James H. "Jim" Brown - Reelection and More Reforms, 1995-1999

Reelection and More Reforms, 1995-1999

His work for reform, reorganization, and modernization paid off at the ballot box. The department closed 21 failing insurance companies and made more than 160 referrals that led to indictments of individuals involved in questionable insurance practices.

Brown was reelected in the 1995 primary by the same margin that he achieved in the 1991 general election. He received 809,778 votes (60 percent) to 373,234 (28 percent) for Republican Sally Nungesser of New Orleans, a former press secretary to Treen and the niece of former Treen aide and later Republican state chairman William "Billy" Nungesser. Several other candidates shared the remaining 12 percent of the vote.

In 1997, Brown released a legislative plan that proposed a significant crackdown on driving while intoxicated and uninsured motorists since driver's licenses were first required in Louisiana in 1946. The legislature approved his bills to raise the driving age from 15 to 16, to limit the availability of uninsured motorists to recover losses from other drivers, the seize vehicles from multiple drunken-driving offenders, to lower the blood alcohol content for DWI, and to impound uninsured vehicles.

In 1998, Brown announced a new proposal to extend health care coverage to 100,000 Louisiana children through a federally funded program within his department.