Richard Phillip Ieyoub, Sr. (born August 11, 1944), is a Baton Rouge lawyer and a Democratic politician who was the attorney general of Louisiana from 1992 to 2004. Ieyoub was the Calcasieu Parish district attorney in Lake Charles from 1984 to 1992, and is now with the Baton Rouge firm Couhig Partners. Allied with his party's liberal wing, Ieyoub finished in third place in the nonpartisan blanket primary for the U.S. Senate in 1996, and for the Louisiana governorship in 2003.
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Early years and education
Ieyoub (pronounced "EYE-oob") is of Arab extraction. He was born in Lake Charles to Phillip Assad Ieyoub and the former Virginia Khoury. He graduated in 1962 from Lake Charles High School, later renamed Lake Charles Boston High School and since closed.
Ieyoub received his bachelor's degree in history in 1968 from McNeese State University (then College) in Lake Charles and his Juris Doctor degree in 1972 from Louisiana State University Law Center in Baton Rouge. He was admitted to the bar and licensed to practice in Louisiana and before the United States Supreme Court.
Early in his career, Ieyoub was a special prosecutor for the man whom he would succeed as attorney general, fellow Democrat William J. "Billy" Guste, Jr., of New Orleans. Ieyoub was affiliated with the Lake Charles firm Baggett, McCall, Singleton, Ranier, and later established a solo practice. He also instructed criminal law on occasion at McNeese State. Ieyoub is a member of the Sierra Club.
Ieyoub was elected district attorney of Calcasieu Parish in 1984 and was reelected without opposition in 1990. During his tenure as district attorney, he headed the national Commission on Model State Drug Laws.
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Three elections as attorney general
When William Guste announced that he would not seek a sixth term as attorney general in 1991, Ieyoub filed for the position as the leading candidate. He was challenged by two fellow Democrats, future state Treasurer, U.S. senator, and subsequent Republican convert John Neely Kennedy and Winston Riddick, and the principal Republican choice that year, former state Representative and state Senator Bernard J. "Ben" Bagert, Jr., of New Orleans. Ieyoub led the field with 447,423 votes (31 percent) to Bagert's 312,960 (22 percent), Kennedy's 288,104 (20 percent), and Riddick's 224,200 (16 percent). Two other Republicans also ran and divided 11 percent of the primary vote.
Ieyoub and Bagert went into the general election at the same time that former Governor Edwin Washington Edwards was being challenged by the one-time leader of the Ku Klux Klan, then state Representative David Duke of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. Ieyoub defeated Bagert by a wider margin than that by which Edwards finished off Duke. The Calcasieu district attorney won the race by a margin of more than two to one: 1,147,592 (69 percent) to 517,660 (31 percent). Bagert lost his own Orleans Parish in the election; the defeat ended Bagert's long career in state politics. Ieyoub's 1,147,592 vote tally was the highest numerical total ever obtained by a statewide candidate in Louisiana history until that time.
In 1995, Ieyoub won by an even larger margin than his historic showing in 1991. He polled 1,019,041 votes (76 percent) to 137,372 votes (10 percent) for the Republican Ed Tarpley, then the district attorney for the 35th Judicial District based in Colfax. An anti-gambling activist, Tarpley lost to Ieyoub even his own Grant Parish. Two other candidates received the remaining 14 percent of the vote.
As attorney general, Ieyoub won a multimillion-dollar tobacco settlement for the state of Louisiana as compensation for the health care costs of smokers. He took a leading role in the formulation of the theory of parens patriae, which allows the state to sue on behalf of its citizens. The theory has implications beyond the tobacco litigation, and may be employed in the future if the states jointly challenge the possession of firearms.
Attorney General Ieyoub cleared Fred Baden of wrongdoing stemming from an audit of municipal books in Pineville, where Baden served as mayor from 1970 until his defeat in 1998. Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle claimed that Ieyoub had ignored critical evidence that would have found Baden guilty of malfeasance in office. However, Ieyoub reported that a lengthy investigation concluded "there is insufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution." Baden said at the time that he knew he would be cleared of the allegations. "I felt all along that I would be cleared of these allegations. ... I never did anything wrong. We never took anything from the city that we didn't earn."
Ieyoub claimed among his major accomplishments as attorney general the promotion of "initiatives that protect our children and help our children lead a better quality of life." He was active in the fight against narcotics through the Louisiana Coordinating Council on the Prevention and Treatment of Drug Abuse. Ieyoub worked closely with the National Council Against Drinking and Driving. His office has been nationally recognized for combating underage drinking and drunken driving. He established a statewide school safety program and created a high-technology unit that targets sexual predators on the Internet.
Ieyoub was a member of the National Association of Attorneys General.
