Both Houses of The Legislature
While he was still a principal in Vermilion Parish in 1975, Picard upset a state House member in District 47 in the first ever nonpartisan blanket primary held in Louisiana.
After three years in the state House, he won a special election to complete the term of state Senator Ned Doucet, Jr., in District 25, which encompasses all or parts of Acadia, Calcasieu, Cameron, Jefferson Davis, and Vermilion parishes. As Picard went to the Senate, he was succeeded in the house by Sam H. Theriot of Abbeville, son of the late Louisiana Comptroller Roy R. Theriot. Picard retired as principal when he entered the Senate, but his interest in education continued. Picard was elected to his first full term as senator in the fall of 1979 and again in 1983, and 1987, when he defeated fellow Democrat Wade Vincent, 16,933 votes (73 percent) to 6,203 (27 percent). In the primaries of 1991 and 1995, Picard ran unopposed. He left early in his last elected term to assume the superintendency.
Read more about this topic: Cecil J. Picard
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