Happy Birthday To a Great Louisiana Man- Governor Dave Treen

Dave Treen is 80 today.

Quin Hillyer over at Southern Appeal has written a fine post on Governor Dave Treen that gives quite a little bit of history that I bet people do not know about the man.

Governor Treen needs to recalled and not just become a footnote in Louisina History. I cannot add to much to what Mr Hillyer wrote who knows the man very well.

I was a kid when he ran re election against Edwin Edwards. Sadly it was a foregone conclusion who would win. Four years later and even today though one could not find anyone that had voted for Edwin i. Edwards in that Governor's race!! Including my parents that seem to think just because I was small I was not paying attention.

If people want to get a sense of that race I suggest going to the Library and picking the excellent book The Last Hayride by John Maginnis . It seems just like yesterday.

However before there were reformers in the mode of the State Senator Randy Ewings and others that came fighting back in the late 80's there was Dave Treen. Louisiana sadly was not ready for him. We did not realize in 1984, though I think Edwin Edwards did , that the Hayride was over us in Louisiana.

Treen did a lot more than just help build the Louisiana GOP. He was a man that showed a true reformer could be elected.

Anyway good read