Frank Voelker Sr. (nephew by marriage) John Martin Hamley (nephew by marriage)
40-706: Ransdell is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: Joseph E. Ransdell (1858–1954), U.S. senator from Louisiana, author of the Ransdell Act creating the National Institutes of Health; brother of Francis Xavier Ransdell Joseph Morton Ransdell (1931–2010), American philosopher Sanford Ransdell (1781–1854), Indiana pioneer Judith Ransdell (1946 - 2011), Actress and producer, known for American Gigolo (1980), Jungle Warriors (1984) and Hardcore (1979). [REDACTED] Surname list This page lists people with
80-494: A 0.2 percent gain over Passman's primary share of the vote because of the much larger turnout in the general election in contrast to the primary. Spooner polled 59 percent in Ouachita Parish and also won in the parishes of Lincoln (Ruston), Morehouse (Bastrop), Union ( Farmerville , and Richland ( Rayville ), but his strength was insufficient to overcome large Democratic margins stretching from Huckaby's Bienville Parish on
120-467: A Long political rally in Lake Providence, where his younger brother introduced Long. District Attorney Jefferson B. Snyder , another long-term advocate of planter interests, sat on the stage. Snyder had not really favored Long so much as he was convinced that Long would defeat his chief opponent, U.S. Representative Riley J. Wilson , the favorite of most planter interests, and Snyder wanted to influence
160-526: A number of Northeast Louisiana Republicans to win elective offices. In 1996, Spooner was the campaign chairman of John Cooksey's successful bid to become Congressman from Louisiana's 5th Congressional District. Spooner found himself at odds with Treen and Cade in 1985 regarding the removal of State Party Chairman George Despot of Shreveport. Spooner, and then State Representative Charles D. Lancaster, Jr., of Jefferson Parish, stood with Despot, whom Spooner called "the best chairman we ever had". Such divisions hurt
200-595: A partnership with his brother, Harry Spooner, Jr. They discovered several natural gas fields in Northeast Louisiana. After 1971 Spooner operated under his own name until 1980, when he formed Spirit Petroleum Company. The company name was changed to Mark V Petroleum Company in 1997. Over the years these entities were successful in developing additional gas and oil fields, including the first commercial coal seam methane gas production in Louisiana in 2004. In 1971, Spooner
240-506: A printing firm in Washington, D.C. , at a time when members of Congress could run businesses while serving in office. When his Senate tenure ended in 1931, Ransdell returned to Lake Providence to engage in real estate and growing cotton and pecans. He was a member of the board of supervisors of Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge from 1940 to 1944 during the administration of Governor Sam H. Jones . Ransdell died in Lake Providence and
280-601: A relatively rare open seat in the state's congressional delegation. Spooner's father, Harry Spooner, Sr. (1893–1964), originally from Buffalo , New York , was injured in France during World War I . The senior Spooner came to Texas with the petroleum industry and settled in Arkansas , first El Dorado , then Smackover , and finally Stephens in Ouachita County , where he married the former Willie Green (1905–2000). Frank Spooner
320-527: Is different from Wikidata All set index articles Joseph E. Ransdell Joseph Eugene Ransdell (October 7, 1858 – July 27, 1954) was an attorney and politician from Louisiana. Beginning in 1899, he was elected for seven consecutive terms as United States representative from Louisiana's 5th congressional district . He subsequently served for three terms in the United States Senate from Louisiana before being defeated in
360-725: Is directly across the street from the earlier structure where Ransdell and his family had long worshiped. A biography of Ransdell was written in 1951 by Adras LaBorde , long-time managing editor of the Alexandria Daily Town Talk . Frank Spooner Southern Arkansas University William Franklin Spooner , known as Frank Spooner (born September 9, 1937), is an oil and natural gas producer in Monroe in Ouachita Parish in northeastern Louisiana , who has been active since
400-453: Is interred there at Lake Providence Cemetery. At the time of his death, he was the last living Senator to have been elected by a state legislature. Ransdell was a great-uncle of Frank Voelker Jr. , a Lake Providence attorney who chaired the former Louisiana State Sovereignty Commission during the administration of Governor Jimmie Davis and then ran unsuccessfully for governor in the 1963 Democratic gubernatorial primary, withdrawing before
