Election As Treasurer, 1968
In 1967, Mrs. Parker donned the hat of "efficient administrator" and ran with McKeithen's support for state treasurer. She retained the services of a fledgling press secretary and consultant named Raymond Strother: it was the first campaign that Strother, later one of the most successful campaign organizers in Louisiana and throughout the South, ever managed. Strother has worked almost exclusively for Democrats, including Texas Senator Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr. (1921–2006) and former Georgia Governor Roy Barnes, Jr..
Mrs. Parker was the first woman to be elected treasurer of Louisiana. She ran to succeed 32-year incumbent Andrew Patrick "Pat" Tugwell, Sr., who had announced his retirement. She was unopposed for the Democratic nomination. In the general election held on February 6, 1968, she defeated Republican nominee Allison Ray Kolb (1915–1973) of Baton Rouge. Kolb was the only Republican challenging any of the Democratic nominees for state constitutional offices that year, and his candidacy was not taken serious by voters. He had been auditor (when he was a Democrat) in the administration of former Governor Robert F. Kennon. Mrs. Parker won all sixty-four parishes: 337,234 (73.7 percent) to Kolb's 120,253 (26.3 percent). She polled at least 57 percent of the vote in all parishes except Lafayette and East Baton Rouge parishes.
In her later elections, Parker was a runaway winner over her opponents.
Read more about this topic: Mary Evelyn Parker
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