Ed Scogin

Edward C. Scogin, known as Ed Scogin (May 6, 1921 – July 10, 1999),^[1] was from 1972-1992 a Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Slidell in St. Tammany Parish in suburban New Orleans, Louisiana,^[2] known as a fiscal watchdog over state government.^[3][4] Scogin was also active in promoting environmental conservation and was once referred to by a colleague as "the conservative conscience" of the legislature.^[5]

Early years

A native of St. Tammany Parish, Scogin graduated from Slidell High School and attended Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond. He was a combat veteran of World War II. A United Methodist, Scogin was also affiliated with Rotary International, Moose International, the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, and the St. Tammany Association for Retarded Children. He was a member of the board of Fidelity Bank and Trust Company.^[6] Scogin and his wife, the former Thelma D. Ouder (June 11, 1926–October 3, 2008),^[1] had one daughter, Maureen S. Fandal, and her husband, Michael J. Fandal, and granddaughter, Amanda L. Fandal. Thelma Scogin was a 1943 Slidell High School graduate and was employed for many years as a legal secretary. She was active in the Slidell Women's Republican Club.^[7]

Prior to his legislative service he served for a term as a Democrat on the St. Tammany Parish Police Jury, the governing body akin to county commission in most other states. In 1973, Representative Scogin was named "Conservationist of the Year" among the elected official category by the Louisiana Wildlife Federation.^[8] As a police juror, he had Scogin received the Governor's Legislative Conservationist of the Year Award. He was cited as well by other sportsmen's and conservationist groups.^[6]

As a legislator

Scogin served on three House committees: Natural Resources, Education, and Health and Welfare .^[6] He was active in efforts to fight crime in Louisiana: "The public is still insisting that those who violate the law be taken off the streets."^[9] He supported efforts by the interest group Save Our Wetlands to halt the receding of the Gulf of Mexico coastline in Louisiana. Save Our Wetlands filed suit against the United States Army Corps of Engineers to block the draining of vast acreage about New Orleans International Airport. The Corps proposed that the airport be moved to St. Charles Parish, and that new levees be built in the drained areas so that housing developments could be constructed.^[10]

Scogin was among the citizens and leaders of St. Tammany Parish who opposed the Army Corps of Engineers "Hurricane Barrier Project", having viewed the proposal as an environmental threat to Lake Pontchartrain and a bottomless reservoir for the flooding of Slidell and the entire parish. The dissidents feared that water, with nowhere to run off, would top the dam/barrier and flood their communities. Scogin was prophetic in that the Corps project, had it been constructed, presumably would have created a flood bowl similar to what happened to New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.^[11]

Scogin was first elected to the House from District 76 as a Democrat in the 1972 general election, when his party's nominee, Edwin Washington Edwards, defeated Republican David C. Treen, then of Jefferson Parish and later of St. Tammany, to win his first term as governor of Louisiana. Scogin was preceded by three at-large House members, including Lawrence A. Sheridan, who later took the District 75 seat in Washington Parish, before the state went to complete single-member districting in the 1971-1972 election cycle.^[12]

Scogin won again as a Democrat in the 1975 and 1979 elections. Shortly after the 1979 general election, even before Treen took office as governor to succeed the then term-limited Edwards, Scogin switched parties.^[13] He won new terms as a Republican in 1983 and 1987.^[12] In his last election on October 24, 1987, Scogin defeated the Democrat Earl D. Broom, 8,396 votes (56.6 percent) to 6,344 (43.4 percent).^[14]

On November 16, 1991, after five terms, Scogin was unseated, 8,399 (52.7 percent) to 7,534 (47.3 percent), by a fellow Republican, Suzanne Mayfield Krieger, also of Slidell. On that same day, Edwards defeated David Duke to procure a fourth nonconsecutive term as governor. Krieger left the post after a single term when she ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in the 1995 nonpartisan blanket primary.^[15]

Legacy

In 2007, the Louisiana legislature named the boat launch at U.S. Highway 90 and the Pearl River the Edward C. Scogin Memorial Boat Launch.^[16]

In 2008, State Senator A.G. Crowe, who followed Suzanne Krieger in the District 76 House seat, praised both Scogin and former State Senator Gerry E. Hinton, also of Slidell, for their "foresight" in making sure that the infrastructure in St. Tammany Parish kept up with the population, which could reach nearly 300,000 in the 2010 census. Crowe said that Scogin and Hinton were the prime sponsors of the new Fremeaux interchange on Interstate 10.^[17]

Ron Gomez, a legislative colleague of Scogin's from 1980–1989, in his autobiographical My Name Is Ron And I'm a Recovering Legislator: Memoirs of a Louisiana State Representative, describes Scogin as "crotchety" and "salty," noting the lawmaker's traditional opposition to pork barrel spending in a key vote during the administration of Governor Buddy Roemer:

"I'm voting 'no' on this bacon-wrapped budget. I'm one person who doesn't intend to be made a steer by the Senate. I refuse to be neutered and spayed. If you like pork, vote for this bill. I don't like pork."^[18]

Gomez continued:

"Often with the state in . . . financial disarray, Ed Scogin, the raspy-voiced ex-police juror from Slidell who reveled in his role of conservative conscience of the House would purposefully stride to the well of the chamber. Standing behind the microphone, he would plant his right elbow on the podium, his hand against his jaw and cheek, take a deep breath and growl, 'How long, Louisiana, how long?' He is yet to be answered."^[19]

Ed and Thelma Scogin are interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Slidell^[7]

References