Cleo Fields seeks return to state legislature

Baton Rouge attorney and Southern University alum Cleo Fields, once a rising star in the U.S. House of Representatives, is launching a bid to return to his Senate seat in the State Legislature.

He served as a state Senator for 14 years.

Fields, who was videotaped accepting $20,000 from former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards in 1997, was reported to be the beneficiary of a fundraiser held Wednesday, Aug. 29, in New Orleans.

The New Orleans Advocate reported last week that Rico Avendia, one of 10 hosts for the fundraiser, confirmed the event and the fact that Fields is running for his former Senate District 14 seat in Baton Rouge. Those attending the fundraiser were asked to pay $500.

If elected, Fields will serve a four-year term that begins in 2020.

He is seeking to replace state Sen. Yvonne Dorsey Colomb, D-Baton Rouge, who is term-limited and cannot seek re-election to the Senate seat. She replaced Fields in 2008 in Senate District 14, which is two-thirds Black and runs from north Baton Rouge through downtown and into south Baton Rouge.

Also running to replace Colomb is state Rep. Patricia Smith, who is also term-limited and has served in the Legislature since 2008. Smith told The New Orleans Advocate that she is aware of Fields’ interest in the Senate seat, which had been rumored for months.

“It’s a matter of letting the people decide who is the best person for the job,” Smith said. “I’ve passed a lot of bills that impact people’s lives. I’ve been there for the people — not myself.”

Fields, who has been popular among Black voters for decades, served in Congress as a U.S. representative from 1988 to 2008.

Although Fields was captured in the FBI video that ultimately led to Gov. Edwards’ 2000 bribery conviction, Fields was never charged and has never publicly explained the transaction.

Fields, now 55, was first elected to the state Senate seat at the age of 26. He ran for Congress successfully in 1993, but the district was invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court four years later.

He launched an unsuccessful bid in the 1995 gubernatorial race, besting Mary Landrieu in the primary before losing to Republican Mike Foster in the general election.

This article originally published in the September 3, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.