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Understanding the Louisiana State Legislature

This quiz tests your knowledge of the Louisiana State Legislature, including its structure, functions, and historical context.

#Louisiana #State Legislature #Government #Civics #Political Science

1 In order to constitute a ________, both houses require a majority of members present; 53 members of the House of Representatives and 20 members of the Senate.

2 Since the ratification of the current ________ in 1974, the lieutenant governor of Louisiana does not serve as the Senate president.

3 The Louisiana Senate elects its presiding officer, the ________, from among its membership, though the position is also traditionally recommended by the governor.

4 The ________ elects from among its members a speaker and speaker pro tempore.

5 Term limits were passed by state voters in a constitutional referendum in 1995 and were subsequently added as Article III, §4, of the ________.

6 Although the procedure is not mandated constitutionally, the speaker of the House is traditionally recommended by the ________ to the body.

7 It is a bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the ________ with 105 representatives, and the upper house, the Louisiana Senate with 39 senators.

8 The State Legislature meets in the Louisiana State Capitol in ________.

9 The Louisiana State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of ________.

💡 Interesting Facts

  • former Louisiana State Senator Art Lentini in 2004 led the move in his state to ban cloning, both for reproduction and research.
  • former Louisiana State Representative Vic Stelly's 2002 Stelly Plan tax-shifting amendment was repealed in 2008 because it led to higher state income taxes.
  • former Louisiana State Representative Suzanne Mayfield Krieger of Slidell has encouraged the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra to perform in local schools.
  • former Louisiana State Senator Bill Keith authored a creation science law that was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1987 case Edwards v. Aguillard.
  • former Louisiana State Senator Gaston Gerald has spent his later years engaged in cattle ranching and farming in East Baton Rouge and Washington parishes.
  • former Louisiana State Senator Lawson Swearingen in 1990 cast one of three critical votes to sustain Governor Buddy Roemer's veto of a restrictive anti-abortion bill.
  • former Louisiana State Senator Joe LeSage was a quarterback for the LSU Tigers and at the age of 27 was named to the LSU Board of Supervisors.
  • former Louisiana State Senator Heulette Fontenot wrote legislation to require that disaster preparedness officials also provide for the safety of household pets during evacuations.
  • former Louisiana State Rep. Tommy G. Armstrong of Shreveport is particularly known for his opposition to video poker.
  • former Louisiana State Rep. Raymond Laborde defeated future Governor Edwin Edwards in 1943 in the race for senior class president of Marksville High School.
  • an annual award for "outstanding state legislators" presented by the National Bar Association is named for Louisiana State Representative Pinkie C. Wilkerson.
  • after unseating long-term incumbent Sixty Rayburn for the Louisiana State Senate in 1995, Republican Phil Short resigned in 1999 to return to the United States Marine Corps.
  • a colleague once described Ed Scogin of Slidell, Louisiana, as "the conservative conscience" of the Louisiana House of Representatives.
  • as a Louisiana state senator, Tom Schedler teamed with later U.S. Senator David Vitter to repeal the Louisiana inheritance tax, effective in 2004.
  • before he switched to the GOP, Gerald Theunissen, a Democrat, won a special election in 1996 to the Louisiana Senate by defeating Republican state chairman Mike Francis.
  • father and son James E. Bolin and Bruce M. Bolin both served in the Louisiana House of Representatives and as a state district court judge – thirty-eight years apart in each case.
  • during the 1950s, Louisiana State Senator Herman "Wimpy" Jones advocated voting by 18-year-olds long before ratification of the 26th Amendment.
  • before he was a Louisiana state senator from Slidell, Gerry E. Hinton worked to obtain licensing of chiropractors in his state, the last to recognize the profession.
  • former Louisiana State Senator Lynn Dean, a Republican, led the move in 2003 to repeal his state's anti-sodomy law.
  • former Louisiana State Senator Mike Cross authored a law in 1990 to add anabolic steroids to a list of illegal substances, but lawmakers failed to clarify the proper penalty.
