John Alario

John A. Alario, Jr. (born September 15, 1943), is the current President of the Louisiana State Senate. He has served in the Louisiana State Legislature since 1972. He was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1972 to 2008. Alario was Speaker of the House twice. In 2007, he was elected to the Louisiana State Senate. He is currently serving his third term as a senator and his second term as the President of the State Senate. He is the second person in Louisiana and fourth in United States history to have been elected as both Speaker of his state House of Representatives and President of his state Senate.^[1]

Early life and career

Alario was born to John A. Alario, Sr., and the former Elsie Lombas.^[2][3] In 1961, Alario graduated from West Jefferson High School.^[4] In 1965 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond. From 1965 to 1966, he was a teacher in Jefferson Parish public schools. In 1966, he began work as an accountant. By 1972, he started his own tax consulting firm, John A. Alario, Jr. Income Tax Service. He is a member of the National Society of Public Accountants. In 1973, he became a delegate for the Louisiana Constitutional Convention. From 1979 to 1985, he was chairman of the Louisiana Exposition Authority.^[3][4]

Alario has membership in the Knights of Columbus, Louisiana Epilepsy Association, Louisiana International Deep Water Gulf Transfer Terminal Authority and the Westwego Volunteer Fire Department. He was a delegate at the 1972, 1996 and 2000 Democratic National Conventions.^[3][4] He is a recipient of the Hale Boggs Memorial Award, named for the late Democrat U.S. Representative for Louisiana's 2nd congressional district.^[5]

Alario and his wife, the former Alba Williamson, have four children, John W., Jan M., Christopher Brian, and Kevin George Alario.^[5]

State Representative

Alario became a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1972. As a Representative, Alario was the chairman of the Appropriations, House Executive, and Ways and Means committees. He also served as chairman to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget and the Joint Legislative Committee on Capital Outlay. He was a member of the House Commerce, House and Governmental Affairs, Legislative Budgetary Control, Municipal, Parochial, and Cultural Affairs, Natural Resources, Judiciary B, and Judicial committees.^[3][4]

He was selected by Governor Edwin Edwards as Speaker of the House twice, from 1984 to 1988 and from 1992 to 1996.^[3] As the House Speaker, Alario was described by a colleague, Ron Gomez of Lafayette, as "a master of adding just the right degree of levity to defuse almost any potentially explosive situation."^[6] In 1986, Alario removed Representative Kevin P. Reilly, Sr., of Baton Rouge from the chairmanship of the House Appropriations Committee after thirteen years of service when Reilly, an unsuccessful candidate for state treasurer the following year, criticized Governor Edwards.^[7]

With the election of Buddy Roemer as governor, Alario was replaced as Speaker by Jimmy N. Dimos of Monroe. Ron Gomez explained that Alario and Senate President Sammy Nunez of Chalmette nevertheless attempted to maintain their leadership posts. He explained: "Alario immediately had the backing of organized labor, the black caucus, many member from the New Orleans and Jefferson Parish delegations and a healthy number of other House members whom he had helped and to whom he had ingratiated himself over the years."^[8]

Overall, Alario served nine terms in the House of Representatives before being term limited from the body in 2007.^[3]

State Senate

In 2007, Alario was elected to the Louisiana State Senate. He began his first term as Senator in 2008. As Senator, Alario served on the Senate Finance and Commerce Committees.^[3] On October 25, 2011, Governor Bobby Jindal endorsed Alario for the position of President of the Senate. This came one year after he changed his party affiliation from Democratic to Republican and despite previous GOP hostility toward Alario.^[9] On election by his senatorial colleagues, Alario joined John Hainkel as the only men in Louisiana to have been presiding officers of both houses of the state legislature.^[1][9]

Ultimately, only one of the thirty-nine senators, freshman Republican Barrow Peacock of Shreveport, voted against the Alario selection.^[10] Jindal had supported Peacock's Republican rival, term-limited State Representative Jane H. Smith of Bossier City, in the general election for the District 37 seat held on November 19, 2011.^[11]

References