college of engineering and a member of Kappa Alpha Fraternity. Five years later, he obtained an M.B.A. from Georgia State University in Atlanta. He was a management executive for Western Electric Co. in Chicago between 1963 and 1973. He returned to Louisiana from Illinois and entered business and farming. He owned and operated Hallmark Farms in Ringgold in Bienville Parish.
[edit] Unseating Otto Passman in the Democratic primary, 1976
In 1976, Huckaby was elected to Congress from the Monroe-based Fifth Congressional District. First, he unseated veteran conservative Otto Ernest Passman (1900-1988), a native of Franklinton in south Louisiana and a long-term Monroe resident, in a hard-fought Democratic primary held in August. Passman, a 30-year incumbent, had been a steadfast supporter of the Vietnam War. A World War II Navy lieutenant, Passman was particularly known for his support of veterans causes as well as his opposition to most foreign aid programs, positions which contributed to his popularity in the district. However, Passman was under an ethical cloud. He was engulfed in a bribery, conspiracy, fraud, and influence peddling scandal involving his acceptance of $213,000 from the South Korean lobbyist Tongsun Park. Passman had not, however, been indicted of anything at the time of the primary election. The indictments came two years later, but he was acquitted in a high-profile trial in 1979 in which he retained the services of the high-powered Alexandria attorney Camille Francis Gravel, Jr.
Huckaby, who was 41 years Passman's junior, also used the common "time-for-a-change" theme with great success. Park also gave $20,000 to Louisiana Governor Edwin Washington Edwards, when Edwards was a congressman.
[edit] Defeating Frank Spooner in the general election, 1976
Huckaby then faced a determined Republican challenge from Frank Spooner, a conservative Monroe oilman who had been his state's GOP national committeeman. Spooner (born 1937 and hence four years older than Huckaby) hoped to assemble a winning coalition based on a strong showing in Monroe (Ouachita Parish) and Ruston (Lincoln Parish), along with Morehouse, Richland, Natchitoches, and Winn parishes. Former Texas Governor John B. Connally came to Natchitoches to speak for Spooner and the Gerald R. Ford and Robert J. Dole ticket. Huckaby won the exchange, helped in part by the popularity of Jimmy Carter in Louisiana and throughout the South. Huckaby received 83,696 votes (52.5 percent) to Spooner's 75,574 ballots (47.5 percent). While Spooner polled 59 percent in Ouachita Parish and also won in Lincoln, Morehouse, Union, and Richland parishes, his strength was insufficient to overcome the hefty Democratic margins in rural districts stretching from Ringgold on the west to Vidalia on the east and the most northern precincts of Rapides Parish on the south. Spooner polled only 27 percent in Bienville Parish, Huckaby's residence, and under 40 percent in Madison and Winn parishes, the latter the ancestral home of the popular Long political dynasty.
[edit] Louisiana's jungle primary
The 1976 congressional elections were the last in Louisiana under the previous closed primary system. Starting in 1978, when Huckaby was reelected, congressional elections went to the jungle primary format, which had already begun for state elections in 1975. In the jungle primary, candidates run in the same initial election regardless of party label. The only labels permitted in Louisiana are "Democrat," "Republican," and "No Party." There is a runoff between the top two candidates if no one wins a simple majority in the first round of balloting. That runoff constitutes the "general election" under Louisiana law even if the "general election" has two candidates of the same party. This plan is used only in Louisiana for regular elections. It is also used in Texas and some other states in special elections. The jungle primary was adopted by the legislature at the insistence of powerful Governor Edwin Washington Edwards as a way to reduce growing Republican strength in traditionally Democratic Louisiana. The plan, in the long run, did not achieve that particular purpose, but it did keep candidates from having to undergo three possibly contested elections to win office. The plan proved very beneficial for the popular Huckaby, who was re-elected 7 times over the next 14 years, often with landslides of more than 80%. He only had to run once in each of those elections against a combined field of Republicans and Democrats.
