Jock Scott - First Congressional Defeat

First Congressional Defeat

Early in 1985, while he was still a Democrat, Jock Scott ran in the special election to choose a successor to Congressman Gillis Long (1923–1985), who died at the time of President Ronald W. Reagan's second inauguration. Scott faced Long's widow, the former Catherine Small, a native of Dayton, Ohio, and Clyde C. Holloway, a conservative Republican who operated a tree nursery in Forest Hill, south of Alexandria, who had strongly opposed Judge Scott's desegregation orders and was making his second bid for Congress. Mrs. Long won the position outright with 61,791 votes (55.7 percent) to Scott's 27,138 ballots (24.5 percent), and Holloway's 18,013 votes (16.3 percent). Cathy Long did not seek a full term in 1986. Scott, by then a Republican, was personally asked in the White House by President Reagan to seek the office. For undisclosed reasons, Scott declined to run. Holloway then went on to take the seat for the first of three consecutive terms.

Scott's third term in the Louisiana House featured more battles over fiscal and tax policy against Governor Edwards. He had authored two successful tax reduction measures under the Treen administration, including inflation indexing of state income taxes, something Reagan had promoted at the national level, and a measure that reduced state income taxes by one-third across the board.