Ernest S. Clements - Public Service Commissioner

Public Service Commissioner

Thereafter, Clements spent his last years in politics as one of the three members of the Louisiana Public Service Commission, a rate-making body that supervises utilities and motor carriers. He was elected to the then District 2 seat in 1956, 1962, and 1968. He stepped down at the end of 1974, when the body was enlarged to five members under the new Louisiana Constitution. Clements was first elected to succeed Wade O. Martin, Sr., of St. Martin Parish, who died in August 1956. Martin was first elected to the commission in 1932 and hence served twenty-four years. After Martin's death, Governor Long had named E. P. Roy to a temporary appointment until the regular election could be held. Clements won that election. In the two years prior to reelection campaigns, Clements served as chairman of the commission. He was also chairman in his last two years on the commission, when the junior member was then 34-year-old Francis Edward Kennon, Jr., nephew of former Governor Robert Kennon.