440-497: The Louisiana Recovery Authority . Blanco's successor and past opponent, Republican Bobby Jindal , elevated Voelker as chairman of the authority. In 2008, though he had been identified previously as a "longtime, diehard Republican", David Voelker was the largest donor in Louisiana to Democrat Barack H. Obama of Illinois , having given the then neophyte presidential candidate $ 80,000, (~$ 111,180 in 2023) according to
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#1733093780441480-691: The Louisiana Republican National Committeeman . He did not seek office again though he remained active in the GOP. In 1979, Spooner was uncommitted between Treen and U.S. Representative Henson Moore of Baton Rouge , who then held Louisiana's 6th congressional district , as the Republican choice for governor. His stance brought criticism from his predecessor as national committeeman, the Treen aide John H. Cade, Jr. , of Alexandria. In 1983, Spooner
520-413: The surname Ransdell . If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name (s) to the link. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ransdell&oldid=1222525773 " Category : Surnames Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description
560-488: The 1880s was his younger brother, Francis Xavier Ransdell, who years later was elected as a judge of the Louisiana 6th Judicial District Court. Joseph Ransdell served as district attorney for the 8th Judicial District of Louisiana for 15 years, from 1884 to 1896. He also had a plantation, where he cultivated cotton and pecan groves. From 1896 to 1899, he served on the Fifth Levee District Board. In 1898, he
600-732: The 1930 Democratic primary for the seat by Governor Huey Long . Born in Alexandria in Rapides Parish in central Louisiana, Ransdell attended public schools . In 1882, he graduated from Union College in Schnectady , New York . He returned to Louisiana to read the law with an established firm, and was admitted to the bar in 1883. He practiced from 1883 to 1889 in Lake Providence in East Carroll Parish . Ransdell's law partner during
640-522: The Democratic primary election in 1924, having defeated Lee Emmett Thomas , the mayor of Shreveport , 104,312 (54.9 percent) to 85,54 (45.1 percent). Huey Pierce Long Jr., while himself running for a second term on the regulatory Louisiana Public Service Commission spent more time supporting Ransdell for the Senate than he did his own campaign in which he carried all twenty-eight parishes in his district. Long
680-654: The House from August 29, 1899, to March 3, 1913. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1912, having instead been elected by the Louisiana State Legislature to the United States Senate , prior to the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution . In 1918, he defeated future U.S. Senator John H. Overton of Alexandria in a disputed vote. Ransdell won his third term in
720-400: The House seat, in the same November 2 election, Jimmy Carter and the unelected incumbent, Gerald R. Ford, Jr. , were the nominees for U.S. president. After his primary defeat, Passman "threatened" to endorse Spooner in the general election, but he never did so. Passman had run mostly without opposition after his initial primary victory in 1946, when he had unseated Charles E. McKenzie . He
760-613: The Longs and retired to private life in 1932, rather than face likely defeat by the Long faction . T. H. Harris , the long-term Louisiana state superintendent of education, called Ransdell "one of the most lovable and distinguished citizens of the United States. [Yet] the people elected Long to the Senate because they believe that he can be of more use to them there. The people trust Long. I find it mighty easy to get on with Governor Long. I have seen
800-534: The balloting. Frank Voelker Sr., judge of the Sixth Judicial District from 1937 until his death in 1963, was married to Ransdell's niece, Isabel, and was hence a son-in-law of Judge Francis Ransdell. Ransdell's great-great nephew was the New Orleans entrepreneur and philanthropist David Ransdell Voelker . Following Hurricane Katrina , Democratic Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco named David Voelker to
840-481: The district to offset expected losses in rural regions, where voting Republican was still comparatively rare at the time except for the presidential level on occasion. He aimed particularly at winning in his own Monroe and West Monroe as well as Natchitoches, Ruston , Bastrop , and Winnfield . The general election turnout was more than double that of the Passman-Huckaby race because, while Huckaby and Spooner sought
