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Created page with "{{Infobox officeholder | name=Michael Gordon "Mike" Francis |image=Mike Francis of LA.jpg |office=Louisiana Public Service Commissioner for District 4 |term_start=January..."
{{Infobox officeholder
| name=Michael Gordon "Mike" Francis
|image=Mike Francis of LA.jpg
|office=[[Louisiana]] Public Service Commissioner for District 4
|term_start=January 1, 2017
|term_end=
|preceded=[[Charles DeWitt]] (interim of Clyde Cecil Holloway)
|office2=State Chairman of the Louisiana [[Republican Party]]
|term_start2=1994
|term_end2=2000
|succeeded2=[[Chuck McMains|Francis Charles "Chuck" McMains, Jr.]]
|preceded2=[[Dud Lastrapes|William Dudley "Dud" Lastrapes, Jr.]]
|birth_date =November 27, 1946
|birth_place=Jena, LaSalle Parish, Louisiana
|residence=Crowley, Acadia Parish
|death_place=
|spouse=(1) Diana Istre Francis (divorced 2004)
(2) Shelia Gail Stevens Miller Francis
|children=From first marriage:
Mackey Gordon Francis<br>
Bryan Kevin Francis<br>
|occupation=[[Oil]]man
|alma_mater=Jena (Louisiana) High School
|religion=
|footnotes='''Note''':<br>
*Prior to his election in 2016 to the state Public Service Commission, high-powered [[business]]man Mike Francis had also served as the state [[Republican Paraty|Republican]] chairman but lost campaigns for the state Senate in 1996 and for Louisiana Secretary of State in 2006.<ref>Michael Francis (Gordon), 74 - Crowley, LA Background Report at MyLife.com™, accessed April 27, 2021.</ref>
'''Michael Gordon Francis''', known as '''Mike Francis''' (born November 27, 1946), is an [[oil]]man from Crowley in Acadia Parish, [[Louisiana]] who since 2017 has been the District 4 member of the five-person state Public Service Commission<ref>, a utility regulatory body. His district in the southwestern portion of the state covers seventeen of the sixty-four parishes, including his native LaSalle Parish. He won the right to succeed Clyde Cecil Holloway, who did not seek reelection and died during the ensuing campaign to choose his successor on the commission.<ref name=ballotpedia>Mike Francis (Louisiana) - Ballotpedia, accessed April 26, 2021.</ref>
==Background==
Born in Jena, the seat of La Salle Parish in north Louisiana, Francis is the oldest of three sons and one daughter of Gordon "Bugs" Francis (1916-1988) and the former Cornelia Mackey (1916-2001), a [[Southern Baptist]]. His siblings are e John Francis of [[Lafayette]], Gary Francis of [[Baton Rouge]], and Ginger Francis Walker of Jena. The parents are interred at Nolley Memorial Methodist Cemetery in Jena.<ref>Cornelia Mackey Francis (1916-2001) - Find A Grave Memorial, accessed April 27, 2021.</ref> He played [[footballl]] at Jena High School and began thereafter his career as a roughneck and then a mud engineer. Then he started his own oil drilling fluids business, Francis Drilling Fluids, Ltd, from his base in south Louisiana. He is the chief executive officer of his company, one of the oldest drilling fluids companies on the [[Gulf of Mexico|Gulf Coast]]. He employs more than five hundred people at locations in Louisiana, Texas, [[Oklahoma]], and [[Wyoming]].<ref name=lpsc>:: LPSC District 4 :: (louisiana.gov), accessed April 27, 2021.</ref><ref name=ballotpedia/>
==Political overview==
From 1994 to 2000, Francis was the state chair of the Louisiana Republican Party in Louisiana.<ref name=lpsc/> Francis was an unsuccessful candidate for Secretary of State of Louisiana in the special election held on September 20, 2006. A staunch fiscal and social [[conservative]], he lost a race for Louisiana Secretary of State in a [[special election]] held on September 30, 2006. Francis indicated that he would seek the Secretary of State position again in the nonpartisan blanket [[primary]] on October 20, 2007, but he never made that race. "I will work to ensure the right to vote. I will fight to stop voter fraud, vote buying, and vote stealing," Francis vowed in his campaign for secretary of state.
As the Republican state chairman, Francis tried to unseat the legislative floor leaders for Governor Edwin Edwards. In the 1996 Louisiana presidential [[caucus]] won by the [[journalist]] and commentator [[Patrick J. Buchanan]], Francis worked for then [[U.S. Senator]] [[William Phillip Gramm|Phil Gramm]] of [[Texas]], who soon left the race and deferred to the eventual nominee, former [[U.S. Senator]] [[Bob Dole|Robert J. Dole]] of [[Kansas]].
