Foster Campbell

Democrat (later Republican) Garland Mack Garrett, an oil company owner from Springhill born in 1942, trailed with 3,400 votes (21.5 percent).

Ivan J. Edwards received 474 votes (3 percent), and Republican William F. "Bill" Lott, drew the remaining 835 ballots (5.3 percent)

Foster Lonnie Campbell Jr. (born January 6, 1947) is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party from the U.S. state of Louisiana.

From 1972 to 1975, he was a school teacher in Haughton, Louisiana and an agricultural products salesman.

Campbell owns two insurance agencies, both of which are located in Bossier City.

Campbell has six children from his first wife, Paula Wright, from whom he is divorced: Zach, Peter, Kate, Nicholas, Mary Claire, and Sarah Elizabeth.

Zach died in Dallas, Texas at the age of thirty-seven.

Campbell resides with his second wife, Gwen, in Elm Grove in south Bossier Parish, where he works as a farmer and cattleman.

In 1975, Campbell was elected to the Senate to succeed the retiring Conservative Democrat Harold Montgomery of Doyline in Webster Parish.

In a runoff election, called the general election in Louisiana, Campbell handily defeated former Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives, John Sidney Garrett of Haynesville in northern Claiborne Parish, who failed in a political comeback attempt.

During his Senate service, Campbell was often allied with Governor Edwin Washington Edwards and chaired the Select Committee on Consumer Affairs.

Campbell was sometimes at odds with Republican Governor David C. Treen, whom he claimed was aiming vetoes at projects in Campbell's senatorial district, including at one point a new roof for the Webster Parish Library in Minden, which years later built a new structure.

He served in the Louisiana State Senate from 1976 to 2002.

He ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives for Louisiana's 4th congressional district three times: in 1980, 1988, and 1990.

In 1982, Treen rejected funding for an industrial pact sought by Campbell.

In hopes of enticing labor-intensive industries to relocate to Louisiana, Campbell proposed to earmark $30 million from the oil and natural gas surplus trust fund.

In 1983, Treen signed into law Campbell's bill to allow members of electric co-ops to come under Public Service Commission regulation.

Under the law which Treen accepted after much wrangling, 20 percent of the membership must take part in any election in regard to enabling PSC jurisdiction over a utility company.

In 1985, Campbell as a state senator lobbied Democratic Governor Edwin Edwards, who was serving his third term at the time, to establish a savings account to support the newly established Bossier Educational Excellence Fund (BEEF).

As a former teacher, Campbell proposed that the Bossier Parish school system share in tax revenue from the Louisiana Downs horse racetrack.

The revenues were already being divided by other local governmental entities.

Edwards said that the program should be called BEEF for the Wendy's restaurant refrain at the time: "Where's the Beef?"

In the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 24, 1987, for instance, he polled 11,080 votes (70.2 percent) over two Democrats and a Republican opponent.

In 1992, State Senate President Sammy Nunez of Chalmette appointed Campbell as chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Three years later, Nunez removed Campbell from the chairmanship of a committee established to consider a proposed oil and natural gas processing tax on foreign energy imports.

Campbell criticized Nunez: "As a legislator for thirty years, he supported billions of dollars in new taxes, including taxes on food, drugs, and utilities. He finally found a tax he doesn't like."

Nunez replied that the processing tax could cost the state critically needed jobs.

Over the years, Campbell easily won reelection to his Senate seat.

Since 2003, he has been a member of the Louisiana Public Service Commission.

He was an unsuccessful candidate for governor in the 2007 election against Republican Bobby Jindal.

In 2009, Campbell was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.

In 2012, Campbell became chairman of the five-member Public Service Commission.

He was re-elected to a third term on the commission in 2014.

In 2016, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the open U.S. Senate seat vacated by incumbent Republican David Vitter.

By 2018, what began as $500,000 in tax funds from Louisiana Downs had grown, with the addition of casino revenues, to a $50 million investment.

He won a fourth six-year term as Louisiana Public Service Commissioner in 2020.

Campbell was born in Shreveport, the son of Foster Campbell Sr. and the former Rubye Grigsby of Bossier City, both deceased.

He attended Bossier High School in Bossier City.

Later, he graduated from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches.

He also attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.