B. L. Shaw

B. L. Shaw, known as Buddy Shaw (born September 6, 1933), is a Republican former member of the Louisiana State Senate for Caddo and Bossier parishes in the northwestern corner of Louisiana. He defeated fellow Republican Billy Montgomery in the November 17, 2007, general election to procure the District 37 seat vacated by the term-limited Senator Max T. Malone of Shreveport. Shaw received 7,157 votes (57 percent) to Montgomery's 5,317 (43 percent)

Background
Shaw received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches in 1955 and 1960, respectively. He subsequently received the Ed.D. degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He is a veteran of the United States Army.

Before his legislative service, Shaw was a classroom teacher and principal of C.E. Byrd High School in Shreveport. Thereafter, he was the supervisor of Caddo Parish public schools. After he left the school system, he was an elected member of the Caddo Parish School Board. In 2000, along with songwriter Tillman Franks and Caddo Parish Sheriff Don Hathaway, who graduated from Byrd in 1940 and 1946, respectively, Shaw as a former principal was inducted into the Byrd High School Hall of Fame.

Shaw is a member of the East Shreveport Rotary International. He is Baptist. He and his wife, Mary Ann Shaw, Ph.D., reside in Shreveport.

Shaw established a scholarship endowment at NSU to honor his daughter, Stephanie Shaw, and his stepson, Edward Neff Minor, III (November 21, 1963 - March 15, 1995), who both attended NSU. He is also a former president of the NSU Alumni Association. NSU President Randall Webb attributed the scholarship to the "generosity of Dr. Buddy Shaw and his family. What Buddy has done in providing this scholarship to honor Stephanie is to put Northwestern in a better position to be competitive. . . . to demonstrate progress."

Legislative races
From 1996 to 2004, Shaw held the District 6 state House seat, which includes south and southeast Shreveport. In the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 21, 1995, Shaw defeated the politically unknown Democratic candidate, Jeff Rogers, 9,096 votes (66 percent) to 4,759 (34 percent). At the time of this election, there was an action pending in court involving Rogers and an alleged arson. There was also a whispering campaign regarding unsubstantiated rumors of Rogers' life-style choices.

Shaw was unopposed for his second term in 1999 and did not seek reelection to a third term in the House in the 2003 primary. Instead he returned in 2007 to contest the state Senate vacancy. In addition to Shaw and Montgomery, a term-limited District 9 state representative, the Senate candidates in 2007 included two other Republicans, oilman Jack Clary "Jay" Murrell, Jr. (born February 1949), a former Caddo Parish commissioner, Republican activist, and son-in-law of the Alexandria Democratic attorney DeWitt T. Methvin, Jr., and businessman Barrow Peacock, scion of a wealthy Shreveport family. Sheva Sims, an African-American female lawyer, was the only Democratic candidate in the race. She is now the Shreveport city judge.

Montgomery led in the primary with 7,524 votes (29 percent) to Shaw's 6,676 ballots (22 percent). Peacock finished third with 4,620 votes (18 percent). Sims ran fourth with 4,564 (17 percent), and Murrell finished last with 3,951 (15 percent). Shaw was considered more politically conservative than Montgomery.

Shaw, along with his former legislative colleague and political rival Billy Montgomery, have been inducted into the NSU Hall of Distinguished Educators. Montgomery, known as Coach Montgomery, is also a retired educator who received his bachelor's and master's degrees from NSU.

2011 election
Shaw did not seek a second term in the Senate in the primary held on October 22, 2011, State Representative Jane H. Smith of Bossier City, a former school superintendent, lost to Barrow Peacock, the businessman beaten in the 2007 contest for the same seat. Peacock hence succeeds Shaw in January 2012.