- Robert J. Barham
Infobox_ State Senator
imagesize = 150px
name= Robert Jocelyn Barham
office2= Louisiana State Senator from District 33 (Claiborne, Morehouse, Union, and West Carroll parishes)
party= Republican
term_start2= 1994
term_end2= 2008
preceded2= Willie E. Crain
succeeded2= Michael Arthur "Mike" Walsworth
office=Secretary of Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries
term_start=2008
term_ end=
preceded=Bryant Hammett
succeeded= Incumbent
date of birth= birth date and age|1949|01|25
date of death=
place of birth=Monroe, Louisiana
religion=Baptist
occupation=Farmer
spouse= Melba Pipes Barham (born 1954)
children= Robert Erle Barham, Rebecca Barham, Henry BarhamRobert Jocelyn Barham (born
January 25 ,1949 ) is a large-scalefarm er fromMorehouse Parish who has been appointed byLouisiana Governor Bobby Jindal as the secretary of the state's Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. He is also a former Republican member of the Louisiana State Senate who represented District 33 (Claiborne, Morehouse, Union, and West Carroll parishes), all of which borderArkansas in the northernmost section of his state.In an interview published on
January 1 ,2008 , Barham said that his major LDWF issues during the next four years are coastal restoration and controlling invasive aquatic vegetation in lakes and waterways. "We'll be on the front lines of coastal restoration. It's a huge project. It's going to have an impact on fisheries, oyster leases, the environment — but we have no choice. We have to do it."His environmental background
As LDWF secretary, he will replace
Bryant Hammett , a Democrat from Ferriday, who served as a state representative before being appointed to the position by outgoing GovernorKathleen Babineaux Blanco .When Barham was a boy, his father, Erle McKoin "Ninety" Barham (1916-1976), organized a group of Morehouse Parish landowners who established the Cooley Wildlife Refuge, which became the biggest bird-banding site in Louisiana. Barham fished, hunted, and explored the rivers, streams, lakes and woods of northeastern Louisiana as a teenager and later the entire state as an adult.
Leslie L. Glasgow (1914-1980), a professor atLouisiana State University inBaton Rouge , who was the assistantU.S. Secretary of the Interior in the administration ofU.S. President Richard M. Nixon , chose Barham to work atGlacier National Park in northernMontana . Barham told the "Monroe News Star " that his experience there was "amazing. I was mentored by people like my dad and (Glasgow), who knew the importance of our natural resources. Louisiana has convert|1500000|acre|km2 of Wildlife Management Areas. Another early mentor of Barham wasGrits Gresham (1922-2008), the sportsjournalist who once hosted ABC's "The American Sportsman " and was a long-time advocate of saving the Louisianawetlands .Barham received the 1999 Outstanding Legislator of the Year Award from the Louisiana Wildlife Federation and the 1999 National Award for Conservation of Natural Resources from the Daughters of the American Revolution. He was also honored with the John D. Newsom Award for Wildlife Stewardship.
At the conclusion of his last regular legislative session in 2007, Barham told an interviewer that Louisiana should concentrate on anti-litter efforts and
highway construction. He lamented that his state is one of the most littered in the nation and urged a public education and law enforcement angle to tackle the problem. He also said that the state should pave the first mile of each highway connecting to Arkansas,Mississippi , andTexas to the highest grade possible so as to give travelers coming into Louisiana a favorable first impression.In 2002, Barham was an unsuccessful candidate for the
United States House of Representatives , having lost to RepresentativeRodney Alexander , now his fellow Republican.Republican State Representative
Mike Walsworth of West Monroe was elected to succeed Barham in theOctober 20 ,2007 jungle primary .Early years, education, military
Barham was born in Monroe to Erle Barham and the former Rosalie Smith (1913-1999). He grew up on the family plantation in Oak Ridge in Morehouse Parish along with brother, Erle Edwards Barham (born 1937), who held this same Senate seat as a Republican from 1976-1980. Edwards Barham was the first Republican elected to the Louisiana Senate since Reconstruction.
Barham graduated from Oak Ridge
High School . He received abachelor's degree fromLouisiana State University inBaton Rouge . In 1970, he entered theUnited States Army for a two-year stint as amedic inSouth Vietnam . In 1999, he became acolonel in the Louisiana National Guard. Barham also obtained a master's degree from theUniversity of Louisiana at Monroe (then Northeast Louisiana State University). In 1994, he completed the "Agricultural Leadership Program" at LSU. He began full-time farming, Robert Barham Farms, Inc., in Oak Ridge in 1972. Barham and his wife, the former Melba Pipes (born 1954), have three children, Robert Erle, Rebecca, and Henry.Barham in municipal and state politics
Barham was elected
mayor of Oak Ridge (population 142 in the 2000census ) in 1983 and served until 1988, when he became avillage council member instead. He vacated the municipal post when he took his state Senate seat late in 1994. His affiliations include Ducks Unlimited, the AmericanFarm Bureau Federation, theNational Rifle Association , Louisiana Cotton Producers, and theAmerican Legion . He is a member of theMasonic lodge and is also aShriner . Barham isBaptist . Fact|date=June 2007Barham was first elected as a Democrat in a
special election for an unexpired term held onNovember 8 ,1994 , a heavily Republican election year nationally. He defeated then fellow Democrat Johnny Dollar, 13,932 votes to 10,765 He was reelected with 93 percent of the vote in the fall of 1995 for a full four-year term and was unopposed in 1999. Thereafter, he switched parties. In 2002, he ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the vacant Fifth DistrictU.S. House seat. He was unopposed again for the state Senate in 2003. Barham was term-limited and was ineligible to have sought reelection to the Senate in the 2007 elections.As a lawmaker, Barham was particularly identified with efforts to halt the dissolution of Louisiana's coastal wetlands. He noted in a Senate speech that people in his section of the state often work offshore by the week and commute to their homes. Barham and other members of his family are known as strong conservationists. His father helped to establish the Tensas Wildlife Refuge near Delhi in
Richland Parish . Fact|date=June 2007The congressional race of 2002
Barham sought to succeed
U.S. Representative John Cooksey of Monroe in 2002, when Cooksey made an ill-fated run for theU.S. Senate . He entered the jungle primary with two other major Republican candidates, former CongressmanClyde C. Holloway of Forest Hill inRapides Parish , who had served in the defunct Eighth District from 1987-1993, and the young Monroe businessman Dewey Lee Fletcher, who had been Cooksey's former chief of staff. Barham ran fourth in the primary, with 34,522 (19 percent). The seat went to the then Democrat Rodney Alexander ofJackson Parish , who less than two years later switched his affiliation to Republican.References
*http://www.enlou.com/officeholders/senatedistrict33.htm
*http://www.nfib.com/object/3601652.html
*http://www.sos.louisiana.gov:8090/cgibin/?rqstyp=elcms3&rqsdta=110894
*http://www.vote-smart.org/bio.php?can_id=BS028047
*http://www.sos.louisiana.gov:8090/cgibin/?rqstyp=elcms2&rqsdta=110502
*http://www.campaignmoney.com/candidate.asp?id=H2LA05076&cycle=02&yr=02
*http://www.thenewsstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070701/NEWS01/707010322Rhttp://www.thenewsstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080101/NEWS01/801010311
*Philip Timothy, Death of Grits Gresham: http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080219/NEWS01/802190311]
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