Riddle remembers Mike Foster

Avoyelles D.A. was legislator during late governor's two terms

For most of his 12 years in the Legislature, Charles Riddle had to deal with Gov. Mike Foster as the legislative and executive branches worked to handle the state's business.

Riddle shared a few memories of the former governor, who died Oct. 4 at his home in Franklin at the age of 90.

Foster is primarily remembered for two things -- changing parties from Democrat to Republican on the day he qualified to run for governor, and serving during a relatively quiet period in the state's modern history between the Edwin Edwards scandals and the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

Riddle knew Murphy James "Mike" Foster Jr. first as a Democratic senator during Riddle's first term in the House and then as governor in his next two.

Riddle was in the House from 1992-2003. Foster was in the Senate from 1987-1995 and was governor from 1995-2003.

"From a personal standpoint, I was in favor with Mike during his first term," Riddle said. "In his next term, he wanted to change the speaker of the House and I opposed that. He didn't like that, and I fell out of favor for that term," Riddle said with a chuckle. "Mike would get upset when you disagreed with him, but he was very happy when you were on his side."

The main difference between being "in favor" and "out of favor" was the House committee assignments. Supporters got the choicest chairmanships while those on the outs were put on less "meaty" committees.

"I guess I was punished -- but not that badly," Riddle said, noting that he still got to serve on important committees like Education.

"One thing I remember was that Avoyelles Parish was able to get a lot of money for the Moreauville-Plaucheville Cutoff Road," Riddle said. "I believe that was back in 1999. We had to change the name to 'Farm-to-Market Road' to give it an economic development angle -- but nobody has ever called it that."

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