Scott Angelle

Education

Angelle is an honor graduate of the St. Martin Parish public schools. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Land Management and is a cum laude graduate of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Early political career

Angelle was elected at the age of twenty-five to the St. Martin Parish Police Jury, the local governing body known as the county commission in most other states. From 2000 to 2004, Angelle was the first parish president of St. Martin Parish and the vice president from 1998 to 2000 of the Huval Companies in Lafayette, Louisiana. Earlier, he worked as a petroleum land manager in Lafayette.

Department of Natural Resources

From 2004 to 2012, with the exception of his six months as lieutenant governor, Angelle was the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources under Governors Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and then Bobby Jindal. As Angelle resigned from the Natural Resources position, Jindal nominated him to represent Louisiana's 3rd congressional district on the Board of Supervisors of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

Lieutenant Governor

As part of the interim appointment as lieutenant governor, Angelle agreed not to seek the position in the special election held in November 2010. The vacancy occurred when Mitch Landrieu resigned to become the mayor of New Orleans. Angelle was a Democrat until he switched to the Republican affiliation on October 26, 2010. Both parties had attempted to recruit Angelle to run for Louisiana's 3rd congressional district in the 2010 elections to succeed Democrat Charlie Melancon, who ran instead for the U. S. Senate in 2010 against Republican David Vitter, whom Angelle also opposed in the 2015 gubernatorial race. Earlier, Angelle had declined the overtures from both parties to run for Congress.

Angelle officially began the duties of lieutenant governor on May 17, 2010. He temporarily relinquished the job of secretary of the Department of Natural Resources to Robert Harper but continued to serve as the governor's lobbyist to the legislature. Angelle returned to his position in Natural Resources after his time as lieutenant governor ended.

Moratorium Rally

On July 21, 2010, Angelle led a rally of over 12,000 citizens in Lafayette demanding the federal government to "Lift the [deepwater-drilling] Moratorium Now!" This was in response to the Barack H. Obama White House halting drilling in the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This rally has led to his most notable quote, "This moratorium is not hurting the stock holders of BP, or Exxon or Chevron; this moratorium is hurting the Cheramies, and the Calais, and the Dupuis, and the Robins and the Boudreauxs, and the Thibodeauxs," referring to the negative effect on the local economy that the moratorium may have. The ban was lifted in October 2010, a move considered a pivotal point in Angelle's political career.

Sinkhole controversy

On August 3, 2012, the discovery of the Bayou Corne sinkhole in Assumption Parish, Louisiana was the result of a collapsed salt dome operated by the Texas Brine Company. This collapse allowed oil and gases to escape and surface. Angelle has received criticism for leaving his Department of Natural Resources position five days after the disaster began, however, it was later discovered that the sinkhole was due to months of seismic activity that The Texas Brine Company ignored. As of October 2014, the sinkhole is still ongoing while local residents continue a legal battle with the Texas Brine Company. On September 25, 2015, Assumption Parish President, Martin Triche, stated “To suggest that Scott Angelle abandoned Bayou Corne and Assumption Parish is nothing short of completely false. Senator Vitter was not there for our residents when Scott was.” Ryan Cross, Angelle's gubernatorial campaign manager said, "Scott had already made the decision he was going to run for PSC. He jumpstarted the response and coordinated it on the ground. He was one of the first people down at the sinkhole site."

Public Service Commissioner

In the 2012 PSC race, Angelle, with 213,485 votes (57.2 percent), won all thirteen parishes in District 2 to claim the seat vacated by Jimmy Field, a Baton Rouge attorney. The Democrat Forest Wright finished second in the balloting with 76,336 votes (20.5 percent), and Republican State Representative Erich Ponti of Baton Rouge, trailed in third place with 43,287 ballots (11.6 percent). Two other contenders, a Republican and a No Party contender, shared the remaining 11 percent of the vote.

2015 gubernatorial campaign

Angelle lost by a relatively narrow margin in the primary to his fellow Republican, U.S. Senator David Vitter, who took on Democrat John Bel Edwards of Tangipahoa Parish in the November 21 general election. Another of Angelle's opponents in the governor's race was his elected successor as lieutenant governor, Jay Dardenne of Baton Rouge, who finished in fourth place in the contest.

Dardenne quickly endorsed Edwards for the November 21 runoff election against Vitter. Angelle remained silent on the race and refused to endorse either candidate. State Treasurer John Neely Kennedy, a 2004 Democratic opponent of Vitter, called upon Angelle to join him in endorsing Vitter. Remaining silent, said Kennedy, is the equivalent of an endorsement of Edwards. Angelle spokesman Ryan Cross responded to Kennedy's accusations saying “John Kennedy is confused. He is the eternal president of the RINO club. He endorsed John Kerry for President [in 2004], who fought to kill the Keystone pipeline; he’s run statewide as a liberal Democrat twice; and he’s been all over the map on issues like the minimum wage, abortion, and tax increases.”

2016 congressional campaign

On March 3, 2016, Angelle announced his candidacy for Louisiana's 3rd congressional district, which is being vacated by Charles Boustany. Angelle polled 44 percent in the runoff contest against Clay Higgins having run best in the Lake Charles area.

Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement

On May 2017, Angelle was appointed as the fourth director.

Personal life

Angelle and his wife have three daughters and two sons. He is a parishioner of Saint Bernard Roman Catholic Church in Breaux Bridge. His father, J. Burton Angelle, was a state representative from 1964 to 1972 and the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries during the first three administrations of Governor Edwin Washington Edwards.