John Hainkel

John Joseph Hainkel, Jr., (born New Orleans, March 24, 1938; died Poplarville, Mississippi, April 15, 2005) was a gregarious, ruffled, and raspy-voiced legislator from New Orleans who died in office after thirty-seven years of service. He was the only person in Louisiana and United States history to have been elected as both Speaker of his state House of Representatives and president of his state Senate. (Clarence C. "Taddy" Aycock of Franklin, the seat of St. Mary Parish, was both Speaker and, as lieutenant governor, was "ex officio" President of the state Senate, under the state Constitution of 1929. In 1974 Louisiana adopted a new state Constitution, which mandated that the President of the state Senate be elected by the senators, thus eliminating the lieutenant governor's ex officio role as Senate president.)

In addition to being an accomplished raconteur, Hainkel was also a skilled trial and appellate attorney.

Hainkel graduated from De La Salle (Catholic) High School and Tulane University in New Orleans. He was first elected in 1968 as a Democrat to the Louisiana House. His service hence dated back to the second term of Governor of Louisiana John McKeithen. Like many other Louisiana Democrats over time, he wound up switching to the more conservative Republican Party (GOP). He originally represented a compact, affluent Uptown New Orleans House district. His service began before ten Louisiana state legislators, as of 2006, had even been born.

Legislative reformer

New to the legislature, Hainkel joined a group of reformers who came to be known as the "Young Turks," including another future Speaker, Edgerton L. "Bubba" Henry, a Democrat from Jonesboro, the seat of Jackson Parish. When David C. Treen became the state's first GOP governor since Reconstruction in the 1979 election, Hainkel, then a conservative Democrat, was Treen's choice to serve as Speaker of the House. He served in that post from 1980-1984, but he was replaced by Representative John Alario, a Westwego (Jefferson Parish) Democrat when Governor Edwin Washington Edwards won a third term in the 1983 nonpartisan blanket primary by unseating Treen.

In the seventy-four legislative sessions that he attended, Hainkel was a champion of a more independent legislature. He joined the "Young Turks" movement of the 1970s and became a sharp-tongued, bomb-tossing foe of Edwards on gambling issues.

Hainkel was an opponent of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which was rejected in a key House committee in 1976. When the ERA failed to gain ratification after an extended deadline, Hainkel, then Speaker, addressed a gathering of the opponents held in Baton Rouge on June 30, 1982. Hainkel noted that many states "unthinkingly" ratified the ERA when it passed Congress early in 1972 because that "was the thing to do" at that time. Hainkel said that he objected to placing accession rights and family law subservient to federal law. "Already in this state, credit laws have been changed, head and master changed to joint management, and through commerce and economics, we've addressed ourselves to problems. We've had increased equality on the basis of sex, but we've had it in the proper form, handled in the statutes of this state," Hainkel said.

Hainkel was elected to the Senate in 1987, 1991, 1995, 1999 and 2003. He served as that body's president during the second term of former Republican Governor Murphy J. "Mike" Foster, Jr. from 2000 to 2004.

A colorful lawmaker

Hainkel, who maintained a front-row seat in the chamber, was one of the legislature's most colorful figures. He wound up his career as a "bridge-building" Republican who put the interests of his state ahead of party. His Senate district encompassed only a sliver of his original Uptown base but included portions of Jefferson, St. Tammany, and Tangipahoa parishes

"A New Orleanian by birth, demeanor, appearance and conduct, he was really a good ol' boy in lifelong disguise," recalled then State Senator Jay Dardenne, a Baton Rouge Republican, another of Hainkel's close legislative allies.

In the words of Ed Anderson of the "New Orleans Times-Picayune", "Hainkel was a legislative leader and deal-broker who could be moved to tears when recognizing an old friend or meeting a disabled child."

Anderson continued, "He moved at ease between the world of gentility and the tobacco-chewing country store crowd. He frequently wore madras clothes with mismatched shirts, whether he was in the halls of power or at his St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church parish.

"He knew almost all the roadside stands, bars, and restaurants in the district. He had a flair for making a point during debate, punctuating his speeches with animated arm-flailing and near-screams. He once brought raw pork chops to the Senate floor when he went on a tear against 'pork barrel-spending' in a bill."

