Rob Couhig

Robert Emmet Couhig, Jr., known as Rob Couhig (born April 20, 1949), is an attorney, businessman, entrepreneur, Republican political activist, and a former radio talk show host from New Orleans, Louisiana. His last political foray was into the 2010 New Orleans mayoral election.

A former partner of the Adams and Reese law firm, Couhig now leads his own firm, Couhig Partners. Couhig has twice been a candidate for the United States House of Representatives. A persistent Republican in a heavily Democratic city, he was defeated in a race for mayor of New Orleans in the spring of 2006 by the incumbent, Ray Nagin. He is also known for bringing the minor league baseball team the New Orleans Zephyrs to the city.

Education and family

Couhig was born in Baptist Hospital in New Orleans to Robert Emmet "Bob" Couhig, Sr. (1916-2014), and the former Marcelle "Nootsie" Reese (1916-1985). The senior Couhig came to New Orleans from Massachusetts after World War II. He was hired by the Orkin Company to manage two area pest-control offices and became the top executive of a four-state territory. In that position, he moved the Orkin central office from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. In the mid-1960s, Rollins Environmental Services, Inc., bought Orkin and transferred Couhig to its office in Atlanta, Georgia. After a year-long relocation to Georgia, Couhig left the company and moved his family to St. Francisville in West Feliciana Parish. Bob and Marcelle Couhig were pioneers in the promotion of tourism in both West Feliciana and East Feliciana parishes. In 1962, they opened Fairview Plantation, a restaurant and gift shop in an historic home in West Feliciana Parish. After Fairview burned, they established in 1966 Jackson, Louisiana, Asphodel Village as one of the first bed and breakfasts in the state. The Couhigs lived in one part of Asphodel Plantation and until the later 1980s operated a restaurant and gift shop in the other part of the house. Marcelle in 1980 published the popular Asphodel Plantation Cookbook with regional specialties. In 1967, the senior Couhig formed his own Couhig Pestaway Company, based in Baton Rouge, which he operated until he was in his middle eighties.^[1]

Rob Couhig matriculated at the Roman Catholic Jesuit High School, while the family still lived in New Orleans. However, after moving to West Feliciana Parish, he graduated from St. Francisville High School in 1967. He won a scholarship to study international economics at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Washingtospn, D.C. He completed his Bachelor of Arts from Georgetown and then obtained his Juris Doctor from the Tulane University Law School in New Orleans.^[2]

Couhig married the former Susan Mullins of New York City. The couple has two sons, Robert E. Couhig, III, and Benjamin Couhig. Over time, Couhig said that the pressures of politics, business, and travel adversely affected his family life. He and Susan first separated and then divorced. After being single again for some fifteen years, Couhig married Michelle "Missy" Aleman in 2003.

Law and business career

Couhig practiced law in the areas of antitrust, casualty and personal injury litigation, products liability, class-action litigation, and appellate matters. He was a partner in the firm Adams and Reese from 1975 until 2003. He was involved in the expansion of the firm into Baton Rouge, Houston, Jackson, Mississippi, and Washington, D.C.

Couhig was also the principal owner of Couhig-Southern Environmental of New Orleans, Inc., one of the largest Louisiana-owned pest and termite control companies. This was the company begun by his father, whom Couhig bought out before himself selling in 2001 to a firm based in Lafayette.

Though continuing to practice law, Couhig left Adams and Reese on the day after Labor Day 2003. With two other attorneys, he started Couhig Partners in September 2003 as a firm that works with entrepreneurs. As of 2006, the firm had more than twenty lawyers, a consulting group, and an office in Baton Rouge headed by former Attorney General of Louisiana Richard Ieyoub. Couhig is also the managing partner of Couhig Investments, LLC which invests in small businesses in Louisiana.^[2]

Sports businessman

In the early 1990s, Couhig decided to bring a minor league baseball team to New Orleans (which had been without a baseball team since the demise of the New Orleans Pelicans). He negotiated with the owner of the Denver Zephyrs with the goal of bringing the team to New Orleans. He lobbied three governors for a stadium off Airline Highway in Jefferson Parish. In 1995, Couhig put together an investor group to buy the team at an undisclosed price. The new Zephyr Field opened on April 11, 1997, and the team has been a household name ever since.^[2]

Couhig also developed an interest in soccer. In November 1997, he purchased the New Orleans Riverboat Gamblers, a team founded in 1993, from Donnie Pate. Couhig renamed the team the New Orleans Storm and relocated it from Tad Gormley Stadium to Zephyr Field.^[3] On February 11, 2000, Couhig sold his New Orleans Zephyrs baseball team to Donald Beaver. Two weeks later, Couhig announced he was suspending operations of the Storm soccer team pending a move to another stadium.^[4] Couhig told the journalist Kathy Finn that he probably lost $1 million on the team.

