John Brennan Hussey

John Brennan Hussey (born 1934), an attorney who specializes in contracts, served for two terms (1982-1990) as the Democratic mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana. Before serving as mayor, he was a member of the Shreveport City Council, serving as its chairman in 1980.

He defeated then Democrat Donald W. "Don" Williamson, a former member of both houses of the state legislator from Caddo Parish, in two races for mayor, 1982 and 1986. Williamson, thereafter in political retirement, joined the Republican Party. Williamson was considered a better campaigner than Hussey, but the former lawmaker was mostly identified with northern Caddo Parish, rather than Shreveport, where he had relocated several years earlier.

In 1994, Hussey sought a comeback as mayor but ran third in the jungle primary with 11,833 votes (22 percent). In the ensuing general election, the Republican Robert W. "Bo" Williams defeated the African-American Democrat Roy Cary. Williams served one term until his defeat in 1998.

Hussey was also an elected member of the first Shreveport City Council under the mayor-council single-member district format, having served from 1978 until 1982, when he became mayor. On the council, Hussey drafted the rules to govern city council proceedings. He developed good working relationships with the council's then three black members as well as the council's first president, former Mayor James C. Gardner, and Charles J. Peatross, who went on to become a judge. In his memoirs, Gardner said that Hussey "had read everything available on politics and government."

Though a Democrat, Hussey appointed a Republican, Harriet Belchic, to the Shreveport Women's Commission.

References

James C. Gardner, "Jim Gardner and Shreveport, Vol. II" (Shreveport: Ritz Publications, 2006), pp. 225, 253

John B. Hussey, Oral History, Louisiana State University in Shreveport Archives