  • the former Louisiana State Representative Peppi Bruneau of New Orleans secured passage of a bill clarifying the right of a victim to shoot carjackers.
  • the Louisiana State Representative George B. Holstead participated in the Olympic track and field trials held in New Orleans in 1948.
  • the Louisiana State Rep. H. Lawrence Gibbs in 1956 authored legislation which outlawed social events and athletic contests including both African Americans and whites.
  • the late Louisiana State Rep. Shady Wall once pulled a pistol on colleague Carl Gunter, Jr., when Gunter inadvertently disconnected Wall's telephone.
  • the late Louisiana State Senator Bryan A. Poston was an aerial engineer gunner sergeant on a B-17 bomber.
  • when the Louisiana State Representative C.W. Thompson died in office in 1951, then Governor Earl K. Long appointed Lizzie P. Thompson to finish her husband's term.
  • upon leaving the Louisiana House of Representatives because of term limits, Henry "Tank" Powell was appointed to the state Board of Pardons by Governor Bobby Jindal.
  • though he has won six nonconsecutive elections to the Louisiana State Senate, Joe McPherson of Rapides Parish has twice failed in bids for his state's Public Service Commission.
  • the historian Jimmy G. Shoalmire specialized in Reconstruction in Red River Parish, Louisiana, ruled from 1868 to 1876 by carpetbagger State Senator Marshall Twitchell.
  • retired banker and former Louisiana legislator Loy F. Weaver was as an FBI agent cited five times for outstanding performance and personal bravery by Director J. Edgar Hoover.
  • her own troubled divorce prompted Louisiana State Senator Julie Quinn to work for the law that requires the violator of a protective order to serve at least a 90-day sentence.
  • former State Senator Tom Greene, originally an electrical engineer, subsequently became a veterinarian.
  • former State Rep. Kevin P. Reilly, Sr., once told People magazine that all Louisiana residents needed to be contented was "a pickup and a shotgun".
  • in 1934 State Representative Rupert Peyton of Shreveport ridiculed Huey P. Long by proposing a bill to grant the title "Your Majesty" to every adult in Louisiana.
  • in 1990 former Louisiana State Senator Fritz H. Windhorst spoke on behalf of a vetoed bill which would have made abortion a felony punishable by imprisonment.
  • in 2003, Louisiana State legislator Danny Martiny sought penalties for sexual acts in public of up to a year in jail and a maximum $1,000 fine.
  • in 1991, John C. Ensminger of Monroe defeated Frank Snellings, the husband of U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, for a seat in the Louisiana State Senate.
  • Walter O. Bigby, who served in the Louisiana House of Representatives during the 1970s, was called the "Dean of the House" because of his reputation for integrity, fairness, and hard work.
  • Virginia Shehee, Louisiana's first woman state senator, once bought a pig at a 4-H show, the proceeds of which helped a boy with cerebral palsy to learn how to walk.
  • State Representative Jim Fannin wrote the Louisiana "career diploma" law, designed to reduce the dropout rate by allowing high schoolers to pursue less rigorous studies.
  • Louisiana State Senator Sydney B. Nelson's bid for Senate President was halted in 1988 by the tradition in his state that the governor choose the legislative leaders.
  • Louisiana State Senator K.D. Kilpatrick of Ruston began working as a teenager in his family mortuary business after his father was incapacitated by a stroke.
  • State Representative Lanny Johnson was inducted in 1982 into the Louisiana Basketball Hall of Fame for the 1958–1962 seasons at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.
  • State Senator Coleman Lindsey became lieutenant governor of Louisiana, when Earl Long succeeded Governor Richard W. Leche.
  • Allen Bares, a former member of the Louisiana State Legislature, was awarded the Medal of Merit by France for promotion of the French language.
  • Republican Governor Bobby Jindal supported Joel Chaisson, a Democrat, to become the new president of the Louisiana State Senate.
  • Nunez Community College in Chalmette, Louisiana, is named for the late wife of former Louisiana State Senate President Samuel B. Nunez, Jr..
  • Louisiana State Senator Jack Donahue through his philanthropic Suited for Success helped Hurricane Katrina victims refurbish their business clothing.
  • Louisiana State Sen. Robert M. Marionneaux was the first white elected to campus government at historically black Southern University in Baton Rouge.
