Election To The Louisiana Legislature
In 1964, O'Hearn ran for one of five then at-large seats in the Louisiana House of Representatives from Caddo Parish. The seats were made single-member after the 1970 census. Morley A. Hudson and O'Hearn both won, finishing ahead of three Democrats, who won the other positions. Three other Caddo Republican legislative candidates who lost in 1964 included Billy J. Guin, later a city commissioner; Edd Fielder Calhoun (1931–2012), an insurance agent and civic figure originally from Oklahoma City, and Art Sour, who made his livelihood in the oil business. Sour lost again for the legislature in 1968 but rebounded in 1972 to win a seat in the state House, which he held for twenty years.
Hudson and O'Hearn were the only Republicans anywhere in Louisiana to win legislative seats that year, when fellow Shreveporter Charlton Lyons waged an active Republican gubernatorial campaign. Hudson in jest declared himself "minority leader" of the Louisiana House in that he led the vote totals in Caddo Parish. O'Hearn joked that he must be the "minority whip" in that he had the second-highest Republican tally. In the 1964 session of the Louisiana House, their page was a 17-year-old high school student named Louis E. "Woody" Jenkins of Baton Rouge. In 1972, Jenkins won election as one of the youngest legislators in state history. In 1996, as the Republican nominee, he was the narrow loser to Mary Landrieu in the race for the U.S. Senate.
O'Hearn's priority as a legislator was to promote the construction of a north-south interstate highway link in Louisiana, later the popular I-49. Billy Guin recalled that it was O'Hearn who first proposed the highway. Later, state Senator Johnston proposed road tolls to move the project forward, but eventually the superhighway was built and operates without tolls.
In 1966, O'Hearn lost an attempt to win a newly-created judgeship in Caddo Parish. He was defeated, 64-36 percent, in the general election by Democrat James A. "Dee" Alexander. After Republicans scored gains in Caddo Parish in 1964, the Democrats took successful steps to drive them from local office. The vehicle used was the Caddo Democratic Association, which supplied campaign funds for any local Democratic nominee facing GOP opposition in a general election. The association had total success in its mission for five years—from 1966 until 1971. Woody Jenkins said that he remembers O'Hearn and Hudson as men of high principles and solid role models for future generations of conservative legislators.
Read more about this topic: Taylor W. O'Hearn
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