Couhig sold his pest-control company in 2001 and enrolled in the executive MBA course at Tulane in 2002.

Political career

Republican political activist

Couhig has been active in Louisiana politics since 1971, when at twenty-two, he served as the campaign manager^[2] in the election of his half-brother, Sam A. LeBlanc, III, to the Louisiana House of Representatives.^[1] Couhig also managed LeBlanc's re-election campaign in 1975. A Democrat, LeBlanc left the legislature in 1980, when he was succeeded in House District 86 (Orleans-Jefferson parishes) by the Republican Terry W. Gee. Sam LeBlanc resides in St. Francisville with his wife, Noelle E. LeBlanc (born May 1942), a ballerina and a one-time secretary of the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism.^[5]Couhig's mother, Marcelle, was first married to Sam A. LeBlanc, Jr., by whom she also bore a daughter, Marcelle L. Hickey (born August 1940) of New Orleans, Rob Couhig's half-sister.^[1]Marcelle, then living in Donaldsonville in Ascension Parish, married the senior Robert Couhig, after the death in World War II of her first husband, Samuel LeBlanc, II.^[6]From Marcelle's second marriage were born three more sons and another daughter.^[1]

Rob Couhig's brother, Kevin H. Couhig (born October 15, 1951), the CEO of Source Capital Corp., was elected in 2013 as the first parish president of West Feliciana Parish. He defeated fellow Republican Tom McVea, the former District 62 state representative and a one-time police juror, to claim the new position. Under the new West Feliciana Parish charter, four single-member council districts and one at-large council member will supersede the former seven police jurors, whose offices will be phased out of existence. Kevin Couhig is an advocate of what he calls "smart growth" so that economic development will expand with the parish maintaining its scenic beauty.^[7][8]

In 1976, Couhig defected to the Republican Party. In 1977, he became the campaign coordinator for Republican Bob Livingston, who for the second time sought to represent Louisiana's 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. Livingston had lost in the 1976 general election to Democrat Richard Alvin Tonry. When Tonry was forced to resign because of campaign finance violations in 1977, Livingston won the seat in a special election, with Couhig's backing, and served until 1999.^[2]

First run for Congress, 1980

In 1980, Couhig waged a failed challenge to Democratic U.S. Representative Corrine Claiborne "Lindy" Boggs of Louisiana's 2nd congressional district, popular widow of former House Majority Leader Thomas Hale Boggs, Sr., of New Orleans.

Couhig raised some $200,000 for the race, a large amount at that time for a challenger in a difficult district. Lindy Boggs was the winner; she polled 45,091 votes (63.8 percent) to Couhig's 25,512 (36.2 percent). She was never seriously challenged in all of her congressional races between 1973 and 1988, when she won her last term. Couhig was actually among the stronger opponents that Boggs ever faced. Another candidate in the 1980 congressional race, Democrat Clyde F. Bel, Jr., of New Orleans, had served in the Louisiana House with Couhig's half-brother, Sam LeBlanc. Bel finished with less than 5 percent of the ballots cast.

The Second District did not support a Republican candidate for Congress until the general election held on December 6, 2008, when the Vietnamese refugee, Joseph Cao, unseated the scandal-plagued William J. Jefferson, who had succeeded Mrs. Boggs in 1991. Cao, however, was unseated in the 2010 general election.

