Chuck McMains

Background

McMains was born in Norfolk, Virginia, to Dr. and Mrs. Francis McMains, Sr. He graduated in 1966 from the Louisiana State University Laboratory School in Baton Rouge. He procured a Bachelor of Arts degree from LSU in 1970 and a Juris Doctor in 1973 from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. He also holds Certified Life Underwriter designation in the life insurance field.

McMains is a Methodist. His wife is the former Mary Lynn Coit (born April 1948), a granddaughter of the plantation manager J. H. Netterville of Newellton in Tensas Parish in northeastern Louisiana. McMains' father-in-law, Wilson Lindsey Coit (1911-1999), was for many years the Chevrolet and John Deere dealer in Newellton. His mother-in-law, Elizabeth Netterville Coit (1913-2004), was born on the Balmoral Plantation in Newellton and taught in the Newellton schools for forty-two years. The Coits are interred at Legion Memorial Cemetery in Newellton.Chuck and Mary Lynn McMains have three sons, Francis Charles McMains III, Daniel Coit McMains, and Cooper Greer McMains.

Political and civic activities

McMains entered the nonpartisan blanket primary on October 19, 1991, against four opponents seeking to succeed the retiring District 69 State Representative Edward Clark Gaudin, the first Republican legislator from East Baton Rouge Parish since Reconstruction. McMains led the primary balloting with 4,600 votes (38 percent). Fellow Republican James "Jim" Talbot finished second with 3,729 ballots (31 percent); in third place was Republican Jefferson Mark "Jeff" Angers, with 2,908 ballots (24 percent). Angers (born 1962) is the son of the late conservative journalist Robert Angers. Only 7 percent of voters in the heavily Republican 69th District voted Democratic, with their ballots split among two minor candidates.

In the second balloting on November 16, 1991, McMains defeated Talbot, 7,015 (53 percent) to 6,314 (47 percent). McMains was reelected in the 1995 primary with 10,502 votes (87 percent) to the Democrat Tommy L. Reese's 1,524 ballots (13 percent). McMains was unopposed for his third term in 1999.

A conservative reform legislator, McMains became the House floor leader for Republican Governor Murphy J. "Mike" Foster, Jr. In that role, McMains championed a comprehensive legislative package attacking abuses in Louisiana's civil justice system. Among other measures, his bills repealed punitive damages, strict liability, and joint and several liability. He also authored a comprehensive revision of Louisiana's class action articles and eliminated litigation instituted by Mayor Marc Morial's administration in New Orleans, which sought to curtail the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. McMains was also heavily involved in "Progress Louisiana," Foster's effort to replace Mike Francis as the chairman of the state's Republican State Central Committee. McMains briefly served as party chairman himself in 2000. McMains resigned from the legislature midway through his third term in the summer of 2001 to join the law firm of Jones Walker in its Baton Rouge office. McMains and Foster supported David Boneno, a member of the Baton Rouge metro council, as McMains' successor. Boneno, however, was defeated by Gary J. Beard, who ran on an anti-tax platform and also enjoyed the support of the Christian Coalition.

In the U.S. Senate election held on September 21, 1996, McMains polled 45,164 votes (4 percent) in a 15-candidate field. The top two votegetters, Republican Woody Jenkins of Baton Rouge and Mary Landrieu of New Orleans then competed in the November general election. Landrieu narrowly emerged as the disputed winner.

McMains is a former vice president of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation and a past chairman of the Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce. He is a past president of the Baton Rouge Symphony and Public Radio. He holds membership in Rotary International and the Louisiana Council for Fiscal Reform. He has been chairman of the Civil Justice Reform Committee of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry. He is a lobbyist for such companies as ICF International, a high-powered global professional services firm, as well as American Express, the Property and Casualty Insurance Association of America, ATT and the Institute for Legal Reform of the United States Chamber of Commerce.