[edit] Huckaby on Agriculture Committee
Huckaby was chairman of the subcommittee on cotton, rice and sugar for 10 years. His marketing loan legislation was credited with bringing American agriculture out of it's major recesssion of the 1980's. His controversial legislation defining elgibility for farm payments and limiting the amount of the payments a farmer could receive withstood the test of time and was still in effect 20 years after it became law. He was a key defender of the sugar industry in the 1990 debate over the farm bill. Louisiana is a major sugar cane state, with some 750 farms that produce hundreds of thousands of tons of sugar. He was even called "Mr. Sugar" in the House. In his last campaign for Congress, Huckaby collected more than $50,000 from sugar interests. "I was in the race of my life, and I went out everywhere soliciting funds," Huckaby recalled. Huckaby said that raising money from Political Action Committees is a necessary evil. "It would be nice if the PAC system didn't exist. It is the most distasteful thing in politics," he said.
[edit] Huckaby on Budget Committee
Huckaby was the Boll Weevils' choice in 1989 for a slot informally designated for a Southern Democrat on the House Budget Committee. Huckaby did not shy from highly technical issues, was not afraid to cut deals, and could serve as a bridge to conservatives of both parties. The Budget Committee assignment came during his last two terms in Congress.
[edit] Huckaby on Interior Committee
Huckaby introduced House-passed legislation in 1988 to require commercial nuclear plants, during any unusual event, to transmit electronically data on pressure, temperature, and water levels to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Washington, D.C., so that its experts may monitor and advise on the situation. The national monitoring center has been effective in preventing other "Three Mile Island" threats. Huckaby was aware of the environment and his seat on the Interior Committee enabled him to pass legislation through the years that created the Tensas National Wildlife Refuge, the Upper Darbonne National Wildlife Refuge, the Poverty Point National Monument, the Saline Bayou Wild and Scenic River, and the Kisatchie Hills Wilderness, all in his congressional district.
[edit] A casualty of reapportionment, 1992
Louisiana lost a district when the 1990 United States Census revealed sluggish population growth in the state. Complicating matters further, the Justice Department issued a directive requiring Louisiana to create a second black-majority district. The legislature responded by creating a new 4th District, shifting most of the black voters in Huckaby's former district there. Huckaby's district absorbed a large portion of the former Shreveport-based 4th District, represented by Republican Jim McCrery.
Although the new 5th was more Huckaby's district geographically, 60% of the new district's registered voters had been represented by McCrery. In addition, the minority population was reduced from 30% to less than 5%. Thus, despite Huckaby's geographic advantage, the new district was very Republican leaning and McCrery was an overwhelming favorite. National Democratic officials told Huckaby he was in a winless situation, along with seven other southern Democrats whose districts had been made considerably more Republican. Huckaby had the option of retiring and keeping $250,000 in campaign funds (1992 was the last year members of congress could retire and keep surplus campaign funds for their personal use.) However, he chose to take the longshot and stay in the race.
McCrery won in a route, taking 153,501 votes (63 percent) to 90,079 for Huckaby (37 percent). Huckaby won only a few small parishes, including his home in Bienville Parish.
[edit] Huckaby in Virginia
Huckaby and his wife, Suzanna Woodard "Sue" Huckaby (born 1943), a Ringgold native, did not return to Louisiana after his congressional defeat. Huckaby became a lobbyist but left after two months. "I was never comfortable sitting on the other side of the table," he said. "I wasn't comfortable asking members like (former U.S. Senator) John Breaux to see such and such a person or (former Louisiana Representative) Robert L. "Bob" Livingston to go to such and such a reception." Huckaby instead became president of his wife's thriving McLean, Virginia, residential real estate business. They reside in Great Falls, Virginia. The Huckabys are Methodists.
[edit] References
- Billy Hathorn, "The Republican Party in Louisiana, 1920-1980," Master's thesis (1980), Northwestern State University in Natchitoches
- http://mindenmemories.com/The%20Grig%201956-59.htm
- http://www.sos.louisiana.gov:8090/cgibin/?rqstyp=elcmp&rqsdta=11039214511053
- http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000901
- http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/hubbeel-hudnut.html
- http://www.opensecrets.org/pubs/cashingin_sugar/sugar03.html
- http://www.fairelections.us/print_article.php?id=226&print=1
| Preceded by Otto Ernest Passman (D) |
United States Representative for the 5th Congressional District of Louisiana 1977–1993 |
Succeeded by James O. McCrery, III (R) |
Categories: Louisiana politicians | Members of the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana | 1941 births | Living people | American politicians | Louisiana State University alumni | Webster Parish, Louisiana | Bienville Parish, Louisiana | People from Minden, Louisiana | People from Virginia | Farmers
