Facts: - preceded: steve scalise - party: republican - spouse: carol ann appel - office: louisiana state senate district 9 -lrb- jefferson parish -rrb- - succeeded: incumbent - term start: november 20 , 2008 - birth date: 17 june 1951 - name: conrad henry appel , iii - children: conrad -lrb- connor -rrb- appel , iv - birth place: new orleans louisiana , usa - alma mater: isidore newman school - occupation: businessman Based on these bullet points, write a short biography describing the life of conrad appel .
conrad henry appel , iii -lrb- born june 17 , 1951 -rrb- , is a metairie , louisiana , businessman who since 2008 has been a republican member of the louisiana state senate from district 9 in suburban jefferson parish .appel won a special election to succeed short-term senator steve scalise , after scalise was instead elected to the united states house of representatives following the accession of u.s. representative bobby jindal to the louisiana governorship .a new orleans native , appel graduated in 1969 from the college preparatory isidore newman school .in 1973 , he received a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from louisiana state university in baton rouge .appel has had an extensive business career , with 35 years of management experience as senior executive of large general construction , construction management and specialty construction firms .appel is currently the president of three business , including construction management services , inc. , trinity company - real estate and constructionsouth , inc. , of metairie , which specializes in industrial and commercial general construction .he is also a licensed real estate broker and president of the firm trinity company .as a first-time candidate appel defeated fellow republican polly thomas , a professor at the university of new orleans , in a special election held at the time of the november 4 , 2008 , national general election .thomas ' defeat for the senate seat was her fourth election loss since 1999 .appel said that he was pleased to have thomas as his opponent : '' polly and i have been friends for a long time , and this has been a hard race for me .i 'm really proud of polly . ''thomas had also run against scalise in 2007 and polled only 29 percent of the vote in the regular legislative election .appel received 21,853 votes -lrb- 52.1 percent -rrb- to thomas 's 20,065 votes -lrb- 47.9 percent -rrb- .appel vowed to emphasize economic development in post-hurricane katrina period .he has been affiliated with the...