Joseph F. Toomy

Who is Joseph F. Toomy?

Joseph Francis Toomy, known as Joe Toomy, is a self-employed insurance broker from Gretna, the seat of Jeffersons Parish, Louisiana, who served as the District 85 member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1984 until term-limited in 2008. Toomy was a Democrat from 1984–1990, when he switched to Republican registration. Thereafter, he was elected in the nonpartisan blanket primaries of 1991, 1995, 1999, and 2003 on the GOP label. Prior to his legislative career, Toomy was a Democratic member of the Jefferson Parish School Board from 1974 to 1983 and the Louisiana Constitutional Convention, a year-long nonpartisan position, in 1973. There he served with future Governor Buddy Roemer and later Louisiana Secretary of State and Insurance Commissioner James H. "Jim" Brown. In March 2009, Governor Bobby Jindal appointed Toomy to the board of the New Orleans Port Authority.

A Roman Catholic, Toomy was born to Francis X. Toomy, formerly of New Jersey, and Dorothy N. Toomy of Gretna. He graduated in 1966 from Archbishop Shaw High School in Marrero in Jefferson Parish. Thereafter, he received B.A. and M.B.A. degrees from Tulane University in New Orleans.