Richard Ieyoub Obituary, Death – Richard Ieyoub, who served as attorney general of Louisiana for three terms and ran unsuccessfully for governor and the Senate of the United States, passed away on Monday in Baton Rouge at the age of 78. Ieyoub’s nephew, Lake Charles City Councilman John Ieyoub, verified the news of his uncle’s passing to KPLC-TV. The news of Ieyoub’s passing was first reported by Governor Jon Bel Edwards. According to the story in the Advocate of Baton Rouge, Ieyoub passed away due to a ruptured aneurysm.
Edwards reminded lawmakers on Monday before beginning his statement about the State of the State that Richard was a real and kind-hearted man if they knew him. “If you knew Richard, he was a genuine and kind-hearted man,” Edwards said. Ieyoub has been serving as Louisiana’s Conservation Commissioner, the state’s most senior regulator for the oil and gas industry, for the past seven years. Edwards, a fellow Democrat, had selected Ieyoub to this position. Ieyoub also prevailed in the settlement of a lawsuit brought against Texaco for the company’s failure to pay oil royalties, which earned him a sum of $250 million.
Ieyoub served as the Calcasieu Parish District Attorney in his birthplace of Lake Charles from 1984 until 1992 before winning election to the office of attorney general in 1992 for the first of three consecutive mandates that would last until 2004. Ieyoub’s most notable victory as attorney general occurred in 1995, when he joined a lawsuit against the Liggett tobacco firm together with a number of other states over objections from the governor at the time, Mike Foster. The state of Louisiana was awarded a settlement of $4.6 billion for medical expenses it suffered as a result of litigation filed against all tobacco firms. In exchange, tobacco corporations promised to stop advertising to youngsters.
However, he was unsuccessful in his bids for higher office. Ieyoub narrowly missed out on a spot in the runoff election for the United States Senate in 1996, which was ultimately won by Mary Landrieu, after reports raised questions about his use of campaign funds to equip his residence, buy books and artwork, travel, and eat out. Ieyoub stated that all of the spending was related to campaigning, and after a two-year investigation, officials from the United States Justice Department announced that they would not bring any criminal charges in connection with the matter.
In the 2003 race for governor, which Kathleen Blanco ultimately won, Ieyoub once again came in third place and was eliminated from further contention. After his defeat in the race in 2003, he worked as a lawyer in private practise. During an interview in 2003 with the American Press of Lake Charles, Ieyoub expressed his affection for his home state by saying, “I love my state.” “I love the people of my state, and if I can make it a better place… if I can touch people’s lives and make our people safer, happier, and more productive, then my life and my mission as… a human being will have meaning and purpose.” “I love the people of my state, and if I can make it a better place… if I can touch people’s lives and make our people safer, happier, and more productive,”