Tommy Armstrong (American politician)

Tommy Gene Armstrong (born February 19, 1941) is a businessman from his native Shreveport, Louisiana, who served as a Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1991 to 1992. He filled the unexpired term of the Democrat, Robert P. "Bobby" Waddell, who resigned to become a state district court judge.^[1] Armstrong was elected to the House from District 4 on February 23, 1991, with 50.5 percent of the vote over two Democratic opponents, Forrest A. Davis and Stephen B. Carter.^[2]

State senate race

When Armstrong won the District 4 House seat, the lines were under the 1980 census. He did not pursue a full term in 1991 because, under the 1990 census, District 4 became majority African American and heavily Democratic. Instead, Armstrong contested the Louisiana State Senate District 38 seat vacated by the three-term Democratic incumbent, Richard G. Neeson, also of Shreveport. Armstrong's principal rival was Ron Bean, a more liberal Republican who had narrowly lost to Neeson in the 1987 election and had once been a pilot for U.S. President Richard M. Nixon. Armstrong led in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 19, 1991, with 13,354 votes (40 percent). Bean trailed with 8,866 votes (26 percent). Ken Wright, another Republican candidate, trailed with 6,088 votes (18 percent). Democrat Bobby Bruce Shofner (born 1948) finished last with 5,494 votes (15 percent).^[3] In the general election, popularly termed the runoff in Louisiana, Bean narrowly defeated Armstrong, 20,474 (51 percent) to 19,720 (49 percent).^[4]

Armstrong was known for his opposition to gambling. In 1996, he joined several Baptist ministers in appearing before the Caddo Parish Commission, on which he had previously served as a member and president, to oppose video poker at a truck stop near Keithville, where Armstrong resides. Armstrong cited a number of publications which link corruption to the licensing of video-poker installations. He opposed a request from Carl J. King and wife to build the video poker outlet within a forbidden B-2 zone. Such a permit would, he told commissioners, constitute "spot zoning. The Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the commission's decision to deny the needed permit to the Kings.^[5]

Caddo Parish commissioner

In 1978, Armstrong was one of four Republicans defeated for newly established seats on the seven-member Shreveport City Council, when the mayor-council government superseded the former city commission format. Armstrong, along with B. Leonard Critcher (born 1944), a financial planner who subsequently relocated to Dallas, Texas;^[6] Joe E. Wallace, and the African- American L. V. Myles, was defeated in the second round of balloting by Democratic candidates, who hence became the first council members under the new and still continuing system of government.^[7][8]

On December 10, 1984, Armstrong assumed the District 11 seat on the 12-member Caddo Parish Commission, the parish governing board. From 1987 to 1989, Armstrong was the commission president.^[9] He was succeeded in the presidential slot by Lloyd E. Lenard, another Republican member. The Caddo Parish Commission was formerly the 20-member Caddo Police Jury, on which Armstrong also served from Ward 19 from 1976-1984.^[9] Armstrong is a former president of the Police Jury Association of Louisiana.^[10] In his last election to the commission in 1987, Armstrong prevailed with 4,883 votes (59.5 percent), having won outright over a fellow Republican, Billy R. Walker, and a Democratic opponent, Derrel Franks.^[11]

The next month, in November 1987, Armstrong made a presentation before the Republican caucus for consideration to be his party's candidate in a special election for Louisiana's 4th congressional district. The seat was vacated by U.S. Representative Buddy Roemer, who became governor of Louisiana in 1988. The caucus, however, chose Jim McCrery as its choice to carry the GOP banner, and Armstrong did not enter the contest in which McCrery prevailed.^[12]

Armstrong resigned from the Caddo Parish Commission on February 27, 1991, to become state representative. The commissioners then named his wife, the former Kathryn Mulina, known as Ginger Armstrong (born January 1941), to fill the remaining months of the term.^[9] Ginger Armstrong is also a former member of the Caddo Parish School Board.^[13] She was defeated for reelection to the school board in the runoff election held on December 6, 2014. Armstrong polled 2,597 votes (42.9 percent) to fellow Republican Kacee Hargrave Kirschvink's 3,449 (57.1 percent).^[14]

Other political matters

Armstrong was an alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention held in New Orleans to nominate the Bush/Quayle ticket.^[15]

In 1995, Armstrong ran again for the House in District 7, which includes parts of south Caddo and northern De Soto parishes. Armstrong polled 5,477 votes (45.3 percent) and was forced into a general election contest with the Democrat Beverly G. Bruce of Mansfield, who received 5,559 (46 percent). A third candidate, Republican Lance Allan Britton (born 1943), also of Mansfield, held the remaining but critical 1,061 votes (8.8 percent).^[16] Britton in 1975, while living in Baton Rouge, had been the only statewide Republican candidate that year; he made a vain bid to unseat then Lieutenant Governor Jimmy Fitzmorris. In the general election, Bruce prevailed, 7,027 (53 percent) to Armstrong's 6,235 (47 percent).^[17]

Family and business

Armstrong is a son of George Marcus and Myrtle Cato Armstrong. He and his wife own and operate Armstrong Properties of Louisiana. He is a 1967 graduate of Northwestern State University in Natchitoches. He is a former chapter president of Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity and a member of the former Alpha Phi Gamma. He also attended Centenary College and LaSalle University Law School in Louisiana. He is a member of Lions International, the Masonic lodge, and the Shriners.^[10]

In 2001, Armstrong was listed in the NSU alumni magazine as an employee of the Department of Risk Management for the Caddo Parish School Board. Mrs. Armstrong, a 1962 NSU graduate, retired from public school teaching in 1998.^[18] The Armstrongs reside at 9800 Chase Way in Shreveport. Their three children are daughters, Alisa Rene Armstrong Holmes and Alaine Rochelle Armstrong Stewart, and a son, Thomas Marcus Armstrong.^[10]

References