Rob Shadoin

Robert Ermon Shadoin, known principally as Rob Shadoin (born August 24, 1953), is a Republican current member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for District 12, which includes Lincoln and Union parishes in North Louisiana. He is an attorney in Ruston, Louisiana.^[1]

Background

In 1971, Shadoin graduated from Ruston High School and in 1975 obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Louisiana Tech University, at which he a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. In 1978, he received his Juris Doctor degree from Louisiana State University Law Center in Baton Rouge.^[2] From 1991 to 1994, Shadoin served as the Ruston city attorney. From 1994 to 2006, he was a member of the Lincoln Parish School Board.^[3] Shadoin and his wife, the former Carol Brasuell, have four children.^[1]

Political life

Shadoin defeated fellow Republican, Jason Paul Bullock (born 1977), also of Ruston, in the general election held on November 19, 2011, to choose a successor to Republican Hollis Downs, a professor at Louisiana Tech University. In a low-turnout contest, Shadoin received 4,186 votes (54.4 percent) to Bullock's 3,513 votes (45.6 percent).^[4] In the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 22, Bullock had led the balloting with 45 percent, with Shadoin trailing at 39 percent. A third Republican candidate, Jacob "Jake" Halley, of Farmerville, a consultant with an emergency preparedness company,^[5] held the remaining but critical 16 percent of the primary vote. No Democrat sought the position.^[6] Halley emphasized the need to promote tourism in both parishes; Bullock, who operates a business that rents construction equipment, the importance of small business, and Shadoin, his legal and political experience and a call for streamling and repeal of unnecessary laws.^[5]

Shadoin is a member of these House committees: (1) Civil Law and Procedure, (2) Education, and (3) Judiciary.

In May 2013, Shadoin spoke at the Louisiana Film and Entertainment Association event, "Laissez Louisiana Film Rouler" held in Baton Rouge to support the state's film industry.^[7]

In 2013, Shadoin voted for a judicial pay raise, which the legislature approved. He favored the removal of term limits on judges, but that amendment failed in the House. He supported a state law which now requires that women working for the state receive the same pay as men in the same job, something already required under a federal provision in 1963. He voted for surrogacy contracts for couples designating another woman to bear their child, a measure handily approved by the legislature. Shadoin voted with the House majority to oppose reductions on penalties for possession of marijuana, to prohibit state enforcement of federal firearm regulations on weapon manufacturers, and to prohibit the publication in the public record of the names of those with concealed weapon permits.^[8] On all of these issues, Shadoin voted exactly as his Democratic colleague in neighboring District 10, Gene Reynolds of Minden in Webster Parish.^[9]

Shadoin's legislative ratings have ranged from 44 to 62 percent from the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry. In 2012, he was rated 40 percent by the National Federation of Independent Business, low business scores for a Republican legislator. In 2013 and 2014, he was rated 88 and 89 percent, respectively, by the conservative Louisiana Family Forum. In 2013 and 2014, Louisiana Right to Life scored him 75 and 100 percent, respectively. In 2013 and 2014, the Louisiana Association of Educators rated him 67 and 75 percent, respectively.^[10]

In 2013, Shadoin and State Senator Mike Walsworth of West Monroe obtained passage of legislation to name the Louisiana Highway 33 bridge over Lake D’Arbonne in Farmerville in honor of the late State Representative James Peyton Smith of Union Parish. Shadoin's district includes a part of the territory once represented by Smith, whom Shadoin calls "one of the greatest men of Union Parish".^[11]

Shadoin ran unopposed for reelection to a second term in the House in the October 24, 2015, primary election.^[12]

In March 2016, Shadoin joined a House bipartisan majority for a one-cent increase in the state sales tax. State representatives voted 76 to 28 for the tax hike, a part of the revenue-raising measures pushed by new Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards. ^[13] A House and Senate conference committee subsequently trimmed the five years for the duration of the tax to expire instead after twenty-seven months, effective from April 1, 2016 to June 30, 2018. Even the sale of Bibles and religious publications and Girl Scout cookies are now subject to the tax.^[14]

On June 9, 2016, radio talk show host Moon Griffon accused Shadoin of espousing a Democrat voting record based on the lawmakers support for tax increases, which Shadoin declared necessary to support higher education.^[15]

References