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#1733093780441880-648: The early 1970s in his state's Republican Party . In the fall of 1976, Spooner waged a strong but losing race for the United States House of Representatives for Louisiana's 5th congressional district in a bid to succeed incumbent Otto Passman , who had been unseated in the Democratic primary by farmer/businessman Jerry Huckaby , then from Ringgold in Bienville Parish . Therefore, instead of facing Passman, as he had expected, Spooner competed with Huckaby for
920-818: The former Mary Flippo, when she was a child in the Connally neighborhood in Fort Worth in the 1950s. Reagan and Connally gave the race a high profile and helped to provide critical financial support for Spooner. Reagan appeared in Monroe, Louisiana and Connally in West Monroe and Natchitoches , the oldest city in the state. Huckaby, who like Spooner was a political newcomer, nevertheless developed effective television advertising critical of out-of-state politicians trying to influence voters in an otherwise unnoticed Louisiana district. Spooner hoped to poll convincing majorities in urban areas of
960-521: The new governor. At the rally, Huey Long began "a harangue that castigated their closest friends and political allies and the old establishment itself, of which these men were a part." Particularly outraged at Long's treatment of the Randsdells was state Senator Norris C. Williamson of East Carroll Parish, the vice-president of the Constitutional League of Louisiana. He would not compromise with
1000-551: The nonpartisan OpenSecrets in Washington, D.C. Ransdell named the community of Elmwood southwest of Lake Providence, where he owned much of the land, for his boyhood plantation in Rapides parish. In 1976, more than thirty years after Ransdell's death, St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in Lake Providence moved into a new building on a lot which the former senator had willed to the congregation. The new location at 207 Scarborough Street,
1040-459: The party's First Monday newsletter who had written speeches for vice-presidential candidate Bob Dole , to work on Spooner's behalf. Jennie Carroll Casey, a reporter at the time for the Monroe News-Star , worked as an unpaid public relations specialist. Top-name Republicans, including former Governors Ronald W. Reagan of California and John B. Connally, Jr. , of Texas, later rivals for
1080-502: The party's presidential nomination in 1980, came into the sprawling district, with a large agricultural component, to urge voters to elect Spooner. Connally lashed out at the increased power of the Democratic Caucus of the U.S. House, which he maintained had undermined the influence of the more moderate party members, such as then U.S. Senator Russell B. Long of Louisiana. Connally did not know Spooner, but he had known Mrs. Spooner,
1120-627: The school appropriations increased by $ 1.9 million during the past two years. .." Ransdell was chairman of the Committee on Public Health and National Quarantine ( Sixty-third through Sixty-fifth Congresses) and a member of the Committee on Mississippi River and Its Tributaries ( Sixty-sixth Congress ). It was in this capacity that Ransdell sponsored the Ransdell Act , which created the National Institutes of Health . In 1920, Ransdell founded
1160-596: The seat Otto Passman was compelled to vacate. Treen left Congress in 1980, when he was inaugurated as the first Republican governor of Louisiana since Reconstruction . Spooner was the first Republican in seventy-six years even to contest the Fifth District seat. The previous GOP candidate, Henry E. Hardtner of LaSalle Parish , had polled a mere 628 votes (9.2 percent) in 1900 against the Democrat Joseph E. Ransdell of Lake Providence in East Carroll Parish , who
1200-500: The seat that Spooner contested from 2003 to 2013, by which time the district had expanded far south into Rapides and Avoyelles parishes and even into the Florida Parishes east of Baton Rouge. In 2004, Spooner contributed to Alexander's unsuccessful intraparty rival, former State Representative Jock Scott of Alexandria. In 2007, Spooner donated to the presidential campaign of former Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas. Spooner
