Dave Treen

David Conner Treen Sr. (July 16, 1928 – October 29, 2009) was an American politician and attorney from Louisiana.

Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on July 16 1928 Treen grew up in New Orleans and later settled in Metairie.

In 1945, Treen graduated from the former Alcee Fortier High School in New Orleans, where his classmates included the subsequent political consultant and journalist Victor Gold.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1948 in history and political science from Tulane University in New Orleans.

While at Tulane, he was a brother of Kappa Sigma fraternity.

In 1950, he graduated from Tulane Law School and was admitted to the bar.

Treen served in the U.S. Air Force from 1951 to 1952.

After his discharge, Treen joined the law firm of Deutsch, Kerrigan & Stiles.

From 1952 to 1957, Treen was legal counsel and vice president of the Simplex Manufacturing Corporation in New Orleans.

In 1957, Treen became an associate at the Beard, Blue & Schmitt law firm before eventually being promoted to partner in what became Beard, Blue, Schmitt & Treen.

After three unsuccessful runs for Congress in the 1960s, Treen won his first election in 1972 to represent a U.S. House district that covered parts of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana.

In Congress, Treen had a reliably conservative voting record, and he subsequently won reelection three times by increasing margins.

In the 1960 U.S. presidential election, Treen ran as an elector for the States' Rights Party, which supported Virginia U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr., a segregationist Democrat, over the two mainstream candidates, Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard Nixon.

He also served as the chairman of the party's state central committee.

Along with Treen, States' Rights electors from Louisiana included hard-line segregationists Leander Perez and Willie Rainach.

Treen warned at a rally that "Reconstruction of the South is far from being over" and that "the Democratic and Republican parties would reduce the laboring man to mere tools in a socialistic state."

Ultimately, Kennedy won the election in Louisiana; the States' Rights ticket received 21 percent of the popular vote in Louisiana.

But after the result was in, Treen called for the Louisiana Legislature to refuse to accept Kennedy's electors and instead send those of the States' Rights Party, unpledged, to the Electoral College, saying there was no requirement that the legislature respect the popular vote.

The legislature did not go along with Treen's idea.

Treen emphasized in 1961 that his states' rights group was not affiliated with the National States' Rights Party, a group that he said was "a disgrace to the term 'states rights.'" However, Treen would later leave the Louisiana States' Rights Party because he perceived the party to be anti-Semitic.

In 1962 Treen joined the central committee of the Louisiana Republican Party.

Encouraged by friends, Treen launched a campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives to serve Louisiana's 2nd congressional district, based in New Orleans, against incumbent Democrat Hale Boggs.

Treen raised $11,000 for his 1962 campaign and lost the election, receiving only about a third of total votes.

In 1964, Treen again challenged Boggs.

In a year when Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater won the majority of statewide votes in Louisiana, Treen received 62,881 votes (45 percent) to Boggs' 77,009 (55 percent).

Treen ran again in 1968 in his third and final campaign against Boggs, who was then the House majority whip; Boggs won with 81,537 votes (51 percent) to Treen's 77,633 (49 percent).

Following the 1970 United States Census, Louisiana's 2nd congressional district was reapportioned to exclude parts of Jefferson Parish with strong Republican support, including Treen's residence.

Treen was challenged in 1971 in the only Republican gubernatorial closed primary ever held in Louisiana by Robert Max Ross.

In a campaign tour in Minden, Treen said that Louisiana needed "true competition" in state government, or "a system in which two political parties operate on a continuing and permanent basis to examine and criticize each other's policies and programs."

A member of the Republican Party, Treen served as U.S. Representative for Louisiana's 3rd congressional district from 1973 to 1980 and the 51st governor of Louisiana from 1980 to 1984.

Treen was the first Republican elected to either office since Reconstruction.

Treen was among the inaugural members of the House Select Committee on Intelligence when it was created in 1975.

In 1979, Treen won election as governor of Louisiana, and he resigned from the House in 1980 to take office as governor.

During his single term as governor, Treen cut the state income tax and created a professional development program for teachers.

Treen also signed legislation creating the Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.

However, as the Treen administration took place during the early 1980s recession, Louisiana faced increasing unemployment and bond debt.

Treen lost his reelection bid in 1983 to Edwin Edwards, who had served as governor before Treen.

After leaving the governor's office, Treen continued to be politically involved in Louisiana, running for Congress and endorsing gubernatorial candidates as recently as 2008 before his death in 2009.

Treen was born in the state capital of Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Joseph Paul and Elizabeth (née Speir) Treen.

He attended public schools in the parishes of East Baton Rouge, Jefferson, and Orleans.