John LaPlante

Who was John LaPlante?

John Maurice LaPlante, Jr., was a United States political columnist, news bureau director, and college professor in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who spent more than three decades covering Louisiana state government and politics. His terminal position, begun in 1998, was the editorship of the six-person Capitol News Bureau for the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate. LaPlante's "Political Horizons" column on Sundays particularly secured a large audience and often sparked heated comments from readers and state officials.

LaPlante was the second oldest of ten children born to John, Sr., and Ann LaPlante in New Orleans. He graduated from Mandeville High School in Mandeville in St. Tammany Parish in 1971. Thereafter, he earned his bachelor's degree in journalism, including work for the Daily Reveille newspaper, at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. After a stint in Alexandria with The Town Talk newspaper during the late 1970s, he joined the Morning Advocate as a political reporter.