Francis had been mentioned as a potential Republican candidate for the District 4 seat on the Louisiana Public Service Commission, which was filled in a special election on April 4, 2008, to replace [[Dale Sittig]] of Eunice, who resigned to become director of the Louisiana Offshore Terminal Authority. Ultimately, the Republican former U.S. Representative Clyde Holloway of Rapides Parish won the remaining nineteen months of Sittig's term. When Holloway did not seek reelection and died during the 2016 campaign to choose his successor, Franics won the post over another Republican and a [[Democrat Party|Democrat]]. His current term expires on January 1, 2023.
===State senate race, 1996===
When Republican Governor [[Mike Foster|Murphy James "Mike" Foster, Jr.]], named Democratic state Senator [[Cecil Picard]] as education secretary, a special election was held on August 24, 1996, to begin the process of choosing Picard's state senate successor. State Representative [[Gerald Theunissen]], a Democrat who later switched to Republican affiliation, led the contest with 7,086 votes (29.5 percent). Francis, still state party chairman and the only Republican among the six candidates, finished in second place with 6,112 votes (25.5 percent). Four other Democrats shared the remaining but crucial 45 percent of the ballots.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Special election returns, August 24, 1996.</ref> In the runoff election on September 21, Theunissen defeated Francis, 20,320 (55.7 percent) to 16,172 (44.3 percent).<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, September 21, 1996.</ref>
==Campaign for Secretary of State==
The Secretary of State is Louisiana's top elections officer. The office maintains corporation and government records.
"We have had a lot of criticism about professional politicians in this state. . . . People are crying out for change. Most are demanding it. . . . Our problems are not Republican or Democrat problems. They are all our problems, and we need to face them together. We need sound business principles in Baton Rouge and not more politics. To attract business, we need leaders who know how to talk business, not politics," Francis said.
d former
Francis promised, if elected, that he would take a business approach to the secretary of state's office and work to create jobs and to ensure "clean elections," for which he noted Louisiana had formerly been lacking, particularly the disputed 1996 U.S. Senate race between Republican [[Woody Jenkins]] and Democrat [[Mary Landrieu]].
Francis lost the race for Secretary of State to John Leigh "Jay" Dardenne, Jr., an [[attorney]] born in 1954 and a state senator from [[Baton Rouge]], one of most visible [[Moderate Republicans]] in the state.. The election was held to finish the fifteen months remaining in the term of Republican Walter Fox McKeithen (1946-2005). [[Al Ater]], a Democratic former state representative from Ferriday in Concordia Parish, had succeeded to the position because he was Fox McKeithen's first deputy. The special election was held in conjunction with the primary for other offices contested in 2006.<ref>Ex-GOP chief running for secretary of state (kplctv.com), accessed April 27, 2021.</ref>
Francis finished third in the race, based largely on his support in mostly rural and small-town parishes in his native north Louisiana. He received 26 percent of the vote. Democratic state Senator Francis C. Heitmeier of [[New Orleans]] polled 28 percent, and Dardenne led the field with 30 percent. None of the other four candidates had more than 9 percent.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, September 30, 2006.</ref>
Dardenne was hence scheduled to face a runoff contest with Heitmeier. In the meantime,<ref>Our Campaigns - LA Secretary of State - Special Runoff Race - Oct 10, 2006 , accessed April 27, 2021.</ref> announced that he would not support Dardenne in the second balloting but would run himself for the position in 2007. Heitmeier pulled out of the race and left Dardenne unopposed. Heitmeier's decision came in an otherwise a banner year for Democrats nationwide. Heitmeier and Dardenne were both term-limited in the state Senate and ineligible to have sought reelection in 2007. Heitmeier was succeeded by his brother, David Heitmeier, a New Orleans optometrist.<ref>concordia_sentinel_splash.jpg (343×400) (blogger.com) , accessed April 27, 2021.</ref> Francis declined to endorse Dardenne. "Just because I’m third doesn’t mean I need to sign on with one of them," Francis said on the Monday after the Saturday special election. "When you look at the voting record and history of Dardenne and Heitmeier, they are very similar. I disagree with term-limited senators running for this office." Francis' largely self-financed campaign ads and literature targeted what he called the senators’ "liberal" votes for increased taxation and [[abortion]]. He said, "A public service comissioner works for the hard-working people of Louisiana, protecting them from excessive utility charges. Representing those who are in need, a PSC must be a person of high moral integrity. Mike Francis is dedicated to God, family and country. He is a proven leader with a strong work ethic."<ref name=ballotpedia/>