Anderson added that Hainkel "had a joie de vivre.... Some viewed him as a curmudgeon, but he had a softer side and was always ready to party or enjoy a cookout, a parade, a fair, or a festival. He embraced enemies as friends after a day of legislative battle, literally -- sometimes hugging them as his hoarse laugh filled a room," much as Tip O'Neill sometimes told President Ronald Reagan, whom he opposed on most legislative matters, that they could have a drink together whenever it was after 6 p.m.

Hainkel's death

Hainkel's longtime law partner, William Porteous, said that Hainkel had been at a meeting near Poplarville on April 14, 2005, with other Republican lawmakers and was found dead in his bed the next morning. "They were at a camp. He just didn't wake up," Porteous explained.

A coroner's report revealed that Hainkel asphyxiated. Apparently, fluid blocked his breathing passages as he slept and entered his lungs. (He did not succumb to heart failure, as originally thought.) He had spent his last evening cooking for friends, eating, and recounting political "war stories."

"I couldn't picture John Hainkel going out any other way," said Senator Tom Schedler, a Mandeville Republican and one of his closest friends.

Hainkel was divorced. He was survived by three children and five grandchildren.

Hainkel's legacy

Ed Anderson noted that Hainkel loved traditions: his birthday at a Tulane baseball game, for instance, and frequent parties for Tulane-LSU sports contests, either in New Orleans or Baton Rouge.

In 1980, Hainkel received the Margaret Dixon Award from the Louisiana-Mississippi Press Association. Dixon was the first woman managing editor of the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate.

Anderson called him a "one-man tourism bureau" who promoted his love of Louisiana wherever he went. "His politicking was one-on-one: stumping the corner stores, roadside stands and restaurants of his district, shucking oysters at a school fair or tossing pumpkins in a parade."

Shortly after Hainkel's death, Congress, on a motion from Louisiana Republican Bobby Jindal (who would later be elected governor of Louisiana), declared that Hainkel's death "is a loss for me and for all Louisiana. He was a good friend and one of the most supportive people I know. He was always ready to lend a helping and guiding hand, whatever the situation may be."

Later, at Jindal's request, Congress voted to rename the post office in Hammond to honor Hainkel. "John Hainkel was a true leader for his constituents and an ever visible part of Louisiana politics -- a testament to his hard work and desire to serve the state he so loved. The first man to serve as both Speaker of the House and Senate President, his name will be well remembered in Louisiana history. The Hainkel Post Office will serve as a physical reminder of his legacy...."

Hainkel had also been honored in 1996 in Hammond with the Southeastern Louisiana University's "Golden Ambassador Award," a prestigious designation given for "outstanding service, achievement, and/or humanitarian efforts."

Senator Robert J. Barham, an Oak Ridge (Morehouse Parish) Republican, said of his fallen colleague: "It will be surreal when you show up for the session and look for John Hainkel, and he won't be there."

"John Hainkel was comfortable in the package God gave him," said Dardenne, who was elected Louisiana secretary of state in a special election on September 30, 2006.

Hainkel was succeeded in the Louisiana Senate by fellow Republican Julie Quinn, who polled 64 percent of the vote in a special election in 2005 against another Republican, Diane Winston.

Hainkel's grandchildren, Roth Hainkel and Alixandra Hainkel, both live in New Orleans, as do their parents.

References

* http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2005-04-26/politics.html,withphoto
* http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-0/111440892939980.xml
* http://senate.legis.state.la.us/Hainkel/
* http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-A1000/1113976679239150.xml
* http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0199-4317014_ITM
* www.newsbanner.com/articles/2005/04/18/news/news01.txt
* http://www.louisianaweekly.com/weekly/news/articlegate.pl?20050425d
* http://www.politicsla.com/press_releases/2005/june/062705_Hainkel.htm
* http://www.slcatlanta.org/policy_positions/2005/2005polpos_hainkel.htm
* http://whodatzone.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=4053
* http://www2.selu.edu/NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/golden.htm
* http://www.politicsla.com/press_releases/2005/april/041505_jindal2.htm
* http://senate.legis.state.la.us/Quinn/Releases/2005/08-02-2005.htm