Anger Over Primary Defeat
After 30 years in office, Passman faced an unexpected challenger, who seemed unlikely to pose a problem for the veteran congressman. Jerry Huckaby, a Jackson Parish native and a 1959 graduate of Minden High School in Minden in Webster Parish, which was outside the Fifth District, had no previous political experience but had been a dairy farmer in Bienville Parish. As an ally of Jimmy Carter, who was running strongly in Louisiana at the time, Huckaby upset Passman in the Democratic primary, largely because of charges of influence peddling that had engulfed the congressman in his last term in office but which had not yet led to indictment.
Passman was so incensed over his primary defeat that he "threatened" to endorse Republican congressional nominee Frank Spooner, a Monroe oilman who challenged Huckaby in the general election. However, the endorsement never materialized. Years later, Huckaby said that Passman never spoke to him after the 1976 primary. Huckaby went on to defeat Spooner and to hold the seat until 1993, having been defeated in 1992 by Republican James O. McCrery, III, of Shreveport, as a result of reapportionment.
Passman's friend Garland Shell said that the loss of the congressional seat was the turning point in his life. "When the old gentleman was defeated, that was it. He's been inactive since."
Read more about this topic: Otto Passman
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