Eddie J. Lambert

Eddie Joseph Lambert (born February 16, 1956)^[1] is an attorney from Prairieville, Louisiana,^[1] who is a member of the Louisiana State Senate for District 18. He is a former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from District 59 in Ascension Parish.^[2]

Term-limited in the House, Lambert ran unopposed for the Senate seat vacated by the term-limited Jody Amedee, another Republican, in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 24, 2015.

Background

The son of Elmo and Concetta Lucia Lambert, Eddie Lambert was born^[1] and reared in Baton Rouge, where he graduated in 1974 from Istrouma High School and played football and baseball.^[3] In 1978, Lambert received his Bachelor of Arts from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. In 1982, he procured the Juris Doctor degree from the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center. Prior to establishing his law practice, Lambert worked as an alligator hunter for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.^[4] Over the years, he continued his small business of rasing crawfish. He is also a member of Ducks Unlimited and the National Rifle Association.^[3]

Lambert's law firm, Lambert & Lambert, located in Gonzales, specializes in Personal Injury, Criminal, Civil, Criminal Law, and Civil Law.^[5] Lambert began his law practice in 1985 and for a time was an assistant district attorney in the 23rd Judicial District. He refers to himself as a former "hard-nosed prosecutor."^[3]

Legislative career

Lambert was elected to the House in 2003, when he upset the incumbent Republican Juba Diez. In the primary, Lambert and another Republican, George Cabanas, polled 6,581 votes (42.4 percent) and 3,002 (19.3 percent), respectively, as Diez trailed with 5,950 (38.3 percent.^[6] In the general election on November 15, 2003, Lambert topped Diez, 9,601 votes (57.7 percent) to 7,026 (42.3 percent).^[7] As a Democrat in 1999, Diez had polled 63 percent of the primary vote against another Democrat, Jeff Burns.^[8]

In 2007, Lambert was reelected to the House without opposition. He is vice chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and the Subcommittee on Education. He is a member of the committees on the Budget and Natural Resources and Environment as well as the subcommittees on Business Development and Litigation.^[4]

In 2011, Lambert voted with the House majority to make the Louisiana cigarette tax permanent. He then voted to override a veto of Governor Bobby Jindal, who killed the permanent cigarette tax. The veto override failed to gain the two-thirds needed vote of the state House. Lambert also voted to prohibit the holding of hand-held cellular devices while driving, another measure which failed. In 2010, he was ranked 100 percent by the interest group, the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, but only 58 percent in 2008-2009 by the Louisiana National Federation of Independent Business.^[9] Lambert, considered a strong conservative has focused on extending and improving the road network in District 59. Lambert favors requiring lawmakers and local officials to disclose their personal incomes.^[10]

Most of Ascension Parish falls within House District 59, located on the east bank of the Mississippi River and among the fastest-growing areas of the state. Former farmlands have become suburbia, with residents from Baton Rouge fleeing urban problems. Gonzales has become a major retail center, with a large outlet mall nearby but outside the district. Ascension Parish still has many working-class residents employed in construction and petrochemical plants, but the influence of organized labor there has declined in recent years. Suburban development has brought more middle-class residents who commute to administrative, government. and professional positions in Baton Rouge.^[10]

Near the end of the 2011 legislative session, Lambert sponsored a successful bill which returns the Louisiana presidential primary date from February, when it was held in 2008, to March, the date in and prior to 2004. Lambert's colleague, Alan Seabaugh of Shreveport, said that without the measure, signed by Governor Jindal, Louisiana would forfeit half its delegates at the 2012 Republican National Convention set for Tampa, Florida. None of the Louisiana Democratic delegates in 2012 would be able to cast convention ballots in Charlotte, North Carolina, unless the date were returned to March. The measure hence switches the date of the primary to the third Saturday after the first Tuesday in March. Lambert, who has sought to tighten drunk-driving laws,^[10] attached a rider to the presidential primary bill which clarifies the drinking age for underage boaters on Louisiana waterways.^[11]

Lambert won a third term in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 22, 2011. Since taking office in 2004, Lambert has sought to four-lane a busy stretch of Louisiana Highway 42 in Prairieville in Ascension Parish. Beginning on February 23, 2014, work is scheduled to being on the long-planned project, first with land clearing, sewer line installation, and utility relocations. The current highway is two-laned and has open ditches on both sides of the roadway.^[12]

Move to the state Senate

Lambert will succeed Jody Amedee in Senate District 18, which includes east Ascension Parish, Lower Livingston, and St. James and St. John the Baptist parishes.^[13][14]

He takes the oath of office for the Senate in January 2016.

Personal life

Lambert and his wife, the former Marilyn Montgomery, married in 1985. Originally from Port Gibson, Mississippi, Marilyn Lambert graduated from Mississippi State University at Starkville, with a Bachelor of Science degree in education. Like her husband, she is a graduate of the LSU Law School. She is the 2011 vice president of Delta Gamma in Baton Rouge, a member of Rotary International, and an Ascension Parish judge.^[15] The Lamberts have three children, Mary Claire, John Malcolm, and Lori Lambert. Lambert is Roman Catholic^[1] and a member of the Knights of Columbus men's organization. The family attends St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Prairieville.^[16]

References