Falling short in the Senate race, 1996
In 1996, Ieyoub announced that he would enter the primary to select a successor to the retiring U.S. Senator J. Bennett Johnston, Jr., a popular e Democrat from Shreveport, considered somewhat moderate in outlook, whose service dated back to 1972. Ieyoub faced fourteen other candidates, but only three had a serious level of support. Ieyoub competed for Democratic votes with outgoing state Treasurer Mary Landrieu of New Orleans. Two Republican candidates were also considered major players, David Duke again and state Representative Woody Jenkins of Baton Rouge, who had lost Senate races as a Democrat to Johnston in 1978 and to the retired Russell B. Long in 1980.
Jenkins led the field in the primary with 322,244 votes (26 percent). Landrieu trailed with 264,268 (22 percent). Ieyoub followed with 250,682 (20 percent), and Duke trailed with 141,489 (12 percent). All of the Republican candidates on the ballot received a total of 57 percent of the vote, whereas Landrieu and Ieyoub, the only Democrats, divided the remaining 43 percent. Jenkins hence advanced to the general election against Landrieu, with Ieyoub out of the running by just under 14,000 votes. Jenkins was handicapped, however, by the weakness in Louisiana of the Republican presidential nominee, former Senator Bob Dole of Kansas. Dole lost Louisiana to incumbent President Bill Clinton, and while Jenkins ran well ahead of Dole on the Republican ticket, he fell short once again. Landrieu would become Johnston's preferred successor in the Senate.
Ieyoub believed that "dirty tricks" by the Landrieu forces denied him the coveted second spot in the Senate general election. Later, Jenkins would accuse the Landrieu organization of having arranged for "dead persons" to cast pivotal ballots in Orleans Parish. Jenkins attempted to block Landrieu's swearing in, but Senate Republicans, led by Trent Lott of Mississippi voted to seat Landrieu based on the state's election certification.
Ieyoub was elected to his third term as attorney general in 1999 without opposition.
The gubernatorial campaign, 2003
In 2003, Ieyoub entered the gubernatorial race in an effort to succeed term-limited Republican Murphy J. "Mike" Foster, Jr. As a gubernatorial candidate, Attorney General Ieyoub declared himself a NASCAR fan, at least from the economic development consideration if not personal interest. "I'm a NASCAR fan from the standpoint of what it can do for economic development in Louisiana. It's been a tremendous economic development help for North Carolina, Florida, and other states that have NASCAR tracks," Ieyoub said.
Ieyoub picked up many endorsements in his gubernatorial bid, including the Louisiana Sheriffs Association, the AFL-CIO, the City Marshals Association, and the Black Organization for Leadership Development (BOLD) in New Orleans.
Whereas Ieyoub had competed with Landrieu for Democratic base votes for the Senate in 1996, he was in competition with two other Democrats for such votes in 2003: outgoing Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Lafayette and former Congressman Buddy Leach, who had residences in his hometown of Leesville as well as Ieyoub's own Lake Charles.
Meanwhile, the Republican front-runner, Bobby Jindal, later the U.S. representative from Louisiana's 1st congressional district from the New Orleans suburbs, seemed to have sewed up one of the general election berths. Ieyoub hence would have to surpass the showings of both Blanco and Leach to gain the coveted second spot.
Jindal led in the primary for the first general election berth with 33 percent of the vote. The Number 2 finisher was not Ieyoub but Blanco, who polled 18 percent, just over half of Jindal's initial total. Ieyoub drew 223,513 votes (16 percent), some 27,000 raw votes below his Senate showing seven years earlier. Leach finished in fourth place with 187,872 (14 percent). One may argue that Leach's votes in particular cost Ieyoub the coveted second spot. In fifth place was another Democrat Randy Ewing, the outgoing state Senate President from Quitman in Jackson Parish, who finished with 123,936 (9 percent). There was speculation that Ewing's votes may have come at the expense of either Jindal or Blanco.
Personal life
The Ieyoubs married on February 3, 1995. Mrs. Ieyoub was a lawyer and worked under her future husband in the Louisiana Attorney General's office; she also holds a doctorate in higher education administration. The couple has four young children: Richard Phillip, Jr., Khoury, Christian, and Anna Michael Ieyoub. He also has three grown children from a previous marriage: Amy Claire, Nicole Ann, and Brennan Jude Ieyoub.
New Orleans gastroenterologist Steve Price, a friend of Ieyob's since childhood, recalls that Ieyoub regularly quotes his role model, Sir Winston Churchill. According to Dr. Price, Ieyoub "has a great sense of family. He showed just how much when he gave a kidney to his brother" in 1977. Another New Orleans friend, John Litchfield, says that Ieyoub is "truly genuine and down to earth. The thing people probably don't appreciate is how truly genuine he is and how he cares about people. For most politicians, that's unusual."
Ieyoub is Roman Catholic and is a member of Immaculate Conception Parish Church in New Orleans.
In 2016, Ieyoub was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.
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