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Created page with "{{Infobox officeholder |name= Thomas Taylor Townsend |office=Louisiana State Representative for District 23 (Natchitoches and Winn parishes) |term_start=2000 |term_e..."
{{Infobox officeholder
|name= Thomas Taylor Townsend
|office=[[Louisiana]] State Representative for District 23 (Natchitoches and Winn parishes)
|term_start=2000
|term_end=January 14, 2008
|preceded=Jimmy D. Long
|succeeded=[[Rick Nowlin]]
|birth_date=July 5, 1963
|birth_place=[[Natchitoches, Louisiana|Natchitoches]], Louisiana
|party= [[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
|religion=
|occupation=[[Attorney]]
|alma_mater=[[Northwestern State University]]<br>
Southern University at [[Baton Rouge]] Law School}}
'''Thomas Taylor Townsend''', known as '''Taylor Townsend''' (born July 5, 1963), is an [[attorney]] from [[Natchitoches, Louisiana|Natchitoches]], [[Louisiana]], who served as a [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] state representative for two terms from 2000 to 2008.<ref name=house>{{cite web|url=
house.louisiana.gov/H_PDFdocs/HouseMembership_History_CURRENT.pdf|title=embership in the Louisiana House of Representatives, 1812-2020|publisher=Louisiana House of Representatives|accessdate=November 25, 2019}}</ref>
==Background==
Townsend is a nephew and law partner of former state Senator Donald Gene Kelly in the firm Kelly, Townsend & Thomas.<ref name=martindale>{{cite web|url=http://www.martindale.com/Thomas-Taylor-Townsend/599096-lawyer.htm|title=Thomas Taylor Townsend: Law Profile|publisher=martindale.com|accessdate=September 25, 2009}}</ref>
Townsend received a Bachelor of Science degree from [[Northwestern State University]] in Natchitoches and a Juris Doctor from historically black Southern University Law School in the capital city of [[Baton Rouge]]. Admitted to the bar in 1990, Townsend specializes in consumer class actions, criminal defense, civil suits, and personal injury cases.<ref name=martindale/>
==Political life==
In the 1999 nonpartisan blanket primary, Townsend narrowly upset veteran Democratic state Representative Jimmy Dale Long, Sr. (1931-2016), a Natchitoches businessman and member of the [[Huey Long|Long]] political dynasty who had served consecutively in the House since 1968. Townsend prevailed, 7,643 votes (51 percent) to Long's 7,447 votes (49 percent).<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, October 23, 1999.</ref> The defeat was stunning in that Long had been unopposed in 1995. Long was apparently the last member of his political family to have held public office in Louisiana until 2008, when Long's younger brother, Gerald Long of Natchitoches, won a state senate seat by defeating Taylor Townsend.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://senate.la.gov/Documents/Membership/1880membership.pdf|title=Membership in the Louisiana Senate, 1880-2020 (See Natchitoches Parish: Gerald Long|publisher=Louisiana State Senate|accessdate=November 25, 2019}}</ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, October 20, 2007.</ref> Considered an authority on secondary and higher education planning and funding, Jimmy Long was earlier named one of the 100 most significant people in the 20th century history in North Louisiana by ''The Shreveport Times'' [[newspaper]].
In the 2007 primary, Townsend did not seek a third term but instead ran for the open state Senate seat which had been held by his uncle from 1976 to 1996. The Democratic incumbent, [[Mike Smith (Louisiana politician)|Kenneth Michael "Mike" Smith]] of Winnfield, who was ineligible to seek a fourth term. In a surprising turn of events, Townsend was defeated by Gerald Long, the first Long family member elected to office in Louisiana as a [[Republican Party|Republican]]. Long procured 20,609 votes (54 percent) to Townsend's 17,699 (46 percent) and won five of the six parishes in the district, losing only Natchitoches, the home of both candidates. He even won in tiny Red River Parish, one of only two North Louisiana parishes that did not support Republican Governor [[Bobby Jindal]] in the October 20 primary.<ref name=returns/>
In addition to Townsend's defeat for the state Senate, the Natchitoches Republican [[Rick Nowlin]] was elected to the House seat that Townsend had vacated. The Long and Nowlin victories marked the first time since [[Reconstruction]] that Natchitoches Parish had been represented by Republicans in either house of the state legislature.<ref name=house/> Nowlin, defeated in a revised district in 2011, thereafter served two terms as the first president of Natchitoches Parish.
