Joel Robideaux

Term-limited in the House, Robideaux was elected in the October 24, 2015 primary as the mayor-president of Lafayette Parish. He defeated another Republican candidate, Dee Stanley, 31,624 (55.7 percent) to 25,156 (44.3 percent).

On September 1, 2011, Robideaux announced that he was joining the Republican Party. Earlier Robideaux was chosen Speaker Pro Tempore over Democrat Noble Ellington of Winnsboro, who later switched to Republican affiliation. The contest became open with the resignation of Democratic Representative Karen Carter Peterson, who instead became a state senator.

Robideaux, as a newly declared Republican, was a runaway winner over his lone opponent, Libertarian W. David Chance, in the primary election held on October 22, 2011.

Robideaux was a candidate for Speaker in 2012. On October 25, 2011, Governor Bobby Jindal endorsed Chuck Kleckley of Lake Charles as his choice to succeed the term-limited Jim Tucker. Others seeking the Speakership were Baton Rouge Republican Representatives Hunter Greene and Erich Ponti and Democrat Jeff Arnold of New Orleans. Because the House of Representatives usually confirms the governor's choice as the Speaker, Robideaux soon abandoned the competition.

Outgoing Speaker Tucker, meanwhile, narrowly lost his race against Republican incumbent Tom Schedler for Louisiana Secretary of State in the 2011 primary election.

First an Independent, Robideaux is a former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for District 45 in Lafayette Parish. In 2010, he was narrowly elected Speaker Pro Tempore of the chamber, the first Independent ever to hold that position.

In 2010, Robideaux voted 100 percent with the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry. He supported the Louisiana Family Forum 90 percent of the time in 2010 but only 75 percent in 2009. In 2011, he voted against a failed proposal to ban hand-held cellular devices while driving. He also opposed an increase in the state tobacco tax.

A Lafayette native, Robideaux graduated from the Roman Catholic Our Lady of Fatima High School and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, then known as the University of Southwestern Louisiana. He obtained a master's degree in finance from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Robideaux coaches youth sports and has taught accounting on an adjunct basis at ULL. He was the charter president of Kiwanis International of Vermilion. He is a former board member for Camp Bon Coeur and Habitat for Humanity. He and his wife, Bobette M. Robideaux, have three sons. In 2007, Robideaux and his then Louisiana State Senate colleague Michael J. Michot of Lafayette sponsored the transportation bill to fund priority road projects.

Unopposed for a second term in 2007, Robideaux served on these committees: (1) Retirement, (2) Ways and Means, (3) Appropriations (ex officio by virtue of being Speaker Pro Tempore), (4) Joint Legislative Committee on Capital Outlay, (5) Legislative Budgetary Control Council, (6) House Executive Committee (ex officio), and (7) Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget (ex officio).

Robideaux was first elected to the House in a special election held in the spring of 2004 to succeed Democrat Jerry Luke LeBlanc, who resigned to become the commissioner of administration under Governor Kathleen Blanco of Lafayette. Robideaux finished second in the special election, with 1,622 votes (27 percent). Leading the five-candidate field was Republican Steven G. "Buzz" Durio, with 1,850 votes (30.9 percent). Two other Republicans, Denice Comeaux-Skinner and L. T. "Butch" Dupre, and another Independent, Beverly Broussard Wilson, polled the remaining but critical 42 percent of the vote. No Democrat ran that year. In the second balloting on April 17, Robideaux defeated Durio, 2,751 (55 percent) to 2,223 (44.7 percent).

Joel Craig Robideaux (born October 5, 1962) is a politician and accountant from Lafayette, Louisiana, who was the president of the Lafayette Parish government from 2016 to 2020, when he didn’t seek re-election.