- Sandra Thompson
Sandra Smith "Sandy" Thompson (born
October 4 ,1946 ) is a veteranLouisiana politician and state administrator, who retired onAugust 3 ,2007 , from the directorship of the Atchafalaya Basin Program. She thereafter joined the successfulgubernatorial campaign of RepublicanBobby Jindal , then aU.S. representative fromsuburban New Orleans .Biography
Thompson grew up on a
farm near Monroe in northeast Louisiana. She received herbachelor of arts degree ingovernment fromSoutheastern Louisiana University in Hammond. She procured amaster of science inbusiness administration fromLouisiana State University inBaton Rouge . Her career in state government began in the1970s when she worked in the office of then Secretary of StateWade O. Martin, Jr. She was appointed director of the Atchafalaya Basin Division of Culture,Recreation , andTourism . Thelieutenant governor now heads Culture, Recreation, and Tourism.Thompson hence helped to start the Atchafalaya project, which, encompassing a million acres (4,000 km²), is the largest bottomland
swamp inNorth America . She left the project in1979 to run unsuccessfully as a Democrat for secretary of state. The position became open whenincumbent Paul J. Hardy , then of St. Martinville, who had succeeded Martin in 1976, ran unsuccessfully forgovernor .Thompson went into a
general election with fellow Democrat, then State SenatorJames H. "Jim" Brown of Ferriday inConcordia Parish . She had a considerable lead in thejungle primary but fell unexpectedly short in the second balloting.In the first round, Thompson polled 504,808 votes (40.8 percent) to Brown's 391,849 ballots (31.7 percent). An
African-American candidate, Ben Jeffers, received 253,764 votes (20.5 percent). Republican candidate Dick Bruce, a New Orleans advertising executive who stressed tourism andinternational trade , polled 85,870 votes (only 6.9 percent).Therefore, Brown increased his support to that of a bare
majority . Brown secured nearly all the votes obtained by Jeffers, and most of Bruce's supporters are believed to have switched to Thompson. Brown won thegeneral election with 665,608 votes (51.1 percent) to her 617,907 (48.9 percent). The percent for Brown and Jeffers from the primary was a combined 52.2 percent, or 1.1 percentage points more than Brown finally received. Thompson and Bruce in the first round of balloting had a combined 47.7 percent, or 1.2 percentage points below what Mrs. Thompson finally received. For years, Thompson said that she never expected to lose the race. In1983 , she attempted to unseatEast Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court Mike Cannon. While she did make the general election, she was unable to win.After the secretary of state's race, Thompson owned and operated an oilfield trucking company in
Baton Rouge . Republican Governor Murphy J. "Mike" Foster, Jr., called her back to state government in1996 to work in his new administration. She was named director of the Atchafalaya Basin Program, when it was re-established in1998 by state law as a 15-year plan to work with theUnited States Army Corps of Engineers and other entities for the federally sponsored Atchafalaya Basin Floodway System. Thompson is active in many conservation endeavors. She is an officer of the LouisianaSierra Club . She has twice secured the Professional Conservationist of the Year award from the Wildlife and Fisheries Department, most recently in 1999. She also won theLyndon B. Johnson National Award for excellence in the field of the environment.Thompson said that she expects to work again in state government, presumably in a Jindal administration, even though she is being processed for state retirement benefits. In the Atchafalaya project, Thompson worked under Natural Resources Secretary Scott Angelle of Breaux Bridge. The media reported strains in their professional relationship. It has been suggested that Thompson wants to succeed Angelle in the Jindal administration. Thompson describes her management style as one of macromanagement: "Most successful leaders don’t micromanage. What we tried to do with the Atchafalaya Program is hire the very best
architect s,engineer s, and designers and tell them, 'Give me your best. I’m not going to micromanage you.'"Thompson has two grown children. Her close friends include Oscar Richard, a former
World War II prisoner of war .References
*Steven K. Landry, "Ex-Atchafalaya Basin official looks ahead: Sandra Thompson helps Jindal campaign", "Baton Rouge Morning Advocate", Acadiana Edition, September 4, 2007, p. 1B: http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/9555402.html?index=1&c=y
*"Election Statistics, 1979" (Baton Rouge: Secretary of State)
*http://www.theind.com/blog/2007/07/atchafalaya-basin-program-director.asp
*http://www.campcatch.com/
*http://www.louisiana.sierraclub.org/contact.asp
*http://dnr.louisiana.gov/sec/execdiv/pubinfo/newsr/2006/0428sec-abp-marshfieldboatlanding.ssi
*http://66.218.69.11/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=sandra+thompson+of+louisiana&fr=yfp-t-501&u=www.helenboudreaux.org/events.htm&w=sandra+thompson+louisiana&d=NHqKH_4-PQne&icp=1&.intl=us
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