Suzanne Haik Terrell

Suzanne Haik Terrell (born 1954) is a Louisiana lawyer who failed in a high-profile Republican bid for the U.S. Senate in 2002 and for state attorney general in 2003. She was the state's last commissioner of elections, having served from 2000 to 2004. In 2005, President George W. Bush named Mrs. Terrell to a position in the Economic Development Administration.

She is a native of New Orleans, and received her bachelor of arts degree from the Newcomb College of Tulane University in 1976. She received her Juris Doctor degree from the Loyola University Law School in 1984.

Terrell was a Republican city councilwoman in New Orleans during the 1990s. In 1999 she was elected as Louisiana elections commissioner. She defeated a fellow Republican, Louis E. "Woody" Jenkins of Baton Rouge, in the general election -- 437,817 (59 percent) to 302,261 (41 percent). However, Jenkins had led in the primary, 26 percent to 22 percent. Incumbent Democrat Jerry Fowler of Natchitoches engulfed in scandal, ran third and was eliminated in the primary.

As elections commissioner, Mrs. Terrell streamlined department operations and advocated the merging of her office with the secretary of state, who already oversaw some elections operations. She was successful in abolishing her office as her term ended in 2004.

It was actually the 1979 Republican candidate for elections commissioner, John Henry Baker of Franklin Parish who had first proposed the abolition of the separate office and the return of the operations to the secretary of state. Baker had been defeated by a nearly 2-1 margin by Jerry Fowler even though "good government" groups and most of the state newspapers endorsed his call to abolish the office.

In 2002, Mrs. Terrell challenged freshman Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu's bid for reelection. Terrell made it into the general election with Landrieu. Eliminated in the primary were Congressman John Cooksey of Monroe and Tony Perkins, a state representative from East Baton Rouge Parish and later the head of the conservative think-tank, the Family Research Council.

The Landrieu-Terrell matchup was the last Senate race decided that year. Terrell's campaign attracted national attention, including visits from President George W. Bush and his father, George Herbert Walker Bush, and Vice President Richard Cheney. Mrs. Terrell was an elector for the Bush-Cheney slate in 2000.

Senator Landrieu was reelected in the vote largely on the basis of her 79,000-vote plurality in Orleans Parish. Landrieu polled 638,654 votes (52 percent) to Mrs. Terrell's 596,642 (48 percent). Ironically, the Republican that Terrell defeated for elections commissioner, Woody Jenkins, had been Landrieu's 1996 general election opponent, and he ran stronger against Landrieu than did Terrell. He lost by some 4,000 disputed votes.

In a debate with Landrieu in 2002, the senator lashed out at Terrell and told her the Senate race would be "her last campaign", but it was not. In 2003, Terrell lost again. She ran unsuccessfully for attorney general of Louisiana, losing to a Democrat backed by the Landrieu family, Charles C. Foti, Jr. (born 1937), the former Orleans Parish criminal sheriff. Foti received 689,179 votes (54 percent) in the primary, to Mrs. Terrell's 597,917 (46 percent). Terrell and Foti both received their law degrees from Loyola University New Orleans.

References

*http://www.sos.louisiana.gov:8090/cgibin/?rqstyp=elcms2&rqsdta=102399
*http://www.sos.louisiana.gov:8090/cgibin/?rqstyp=elcms2&rqsdta=100403
*http://www.sos.louisiana.gov:8090/cgibin/?rqstyp=elcmp&rqsdta=12070214012601