John Hainkel
Encyclopedia
John Joseph Hainkel, Jr., (born New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...

, March 24, 1938; died Poplarville, Mississippi
Poplarville, Mississippi
Poplarville is a city in Pearl River County, Mississippi, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 2,601. It is the county seat of Pearl River County. It hosts an annual Blueberry Jubilee, which includes rides, craft vendors, and rodeos....

, 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 first person in Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

 and United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 history to have been elected as both Speaker
Speaker (politics)
The term speaker is a title often given to the presiding officer of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body. The speaker's official role is to moderate debate, make rulings on procedure, announce the results of votes, and the like. The speaker decides who may speak and has the...

 of his state House of Representatives
Louisiana House of Representatives
The Louisiana House of Representatives is the lower house in the Louisiana State Legislature, the state legislature of the US state of Louisiana. The House is composed of 105 Representatives, each of whom represents approximately 42,500 people . Members serve four-year terms with a term limit of...

 and president of his state Senate.

In addition to being an accomplished raconteur, Hainkel was also a skilled trial and appellate attorney
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

.

Hainkel graduated from the Roman Catholic De La Salle High School and Tulane University
Tulane University
Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...

 in New Orleans. He was first elected in 1968 as a Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 to the Louisiana House. His service hence dated back to the second term of Governor John J. McKeithen. Like many other Louisiana Democrats over time, he wound up switching to the more conservative
American conservatism
Conservatism in the United States has played an important role in American politics since the 1950s. Historian Gregory Schneider identifies several constants in American conservatism: respect for tradition, support of republicanism, preservation of "the rule of law and the Christian religion", and...

 Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

. 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 his predecessor as Speaker, Edgerton L. "Bubba" Henry
E. L. Henry
Edgerton L. "Bubba" Henry is a Baton Rouge attorney, lobbyist, and partner of the high-powered firm Adams and Reese who served as a Democrat in the House of Representatives from 1968-1980. He was Speaker from 1972–1980. Henry was Governor Edwin Washington Edwards's choice for Speaker...

, a Democrat from Jonesboro
Jonesboro, Louisiana
Jonesboro is a town in and the parish seat of Jackson Parish in the northern portion of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The population was 3,914 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Ruston Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...

, the seat of Jackson Parish. When David C. Treen
David C. Treen
David Conner "Dave" Treen, Sr. , was an American attorney and politician from Mandeville, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana – the first Republican Governor of the U.S. state of Louisiana since Reconstruction. He was the first Republican in modern times to have served in the U.S...

 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 to 1984, but he was replaced by Representative John Alario
John Alario
John A. Alario, Jr. , is an American businessman from Westwego in Jefferson Parish in the New Orleans suburbs, who is the dean of the Louisiana State Legislature, having served consecutively in the law-making body since 1972. He was the District 83 member of the Louisiana House of Representatives...

, a Westwego
Westwego, Louisiana
Westwego is a city in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States, and a suburb of New Orleans. The population was 10,763 at the 2000 census. It lies along the west bank of the Mississippi River.-Geography:...

 (Jefferson Parish) Democrat when Governor Edwin Washington Edwards won a third term in the 1983 nonpartisan blanket primary by unseating Treen.

Oddly, Alario himself switched parties for the 2011 elections in Louisiana. In on October 25, 2011, Governor Bobby Jindal
Bobby Jindal
Piyush "Bobby" Jindal is the 55th and current Governor of Louisiana and formerly a member of the United States House of Representatives. He is a member of the Republican Party....

 tapped Alario as his choice for the Louisiana Senate presidency. If confirmed by his senatorial colleagues, Alario will join Hainkel as the only persons in Louisiana and the United States to have been presiding officers of both houses of their state legislature.

In the seventy-four legislative sessions that he attended, Hainkel was a champion of a more independent legislature. After joining the "Young Turks" movement of the 1970s, he became known as a sharp-tongued, verbal-bomb tossing foe of Edwards on gambling
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...

 issues.

Hainkel was an opponent of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. The ERA was originally written by Alice Paul and, in 1923, it was introduced in the Congress for the first time...

 (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.
Murphy J. Foster, Jr.
Murphy James "Mike" Foster, Jr. served as 53rd Governor of Louisiana from January 1996 until January 2004. Foster's father was Murphy J. Foster, Jr., but Mike Foster uses "Jr." even though he is technically Murphy J. Foster, III. Foster is a businessman, landowner, and sportsman in St...

, from 2000 to 2004.

A colorful lawmaker

With his front-row seat in the chamber, Hainkel 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, including Hammond
Hammond, Louisiana
Hammond is the largest city in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 20,049 at the 2009 census. It is home to Southeastern Louisiana University...