Not long after his first congressional race, Couhig was the campaign manager for Republican State Representative Garey Forster, who represented the New Orleans French Quarter district from 1982-1997.^[2]

Second run for Congress, 1999

Couhig ran for Congress again in the May 1, 1999, special election in the First District to choose the successor to Bob Livingston, who resigned amid a sex scandal revealed when Livingston was slated to become Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. He finished in fifth place with 5,149 votes (8 percent). Former Republican Governor David C. Treen was forced into a runoff for the seat with state Representative David Vitter. Vitter narrowly won the second round of balloting and held the seat from 1999 to 2005. Vitter then became the state's first Republican U.S. senator since Reconstruction. Couhig was even overshadowed in the House race by the controversial Republican convert David Duke.

Couhig said that he had expected Livingston to support him in 1999 in return for the help that Couhig had rendered to Livingston in the 1977 election. Couhig said that his weak showing may have been a reflection of his inability to convince voters how his vision differed from the other Republican candidates. He noted that he spent $500,000 of his own money on the race despite bleak prospects.

Run for mayor, 2006

In 2005, Greater New Orleans was devastated by Hurricane Katrina and related Levee failures (see: Effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans). The majority of the city was still in ruins and the majority of the population still living elsewhere in early 2006, for what many felt was the most important election in the city's history.

Couhig and Peggy Wilson, a former member of the New Orleans City Council, were the two Republican candidates for mayor. His campaign started with television ads mocking the perceived leading candidates, Mitch Landrieu, Ron Forman, and incumbent Mayor Ray Nagin. In televised debates prior to the nonpartisan blanket primary, Couhig's combative style attracted attention. MSNBC pundit Chris Matthews declared Couhig the "absolute winner" of the pre-primary debate.

Couhig said that New Orleans residents should accent "self-reliance" in the post-Katrina rebuilding, rather than a sense of "entitlement". Couhig criticized Nagin for supposedly "sugar-coating" the city's woes. He claimed that Nagin was "reaping short-term political gains at the expense of the city's long-term best interests." Couhig said that his opponents were promoting a "fantasy" that the city can continue operating on a budget meant for nearly half a million people when fewer than half that many persons remained in New Orleans in the spring of 2006. Couhig said that the city could not sustain basic services in sparsely populated areas. He also chided Nagin for his use of the term "Chocolate City." He urged Nagin, who had supported the 2003 Republican gubernatorial candidate Bobby Jindal along with other Republican candidates, to "stop pandering for political gain."

Couhig finished a distant fourth in the April 22 primary with 10,312 votes (10 percent). He led in seven precincts. A second Republican, former city councilwoman Peggy Wilson received another 773 votes (1 percent). Eighty-nine percent of New Orleans voters supported a Democratic candidate in the primary.

The general election was scheduled between the top two candidates, the incumbent Nagin and Democratic Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu. Despite his earlier criticism of Nagin, Couhig enthusiastically endorsed Nagin, made television ads urging his reelection, and helped to mobilize the city's Republicans and conservatives behind the incumbent mayor.

Couhig's support may have been the "swing vote" that was critical to Nagin's reelection. Couhig said that the Landrieu "political dynasty" had failed the city. (This was a reference to Mitch Landrieu's sister Mary Landrieu and his father, former Mayor Moon Landrieu.) Couhig noted that the New Orleans population peaked in 1960, even before the rise of the Landrieu family to political dominance.

After the 2006 election

Couhig volunteered to work unpaid for 100 days in the second Nagin administration. He co-chaired the mayor's 100-Day Initiative Plan with business owner Judith Williams.

Couhig then co-hosted "The Rob and Bo Show", a weekly radio talk show on WRNO-FM with Bo Walker, until it was canceled at the end of January 2008.

Run for mayor, 2010

In December 2009, Couhig announced his candidacy in the 2010 New Orleans mayoral election . He finished fourth, with 5 percent of vote. The race was won by the Democrat Mitch Landrieu, who received 65 percent of the vote. Couhig's half-brother, Sam LeBlanc, had run for mayor in 1986 and finished with 25 percent of the vote, a strong third-place showing in a multi-candidate primary field,^[9] but victory in the runoff that year went to the Democrat Sidney Barthelemy.

Electoral History

Louisiana's 1st congressional district election, 1999

New Orleans mayoral election, 2006

New Orleans mayoral election, 2010

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rob Couhig.

References

• Story with photo
• Rob Couhig for mayor website 2006
• Couhig 2010 website