Clyde Kimball

Clyde Walker Kimball (born July 11, 1942) is a former Democratic state representative for District 29, which included his own Pointe Coupee and West Baton Rouge parishes, Louisiana. He served in the House from 1976 to 1992.^[1] As of May 2015, Kimball was registered as a "No Party" voter by the office of then Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler.^[2]

Kimball holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.^[3] He won his third term in the House in 1983 with 77 percent of the vote over fellow Democrat Emmet Spooner^[4] and his fourth and final term in 1987, with 71 percent over another Democrat, Thomas L. "Tommy" Zito.^[5] In 1992, Kimball did not seek a fifth term in the House. The African-American Democrat Sharon Weston Broome, since the Mayor-President of East Baton Rouge Parish, won the District 29 seat in a revised districting..^[6]

After his sixteen years in the state House, Kimball joined the fourth administration of Governor Edwin Edwards as the assistant director of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.^[3] In 1999, Kimball ran unsuccessfully for the District 17 seat in the state Senate. He placed third in the nonpartisan blanket primary. Victory went to his fellow Democrat Rob Marionneaux.^[7]

Kimball's wife, Catherine D. Kimball, a native of Alexandria, Louisiana, is the retired chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court. When he ceased to run for the House in 1992, Kimball instead worked in his wife's campaign for the Supreme Court; their persistence paid off, as she carried all twelve parishes her district ranging from St. Landry to East Baton Rouge parishes.^[8] The couple resides in Ventress in Pointe Coupee Parish and has three grown children. They formerly lived in the parish seat of New Roads. They are Roman Catholic.^[3]

Kimball was a nephew of Dan Kimball, a long-time judge of the Louisiana 18th Judicial District court for Iberville, West Baton Rouge, and Pointe Coupee parishes. When Dan Kimball died in 1982, Catherine Kimball was elected to succeed him and held that seat for a decade before she joined the state Supreme Court.^[8]