Rep. Jones, Sam

House Member

Rep. Jones, Sam (D)
District# 50, Franklin

Contact Information

District Office
Legislative Assistant : Shelia Jones
Email Sam Jones
Phone: (337)828-7778
Fax: (337)828-4511
Address: 733 Main Street
Franklin, LA 70538
Map
Capitol House Switch Band: (225) 342-6945
Capitol House Fax: (225)342-8336

Profile

- District #: House District 1
- Party: Democrat
- Caucus Membership: Acadiana Delegation, Democratic Caucus
  Louisiana Rural Caucus
- Occupation: Real Estate/Investments; Contractor
- Education: Franklin High School, 1971;
  Nicholls State University, 1975, B.A., History
- Spouse: Toni
- Year Elected: 2007
- Last Year Eligible(Term Limit): 2020
- 2007 Election
  Sam Jones won the District 50 House seat in a runoff election with Allen McElroy Jr. gaining 53% of the vote.

District Profile

Registered Voters by Parish: Iberia 2.7%, St. Martin 3.8%, St. Mary 93.5%
Municipalities/Communities Represented: Baldwin, Bayou Vista, Berwick,
Charenton, Franklin, Jeanerette, Patterson
- Louisiana Map
- District Map
- Metro Map
Economic: District 50 encompasses St. Mary Parish, the far-eastern portion of Iberia Parish and the lower portion of St. Martin Parish. The major employers, beside the Parish School board, are Tidewater Marine and Seacor Marine, a strong fabricated metal business, including boat building, the sugar cane industry, the oil and gas industries and Cypress Bay Casino. Agriculture is a solid employer. The median household income is below that for Louisiana and the median home price is below, as well.

Social: The population of this district covers the spectrum from the very wealthy to the very poor. Approximately one-third of the inhabitants are Cajun and one-third are African American. There are abundant recreational opportunities in District 50, good schools, a low crime rate and a resultant high quality of life.

Political: The district is split between strong Democratic registration among the white blue-collar workers and African-Americans and the more conservative almost Republican registrations of the executives and business owners.

Biography

- For 22 years, Sam Jones was the mayor of the district’s largest city, Franklin, home of the Foster family which gave Louisiana two governors. A seasoned political veteran, for the past four years Jones has been on Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s team as deputy director of the Governor’s Office of Community Programs and Rural Development. Jones is committed to the state’s economic development and to raising the standards and quality of our educational system.
- An outspoken member of the Lower Chamber, Jones has a variety of policy interests. On the horizon, he’ll be pushing legislation that would allow the consumer to choose a closing attorney or title company in certain real estate transactions and create the crime of aggravated assault with a motor vehicle upon a peace officer.
- Instead of the costly and unwieldy charity health care system currently in place, Jones supports a continued focus on opening federally qualified health-care clinics and rural health-care clinics to provide front-end preventive care for people who need more affordable care.
- Jones supports high teacher pay and keeping it up to the southern regional average. He will oppose anything that would roll back education funding in the public school systems or higher education levels. He would like to see a push to ensure full funding of community and technical colleges and the creation of a technical educational track in high school.
- He sees no need to eliminate tax breaks. He is also opposed to any new taxes but would be looking for places to cut taxes in the midst of what he sees as a four- to seven-year economic boom. Jones is supportive full financial disclosure for elected officials but feels work needs to be done on the statewide level before taking on disclosures at the local level.