In 2014, Townsend represented Walter Clyde Lee, Sr. (born 1934), an elected member of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education who pleaded not guilty in state district court in Mansfield to four criminal charges stemming from alleged overbilling of travel expenditures. He was accused of billing for expenses from both BESE and his former employer, the De Soto Parish School Board, for whom he had been the superintendent.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/5/arraignment-set-for-bese-member-walter-lee/#ixzz2vHt04Ie8|title=BESE member Walter Lee pleads not guilty|date=March 5, 2014|publisher=''The Washington Times''|accessdate=March 7, 2014}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Townsend, Taylor}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Attorneys]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
|name= Thomas Taylor Townsend
|office=[[Louisiana]] State Representative for District 23 (Natchitoches and Winn parishes)
|term_start=2000
|term_end=January 14, 2008
|preceded=Jimmy D. Long
|succeeded=[[Rick Nowlin]]
|birth_date=July 5, 1963
|birth_place=[[Natchitoches, Louisiana|Natchitoches]], Louisiana
|party= [[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
|religion=
|occupation=[[Attorney]]
|alma_mater=[[Northwestern State University]]<br>
Southern University at [[Baton Rouge]] Law School}}
'''Thomas Taylor Townsend''', known as '''Taylor Townsend''' (born July 5, 1963), is an [[attorney]] from [[Natchitoches, Louisiana|Natchitoches]], [[Louisiana]], who served as a [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] state representative for two terms from 2000 to 2008.<ref name=house>{{cite web|url=
house.louisiana.gov/H_PDFdocs/HouseMembership_History_CURRENT.pdf|title=embership in the Louisiana House of Representatives, 1812-2020|publisher=Louisiana House of Representatives|accessdate=November 25, 2019}}</ref>
==Background==
Townsend is a nephew and law partner of former state Senator Donald Gene Kelly in the firm Kelly, Townsend & Thomas.<ref name=martindale>{{cite web|url=http://www.martindale.com/Thomas-Taylor-Townsend/599096-lawyer.htm|title=Thomas Taylor Townsend: Law Profile|publisher=martindale.com|accessdate=September 25, 2009}}</ref>
Townsend received a Bachelor of Science degree from [[Northwestern State University]] in Natchitoches and a Juris Doctor from historically black Southern University Law School in the capital city of [[Baton Rouge]]. Admitted to the bar in 1990, Townsend specializes in consumer class actions, criminal defense, civil suits, and personal injury cases.<ref name=martindale/>
==Political life==
In the 1999 nonpartisan blanket primary, Townsend narrowly upset veteran Democratic state Representative Jimmy Dale Long, Sr. (1931-2016), a Natchitoches businessman and member of the [[Huey Long|Long]] political dynasty who had served consecutively in the House since 1968. Townsend prevailed, 7,643 votes (51 percent) to Long's 7,447 votes (49 percent).<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, October 23, 1999.</ref> The defeat was stunning in that Long had been unopposed in 1995. Long was apparently the last member of his political family to have held public office in Louisiana until 2008, when Long's younger brother, Gerald Long of Natchitoches, won a state senate seat by defeating Taylor Townsend.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://senate.la.gov/Documents/Membership/1880membership.pdf|title=Membership in the Louisiana Senate, 1880-2020 (See Natchitoches Parish: Gerald Long|publisher=Louisiana State Senate|accessdate=November 25, 2019}}</ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, October 20, 2007.</ref> Considered an authority on secondary and higher education planning and funding, Jimmy Long was earlier named one of the 100 most significant people in the 20th century history in North Louisiana by ''The Shreveport Times'' [[newspaper]].
In the 2007 primary, Townsend did not seek a third term but instead ran for the open state Senate seat which had been held by his uncle from 1976 to 1996. The Democratic incumbent, [[Mike Smith (Louisiana politician)|Kenneth Michael "Mike" Smith]] of Winnfield, who was ineligible to seek a fourth term. In a surprising turn of events, Townsend was defeated by Gerald Long, the first Long family member elected to office in Louisiana as a [[Republican Party|Republican]]. Long procured 20,609 votes (54 percent) to Townsend's 17,699 (46 percent) and won five of the six parishes in the district, losing only Natchitoches, the home of both candidates. He even won in tiny Red River Parish, one of only two North Louisiana parishes that did not support Republican Governor [[Bobby Jindal]] in the October 20 primary.<ref name=returns/>
In addition to Townsend's defeat for the state Senate, the Natchitoches Republican [[Rick Nowlin]] was elected to the House seat that Townsend had vacated. The Long and Nowlin victories marked the first time since [[Reconstruction]] that Natchitoches Parish had been represented by Republicans in either house of the state legislature.<ref name=house/> Nowlin, defeated in a revised district in 2011, thereafter served two terms as the first president of Natchitoches Parish.
In 2014, Townsend represented Walter Clyde Lee, Sr. (born 1934), an elected member of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education who pleaded not guilty in state district court in Mansfield to four criminal charges stemming from alleged overbilling of travel expenditures. He was accused of billing for expenses from both BESE and his former employer, the De Soto Parish School Board, for whom he had been the superintendent.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/5/arraignment-set-for-bese-member-walter-lee/#ixzz2vHt04Ie8|title=BESE member Walter Lee pleads not guilty|date=March 5, 2014|publisher=''The Washington Times''|accessdate=March 7, 2014}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Townsend, Taylor}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Attorneys]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Democrats]]