Richard Ieyoub, who served as attorney general and district attorney of Calcasieu Parish but narrowly lost elections for governor and senator, died Monday in Baton Rouge of an aneurysm rupture. He was 78.
Ieyoub has spent the last seven years as the top oil and gas regulator under Gov. John Bel Edwards.
At the start of his speech to kick off the 2023 legislative session, Edwards requested a moment of silence for Ieyoub.
“He was a genuine and kind-hearted man,” Edwards told the crowd.
Ieyoub, known for his sincerity and devout Catholic faith, was the district attorney in Calcasieu Parish from 1984 until 1992, when he became attorney general after beating out a crowded field the previous year. He served as Attorney General for a dozen years.
Ieyoub was most proud of his role in bringing the tobacco companies to justice, according to his wife Caprice, by making Louisiana one of the first states to sue the companies.
The lawsuit resulted in a $4.6 billion settlement for Louisiana, which was placed in trust funds to help pay for education and health care over time.
However, among the political triumphs were significant setbacks. Ieyoub ran for higher office twice but was unsuccessful both times.
He came within 1.1 percentage points of making the runoff in a U.S. Senate race won by Mary Landrieu in 1996.
In the 2003 governor’s race, Ieyoub finished third, just missing the runoff in a race won by Kathleen Blanco.
Ieyoub, the son of a Lebanese immigrant, was a criminal defense attorney in Lake Charles when he was elected parish district attorney in 1984.
In 1991, he ran for attorney general, and his main opponent appeared to be a young lawyer named John Kennedy, who, like Ieyoub, was a Democrat.
Ieyoub’s campaign ran out of money late in the election, but his good relationships with other district attorneys saved him, according to Jay Zainey, his campaign chairman and now a federal judge in New Orleans. According to Zainy, then-Jefferson Parish District Attorney John Mamoulides organized other district attorneys to use campaign funds to air radio ads extolling Ieyoub’s virtuebenefits.
Ieyoub ran first in the primary and easily defeated Republican state Sen. Ben Bagert of New Orleans.
Ieyoub won re-election in the runoff outright in 1995.
In 1996, he ran for the seat that Sen. J. Bennett Johnston was vacating. He was seen as a lock for the runoff until news broke that the FBI was investigating him for political corruption.
Ieyoub’s campaign stalled, and Landrieu passed him to win a spot in the runoff.
Two years later, the federal government exonerated Ieyoub.
“It mysteriously came up and mysteriously went away after Richard lost,” said John Litchfield, a New Orleans attorney who was a senior adviser in the 1996 campaign. “It was absolutely crucial to his loss.”
Ieyoub won re-election in 1999 and then seemed a good bet to be elected governor in 2003. But Claude “Buddy” Leach and he ended up competing for the same voters. Blanco nosed past Ieyoub to make the runoff and then defeat Bobby Jindal.
Afterward, Ieyoub practiced law.
In the run-up to the 2015 governor’s race, John Bel Edwards, a longshot state representative candidate, sought out several respected people who had previously run statewide, including Ieyoub.
Edwards was so impressed with Ieyoub’s legal acumen and sense of decency that he asked Ieyoub to serve as Commissioner of Conservation in the Department of Natural Resources after he was elected governor, Edwards said in an interview Monday.
“Who the commissioner is is very important to environmentalists and oil and gas companies,” Edwards said.
The commissioner has to decide whether to grant oil and gas drilling permits, said DNR secretary Tom Harris. This put Ieyoub in the position of frequently deciding whether to side with the companies or land owners or environmental groups.
“I found him to be very fair, honest and open,” said Chris John, who served as president of Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association during the first three years of Edwards’ administration.
Perhaps Ieyoub’s most difficult test came in 1995, when he had to decide whether to join four other states in suing the Liggett Group, a small tobacco manufacturer. The lawsuit was opposed by then-Gov. Mike Foster.
As Ieyoub recalled last year on “Talk Louisiana with Jim Engster,” tobacco company lawyers came to see him and told him that “they would be against me in the (1996) senate race and that my political career had no future.” And it got on my nerves, so I filed the next day.”
Ieyoub assembled a trial lawyer team to represent the state. Russell Herman and Walter Leger Jr. were two of them who backed Landrieu.
“Ieyoub told me he was not hiring people because of who they were supporting,” Leger said. “He said he was hiring the best attorneys he could find.”
After Ieyoub sued Liggett, the company then agreed to a settlement.
“They turned state’s evidence against the other tobacco companies and gave us a lot of evidence and witnesses,” said Michael Moore, then the attorney general of Mississippi. “What Richard decided to do that day was a very courageous move.”
In time, the other tobacco companies folded and settled with the states.
Ieyoub was proud not just of the billions of dollars that went to Louisiana to help pay for roads, education and health care.
“Even more important, we forced the tobacco companies to cease and desist from a method of advertising that appealed to young people,” Ieyoub told Engster.
Besides his widow Caprice, Ieyoub leaves behind seven children: Amy, Nicole, Brennan, Phillip, Khoury, Christian and Anna Michael.
Funeral arrangements are pending.