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When the 2006 legislative session opens on April 25th, it will do so without the presence of the gentleman from Uptown in his trademark white linen suit.

The late John Hainkel has been a fixture in Louisiana politics for five decades having served in the legislature from 1968 until his death on "Tax Day", though Hainkel's political career was remarkable for more than its longevity.

Elected to the State House one year shy of his 30th birthday, Hainkel was part of a new breed of legislators committed to pushing Louisiana's political transition from the days of the Longs to a modern era of government.

Though a registered Democrat for half of his political career, Hainkel was always a conservative. Hainkel was active in the Barry Goldwater campaign in addition to other conservative causes. In fact it was his extensive past conservative credentials that insulated him from an attack from the right upon his infamous "Tory" remark as his Senate presidency came to a close.

In 1980, Hainkel's political career hit overdrive when he was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives during the turbulent Treen Administration, when partisans for ex-Governor Edwin Edwards, who was on a constitutionally mandated sabbatical, tried to make life difficult for the short-lived reform administration.

Hainkel would make his biggest impact upon switching parties and moving to the State Senate, where he became the Louisiana GOP's most prominent legislator and, upon the "Third Return of the Cajun King", the de facto leader of the opposition.

It was during Edwards' last year as governor when I got to know Senator Hainkel. Ostensibly employed in the upper chamber as a page, I ended up spending more time sitting behind a senator's desk than I did ferrying messages between lobbyists and legislators.

It just so happened that many of the Senate's reform caucus sat together in the area where I was positioned and I would sometimes shoot the breeze with the usually seersucker-suited Hainkel.

Upon learning I was from St. Bernard and a Republican, Hainkel eagerly inquired about the chances of Parish President Lynn Dean defeating then Senate President Sammy Nunez. I replied, not so enthusiastically, that things were looking positive for Dean, news that brightened Hainkel's face though I closed the conversation by stating "be careful what you wish for".

Several years later while Senate President, Hainkel had to intervene to prevent a Republican senator from the northshore from attacking Dean, whose legacy as a senator included being a perennial "nay" vote and rising to speak about the temperature of the Senate chamber.

As Republican politicians go, Hainkel certainly did not fulfill a well-coifed stereotype. One day while passing notes, I saw Hainkel stroll in wearing a suit that looked like it doubled as his pajamas from the previous evening and with his comb-over sticking straight up...I'm talking about 4-5 inches vertically over his scalp. At no time did he try to compose himself but went about his duties running back and forth from the microphone, totally at comfort within his rumpled exterior, a rarity in today's image obsessive politics.

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