Former U.S. Senator [[David Vitter]], a Republican from Metairie in Jefferson Parish, endorsed Dardenne when a runoff appeared likely. He praised Dardenne's pro-business, governmental reform record and his "dogged determination and persistence" for term limits and other fundamental changes. "There couldn’t be a clearer choice: reform versus the courthouse crowd," Vitter claimed. Still there was speculation that Dardenne would challenge Vitter in the 2010 senatorial race, but he did not file candidacy papers.<ref>Vitter clears 50 percent in new poll; Dardenne decides not to run | Local Politics | nola.com, January 20, 2010, accessed April 27.</ref> Dardenne did not repay the favor in 2015 when Vitter lost his bid for the governorship to Democrat [[John Bel Edwards]]. In that primary race, Vitter accused his former ally, Dardenne, of being "liberal and Obama-like."<ref>David Vitter attack ads portray Republican opponents in governor’s race as liberal, Obama-like | Elections | theadvocate.com, accessed April 27, 2021; under a pay wall.</ref> Edwards then rewarded Dardenne with appointment as commissioner of administration.<ref>John Bel Edwards taps Jay Dardenne for top administrative job (fox8live.com), accessed April 27, 2021.</ref>
Francis' former wife of thirty-three years, Diana Istre Francis (born December 20, 1950) of Lafayette,<ref>Diana Francis (Istre), 70 - Lafayette, LA Background Report at MyLife.com™, accessed April 27, 2021.</ref>was accused of vandalizing Francis Fluids in retaliation for their divorce.<ref>FRANCIS v. FRANCIS | FindLaw, April 30, 2008; accessed April 27, 2021.</ref>Francis' company airplane became an issue in the Secretary of State's race, which was required to be reported by state law and the judge in Francis' 2004 divorce case.<ref>Our Campaigns - News - [LA] Secretary of state candidate [Mike Francis] to begin reporting company plane use - Sep 28, 2006, accessed April 21, 2021.</ref>\
According to campaign finance reports, Dardenne raised $722,631; Francis, $149,637 and added $70,000 of his own funds for a total of $219,650. In his unsuccessful race, Francis carried the support of the failed 2008 presidential candidate, U. S. Senator [[John McCain]], a Moderate Republican from [[Arizona]].
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Francis, Mike}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]
| name=Michael Gordon "Mike" Francis
|image=Mike Francis of LA.jpg
|office=[[Louisiana]] Public Service Commissioner for District 4
|term_start=January 1, 2017
|term_end=
|preceded=[[Charles DeWitt]] (interim of Clyde Cecil Holloway)
|office2=State Chairman of the Louisiana [[Republican Party]]
|term_start2=1994
|term_end2=2000
|succeeded2=[[Chuck McMains|Francis Charles "Chuck" McMains, Jr.]]
|preceded2=[[Dud Lastrapes|William Dudley "Dud" Lastrapes, Jr.]]
|birth_date =November 27, 1946
|birth_place=Jena, LaSalle Parish, Louisiana
|residence=Crowley, Acadia Parish
|death_place=
|spouse=(1) Diana Istre Francis (divorced 2004)
(2) Shelia Gail Stevens Miller Francis
|children=From first marriage:
Mackey Gordon Francis<br>
Bryan Kevin Francis<br>
|occupation=[[Oil]]man
|alma_mater=Jena (Louisiana) High School
|religion=
|footnotes='''Note''':<br>
*Prior to his election in 2016 to the state Public Service Commission, high-powered [[business]]man Mike Francis had also served as the state [[Republican Paraty|Republican]] chairman but lost campaigns for the state Senate in 1996 and for Louisiana Secretary of State in 2006.<ref>Michael Francis (Gordon), 74 - Crowley, LA Background Report at MyLife.com™, accessed April 27, 2021.</ref>
'''Michael Gordon Francis''', known as '''Mike Francis''' (born November 27, 1946), is an [[oil]]man from Crowley in Acadia Parish, [[Louisiana]] who since 2017 has been the District 4 member of the five-person state Public Service Commission<ref>, a utility regulatory body. His district in the southwestern portion of the state covers seventeen of the sixty-four parishes, including his native LaSalle Parish. He won the right to succeed Clyde Cecil Holloway, who did not seek reelection and died during the ensuing campaign to choose his successor on the commission.<ref name=ballotpedia>Mike Francis (Louisiana) - Ballotpedia, accessed April 26, 2021.</ref>
==Background==
