1. Jay Dardenne was previously a member of the Louisiana State Senate for the Baton Rouge suburbs, a position he filled from 1992 until his election as secretary of state on September 30,2006.
33 Facts About Jay Dardenne
1. 2.
Jay Dardenne outpolled gubernatorial candidate Bobby Jindal, a fellow Republican, in raw votes and won sixty-one parishes to Jindal's sixty.
3.
On November 2,2010, Jay Dardenne was elected lieutenant governor when he defeated Caroline Fayard, a young Democrat originally from Denham Springs in Livingston Parish.
4.
Jay Dardenne polled 719,243 votes to Fayard's 540,633.
5.
Jay Dardenne won most of the sixty-four parishes but lost Orleans, Caddo, and St Landry.
6.
Jay Dardenne's younger brother, Richard James Dardenne, was a basketball and track coach who spent his last years in Fort Worth, Texas.
7.
Jay Dardenne is Jewish and a graduate of Baton Rouge High School and Louisiana State University, from which he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in journalism.
8.
Jay Dardenne earned a degree from the Louisiana State University Law Center.
9.
Jay Dardenne is a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.
10.
Jay Dardenne is active in social and civic endeavors in his native Baton Rouge and through non-profit organizations throughout Louisiana.
11.
Jay Dardenne serves as chairman of the US National Senior Sports Classic, and has served as president of ten non-profit organizations in the greater Baton Rouge Community.
12.
Jay Dardenne is an amateur fiction writer and has won "Dishonorable Mentions" for his entries in the 2008 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, a competition where contestants submit bad opening lines to imaginary novels.
13.
Jay Dardenne won the 'Most Vile Pun' award in the 2006 contest.
14.
In 1987, Dardenne narrowly lost his first race for the District 15 state Senate seat to the Democrat Larry S Bankston, one of three sons of former Democratic state party chairman and centenarian Jesse Bankston.
15.
Jay Dardenne then won an election for a seat on the East Baton Rouge Metropolitan Council and held that seat until 1992.
16.
Jay Dardenne continued to push unsuccessfully for reforms in the administration of Foster's successor, Democrat Kathleen Babineaux Blanco.
17.
Jay Dardenne did help pass constitutional amendments on term limits, coastal erosion, and victims' rights.
18.
Jay Dardenne worked for the creation of a single State Board of Ethics, spearheading reform of the river pilots' system, and reducing government waste as the chairman of the Louisiana Senate Finance Committee.
19.
In 2003, Jay Dardenne was named the "National Republican Legislator of the Year".
20.
Jay Dardenne was a friend of McKeithen and former Democratic State Representative.
21.
Jay Dardenne chose not to run for the post in the special election.
22.
Jay Dardenne maintained that his vote was required to ensure Louisiana continuing to receive Medicaid funds.
23.
Jay Dardenne received 30 percent of the vote in the primary; Heitmeier, 28 percent, and Francis, 26 percent.
24.
Jay Dardenne said that his New Orleans Democratic voter base had been decimated because of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, as tens of thousands of people had to evacuate the city before and after the destructive storm and flooding.
25.
Jay Dardenne said that without help from national Democrats, victory over Dardenne would be impossible.
26.
Jay Dardenne pushed for what he termed election reform, but his suggestions restricted access to voting.
27.
Jay Dardenne proposed that poll commissioner fees be increased, election day hours be shortened, and an early voting period be established to compensate for reduced hours on Election Day.
28.
Jay Dardenne did support the reinstatement of absentee voting provisions from the election.
29.
On February 12,2010, Jay Dardenne announced his intention to run for Lieutenant Governor in the special election held on October 2.
30.
Republican chairman Villere's endorsement of Jay Dardenne, which came after months of criticizing the frontrunner, was met with incredulous statements like those of political scientist Pearson Cross of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette:.
31.
The runoff campaign soon turned controversial as Jay Dardenne described Fayard as a supporter of US President Barack Obama, a proponent of gay marriage, and an opponent of the death penalty, while Fayard, who was 32 years of age and had never held political office, countered that Jay Dardenne represented "the same old crowd" of Louisiana politics.
32.
The 2011 regular election for a four-year term as lieutenant governor was similarly raucous, as Dardenne was challenged by fellow Republican Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish and the son of the late former Republican Party state chairman William A Nungesser.
33.
In 2012, Jay Dardenne complained of the lack of funds needed for tourism advertising, a main prerogative of the lieutenant governor's office in Louisiana.