Rep. Cleo Fields battles for Louisiana's governorship after primary victory

Jet, Nov 13, 1995

U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields recently made history when he became the first Black since Reconstruction to run in the Louisiana governor's primary.

But the fact he's already made history is just a footnote for Fields who plans to win the governorship on Nov. 18.

"I'm not running to be the Black governor," Fields said. "I'm running to be the best governor."

Fields faces Republican Mike Foster, who received the largest number of votes in the open primary which had 16 candidates on the ballot-three Republicans, seven Democrats and six candidates in the Other category.

The top two vote-getters-Foster (26 percent) and Fields (19 percent)-are in a run-off election since no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary.

Fields, 32, is a young Democrat who has been defying political odds since he became the youngest state senator at the age of 24, the same year he graduated from Southern University's Law School.

The only other Black to hold a statewide office was P.B.S. Pinchback, a lieutenant governor, who was put in office for one month as governor in 1873 during Reconstruction.

Fields' opponent is a right-wing conservative who is running on the same platform that got a wave of Republicans elected in last year's election-abolish affirmative action, stop welfare payments to single mothers and allow more people to carry concealed weapons. And he has open accepted support from former Klux Klan leader David Duke, nearly became the slate's governor in 1991.

Fields' decision to run for governor comes before a Supreme Court decision on whether his district, Louisiana's fourth, is unconstitutionally designed solely to create a Black district.

The Court decided earlier this year to set aside a decision on Fields' district due to a technicality (JET, July 24). Just like before in Fields, bids for public office, political analysts are saying that he has a slim to no chance of winning, that the racial and ideological makeup of the state should give Foster an easy path to victory.

However, most don't deny that Fields is a force to be reckoned with, including Foster.

"Anyone who thinks Cleo Fields is not tough is not living in this world," he said. "He's one of the toughest campaigners I've ever seen."

While the congressman is in for a tough race, he has not neglected his duties in Washington. He briefly postponed campaign activities to go to Washington and vote against the Republican Medicare bill. "I would not have been able to live with myself had I missed this important vote," he said in a statement. "These cuts will effect over 500,000 seniors living in Louisiana. We cannot afford this kind of attack on our seniors to offer a $345 billion tax cut to the wealthiest of our nation."

In Congress he serves on numerous committees including the House Committee on Small Business and the House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs. A native of Baton Rouge, Fields is married to the former Debra Horton of Baton Rouge. If he becomes governor, Fields wants to reform-not abolish-welfare, public housing and affirmative action policies. And he promises more money for education. "When I become governor, we're to improve the image of the of Louisiana," Fields said. "It's to invest in education, time to in our children."