Former four-term Louisiana U.S. Senator J Bennett Johnston has passed away at the age of 92. Political analyst Bernie Pinsonat was Johnston’s executive assistant in charge of Louisiana political operations and says the Democrat worked with Democrats and Republicans to bring back federal dollars to Louisiana.
“He really got involved in bringing federal dollars that we were sending to Washington and we did not get our fair share back and that became his priority,” Pinsonat said.
Johnston served in the U.S. Army in the 1950s. Served in both chambers of the Louisiana Legislature from 1964 to 1972.
In 1971, the Shreveport native ran for governor but lost by 44-hundred votes to Edwin Edwards in the runoff election of the Democratic primary.
The next year, Johnston challenged long-term incumbent Allen Ellender for the Democratic nomination to the U.S. Senate. Ellender died during the campaign and Johnston easily won the primary and then the general election.
Pinsonat says Johnston became a powerful Senator as he had a chance to chair both the Senate Energy and Appropriations Committees at separate times during his 24 years on Capitol Hill.
“Senator Johnston really cared about Louisiana, he fought almost daily to get as much money as he could for Louisiana to make sure that we were adequately treated fairly by the budget,” Pinsonat said.
Johnston was born in Shreveport. He was a star running back at Byrd High School. Pinsonat says Johnston is a big reason why I-49 was constructed.
“There was some money allocated to an I-10 going below from Houma to the West Bank and Senator Johnston took that money because nothing had been done with it and that’s how we ended up with I-49,” Pinsonat said.
Johnston defeated state representative and former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke in 1990 in his final re-election bid. Johnston retired from the U.S. Senate in 1997 and became a lobbyist.
He was living in Sperryville, Virginia where he died surrounded by his family.
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