Changes
http://house.louisiana.gov/H_PDFdocs/HouseMembership_History_CURRENT.pdf|title=Membership of the Louisiana House of Representatives, 1812-2020 (Avoyelles Parish|publisher=Louisiana House of Representatives|accessdate=November 3, 2019}}</ref><ref>The state legislative listing indicates that Laborde began his legislative service in 1968, but P. J. Laborde served from 1968 to 1972.</ref> He was a House [[Governor|gubernatorial]] floor leader, the Speaker Pro Tempore from 1982 to 1984,<ref name=listing/> and in his last full term the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.<ref name=nyt>{{cite web|url= http://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/13/us/louisiana-governor-tells-of-quandary-over-bill-to-ban-abortion.html?pagewanted=a|publisher=''[[The New York Times]]''|author=Lisa Belkin|title=Louisiana Governor Tells of Quandary over Bill to Ban Abortion|date=July 13, 1990|accessdate=November 3, 2019}}</ref>
After his election without opposition to a sixth term in the 1991 nonpartisan blanket primary, Laborde resigned to become commissioner of administration in the fourth and final nonconsecutive term of his boyhood friend, [[Governor]] [[Edwin Edwards]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-11846336.html|title= Gov.-elect Edwards names Raymond Laborde Louisiana's Commissioner of Administration|accessdate=December 18, 2009; no longer on-line; website no longer operational.}}</ref>
==Personal life==
==Political career==
Avoyelles Parish has been known for its colorful but mostly local politicians. One who stood out, F.O. Fabius Odell "Potch" Didier, Jr. (1919-2007),the [[sheriff ]] from 1960 to 1980, actually spent seven days in his own jail after having been convicted of malfeasance in office.<ref name=adtt/> The mothers of Laborde and Didier had the common maiden name of Neck (pronounced "Nick") and were distant cousins.
In 1954, the 27-year-old Laborde ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Marksville but narrowly lost to Edgar Coco (1905–1970), scion of a prominent local family. Four years later, Laborde unseated Coco. From 1962 to 1963, he was president of the Louisiana Municipal Association.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.lma.org/Past%20Presidents/LMA_PP_Pics.htm|title=Past presidents of the Louisiana Municipal Association|publisher=lma.org|accessdate=December 19, 2009; no longer on-line}}</ref>
