George Despot - Republicans Assess Despot's Record

Republicans Assess Despot's Record

Fellow Republicans throughout the state mourned Despot's passing. Then chairman William "Billy" Nungesser (September 30, 1929—January 21, 2006) of Belle Chasse in Plaquemines Parish said that Despot's political savvy, his close relationship with President George Herbert Walker Bush, and his ability to raise campaign funds would be missed by the Louisiana GOP.

Then Caddo Republican Chairman Reginald Hargrove said that the party members "all owe him a debt of gratutide." According to Hargrove, Despot had encouraged local GOP factions to mend their differences in preparation for the 1991 state and parish elections and the 1992 national elections. "He had been telling people to go out and work with us," Hargrove added.

Despot's last political role was in 1987 as an advisor to Fourth Congressional District Republican chairman Ken Frazier in Frazier's unsuccessful bid for a seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives. Frazier lost to the late Democrat Roy McArthur "Hoppy" Hopkins of Oil City. "George was the old master. There have been differences within the party, but they had nothing to do with personal relationships. He's been a friend to everybody, and everybody will grieve for him," said Frazier.

State Representative Arthur W. "Art" Sour, Jr., of Shreveport, who served from 1972to 1992, said that he always found his fellow Catholic Despot to be "a good Christian man and a man of principle" despite any political differences that the two may have had. Sour said Despot's passing may bring the factions together. Sour would lose his seat to a Democrat, Melissa Flournoy, just nine months after Despot's death.

James Wellborn, chairman of the Bossier Parish Republican Party in the 1970s, said that Despot singlehandedly forged an effective state and local organization when registrars would routinely discourage prospective voters from registering as Republicans. Until the implementation of the jungle primary, registrars constantly told voters that they "would not be able to vote" in most elections unless they were Democrats.

According to Wellborn, Despot also helped to organize a challenge to existing political boundaries in Bossier Parish and secured reapportionment of the local districts despite opposition and harassment from the parish's elites. Despot had a "knack for motivating people, though at times he could make people angry as well. He moved so fast he left a lot of sand in his wake. Some people just got it in their eyes," Wellborn said.

Prior to his death, Despot had curtailed much of his local activity because he preferred to concentrate on national and state politics.

The staunchly conservative Nungesser, who himself shocked his party when he endorsed Patrick J. Buchanan for the 1992 Republican nomination, said that Despot was "strong-willed, and had his own strong ideas, but he always had what was best for Louisiana at heart." Nungesser, who was in the catering business serving ships, was the only state chairman who did not support the first George Bush in the 1992 primaries.