Rep. Little, Samuel P(R)
District# 14, Bastrop

• District # 14: House District 1
• Party: Republican
• Caucus Membership: Louisiana Republican Legislative Delegation
  Louisiana Rural Caucus
• Occupation: Retired farmer
• Education: Northwestern University, Natchitoches; Northeast Louisiana University, Monroe
• Spouse: Pamela
• Year Elected: 2007
• Last Year Eligible(Term Limit): 2020
• 2007 Election
  There had not been an election for state representative in this district in over fifteen years, as term-limited Charles McDonald, who unsuccessfully ran for Senate District 33, was elected unopposed in the past three elections. With no excitement in a state representative race in so long, this one made up for the years lost with such a close finish. Republican Sam Little faced opposition from Democrat Buddy Quinn, a retired dentist, and Republican Stan Neathery, retired Bastrop police chief, in the primary election. Little finished second with thirty-five percent of the votes compared to Quinn’s forty-one percent. In the runoff, Little won by only nine votes.
  

• Louisiana Map
• District Map
• Metro Map
• Economic: Located on the Arkansas/Louisiana state line, District 14 encompasses parts of Morehouse, West Carroll and East Carroll parishes and the north corner of Ouachita parish. This poverty-stricken district struggles to foster any significant economic development. The largest employer in the district is the International Paper Company plant in Morehouse parish. A few other manufacturing facilities—a cut-and-sew operation in Bastrop and textile and metal fabrication manufacturing facilities in and around Oak Grove—employ several hundred workers.
• Agriculture and forestry supply the most economic benefits to the district by providing work for residents with crops like cotton, rice and sweet potatoes. Other than farming, residents make a living in this industry by operating grain elevators and by working in related businesses. Other residents commute to Monroe for work.
• Social: Most residents are poor, unemployed and welfare dependent. Other residents are successful in the timber and agricultural industries.
• Political: Overall, the district is conservative with almost thirty percent of the registered voters being Republican. However, Democratic candidates also can do well here because of the large black population and union members from the International Paper plant. Voters are adamantly opposed to gambling, as they have defeated gaming measures when faced with them in the voting booth.

• Now retired, Samuel P. Little farmed for thirty-one years, both in a family partnership and as an individual. Little remains very involved with Farm Bureau; he has been on the Morehouse Farm Bureau board of directors for thirty-five years and has served as president for eighteen years.
• For the past eight years, Little has been a district representative for the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation. He is also a long-term member of the board of directors for the Morehouse Parish Gin Board and is an appointed member of the Sparta Groundwater District, which is based in Simsboro in Lincoln parish. In his spare time, Little enjoys deer hunting, reading, genealogy and studying world and American history.
• In fact, agriculture and natural resources seem be strong subject matter for Little. He’s passed bills that both authorize the use of crossbows for taking turkeys and a special state sales and use tax exemption for certain commercial farm irrigation equipment.
• Look for Little to focus on ethics reform as his first order of business in the legislature in order to draw new business and industry to Louisiana. A supporter of the Blueprint Louisiana agenda, he believes that legislators must disclose all sources of income. A member of the Morehouse Economic Development District, Little plans to address economic development, improve infrastructure, support educational and healthcare needs and serve the agricultural community that he knows so well.