Difference between revisions of "Pat Brister"

Revision as of 18:46, February 4, 2020

Patricia Phillips Beck Brister, known as Pat Brister (December 6, 1946 – February 3, 2020), was a businesswoman and Republican politician from Mandeville in St. Tammany Parish in suburban New Orleans.^[1]​

Political life

From 2000 to 2004, Brister served as chairman of the Louisiana Republican Party, the first woman to have held that particular position.^[2] From 1996 to 2000, she was the Republican national committeewoman from Louisiana.^[2]

She was also a former ambassador to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women under former U.S. President George W. Bush. Brister's tenure on the commission included the annual meetings held from February 28 through March 11, 2006, and again from February 25 to March 7, 2008. Brister also served on the elected St. Tammany Parish Council.^[3] On October 22, 2011, she was elected parish president of St. Tammany Parish with 73 percent of the vote; she was sworn into office in January 2012.^[1]​

In May 2006, Brister was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Ambassador to the Commission on the Status of Women,^[4] after her first convention session had ended. The commission was founded in 1946, a year after the United Nations was organized. During her tenure, Brister defended the Bush administration regarding its policies concerning the role of women and repeatedly praised the appointment of Condoleezza Rice as the United States Secretary of State. "The policies of the U.S. government have been and continue to be to encourage countries to include women in their initiatives. President Bush has been a strong advocate of democratization, and we fully believe empowering women will strengthen a country. We will continue to talk about that specific issue here at CSW," said Brister.^[5]​

Brister continued, having noted that the United States commitment to medical care for women and children: "The US has been at the forefront, particularly here at the UN Commission on the Status of Women, in advocating for availability of medical care for women and children. We point to President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS relief . . . which supports a variety of bilateral, regional, and multilateral initiatives."^[5]​

Brister won the first of her two terms on the St. Tammany Parish Council for District 4 in the primary election held on October 23, 1999. With 2,214 votes (54.1 percent), she defeated two fellow Republicans.^[6] Brister was unopposed for a second term in the 2003 primary. She declined to seek a third term and was succeeded by fellow Republican Reid Falconer of Madisonville, the winner of the 2007 primary over another Republican named John Robertson.^[7]​

Earlier, Brister ran unsuccessfully for state senator for District 11 (St. Tammany and Tangipahoa parishes). She was defeated by fellow Republican Tom Schedler of Slidell in St. Tammany Parish, who held the Senate seat from 1996 to 2008, when he was term-limited by state law and succeeded by the Mandeville Republican Jack Donahue, who was term-limited in the 2019 primary.​ Schedler went on to serve as Louisiana Secretary of State, a post from which he was forced to resign in a sex scandal in 2018.

Brister was elected party chairman in 2000 by the 144-member Republican State Central Committee to succeed Chuck McMains, a state representative from Baton Rouge, who served in 2000. She was in turn succeeded in 2004 by Roger F. Villere, Jr., a flower shop owner in Metairie in Jefferson Parish. Brister was a member of the site-selection committee which tapped Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to host the 2000 Republican National Convention. She was a Louisiana state elector in 2000. Thereafter, she was a delegate to the 2004 Republican National Convention, which met in New York City to renominate the Bush-Cheney ticket and worked thereafter for the GOP slate in Louisiana.^[8]​ ​ In 2002, President Bush named Brister to a three-year term on the board of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas, Texas.^[2]​

On January 9, 2009, Republican Governor Bobby Jindal appointed Brister her to the Greater New Orleans Expressway Commission, the panel which regulates, operates, and controls the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, which includes the bridge system and the causeway approach road system on the North Shore.^[9]​ ​ In 2013, Brister attended a fundraiser for liberal Democratic U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, a candidate for a fourth term in the 2014 midterm elections. Landrieu was unseated by Republican then U.S. Representative Bill Cassidy of Louisiana's 6th congressional district.^[10] Brister's embrace of Landrieu has been strongly criticized by Moon Griffon, the conservative statewide radio commentator, then based in Monroe but since Lafayette, a long-term critic of Senator Landrieu.^[11]

St. Tammany Parish presidency

On October 22, 2011, she was elected parish president of St. Tammany Parish with 73 percent of the vote and was sworn into office in January 2012. She was reelected in 2015.^[1]​ In 2019, Brister was unseated in her bid for a third term as parish president by her fellow Republican Michael Benton "Mike" Cooper (born November 27, 1953) of Covington. Her second term in office was dogged with budget cuts and the failure three times to extend two different sales taxes.^[12] In the primary, held on October 12, she trailed Cooper and was unseated in the runoff contest on November 16. In the second balloting, Cooper polled 53,732 votes (61 percent) to Brister's 33,985 (39 percent).^[13]

Personal life

Involved in various business enterprises over the years, Brister was for a time the chief executive officer and chairman of the trustees of Orion College, a James Kirk diploma mill which operated in Mandeville from 1997 to 2002.^[2]

Brister was married to Joseph Stanley "Joe" Brister, Jr. (1933-2017), a New Orleans native who established Brister-Stephens, Inc., an air conditioning and heating company, of which she was the former vice president. Her children from a previous marriage are Jill Beck Heebe, Matthew Beck, Mark Beck, Kenneth Beck, and stepson, Steven Clark Beck (1962-2010) of Destrehan in St. Charles Parish.^[14][12]

Brister is a Presbyterian. Her political interest was initially fueled by the Parent-Teacher Association. She was formerly the executive director of the Northshore Business Council.^[12]

Brister died on February 3, 2020 after a brief battle with cancer, which she had previously overcome. Her death came only three weeks after leaving office as parish president.^[12]​

References

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