Former Louisiana governor dies at 90

NEW ORLEANS — Former Louisiana Gov. Murphy J. “Mike” Foster Jr., a folksy millionaire businessman who pushed major changes in education policy and lawsuit rules through an increasingly conservative state Legislature in the 1990s, died Sunday. He was 90.

Marsanne Golsby, who was Foster’s press secretary, said he died at his home in Franklin, surrounded by relatives.

“Our family and I are saddened to announce that after 90 remarkable years my dear husband has passed,” his wife, Alice Foster, said in a statement.

Foster was a political late-bloomer, elected to the state Senate from south Louisiana’s St. Mary Parish as a Democrat at age 57 in 1987.

Eight years later he switched to the Republican Party before launching a long-shot bid to succeed retiring Gov. Edwin Edwards, a Democrat.

Their styles could not have been more different. Edwards, silver-haired, silver-tongued and always nattily attired, had been elected governor four times despite a penchant for scandal that eventually led to his imprisonment on federal corruption charges.

The bald and burly Foster was Edwards’ equal in neither style nor oratory. Still, he proved more adept at politics than many would have thought. Perhaps it was in his blood: His grandfather, Murphy James Foster, had been governor in the late 19th century. But Foster said he launched his political career simply because he was angry: The state senator at the time wouldn’t return his phone calls.

He challenged the incumbent and won handily.

Among his causes were overhauling a workers compensation system that many said was a drag on business recruitment and changing rules governing lawsuits that conservative lobbyists complained were weighted too heavily against businesses.

“If you know how to run a business and you have the knack to hire the right people, you can run the nation, much less the state,” he said shortly after his first gubernatorial victory.