's Southeastern Louisiana University
Southeastern Louisiana University
Southeastern Louisiana University is a state-funded public university in Hammond, Louisiana, United States. It was founded in 1925 by Linus A. Sims, the principal of Hammond High School, as Hammond Junior College, located in a wing of the high school building. Sims succeeded in getting the campus...

 for which he became a legislative champion.

"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
Jay Dardenne
John Leigh "Jay" Dardenne, Jr. , has been Louisiana's Republican lieutenant governor since November 22, 2010. He won a special election to the position held in conjunction with the regular November 2 general election. At the time, Dardenne was Louisiana secretary of state...

, 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 chop
Pork chop
A pork chop is a cut of pork cut perpendicularly to the spine of the pig and usually containing a rib or part of a vertebra, served as an individual portion.-Variations:...

s to the Senate floor when he went on a tear against 'pork barrel
Pork barrel
Pork barrel is a derogatory term referring to appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative's district...

-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
Tip O'Neill
Thomas Phillip "Tip" O'Neill, Jr. was an American politician. O'Neill was an outspoken liberal Democrat and influential member of the U.S. Congress, serving in the House of Representatives for 34 years and representing two congressional districts in Massachusetts...

 sometimes told President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

, whom he opposed on most legislative matters, that they could have a drink together whenever it was after 6 p.m.

Hainkel was an able chef in the Louisiana tradition but was most famous for his homemade fig ice cream.

Hainkel's death

Hainkel's longtime law partner, William Porteous, said that Hainkel had been at a meeting near Poplarville in Pearl River County
Pearl River County, Mississippi
-National protected areas:*Bogue Chitto National Wildlife Refuge *De Soto National Forest -Demographics:The census estimates of 2006 place the county population over 57,000 and place it among the 10 fastest growing counties in the U.S. As of the census of 2000, there were 48,621 people, 18,078...

 in southwestern Mississippi 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 then Senator Tom Schedler
Tom Schedler
John Thomas Schedler, known as Tom Schedler , is a politician from suburban St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, USA, who served as the District 11 Louisiana state senator from 1996 to 2008, when he was term-limited after twelve years...

, a Mandeville
Mandeville, Louisiana
Mandeville is a city in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 12,421 in 2008. Mandeville is located on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain, south of Interstate 12. It is across the lake from the city of New Orleans and its southshore suburbs...

 Republican and one of his closest friends, who later became Louisiana secretary of state.

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

Southeastern Louisiana University

Hainkel, although a graduate of Tulane University, also took a special interest in Southeastern Louisiana University
Southeastern Louisiana University
Southeastern Louisiana University is a state-funded public university in Hammond, Louisiana, United States. It was founded in 1925 by Linus A. Sims, the principal of Hammond High School, as Hammond Junior College, located in a wing of the high school building. Sims succeeded in getting the campus...

, which, as a public institution, he represented as state senator. His Senate District 6 straddled Lake Ponchartrain, causing Hainkel to quip that he represented more fish than people. Hainkel originated the Ponchartrain Cup, a trophy traded between Tulane and Southeastern on the basis of which team wins the annual baseball game.

Hainkel, more than anyone else, was responsible for gaining over $5 million of state funding for renovation of the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts in the Historic District of Hammond
Hammond, Louisiana
Hammond is the largest city in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 20,049 at the 2009 census. It is home to Southeastern Louisiana University...

 and the Columbia's acquisition by Southeastern Louisiana University
Southeastern Louisiana University
Southeastern Louisiana University is a state-funded public university in Hammond, Louisiana, United States. It was founded in 1925 by Linus A. Sims, the principal of Hammond High School, as Hammond Junior College, located in a wing of the high school building. Sims succeeded in getting the campus...

. The operatic performance room within the spacious theatre is named Hainkel Hall, and a plaque commemorating Senator Hainkel appears prominently in the lobby.

Hainkel was honored in 1996 in Hammond with Southeastern Louisiana University
Southeastern Louisiana University
Southeastern Louisiana University is a state-funded public university in Hammond, Louisiana, United States. It was founded in 1925 by Linus A. Sims, the principal of Hammond High School, as Hammond Junior College, located in a wing of the high school building. Sims succeeded in getting the campus...

's "Golden Ambassador Award," a prestigious designation given for "outstanding service, achievement, and/or humanitarian efforts."

