Former Gov. Dave Treen dies

NEW ORLEANS -- Former Gov. Dave Treen, who became the state's first Republican governor since Reconstruction when he was elected in 1979 but lost a re-election bid to the flamboyant Democrat Edwin Edwards four years later, has died at age 81.

Treen's son, David C. Treen Jr., said Treen died early Thursday of complications from a respiratory illness at East Jefferson General Hospital in a New Orleans suburb. Funeral arrangements were not complete.

Edwards had served two terms as governor and could not succeed himself in the 1979 governor's race. Treen's victory over Democrat Louis Lambert in that race was a watershed for the state's Republican Party in a state long dominated by Democrats.

Treen, however, was destined not to benefit from the rising Republican tide. Edwards, who was still wildly popular when he left office, would come roaring back in a 1983 landslide -- despite Treen's unassailed reputation for integrity and Edwards' penchant for scandal that would later see him indicted in three criminal cases and convicted in one.

Treen's term was marked by frustration, highlighted by a downturn in Louisiana's boom-and-bust, oil-based economy. Oil prices and production fell during his tenure, cutting sharply into state revenues.

He tried to make up for it, taking on oil with a proposal to tax production, but business interests shot it down.

Meanwhile, Treen's critics, Edwards chief among them, lambasted him as too methodical. Treen "preferred to be behind a desk, enmeshed in the details of running the governor's office," historian Joseph G. Dawson III wrote in his 1990 survey of Louisiana governors.

He was no match on the campaign stump for the quick-witted Edwards, who delighted in making Treen the butt of his jokes. Edwards once famously quipped that Treen was "so slow it takes him an hour and a half to watch '60 Minutes."'

Treen didn't hold a grudge. Edwards is serving a 10-year sentence for a scheme to rig the riverboat casino licensing process during his fourth and final term in office, which ended in 1996. Treen repeatedly called for a commutation of the 82-year-old former governor's sentence, which is scheduled to end in 2011, but failed to win mercy for Edwards in the final days of Republican President George W. Bush's administration.

Treen's was an archetypal, clean-government, low-taxes administration. He focused on education, like governors before and after, establishing pay incentives for teachers who took summer classes. He also established the Department of Environmental Quality.

None of that resonated with voters, who gave him only 36 percent of the vote in his re-election bid.

Treen also appointed more minorities to state government than any of his predecessors, including Edwards. But he often encountered opposition in the Legislature from blacks. And he had to counter his early history of involvement with segregationist groups.

As a young attorney in New Orleans at the end of the 1950s, Treen became chairman of the Louisiana States' Rights Party in 1960, an anti-Kennedy elector for the party, and a "stalwart" of the white supremacist Citizens Council, according to historian Adam Fairclough. Treen later reacted angrily to mentions of this part of his biography, and he omitted it from official resumes.

As a convert to the tiny Republican party in the 1960s, he three times unsuccessfully took on Congressman Hale Boggs. Treen attacked Boggs for having supported the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which enfranchised millions of Southern blacks. From a suburban, white-flight New Orleans district, Treen finally made it to Congress in 1972, and his constituents sent him back to Washington three more times.

He was born in Baton Rouge on July 16, 1928, attended Fortier High School in New Orleans, and graduated with honors from Tulane Law School in 1950. A stint as an Air Force lawyer was followed by private law practice in New Orleans.

Later, as governor, newly-powerful blacks in the legislature consistently opposed him. In his first year, he set off protests when an unexpected $300 million windfall was directed at tax cuts, roads and the state debt, instead of social programs.

Quixotic runs for governor (1995; 2003) and Congress (1999) followed; Treen withdrew from the first two, and was defeated by David Vitter, now a U.S. Senator, in the third. His last years were spent in retirement in Mandeville, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans.

Treen is survived by his son and two daughters. His wife, Dolores "Dodie" Brisbi Treen, died in 2005.

"Louisiana has lost a visionary leader and a tireless advocate for our state, with the passing of Governor Dave Treen. Governor Treen was a true statesman with a servant’s heart, and his desire to improve our state was only surpassed by his kindness and humility. Our state will forever bear the mark of his decades of work and while he will be missed as a friend, a father, and a public servant, he will always live on in our history and most importantly, our hearts,” said Gov. Jindal in a statement.

Jindal ordered that all flags be flown at half-staff in honor and remembrance of Treen.