page_title: Mike Foster (American politician)
section_title: Foster as governor
hierarchical_section_title: Mike Foster (American politician) / Foster as governor
caption_attribution_description: English: Accompanied by firemen and other distinguished guests, President George W. Bush speaks during a ceremony held to honor the gift of a new firetruck for the city of New York on the South Lawn Dec. 19. Donated by the state of Louisiana, the "Spirit of Louisiana," will replace one of the 35 firetrucks that were destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks. Standing with the President is Ronald Goldman (left), Louisiana Governor Mike Foster (center), and Louisiana Representative Hunt Downer. White House photo by Tina Hager.
context_page_description: Murphy James "Mike" Foster Jr. is an American businessman and politician who served as the 53rd governor of Louisiana from January 1996 until January 2004.
context_section_description: Foster was widely seen as having favored business to a greater degree than had previous governors. He retained the secretary of economic development, former legislator Kevin P. Reilly Sr. of Baton Rouge, the former CEO of Lamar Advertising Company of Baton Rouge. He ended state affirmative action and set-aside programs, which earned him the support of the business community but prompted protests from civil rights groups. Foster also targeted tort reform and ended the practice by which trial lawyers could seek punitive damages from businesses. Foster had close relations with the statewide pro-business lobbying group Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) for most of his tenure, though there were short-lived tensions in 2000 over Foster's attempt to raise business taxes in an effort to secure funding for higher education. By the end of his second term, Foster was receiving criticism for his reluctance to take business trips in order to attract businesses and jobs to Louisiana, and for enrolling in part-time law school classes while still in office. He also appointed then 24-year-old Bobby Jindal, later a two-term Republican governor, as head of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.
  As his executive counsel, Foster appointed the Democrat Cheney Joseph Jr. (1942–2015), a member of the LSU Law School faculty and a former district attorney for East Baton Rouge Parish.
  Foster appointed former state Representative Terry W. Gee of New Orleans as the executive director of the Louisiana Offshore Port Authority, or LOOP. Since deceased, Gee remained in the post for the entire Foster administration and worked to guarantee port security in light of the threat of terrorism. Foster appointed education reformer and attorney Paul Pastorek to the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education; Pastorek was thereafter from 2007 to 2011 the state superintendent of education. In 2000, Foster named  Terry Landry, a veteran African-American officer, as the superintendent of the Louisiana State Police. In 2012, Landry was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives for Lafayette, Iberia, and St. Martin parishes.
  Foster named Democrat former state Representative Randy Roach to head a task force on transportation infrastructure and economic development. Thereafter, Roach was elected mayor of Lake Charles. In 1996, Foster appointed Bo Ackal, a state representative from New Iberia as his assistant on budgeting and taxation.
  Foster worked to re-organized the state's community college system by creating the Louisiana Community and Technical College System, and expanded the Tuition Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS), a brainchild of the New Orleans oilman Patrick F. Taylor, so that students were eligible based on merit, rather than income. In the 2002 legislative session, Foster credited freshman Representative Tom Capella of Jefferson Parish, now the parish assessor, with saving TOPS from the budget axe. Foster instituted mandatory standardized testing for grade advancement in a move described by his administration as an effort to make public schools more accountable. He made increasing teacher salaries a major priority, at one point promising to stop cashing his paychecks until teachers' salaries reached the Southern average. Andy Kopplin served as Governor Foster's chief of staff.
  He retained long-term political operative Aubrey W. Young, originally the aide de camp to Governor John J. McKeithen, as the drug and alcohol counselor in the Department of Health and Hospitals.
  In 1997, Foster named former state budget director Ralph Perlman as secretary of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board, a position that Perlman held for five years while in his eighties.
  The two Speakers of the House under Foster's administration were Democrat (later Republican) Hunt Downer of Terrebonne Parish and Charles W. DeWitt Jr., a Democrat from Rapides Parish. In Louisiana, the governor practically handpicks the Speaker despite the separation of powers. Foster also relied heavily on Republican State Representative Chuck McMains of 
caption: Foster watches as President George W. Bush speaks during a ceremony held to honor the gift of a new firetruck for the city of New York on the South Lawn in 2001
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