1240-455: The state party in 1986, when Henson Moore opposed Democrat John Breaux in the U.S. Senate race to succeed Russell Long, who retired after thirty-eight years in office. Spooner later said that Moore's defeat for the Senate was his own "greatest disappointment" in politics. Over the years, Spooner has supported Governor Bobby Jindal , U.S. Senator David Vitter , elected as Breaux's successor in 2004, and Representative Rodney Alexander , who held
Ransdell - Misplaced Pages Continue
1280-576: The west to Madison Parish ( Tallulah ) on the northeast, Concordia Parish ( Vidalia ) on the southeast, and the most northern precincts of Rapides Parish ( Alexandria ) on the south. Spooner received just 27 percent in Bienville Parish and less than 40 percent in Madison and Winn parishes, the latter the ancestral home of the Long political faction . Right after his congressional campaign, Spooner became
1320-628: Was a member of the state constitutional convention . In 1899, Ransdell was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-sixth Congress to fill the vacancy created by the death of Samuel Thomas Baird . He won his first full term in Congress in 1900, having defeated the Republican businessman Henry E. Hardtner of Urania in La Salle Parish , 6,172 votes (90.8 percent) to 628 (9.2 percent). Hardtner
1360-938: Was born in Stephens and graduated in 1955 from Stephens High School . For two years thereafter he attended Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia and then transferred to the University of Oklahoma at Norman , from which in 1960 he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum Land Management. After college, Spooner served in the United States Army and the Army Reserves, Pre-Vietnam War. He worked for Humble Oil Company from 1960 to 1965. After several years in Shreveport , Spooner moved to Monroe in 1967, and entered into
1400-691: Was chairman of the Platform Committee for the Louisiana State Republican Convention that nominated Treen for the re-election as Governor. In 1984 Spooner spearheaded an unsuccessful movement to draft Dave Treen to run against Senator Bennett Johnson for the US Senate. Spooner was also chairman of security for the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas. In 1986, Spooner devised an effective "Get Out The Vote" plan that has been used by
1440-499: Was elected with 6,172 votes (90.8 percent). Hardtner later became a Democrat and served in the Louisiana State Legislature . Ransdell thereafter served in the United States Senate until he was unseated in the 1930 primary election by Governor Huey Pierce Long, Jr. In preparation for his race and when he expected to face Passman, Spooner attended a Republican candidate training school in Washington, D.C. The Republican National Committee sent John Bruce Hildebrand, former editor of
1480-478: Was particularly motivated by his fierce opposition to Mayor Thomas though Long was then a resident of Shreveport. Ransdell was a US senator from March 4, 1913, to March 3, 1931. But in 1930 Governor Huey Long ran in the Democratic primary against him for the seat and won. With 149,640 votes (57.3 percent), Long toppled Randsell, who polled 111,451 (42.7 percent). Long was elected in the general election without Republican opposition. Ransdell had appeared in 1927 at
1520-678: Was the chairman of the Ouachita Parish Young Republicans and directed the Monroe-area campaign of the party's gubernatorial nominee, David C. Treen , an attorney then from Metairie in Jefferson Parish . Treen was defeated in this first bid for governor by Democrat Edwin Edwards . Later in 1972, Treen was elected to the U.S. House, and four years thereafter, Spooner sought to join Treen in Congress when he opposed Jerry Huckaby for
1560-560: Was the last Republican to contest the seat until 1976, when Frank Spooner of Monroe waged a strong but losing challenge to the Democrat Jerry Huckaby of Ringgold in Bienville Parish . By 1910, Hardtner had switched to Democratic affiliation and served for two years in the Louisiana House of Representatives as the first member ever from La Salle Parish. From 1924 to 1928, Hardtner was a state senator . Ransdell served in
1600-509: Was unopposed in his last successful election on November 5, 1974. Passman was particularly known as a critic of foreign aid programs and a supporter of farm subsidies and the recently concluded Vietnam War . Carter's statewide victory in Louisiana (and in nine other former Confederate states) worked to Huckaby's advantage. Huckaby received 83,696 votes (52.5 percent); Spooner, 75,574 ballots (47.5 percent). Spooner surpassed Passman's primary showing by 35,000 votes, which translated only into
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