  • Louisiana State Representative Jim Morris tried without success in 2009 to gain repeal of his state's compulsory motorcyclist helmet law.
  • Governor Bobby Jindal named former State Representative Sean Reilly as board chairman of Blueprint Louisiana, a group promoting technology and economic development statewide.
  • conservative State Senator Dan Morrish broke with the Louisiana Family Forum in 2009 by supporting a law which permits restaurants to levy cover charges for live entertainment and to sell alcohol.
  • Louisiana District Judge Stephen J. Windhorst is a former reserve police officer who also served eight years in the Louisiana House of Representatives as an anti-crime advocate.
  • Louisiana in 2008 became the fiftieth state to ban cockfighting, nearly two decades after former State Representative Garey Forster led the initial effort to halt the practice.
  • Louisiana State Representative Cameron Henry in 2010 failed to gain approval of his proposed legislation to abolish his state's office of lieutenant governor.
  • Louisiana State Rep. Ernest Wooton has challenged Governor Bobby Jindal's claim of confidentiality to many executive department documents.
  • Bryant Hammett resigned from the Louisiana House of Representatives in 2006 to oversee disaster recovery for infrastructure impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
  • Diane Winston lost a special election for the Louisiana State Senate in 2005, despite having led the first round of balloting.
  • Risley C. Triche, originally a segregationist member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, testified years later to past racism in his state's public assistance programs.
  • Paul L. Foshee, who served in both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature, holds a patent on an airplane mount bracket.
  • Page Cortez, a Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, gained vital name recognition in part from television ads promoting his furniture store.
  • Roger Villere, chairman of the Louisiana Republican Party since 2004, was among the candidates who lost a state House race in 1989 to David Duke.
  • Sam Little, a retired farmer from Bastrop, Louisiana, was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives by a margin of only 9 votes out of 7,863 cast in a low-turnout contest.
  • V.V. Whittington was a Louisiana state senator from 1928 to 1932 and later president of the Louisiana Bankers Association.
  • Sylvan Friedman, a member of both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature from 1944 to 1972, was part of a small but influential Jewish community in Natchitoches Parish.
  • Sixty Rayburn, a 44-year member of the Louisiana State Senate who died in 2008, was the driving force behind the establishment of the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine.
  • P.J. Mills, a former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, is a descendant of Robert Mills, the architect who designed the Washington Monument.
  • Noble Ellington, a veteran member of both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature from Winnsboro in the northeastern portion of his state, is involved in legal action so that his wife may continue to serve as his legislative secretary.
  • Gerald Long, an incoming Republican member of the Louisiana State Senate, is believed to be the only Long family member to have held significant public office in Louisiana outside the Democratic Party.
  • Frank Fulco, a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives between 1956 and 1972, was once honored on his House floor by the government of Italy for his long involvement in Italian American causes.
  • E.D. Gleason, a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives during the 1950s, proposed a one-cent state sales tax earmarked for public school teacher salaries.
  • Jack Montgomery, a Louisiana state senator from 1968 to 1972, was preceded and succeeded in the post by Harold Montgomery, and they were unrelated.
  • John Alario, the longest-serving member of the Louisiana State Legislature whose tenure began in 1972, is currently a freshman member of the state Senate.
  • Neil Riser, an incoming Republican member of the Louisiana State Senate from Columbia, Louisiana, began working at the age of fourteen as a logger.
  • John S. Treen, the choice of the Republican leadership, lost the 1989 special election which sent David Duke to the Louisiana House of Representatives.
  • Baton Rouge attorney Dan Claitor was elected in 2009 to the Louisiana State Senate despite his fellow Republican, Governor Bobby Jindal endorsing his opponent.
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