Born in Jena, the seat of La Salle Parish in north Louisiana, Francis is the oldest of three sons and one daughter of Gordon "Bugs" Francis (1916-1988) and the former Cornelia Mackey (1916-2001), a [[Southern Baptist]]. His siblings are e John Francis of [[Lafayette]], Gary Francis of [[Baton Rouge]], and Ginger Francis Walker of Jena. The parents are interred at Nolley Memorial Methodist Cemetery in Jena.<ref>Cornelia Mackey Francis (1916-2001) - Find A Grave Memorial, accessed April 27, 2021.</ref> He played [[footballl]] at Jena High School and began thereafter his career as a roughneck and then a mud engineer. Then he started his own oil drilling fluids business, Francis Drilling Fluids, Ltd, from his base in south Louisiana. He is the chief executive officer of his company, one of the oldest drilling fluids companies on the [[Gulf of Mexico|Gulf Coast]]. He employs more than five hundred people at locations in Louisiana, Texas, [[Oklahoma]], and [[Wyoming]].<ref name=lpsc>:: LPSC District 4 :: (louisiana.gov), accessed April 27, 2021.</ref><ref name=ballotpedia/>
==Political overview==
From 1994 to 2000, Francis was the state chair of the Louisiana Republican Party in Louisiana.<ref name=lpsc/> Francis was an unsuccessful candidate for Secretary of State of Louisiana in the special election held on September 20, 2006. A staunch fiscal and social [[conservative]], he lost a race for Louisiana Secretary of State in a [[special election]] held on September 30, 2006. Francis indicated that he would seek the Secretary of State position again in the nonpartisan blanket [[primary]] on October 20, 2007, but he never made that race. "I will work to ensure the right to vote. I will fight to stop voter fraud, vote buying, and vote stealing," Francis vowed in his campaign for secretary of state.
As the Republican state chairman, Francis tried to unseat the legislative floor leaders for Governor Edwin Edwards. In the 1996 Louisiana presidential [[caucus]] won by the [[journalist]] and commentator [[Patrick J. Buchanan]], Francis worked for then [[U.S. Senator]] [[William Phillip Gramm|Phil Gramm]] of [[Texas]], who soon left the race and deferred to the eventual nominee, former [[U.S. Senator]] [[Bob Dole|Robert J. Dole]] of [[Kansas]].
Francis had been mentioned as a potential Republican candidate for the District 4 seat on the Louisiana Public Service Commission, which was filled in a special election on April 4, 2008, to replace [[Dale Sittig]] of Eunice, who resigned to become director of the Louisiana Offshore Terminal Authority. Ultimately, the Republican former U.S. Representative Clyde Holloway of Rapides Parish won the remaining nineteen months of Sittig's term. When Holloway did not seek reelection and died during the 2016 campaign to choose his successor, Franics won the post over another Republican and a [[Democrat Party|Democrat]]. His current term expires on January 1, 2023.
===State senate race, 1996===
When Republican Governor [[Mike Foster|Murphy James "Mike" Foster, Jr.]], named Democratic state Senator [[Cecil Picard]] as education secretary, a special election was held on August 24, 1996, to begin the process of choosing Picard's state senate successor. State Representative [[Gerald Theunissen]], a Democrat who later switched to Republican affiliation, led the contest with 7,086 votes (29.5 percent). Francis, still state party chairman and the only Republican among the six candidates, finished in second place with 6,112 votes (25.5 percent). Four other Democrats shared the remaining but crucial 45 percent of the ballots.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Special election returns, August 24, 1996.</ref> In the runoff election on September 21, Theunissen defeated Francis, 20,320 (55.7 percent) to 16,172 (44.3 percent).<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, September 21, 1996.</ref>
==Campaign for Secretary of State==
The Secretary of State is Louisiana's top elections officer. The office maintains corporation and government records.
"We have had a lot of criticism about professional politicians in this state. . . . People are crying out for change. Most are demanding it. . . . Our problems are not Republican or Democrat problems. They are all our problems, and we need to face them together. We need sound business principles in Baton Rouge and not more politics. To attract business, we need leaders who know how to talk business, not politics," Francis said.
d former
Francis promised, if elected, that he would take a business approach to the secretary of state's office and work to create jobs and to ensure "clean elections," for which he noted Louisiana had formerly been lacking, particularly the disputed 1996 U.S. Senate race between Republican [[Woody Jenkins]] and Democrat [[Mary Landrieu]].
