Michael J. Michot

Michael John "Mike" Michot​, Sr.
Louisiana State Senator for District 23 (Lafayette Parish)​
In office 2000​ – 2012​
Preceded by	J. Lomax "Max" Jordan, Jr.​
Succeeded by	Page Cortez​
Louisiana State Representative for District 43 (Lafayette Parish)​
In office 1996​ – 2000​
Preceded by	​
Succeeded by	Ernie Alexander​
Born	Lafayette, Louisiana, USA​
Political party	Democrat prior to June 23, 1997; thereafter, Republican
Spouse(s)	Monique Broussard Michot​
Children	Michael "Mikie" Michot Jr.​ Mary Carolyn "McCally" Michot​ Parents: Louis J. Michot ​ Patricia Ann Smith Michot​
Alma mater	Cathedral-Carmel High School University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Occupation	Businessman​ Real estate developer
Religion	Roman Catholic​
Notes: Micot is a second generation political figure in Lafayette; his father was a state representative]], gubernatorial candidate in 1963, and former state superintendent of education. Michot worked in 2007 for the election of his fraternity brother, Page Cortez, to the same District 43 state House seat that Michot himself held from 1996 to 2000.​ In 2020, while serving in the state Senate, Cortez was named by his colleagues as the Senate President.

​ Michael John Michot, Sr., known as Mike Michot (born December 12, 1963), is a Republican former state senator for District 23 in his native Lafayette, Louisiana, a post which he held from 2000 to 2012. For a time, Michot was the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and was unopposed for his third Senate term in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 20, 2007.

Earlier from 1996 to 2000, he served in District 43 in the state House of Representatives. He was elected as a Democrat to the House but switched parties the next year on June 23, 1997, not quite midway in his term. ​

Background

Michot is the son of the late Louis J. Michot and the former Patricia Ann Smith (1926–2011). He was born a week after his father, then a state representative, ran unsuccessfully for governor of Louisiana in the 1963 Democratic primary. The two leading candidates who emerged from the primary were former New Orleans Mayor Chep Morrison, and the winner of the runoff primary, John J. McKeithen of rural Columbia in Caldwell Parish in north Louisiana. Louis Michot rebounded to served on the elected State Board of Education and for one term, 1972 to 1976, as state education superintendent. He ousted the legendary William J. "Bill" Dodd in the 1971 primary. Mike Michot has seven living siblings.​

Mike Michot graduated from the Roman Catholic Cathedral-Carmel High School in Lafayette and then received a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, then known as the University of Southwestern Louisiana. At ULL, Michot was a fraternity brother of current State Senate President Page Cortez, a Lafayette Republican who defeated Patrick LeBlanc in the 2007 House primary, served one term, and then was elected to succeed Michot in the state Senate. A real estate developer, Michot is president of Louis J. Michot & Associates and of the Premier Medical Equipment Company.​

Michot is married to the former Monique Broussard (born 1965) and has two children, Michael "Mikie" Michot, Jr., and Mary Carolyn "McCally" Michot. One of MIchot's brother, Patrick Louis "Rick" Michot (born 1948), is a judge of the 15th District Court in Lafayette and also a Republican convert. Mike and Rick Michot are members of "Les Freres Michot," a popular Lafayette-based Cajun music band.​

He co-founded the interest group known as Citizens for Accountable Government. He is vice president of both the Broussard Industrial Development Board and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America of Acadiana. He is a past chairman of the Business Development Committee of the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce. He is past president of Acadiana Handicap Services, Inc. He is a member of the Cathedral-Carmel Foundation, and the Lafayette Kiwanis International.

Legislative career

In the 1995 primary, Michot won his House seat with 69 percent of the vote. Michot defeated both a Republican and another "No Party" challenger. In his first race as a Republican in 1999, Representative Michot unseated State Senator J. Lomax "Max" Jordan, a fellow Republican, 68-32 percent. Michot was reelected to the Senate in the 2003 primary with 88 percent of the vote over fellow Republican Herman L. Vidrine.​

In the Senate, Michot was the vice chairman of the Senate Commerce, Consumer Protection, and International Affairs Committee. He also chaired the Senate Select Committee on Consumer Affairs and Technology. In the latter capacity, Michot in 2004 piloted the "Share Your Opinions" program to permit citizens to log on to the Internet and "vote" on important public policy. Michot said that in the technologically driven world, it is "important to use every available tool when it comes to aiding the public in their interaction with their legislators."​

Michot considered running in the 2006 special election for Louisiana secretary of state but never filed his papers. The position went instead to his state Senate colleague, Jay Dardenne, a Moderate Republican from Baton Rouge, who in 2010 was elected lieutenant governor in another special election.​

On June 10, 2008, Michot angered many of his constituents when he voted 'yea' on SB 672, which, had it not been vetoed by Republican Governor Bobby Jindal, would have tripled Louisiana legislator pay, making the lawmakers the eighth highest paid in the nation.

In January 2012, the term-limited Michot was succeeded in the Senate by his friend, state Representative Page Cortez, who ran unopposed for the position in the October 22 primary. Cortez's House seat was in turn filled by Lafayette businessman Stuart Bishop, a Moderate Republican who also ran unopposed. After he left the Senate, Michot became Senior Director of State Affairs for The Picard Group in Lafayette and is still involved in Lafayette policy and society. He is currently listed as the manager of Michot Consulting, LCC, and a principal at Louisiana Rice Mill, LCC.

References

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