Gov. John Bel Edwards headlines the next class of inductees to the Louisiana Political Hall of Fame, a group that also includes former politician Louis Lambert, ex-chemical association president Dan Borne, radio talk show host Jim Engster and businessman and political donor Richard Lipsey.
The hall of fame is also inducting former state Rep. Joe Delpit of Baton Rouge, former Times-Picayune Capitol News bureau reporter Ed Anderson and the Carter political family in St. Helena Parish, which includes state Rep. Robby Carter.
They will all enter the hall at a ceremony in Baton Rouge in April 2024, Edwards said this week on the WRKF talk radio show, “Ask the Governor,” which is hosted by Engster.
By then, Edwards will have served two terms as the only Democratic governor in the Deep South, after two terms in the state House representing Tangipahoa Parish. His last day in office is Jan. 8, 2024.
Lambert, a Democrat, was nearly elected governor in 1979, falling just short of defeating David Treen in the runoff. Lambert served on the Public Service Commission at the time. He was later elected state senator, representing Prairieville for a decade.
Just out of Nicholls State, Borne covered the Capitol for two years for WBRZ-TV, served three different senators in Washington – Allen Ellender, Elaine Edwards and Russell Long – worked as a top aide to then-Gov. Edwin Edwards in his second term and spent nearly 20 years as president of the Louisiana Chemical Association before retiring in 2017.
Beginning in 1983, Engster worked as a reporter and news director at the Louisiana Network, and in 1998 he began hosting a daily talk radio show on politics that continues today on WRKF-FM. Gov. Edwards appears on his program once a month.
Lipsey founded Lipsey’s, a sporting goods and firearms distributor. He then became active in public affairs, serving as a gubernatorial appointee to the Board of Regents, which sets policy for Louisiana’s colleges and universities, and to the Board of Commerce & Industry, which considers whether to award state tax incentives to corporations. He is also a major donor through his political action committee, Put Louisiana First.
Delpit was the first African-American to serve in a leadership position in the Legislature since Reconstruction when he served from 1984-88 as speaker pro tem. In all, he served in the House from 1976-92 and also served as master of ceremonies at the 1972, 1976 and 1984 inaugurations of Gov. Edwin Edwards. He also owns the Chicken Shack, the Baton Rouge-based restaurant chain that has served customers for more than 80 years.
From 1969 to 1988, Anderson was a general assignment reporter and editor at The Times-Picayune. Then he moved to Baton Rouge to cover state politics, reporting on six governors and writing thousands of articles until he left the newspaper in 2012. Anderson died in 2015.
Robby Carter, who is from Greensburg, served in the House from 1996 to 2008, when term limits forced him out of office. He won the seat again after John Bel Edwards gave it up in 2015 to run for governor.
Carter’s father Burrell served as a district and appeals court judge from 1974-2012, and his mother Helen Bridges Carter served on the Louisiana Community and Technical College System board until this year. Carter’s grandfather, R.D. Bridges, served as St. Helena Parish’s sheriff from 1948-84.
The Louisiana Political Hall of Fame is located in Winnfield, home to Huey and Earl Long. It has enshrined 196 people since 1993.
The chair of the board is lobbyist Randy Haynie, and one of the other board members is John Georges, who with his wife Dathel owns The Advocate, The Acadiana Advocate, The Shreveport-Bossier Advocate and The Times-Picayune newspapers.