Francis lost the race for Secretary of State to John Leigh "Jay" Dardenne, Jr., an [[attorney]] born in 1954 and a state senator from [[Baton Rouge]], one of most visible [[Moderate Republicans]] in the state.. The election was held to finish the fifteen months remaining in the term of Republican Walter Fox McKeithen (1946-2005). [[Al Ater]], a Democratic former state representative from Ferriday in Concordia Parish, had succeeded to the position because he was Fox McKeithen's first deputy. The special election was held in conjunction with the primary for other offices contested in 2006.<ref>Ex-GOP chief running for secretary of state (kplctv.com), accessed April 27, 2021.</ref>
Francis finished third in the race, based largely on his support in mostly rural and small-town parishes in his native north Louisiana. He received 26 percent of the vote. Democratic state Senator Francis C. Heitmeier of [[New Orleans]] polled 28 percent, and Dardenne led the field with 30 percent. None of the other four candidates had more than 9 percent.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, September 30, 2006.</ref>
Dardenne was hence scheduled to face a runoff contest with Heitmeier. In the meantime,<ref>Our Campaigns - LA Secretary of State - Special Runoff Race - Oct 10, 2006 , accessed April 27, 2021.</ref> announced that he would not support Dardenne in the second balloting but would run himself for the position in 2007. Heitmeier pulled out of the race and left Dardenne unopposed. Heitmeier's decision came in an otherwise a banner year for Democrats nationwide. Heitmeier and Dardenne were both term-limited in the state Senate and ineligible to have sought reelection in 2007. Heitmeier was succeeded by his brother, David Heitmeier, a New Orleans optometrist.<ref>concordia_sentinel_splash.jpg (343×400) (blogger.com) , accessed April 27, 2021.</ref> Francis declined to endorse Dardenne. "Just because I’m third doesn’t mean I need to sign on with one of them," Francis said on the Monday after the Saturday special election. "When you look at the voting record and history of Dardenne and Heitmeier, they are very similar. I disagree with term-limited senators running for this office." Francis' largely self-financed campaign ads and literature targeted what he called the senators’ "liberal" votes for increased taxation and [[abortion]]. He said, "A public service comissioner works for the hard-working people of Louisiana, protecting them from excessive utility charges. Representing those who are in need, a PSC must be a person of high moral integrity. Mike Francis is dedicated to God, family and country. He is a proven leader with a strong work ethic."<ref name=ballotpedia/>
Former U.S. Senator [[David Vitter]], a Republican from Metairie in Jefferson Parish, endorsed Dardenne when a runoff appeared likely. He praised Dardenne's pro-business, governmental reform record and his "dogged determination and persistence" for term limits and other fundamental changes. "There couldn’t be a clearer choice: reform versus the courthouse crowd," Vitter claimed. Still there was speculation that Dardenne would challenge Vitter in the 2010 senatorial race, but he did not file candidacy papers.<ref>Vitter clears 50 percent in new poll; Dardenne decides not to run | Local Politics | nola.com, January 20, 2010, accessed April 27.</ref> Dardenne did not repay the favor in 2015 when Vitter lost his bid for the governorship to Democrat [[John Bel Edwards]]. In that primary race, Vitter accused his former ally, Dardenne, of being "liberal and Obama-like."<ref>David Vitter attack ads portray Republican opponents in governor’s race as liberal, Obama-like | Elections | theadvocate.com, accessed April 27, 2021; under a pay wall.</ref> Edwards then rewarded Dardenne with appointment as commissioner of administration.<ref>John Bel Edwards taps Jay Dardenne for top administrative job (fox8live.com), accessed April 27, 2021.</ref>
Francis' former wife of thirty-three years, Diana Istre Francis (born December 20, 1950) of Lafayette,<ref>Diana Francis (Istre), 70 - Lafayette, LA Background Report at MyLife.com™, accessed April 27, 2021.</ref>was accused of vandalizing Francis Fluids in retaliation for their divorce.<ref>FRANCIS v. FRANCIS | FindLaw, April 30, 2008; accessed April 27, 2021.</ref>Francis' company airplane became an issue in the Secretary of State's race, which was required to be reported by state law and the judge in Francis' 2004 divorce case.<ref>Our Campaigns - News - [LA] Secretary of state candidate [Mike Francis] to begin reporting company plane use - Sep 28, 2006, accessed April 21, 2021.</ref>\
According to campaign finance reports, Dardenne raised $722,631; Francis, $149,637 and added $70,000 of his own funds for a total of $219,650. In his unsuccessful race, Francis carried the support of the failed 2008 presidential candidate, U. S. Senator [[John McCain]], a Moderate Republican from [[Arizona]].
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Francis, Mike}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]