Cecil R. Blair - Four Later Campaigns

Four Later Campaigns

Blair was never reconciled to the election of Randolph, who had been a Bolton High School classmate of Blair's two older children. He tried to dislodge Randolph in the 1979 primary and failed. In 1983, Blair attempted again. In a surprise of sorts, Randolph was unseated, not by Blair, but by Pineville businessman William Joseph "Joe" McPherson, Jr., later of Woodworth. Randolph led in the initial balloting with 13,501 votes (38.4 percent) to McPherson's 11,032 ballots (31.4 percent). Blair received 6,096 votes (17.4 percent), and Alexandria Mayor John K. Snyder, in fourth place, received only 4,496 votes (12.8 percent). In the runoff—officially the Louisiana general election—McPherson won, 16,360 votes (53.9 percent) to Randolph's 13,973 (46.1 percent).

In 1987, Blair attempted to regain the Senate seat. He and outgoing state Representative Jock Scott, then a convert to the Republican Party, challenged McPherson, who had the support of organized labor. McPherson polled 16,950 (51 percent) in the primary and hence retained the seat outright. Scott trailed with 12,346 votes (37 percent). Blair netted 4,245 votes (13 percent). In 1995, Blair once more attempted to regain the Senate seat but failed to make the general election runoff in a field of seven candidates. The Senate seat was won by the Reverend B.G. Dyess, the retired Rapides Parish voter registrar and a Baptist clergyman who campaigned against gambling. Dyess served for four years and, because of his wife's health, did not seek a second term in 1999. McPherson made an unsuccessful bid for Public Service Commissioner in 1995 and lost to Dale Sittig of Eunice. McPherson returned to the Senate in 2000 and easily won a third consecutive term in the jungle primary held on October 20, 2007.