Difference between revisions of "Dan "Blade" Morrish"

Revision as of 16:48, October 14, 2019

Dan Wesley Morrish, sometimes known as Blade Morrish (born October 20, 1950), is a businessman who is the Republican departing state senator for District 25, anchored in Jennings in Jefferson Davis Parish in southwestern Louisiana.​

Background

Formerly the owner-operator of Capitol City Hardware & Implement Company in Jennings, Morris was thereafter the business manager of Lake Charles Pilots.^[1]

Morrish graduated in 1968 from Jennings High School. He then procured a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture from McNeese State University in Lake Charles. Morrish is a past president of the Greater Jennings Chamber of Commerce and the Jennings Merchants Credit Bureau. He is active in Jennings Rotary International and a member of Our Lady of Help Christians Roman Catholic Church. Morrish is married to the former Kathleen Vidrine, originally from Lake Charles. The couple has two children, Erin Morrish Boudreaux and Christopher J. Morrish.^[1]​

Political career

Morrish won his Senate seat in the general election held on November 17, 2007, when he defeated the Democrat Gillis James "Gil" Pinac of Crowley in Acadia Parish, a departing state representative from a nearby district. In a low-turnout contest, Morrish polled 11,186 votes (53.9 percent) to Pinac's 9,556 (46.1 percent).^[2] Shortly after his defeat by Morrish, Pinac switched to Republican affiliation and ran third in a special election held on April 4, 2009, for the Louisiana Public Service Commission. Former U.S. Representative Clyde Cecil Holloway (1943-2016) of Forest Hill in Rapides Parish won the PSC seat, after the second-place candidate, Democratic state Senator Joe McPherson, also of Rapides Parish, withdrew from the runoff election.^[3]​

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Prior to his state Senate service, Morrish was a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for District 37 (Jefferson Davis and Calcasieu parishes) from 1996 to 2008. He won a special election in 1996 to succeed Gerald J. Theunissen, who resigned from the House upon election to the state Senate seat that Morrish won. Morrish was then unopposed as a Democrat for the House seat in the nonpartisan blanket primaries held in 1999 and 2003.^[4] Morrish switched parties on November 18, 2005.^[5] Like Morrish, Theunissen, another Democrat-turned-Republican from Jennings, served first in the House and then the Senate. Theunissen, a banker, was term-limited and ineligible to seek a fourth Senate term in the 2007 primary. Meanwhile, Morrish was succeeded in the House by another Jennings Republican businessman, John E. Guinn, who ran unsuccessfully against Moderate Republican Mark Abraham for state senator in the primary held on October 12, 2019.^[6]​^[7]

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Morrish served his last term in the House as a member of the House Appropriations Committee as the representative for the former 7th congressional district.^[8] As s senator, Morrish served on the Legislative Rural Caucus and the Environmental Quality, Insurance, Coastal Restoration & Flood Control, and Revenue & Fiscal Affairs committees. He was vice-chairman of the Natural Resources Committee.^[9]

He was considered a conservative in the legislature, having in 2008 supported the position of the Louisiana Family Forum 89 percent of the time. However, in 2009, Morrish voted with the Louisiana Restaurant Association and against the Family Forum's position^[10] when he supported a measure sponsored by Democratic then Senator Lydia P. Jackson of Shreveport and signed by Governor Bobby Jindal, which allows restaurants to assess cover charges for live entertainment and to serve alcoholic beverages.^[11] Morrish similarly received an 86 percent rating from the interest group, the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry.^[11]​

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As a Democrat, Morrish endorsed George W. Bush for U.S. President in 2000 and 2004. When Bush visited Lafayette, Louisiana, in 2001, he singled out Morrish for his support: ". . . There is one other fellow, a man who stuck his neck out in the course of the campaign. You see, he doesn't happen to have the Republican label by his name. His name is Dan Morrish. He's a Democrat. He put party aside and did what he thought was right for the country. And Dan, I'm honored to have your support. I thank you for your friendship."^[12]​

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Senate District 25 encompasses parts of six state House seats in the southwestern parishes of Jefferson Davis, Cameron, portions of Acadia, and the southeastern part of Calcasieu.^[1]​ Morrish turns over the seat on January 13, 2020 to Mark Abraham, a departing state House member who won the position outright in the primary election held on October 12, 2019.^[7]

Statewide radio talk show host Moon Griffon, a conservative, is a long-term Morrish critic. Griffon predicted that Morrish will obtain a high-level appointed state position in 2020 if Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards wins the runoff election on November 16, 2019, against the Republican Eddie Rispone of Baton Rouge. Morrish has cut a commercial backing Edwards. Griffon calls Morrish, "Switchblade" Morrish, a reference to perceived betrayal of conservative principles.^[13] ​ ==References==​

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