LA First Lady Alice Fosters Considers Gubernatorial Bid in 2003

Alice Foster says she 'would consider' bid for governor John Hill / Louisiana Gannett News Posted on November 4, 2002

BATON ROUGE - Friends have suggested to first lady Alice Foster that she consider running for governor to succeed Mike Foster in next fall's governor's race.

"I would consider it," Alice Foster said from Oaklawn Manor, the Foster's antebellum mansion in coastal St. Mary Parish.

"They have said, 'Why don't you run for governor and Mike run for lieutenant governor?' It's a great idea because I think we need Mike Foster somehow involved in the next administration."

The governor, who is constitutionally barred, however, probably won't go along, she said. "I don't think he would do it. He is looking forward to retirement."

The governor said he's not sure he would go for the idea of a wife-husband governor-lieutenant governor ticket.

"I think I'm ready to be put out to the barn," Mike Foster said, laughing. "I might want to go get my law degree and take time to smell the roses."

The election, however, "is a most critical juncture," the governor said. He has conducted polls testing the viability of other candidates.

"It's imperative that we elect somebody who can continue in the right direction," Mike Foster said.

Some friends have said they would get up a petition to put Alice Foster on the ballot, she said. "It's quite a compliment," she said. "It would be my luck that we'd win."

While she may not be seriously looking at the race, money wouldn't be a problem if she decided to run. Alice Foster could simply write out personal checks to finance her campaign just as Mike Foster did in his first campaign in 1995.

If Alice Foster does run, it would be the second time in Southern history that a wife ran as a surrogate to follow her husband who was ineligible to succeed himself for a third term. The late Alabama Gov. Lurleen Wallace was governor from 1967 until her death from cancer in 1968, following her husband, the late Alabama Gov. George Wallace, a segregationist leader in the 1960s.

The South has had three other female governors, two from Texas, one from Kentucky. The most recent were Texan Ann Richards, who was defeated in 1995 by now President George W. Bush, and Kentucky's Joan Finney, who like Richards served from 1991 to 1995. The other Texan, one of the nation's more colorful politicians, was Miriam "Ma" Ferguson, who served two terms, 1925-1927 and 1933-1935. (Her husband was Texas Gov. Jim "Pa" Ferguson, who served from 1915 to 1917 and was impeached early in his second term.)

Her anti-litter program put state prisoners out on the highways picking up trash. She created the Governor's Mansion Foundation, which has raised private donations of several million dollars to refurbish the Governor's Mansion and furnish it with museum-quality French and English antiques indigenous to Louisiana's antebellum and colonial history. She has also raised money for breast cancer research.

Political scientists tended to laugh when the trial balloon was floated past them.

"That's just clever," said LSU's Wayne Parent. "Things are certainly getting very interesting."

Parent said while there are many viable Democratic candidates being talked about, "there does seem to be a gap on the right."

Mike Foster's status as the state's most popular Republican politician means "if they ran as a team, that would fill that gap. Now, whether people would be cynical about it is another question, but there is certainly room in the governor's race for this."

Southern University's Jim Llorens does not think Mike Foster's popularity would transfer easily to Alice Foster.

"I don't think she would be a viable candidate in this race," Llorens said. "People will not view her as an incumbent. They will see it as an open race."

"That inherited rather than merited strategy that she would pursue wouldn't be effective, I don't think," he said. "I am laughing."

It's not the same as U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, who ran for senator from New York from the White House as first lady.

"Unlike Hillary Clinton, who was active and vocal in numerous political issues, Alice Foster has not been," Lee said. "She has taken on civic causes, but hasn't been the highly visible spouse like Hillary Clinton."

Another woman has already announced for governor, DemocratLt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco. She has long been highlighted as the frontrunner to regain the Baton Rouge statehouse that Huey Long built for the Democrats.

You might be surprised to hear, but being Lieutenant-Governor in LA has not been a good route to the top job. The last Governor to have held that position previously was Earl Long, and that was over 46 years ago. The previous #2, also a woman, Melinda Schwegemann, decided to return to serving as a legislator (now a state rep.). I wouldn't be surprised to see the GOP hold the office (perhaps with a state legislator, or, with Suzy Terrell if she fails to capture the Senate seat), as there is presumably a bloodbath that might ensue on the Dem side between Blanco and State AG Richard Ieyoub. I doubt Mrs. Foster will follow through to run, though (especially seeing how well the race for Sec of State in AR is going for Mrs. Huckabee).

The AR governor is a former lt. gov., as is Governor Perry in TX. Otherwise, the last TX lt. gov. to become governor was Preston Smith, D-Lubbock, elected in 1968.

No, I was referring specifically to LA with the luck of Lieutenant Governors reaching the top job (also to note that here in TN, since the position was created (it's still technically called "Speaker of the Senate" and is elected from within the Senate) in the late '40s/early '50s that one has reached the top job. In fact, we now have the longest serving Lt Gov in US history, a "DINO", John Wilder, who has held the position since 1971 (and is likely due to be reelected for another 2 year term)).

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