John Sidney Garrett - Running For The Public Service Commission, 1966

Running For The Public Service Commission, 1966

John McKeithen appointed John S. Hunt, III, of Monroe to the PSC seat that McKeithen vacated to become governor. Hunt's appointed term lasted a year and a half. In the summer of 1966, Garrett challenged Hunt for Democratic renomination to a full six-year term on the commission. Hunt was the son of Stewart Smoker Hunt and Lucille Long Hunt of Ruston, a sister of Huey Pierce Long, Jr., and Earl Kemp Long. Both candidates had the same first name and the common middle initial, and Garrett's mother's maiden name was Hunt, but they were not related. Hunt led by plurality in the primary over a multi-candidate field that also included Garrett's legislative colleague, Parey Branton of Shongaloo and former lawmaker Wellborn Jack of Shreveport. After the primary, Garrett claimed that Hunt had received 42,000 African American votes, a margin of 93.1 percent in nine selected precincts across the district. In the Democratic runoff, Hunt defeated Garrett 91,971 (52.5 percent) to 83,075 (47.5) percent. The two evenly split the then twenty-eight parishes in the district. Garrett had garnered the support of three of four primary rivals eliminated in the first round of voting. He carried all of the parishes bordering Arkansas except Caddo in the northwest and East Carroll in the northeast. In north central and northeastern Louisiana, he won La Salle, Cathoula, Grant, Franklin, Richland, and Winn, the latter the ancestral home of the Longs. He also polled majorities in Red River and Bienville parishes in northwestern Louisiana.

Garrett tried to depict Hunt, who had supported Barry Goldwater for U.S. President in 1964, as a captive of the "black bloc vote", but he failed to convince a majority of voters accordingly. Records did, however, reveal that Hunt's 9,896-vote margin was dependent on African-American voters newly enfranchised under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Hunt served a total of eight years on the commission. He was unseated in 1972 by Francis Edward Kennon (born 1938), a Minden/Shreveport businessman and himself a nephew of former Governor Robert F. Kennon.