Jay Blossman

Infobox Officeholder
name=Jack Arthur "Jay" Blossman, Jr.
nationality=American
office= Louisiana Public Service Commissioner
party=Republican
term_start=January 1, 1996
term_end=December 31, 2008
preceded=John F. Schwegmann
succeeded= Incumbent
date of birth=birth date and age |1964|10|3|
date of death=
place of birth=Covington, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, USA
place of death=
occupation= Attorney in Mandeville, Louisiana
spouse= Lynette Blossman
children=

Jack Arthur Blossman, Jr., known as Jay Blossman (born October 3, 1964), is a Mandeville, Louisiana, attorney who is a Republican member of the Louisiana Public Service Commission. Blossman was named PSC chairman by his colleagues early in 2007.

Blossman's First District seat encompasses all or parts of Ascension, Jefferson, Livingston, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. Helena, St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, and Washington parishes in south Louisiana. Blossman was first elected to the PSC in 1996, when at thirty-two, he was the youngest person to have been elected to the commission. He was reelected in 2002. His term expires on December 31, 2008.

Early years, education, affiliations

Blossman was born to Mr. and Mrs. Jack Blossman, Sr., in Covington, the seat of St. Tammany Parish. He graduated from the St. Paul's School in Covington. In 1987, he received a bachelor's degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Thereafter, in 1991, Blossman obtained his Juris Doctor degree from the Southern University School of Law in Baton Rouge. He has since practiced law and resides in Mandeville with his wife, Lynette Blossman, and their children.

Blossman is a member of Victims and Citizens Against Crime, the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, and the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. He is a past chairman of the Boy Scouts of America. Blossman is a member of the board of directors of the Covington-based Parish National Bank. He is also a member of the American Heart Association and the Louisiana Bone Marrow Registry.

Defeating John F. Schwegmann twice

Blossman unseated incumbent Commissioner John F. Schwegmann (born 1946), then a Democrat from Metairie in Jefferson Parish. Schwegmann was the son of former state legislator and PSC member John G. Schwegmann (1911-1995) and is the husband of former Lieutenant Governor Melinda Schwegmann, a Democrat turned Republican. Blossman polled 133,455 votes (55 percent) to Schwegmann's 108,957 (45 percent).

Blossman defeated Schwegmann again in 2002, 104,963 votes (68 percent) to 49,643 ballots (32 percent). It was in the October 2002 primary that Schwegmann was first listed as an "independent" or officially "no party" on the Louisiana ballot.

The ill-fated gubernatorial attempt, 2003

"Main article: Louisiana gubernatorial election, 2003"

In 2003, Blossman announced that he would seek to become the Republican gubernatorial consensus candidate to succeed term-limited GOP Governor Murphy J. "Mike" Foster. Blossman calls himself a "Reagan conservative." He opposes the tax adjustment plan, which increased taxes on most "working families" and was named for its author, former state Representative Victor "Vic" Stelly of Lake Charles.

However, other Republicans wanted to run as well, including former Governor David C. Treen (born 1928), of Blossman's own St. Tammany Parish. Treen, after testing the waters, never filed his papers to make the race. Two other Republicans continued in the race: (1) state Representative Huntington B. "Hunt" Downer, Jr., (born 1946) of Houma, the seat of Terrebonne Parish, and (2) Bobby L. Jindal (born 1971), an Indian-American health-care specialist then of Baton Rouge and the favorite of Governor Foster, President George W. Bush and much of the Republican leadership. The Republican hopefuls risked dividing their party's base to such an extent that two Democrats, and no Republican candidate, might have been thrust into the general election under Louisiana's unique jungle primary law.

Blossman found himself in hot water with outgoing Governor Foster, who lashed out against the public service commissioner on radio. Blossman had run a television commercial which blamed state leaders for not funding a DNA program that could have led to the earlier arrest of a suspected South Louisiana serial killer. Foster said that he considered that his criticism could aid Blossman's campaign by giving it more exposure, but the governor spoke out and accused Blossman of running an offensive advertisement in bad taste.

Blossman spent more than $1 million in his race, much of that amount consisting of his own loans to his campaign. By late summer, Blossman had $613,000 on hand. He spent $552,000 in the second quarter of 2003, including the repayment of $285,000 in loans to himself. He raised $168,000 from others in the third quarter, $512,000 since January 1, 2003.

When Blossman failed to make the expected traction in the polls, he announced that former Republican Congressman Clyde C. Holloway (born 1943) of Forest Hill in Rapides Parish would join him on an unofficial "ticket" as the lieutenant governor's candidate. Candidates had stopped forming such combinations after the 1971 Democratic primaries. Holloway was widely identified as a social conservative by his voting record. He had represented the heavily Democratic and since defunct Eighth Congressional District from 1987-1993. Holloway was eleven years Blossman's senior and had left Congress four years before Blossman joined the PSC. In the run for lieutenant governor, Holloway stressed the need to halt the loss of manufacturing jobs from Louisiana and to boost the low-wage base in many parishes.

Blossman continued to sink in the opinion polls, was denied a seat in a candidate debate forum, withdrew from the gubernatorial race, and endorsed Downer, who contested Jindal for a potential but not assured GOP slot in the general election. Earlier, Blossman had called Downer "a liberal Democrat", but he then said that only Downer, among the Republican candidates, could actually win the general election. Blossman said that Jindal, who is seven years younger than Blossman, was too young and inexperienced to prevail in the governor's race.

Jindal went on to lead the pack of candidates and was placed into a second round of balloting with the top Democrat, outgoing Lieutenant Governor (and former member of the PSC as well) Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Lafayette. Blanco in turn defeated Jindal, 52-48 percent.

Holloway remained in the lieutenant governor's race after Blossman dropped his candidacy. He finished a weak second to Democrat Mitchell Landrieu of the New Orleans Landrieu family. Landrieu in fact won the second office directly in the primary. Also in the lieutenant governor's race was a former holder of the office, Melinda Schwegmann, wife of Blossman's former PSC opponent, John F. Schwegmann.

Blossman did not seek reelection in 2008. Former Commissioner John F. Schwegmann, using the "No Party" label, led a field of four candidates in the jungle primary held on October 4. He will face Eric Skrmetta, a Republican, in the November 4 general election. Schwegmann led in the primary with 61,711 (41.8 percent) to Skrmetta's 34,206 (23.1 percent). The other candidates were Republican Kenneth L. Odinet, Sr., with 33,470 (22.6 percent), and "No Party" Bruce C. Kincade, with 18,440 (12.5 percent). [Louisiana Secretary of State website: http://www400.sos.louisiana.gov:8090/cgibin/?rqstyp=elcms2&rqsdta=100408]

Questionable Ethics

Blossman is currently under investigation by the Louisiana State Inspector General's office for mailing approximately 230 signed letters on state letterhead to commission regulated motor carriers. The letters urged the companies to contact a sales rep offering global positioning systems. Blossman has said he did nothing wrong and that he was just making the companies aware of what he thought was a remarkable product. Blossman is not seeking re-election this fall.

References

http://www.lpsc.org/district1.asp

http://www.sos.louisiana.gov:8090/cgibin/?rqstyp=elcms2&rqsdta=092196

http://www.sos.louisiana.gov:8090/cgibin/?rqstyp=elcms2&rqsdta=100502

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

http://www.parishnational.com/

http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0199-3238911_ITM

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2003-07-15/politics.html

http://www.politicsla.com/archives/2003/september.htm

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/06/state_ig_blossman_may_have_vio.html