Karen Carter Peterson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Karen Carter Peterson | |
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Member of the Louisiana House of Representatives
from the 93rd district |
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| Assumed office 1999 |
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| Born | November 1, 1969 New Orleans, Louisiana |
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| Political party | Democratic |
| Profession | attorney |
Karen Carter Peterson (born November 1, 1969) is a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, representing the 93rd District since 1999 and serving as Speaker Pro Tempore since 2008.
Peterson was a candidate for U.S. Congress in Louisiana's 2nd congressional district (map) in the mid-term election of November 2006. She challenged incumbent Democrat Bill Jefferson, who is currently the subject of an FBI investigation, and several other candidates. She finished in second place with 19,972 votes (21.6% of the total votes cast), and therefore she and Jefferson entered a runoff round of voting on December 9, 2006. Jefferson prevailed by a 57%-43% margin, the lowest since his original election in 1990.
Peterson was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, the daughter of Ken and Gwen Carter. Her father was one of New Orleans’s first black property tax assessors and a prominent political figure in the city. Peterson graduated from Mercy Academy, and received a bachelors degree in international business and marketing from Howard University in Washington, D.C. in 1991. Peterson then returned to New Orleans to receive a law degree from Tulane University in 1995. She is a practicing attorney with the firm Wilkerson and Henry.
Peterson is a political protégé of Jim Singleton, a former city councilman and the leader of the powerful BOLD political organization. With the help of BOLD, Peterson was elected in 1999 to the Louisiana state legislature as a representative for the 93rd district, which encompasses New Orleans’s CBD, the upper French Quarter, and parts of Central City and Mid-City. In the state legislature, she was one of the most vocal supporters of a plan to reform the New Orleans public school system by putting it under state control, and was a backer of the levee board consolidation bill. Peterson is a member of the moderate Democratic Leadership Council.
In the 2006 Congressional election, Peterson received endorsements from prominent Republican businessmen Joe Canizaro and Boysie Bollinger. She was also endorsed by both the Louisiana state and Orleans Parish branches of the Democratic Party, a normally unusual development given that the parties usually support their incumbent members, but with the recent allegations against Jefferson, it was not a big surprise. She centered her campaign around the argument that Jefferson's corruption scandal left New Orleans with a lack of credible and respected representation in Congress. Jefferson, in turn, accused her of profiting from no-bid “sweetheart” contracts with the New Orleans City Council as their legal advisor for utility regulation.
Peterson lives in New Orleans’s Warehouse District. She is engaged to be remarried after a previous divorce, and has no children. She appears in Spike Lee's documentary about Hurricane Katrina, When the Levees Broke.
[edit] External links
- Louisiana House of Representatives - President Pro Tempore Karen C. Peterson official government website
- Karen Carter official campaign website
- Project Vote Smart - Representative Karen R. Carter (LA) profile
- Follow the Money - Karen R Carter
- Democratic Leadership Council profile
- "Karen Carter: Well-trained to run against Jefferson" Michelle Krupa, New Orleans Times-Picayune, October 16, 2006]
- The New Orleans Times-Picayune. “William Jefferson takes aim at Karen Carter.” November 1, 2006.
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