Running For The State Senate
In the winter of 1971–1972, Baker ran for the state Senate against the 31-year-old Democratic nominee, James H. "Jim" Brown (born 1940), a graduate of Tulane University in New Orleans. Brown at the time was a politically ambitious lawyer in Ferriday in Concordia Parish, located along the Mississippi River across from Natchez, Mississippi. Besides Franklin and Concordia, the district included Catahoula (Jonesville) and Tensas (St. Joseph and Newellton) parishes. The outgoing senator was J.C. "Sonny" Gilbert of Sicily Island in Catahoula Parish. Gilbert ran successfully for the state House that year; after he left the legislature, he switched to Republican affiliation.
Brown was an easy winner in the general election, 17,151 votes (64.1 percent) to Baker's 9,587 (35.9 percent). Baker had been the first Republican ever to contest the 32nd District seat. With the boundaries altered, the district for the first time elected a Republican state senator on November 17, 2007, when GOP businessman Neil Riser of Columbia, the seat of Caldwell Parish defeated the Democratic candidate Bryant Hammett, Jr., of Ferriday. The Senate seat was vacated by the term-limited Noble Ellington of Winnsboro, who returned to the Louisiana House after a 12-year absence.
Read more about this topic: John Henry Baker
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