Tom Ed McHugh

Who is Tom Ed McHugh?

Thomas Edward McHugh, known as Tom Ed McHugh, has been since 2001 the executive director of the Louisiana Municipal Association. The former Mayor-President, a combined municipal-parish position, of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, McHugh resides in Zachary. He was elected as a Democratic mayor-president in 1988 and 1992 but won his third term in 1996 as a Republican. The position includes all of the capital city of Baton Rouge.

McHugh is descended from a prominent East Baton Rouge Parish family. The original Thomas E. McHugh was a clerk of the East Baton Rouge district court, a staunch Democrat, and an organizer of the city of Zachary. Another kinsman, also named Thomas Edward McHugh, possibly a grandfather, was the East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff from 1928-1932.

In 1988, Democratic Mayor-President James Patrick Screen, Jr., declined to seek a third term. Screen's predecessor, former Mayor-President W.W. Dumas of Baker, came out of political retirement at the age of seventy-two to seek his old position in a crowded field in the nonpartisan blanket primary. Dumas polled 29,109 votes to McHugh's 38,629 ballots. In third place was State Senator Mike Cross of Baker, who received 12,741 votes. Freshman State Representative Carl Crane, one of two Republicans in the race, polled only 4,554 votes. In the general election, McHugh defeated Dumas, 79,134 to 63,519.