Legacy and honors

In June 2006, a bust of Hainkel was placed in the rotunda of the Louisiana State Capitol
Louisiana State Capitol
The Louisiana State Capitol building is the capitol building of the state of Louisiana, located in Baton Rouge. The capitol houses the Louisiana State Legislature, the governor's office, and parts of the executive branch...

. The Senate's briefing room in the Capitol has also been named for Hainkel. Gambit Weekly
Gambit Weekly
Gambit is a New Orleans, Louisiana-based free alternative weekly newspaper that was established in 1981 as Gambit Weekly. Gambit features reporting about local politics, news, food and drink, arts, music, film, events, environmental issues and other topics, as well as listings...

 noted, "With theater-style seating and large plasma monitors, the John Hainkel Room is among the most luxurious in the Capitol."

Shortly after Hainkel's death, Congress, on a motion from Louisiana Republican Bobby Jindal
Bobby Jindal
Piyush "Bobby" Jindal is the 55th and current Governor of Louisiana and formerly a member of the United States House of Representatives. He is a member of the Republican Party....

 (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
Hammond, Louisiana
Hammond is the largest city in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 20,049 at the 2009 census. It is home to Southeastern Louisiana University...

 to honor Hainkel.

Hainkel is also the eponym of the John J. Hainkel Jr. Home and Rehab Center, a New Orleans unit of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. Hainkel championed funding for the facility during his time in the Senate.

The Picayunes Anderson noted that Hainkel loved traditions: his birthday at a Tulane baseball game, for instance, and frequent parties for Tulane, LSU, and Southeastern sports contests, in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, or Hammond. 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 oyster
Oyster
The word oyster is used as a common name for a number of distinct groups of bivalve molluscs which live in marine or brackish habitats. The valves are highly calcified....

s at a school fair or tossing pumpkin
Pumpkin
A pumpkin is a gourd-like squash of the genus Cucurbita and the family Cucurbitaceae . It commonly refers to cultivars of any one of the species Cucurbita pepo, Cucurbita mixta, Cucurbita maxima, and Cucurbita moschata, and is native to North America...

s in a parade."

Senator Robert J. Barham
Robert J. Barham
Robert Jocelyn Barham is a large-scale farmer from Morehouse Parish who has been appointed by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal as the secretary of the state's Department of Wildlife and Fisheries...

, an Oak Ridge
Oak Ridge, Louisiana
Oak Ridge is a village in Morehouse Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 142 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Bastrop Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Oak Ridge is located at ....

 (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, and subsequently became lieutenant governor.

The New Orleans Chapter of the Alliance for Good Government awarded him their Legislator of the Year award more than once and with their Special Award in 1983. The Associated Builders and Contractors of Louisiana named him Man of the Year in 1972; he was honored with the Louisiana/Mississippi Associated Press Margaret Dixon
Margaret Dixon
Margaret Richardson Dixon, usually known as Maggie Dixon , was perhaps the most influential woman journalist of 20th century Louisiana. She was the managing editor of her state's capital city newspaper, the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, from 1949 until her death some two decades later...

 Award in 1980; as Alumnus of the Year of Tulane University, and as Alumnus of the Year of De La Salle High School. In 1988, Senator Hainkel was chosen Legislator of the Year by the Louisiana Restaurant Association. In 1999, Senator Hainkel was honored by the Tangipahoa Parish School Board for his leadership in providing for funding for public education.

Hainkel was succeeded in the Louisiana Senate by fellow Republican Julie Quinn
Julie Quinn
Julie Ann Unangst Quinn is an attorney from Metairie, Louisiana, who is a Republican member of the Louisiana State Senate...

, who won a special election runoff in July 2005 against another Republican, Diane Winston
Diane Winston
Diane Grisham Winston is a businesswoman from Covington, Louisiana, who served as a Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1996 until term-limited in 2008. Her District 77 includes parts of St. Tammany and Tangipahoa parishes in suburban New Orleans. In 2012, the district...

, a state representative from Covington
Covington, Louisiana
Covington is a city in and the parish seat of St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 8,483 at the 2000 census. It is located at a fork of the Bogue Falaya and the Tchefuncte River....

. After the district was considerably altered in the 2011 redistricting, Quinn did not seek reelection.

In 2002, Hainkel had been inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame
Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame
The Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield, Louisiana, highlights the careers of more than a hundred of the state’s leading politicians and political journalists. Because three governors, Huey P. Long, Jr., Oscar K...

 in Winnfield
Winnfield, Louisiana
Winnfield is a city in and the parish seat of Winn Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 5,749 at the 2000 census. It has long been associated with the Long faction of the Louisiana Democratic Party and was home to three governors of Louisiana.-Geography:Winnfield is located at ...

.

External links

  • 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
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