Foster Campbell - 2007 Gubernatorial Bid

2007 Gubernatorial Bid

In November 2006, Campbell informed the press that he was considering challenging incumbent Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, a fellow Democrat, in the primary. He subsequently toured the state, raised money, and hired political consultant George Kennedy—described by LAPolitics.com as "the state's hottest political consultant." The centerpiece of Campbell's platform was a proposal to repeal the excise tax levied by the state on domestic oil production and replace it with a 6 percent processing fee on all oil and natural gas that passes through the state. Campbell estimated that this fee would raise $5.5 billion per year, enough to eliminate the state's income tax with nearly $2 billion per year left for discretionary spending.

On March 19, 2007, in a press conference held in New Orleans, Campbell officially announced his gubernatorial candidacy. The next day, in apparent response to opinion polls showing that she would be unlikely to win re-election over Jindal, Blanco announced that she would not seek a second tgerm as governor. (Blanco had defeated Jindal in the 2003 general election.) Former U.S. Senator John Breaux, a Democrat, was expected to announce his candidacy, but he bowed out on April 13. On April 26, another gubernatorial contender, Walter Boasso, the Republican state senator from St. Bernard Parish in south Louisiana, announced that he was returning to the Democratic Party. Campbell faced Jindal and Boasso in the primary as well as an independent, John Georges of New Orleans. When asked to cite some of the differences between him and frontrunner Jindal, Campbell says, "I understand rural people and agriculture. He has no idea what's going on in rural communities and agriculture. I work with black people very well. I don’t think that he has a lot of communication with the black community."

Had he been elected governor, Campbell would have been the fifth public service commissioner to become governor. Previously, Huey Long, Jimmie Davis, John McKeithen, and Blanco were public service commissioners.

In 2008, Campbell was reelected to a second term on the Public Service Commission. In 2009, he was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.