| Description: | The Rise of Louisiana Boy to Governor's Counsel |
| Text of article: | The Rise of La. Boy to Governor's Counsel By CHARLES M. HARGRODER (Times-Picayune Staff Correspondent) BATON ROUGE, La. -- Picture the barefoot child of immigrant parents. See him later the city judge of Crowley. Watch him as he becomes the friend of the mighty: a U.S. president and his family. And know him now as the "governor's lawyer," Edmund M. Reggie, executive counsel to Gov. Edwin Edwards. Where did it start, this life of politics from a small Southwest Louisiana city to statewide, even national political campaigns? Reggie said he first got a taste of it at Pelican Boys' state as a junior in high school in a successful campaign for the mock office of senator. Later he received a law degree from Tulane and was coaxed home to practice law with the late Judge Denis T. Canan, a 35-year veteran of the bench who "never lost a precinct." About 15 months later the judge had a massive heart attack, but lived long enough to tell his wife and political associates if anything happened to him he would like to see Reggie named to his office. Gov. Earl Long honored that death- bed request in 1950. making Reggie the youngest judge in the state. In those days law did not require judges to have at least five years practice in law before being eligible to become a judge. Reggie faced two opponents in 1952, both from old line families in Crowley "and I was lucky." Like his mentor, Judge Canan, Reg, gie never lost a precinct in the 25 years he served as Crowley city judge. Why, with a lucrative private practice and bountiful investment returns, did he want that office? "It was a very good thing to me. I was born and raised in Crowley, grew up there and people knew me when I used to go to the show on Saturday afternoon barefoot and things like that — and being judge at such an early age, right out of law school 15 months, was a big help in letting people know that I had matured. And it gave me a great deal of satisfaction in being in his (Judge Canan's) job, because he was really, and still is, my all-time hero." In addition to that, though, Reggie confesses "The judgeship was very good to me in another way, very direct. Being judge away from Crowley sounded like it was a great deal more than it really was in Crowley, and so it opened many doors that otherwise would not have opened and made some opportunities come about that I don't think otherwise would have come about." Reggie said that one day as Earl Long prepared for his 1956 campaign, he met Long at a Baton Rouge hotel. When he was introduced, Long wondered aloud the name of the young attorney he named to Canan's office. "I said 'I'm the guy.'" Shortly afterward Reggie said Long summoned him to speak with him at Lakeland, later adding him to his stumping team in other areas. "It was great experience for me. You know being on the stump with Earl Long was something . . . It was a good race and it was a very educational kind of thing with me." But once Long won, Reggie said, he sent him and Camille Gravel packing. "Mr. Earl wasn't too keen about my being around Baton Rouge, or Camille, you know, and he moved us around pretty fast and let us know it was going to be his administration, he really didn't need us around." Long had supported Gravel for re-election as Louisiana's Democratic national committeeman. As such Gravel was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1956. Long also saw to it Reggie went as a delegate that year, with Reggie and Gravel sitting throughout the convention with the governor and his wife, Blanche, who was national committee woman. Long backed Kefauver for vice-president while Reggie and Gravel made no secret that they were for Gov. Frank Clement. When Clement released them from their pledge to him, Long thought he still had control of his delegation for Kefauver. But Long reckoned without the young senator from Massachussets, John Kennedy. While Long was occupied with horse races and other interests, Reggie and Gravel met and then introduced Kennedy to the Louisiana delegation. So charmed were they that they picked Kennedy by majority vote to receive the entire delegation vote for vice-president. Although Kennedy lost the nomination by 12 and a half votes, he won Reggie and Gravel. Between then and 1960, Kennedy became a frequent visitor to Louisiana, raising party funds, appearing at the Yambilee and the Louisiana Rice Festival — and being a guest of the Reggies.. "He was campaigning all around the country. He had not announced for the nomination but he was still making his rounds." Sort of like the present situation with brother Ted? "Very much like the present situation. Exactly." (Reggie is spearheading a Draft Kennedy movement in Louisiana.) Reggie became his co-chairman for Louisiana in the 1960 campaign and carried Louisiana by a wide margin without having to return to campaign. In 1961, President Kennedy recognized his political and personal friendship for Reggie, naming him special envoy to the Middle East. Reggie speaks Arabic fluently, and visited with the heads of state in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria in two months. The mission was with regard to the World's Fair and their representation, plus the refugee problem. "I also, because of my little country judgeship, met with their judiciaries." Reggie was director of Robert Kennedy's brief 1968 Louisiana campaign before the senator was shot and killed in Los Angeles. Reggie was friendly with Gov. Jimmie Davis and tried to ameliorate "some of those thorny issues" of desegregation, working through Davis and through Robert Kennedy, then attorney general. One of the big issues was voting rights, he recalled, as some areas sought to disenfranchise black voters. "We tried to placate that issue with a kind of quid pro quo of sorts between that and the integration of the New Orleans schools at that time, but Gov. Davis felt he could not enter into any sort of agreement at that time, the situation would just have to shift for itself." There was a touch of irony in 1964 when Reggie found himself supporting John J. McKeithen for governor, despite McKeithen's attacks on the Kennedy administration. How could he rationalize that? "I had a different kind of commitment. My commitment to John McKeithen went back to the Kennedy race when his brother (McKeithen's) was a member of the Democratic State Central Committee who voted with us and we won by one vote to have the Democratic electors pledged to the Democratic nominee (in 1960). "So it was a kind of trade off then — if McKeithen would keep his brother in the traces with us on that vote, then I would support him later on when he ran for governor." Reggie admitted he had to swollow hard to keep that pledge in. view of attacks on his friends, the Kennedys. He said McKeithen didn't attack Kennedy by name; it was always the implication that he was going to be independent of Washington and that Washington was a big bad thing." Later, in the McKeithen years as governor, Reggie served as a member of the State Mineral Board, later as chairman of the State Welfare Board and still later as director of Extension and Continuing Education. "I thought I was going to be chairman of the Mineral board, but he (McKeithen) called me in one day and said, 'You can't be chairman of the Mineral Board, I'd like to put you at the Welfare office'." Reggie acknowledged he wasn't interested in that post, but McKeithen sent Theo Cangelosi, "that great persuader of all times to come see me . . . and Theo, you know, can convince me of anything." He agreed to serve a year and resigned after 52 weeks serving without pay and any expense. As only a member of the mineral board, he resigned when it was not what he thought it would be. It was then. McKeithen named him to Extension and Continuing Education at a $12,000 a year salary, a funnel of federal funds to universities still in operation. After the hubbub that his salary caused then among some people, he said, he had made it a policy not to accept salary or expenses. It was a matter of pride. When Edwards, a longtime personal and political friend took office in 1972, Reggie was noticeably absent. Why? Was there some disagreement? "No. No. No. Like all humans, you know, we have regrets and maybe feelings might have just gotten to be a little bit tight because of my hot head maybe during that period. But he treated me very well and allowed me to settle down, but we never had anything meaningful. It was nothing that had anything to do with either of us. It was another relationship. We've never had any personal ambition problems or anything like that." Reggie served as Edwards' chairman of the reorganization commission sometime after that. |
Newspaper Clippings 
