Rep.McVea, Thomas H.(R)
District # 62, Jackson

• District # 62: House District 1
• Party: Republican
• Caucus Membership: Capital Region Legislative Delegation
  Louisiana Republican Legislative Delegation
  Louisiana Rural Caucus
• Occupation: Cattleman
  
• Education: St. Francisville High School; B.S., Louisiana State University
• Spouse: Toni
• Year Elected: 2000
• Last Year Eligible(Term Limit): 2012
• 2007 Election
  McVea faced Democrat David Ridder and fellow Republican Anthony J. Denenea, Jr. He avoided a runoff by garnering 57 percent of the vote in the primary.
  
  

• Louisiana Map
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• Metro Map
• Economic: District 62 cuts across six of the Florida Parishes, East and West Feliciana, Tangipahoa, East Baton Rouge, St. Helena and Livingston, from Hwy 61 on the west to I-55 on the east.
• The influence of chemical plants is substantial throughout the district. In the Felicianas, state jobs have long been part of the economic fabric; many people are employed by state hospitals and correctional facilities. West Feliciana has become a growing tourist area, particularly in the historic community of St. Francisville, where visitors stay at bed and breakfasts and shop for antiques while they are there. Other major employers in District 62 are a large paper mill and Entergy’s Riverbend Nuclear Energy plant. The district supports some agriculture, primarily dairy and cattle farming.
• Social: overall, District 62 is rural in nature, with blue-collar residents dominating the social structure. This is slowly giving way as families continue to move out of Baton Rouge and into quieter communities like Zachary and Clinton. The district has also experienced a surge of white-collar residents in recent years with developments such as the Bluffs of West Feliciana now coming into the parish.
• Political: District 62 used to be a populist stronghold, but this is changing to some degree. The migration from Baton Rouge has seen the area become more conservative, even more Republican. The African-American vote here is still significant (over a quarter of registered voters), and some union influence remains, mostly among industrial and construction workers.

• Tom McVea is a cattleman and timberman by trade. He served one term in the House from 1980 to 1984 and is now in his third consecutive term in the House. He won a run-off against Myron Hall in 2000, ran unopposed in 2003 and beat out two office-seekers in 2007.
• One of his top priorities is to have stronger vocational training in high school. He strongly supports raising teachers’ salaries to the national average and linking accountability and pay raises. In the coming session, look for restructuring of the state’s budget surplus to be another of his priorities; particularly in order to get permanent financing for the state’s highways. Additionally, he is supportive of some type of guaranteed health insurance program and hopes to address its funding in this session.
• As a member of the budget-drafting Appropriations Committee, he’ll play a central role in how the state approaches its forecasted shortfalls. In that position, he has made a number of recommendations, like encouraging the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism to study ways of raising additional revenue through state historic sites. He’s also mindful of consumers and passed a bill in 2009 that called for the disclosure of separate hurricane, wind or named-storm deductibles.
• McVea enters his final term in the House as Vice Chairman of the House Insurance Committee.