The newest Louisiana Board of Regents member Marty Chabert reclined in a wooden chair Thursday at his restaurant, Marty J’s, surveying the customers coming in and ordering from the menu — a list of poboys, seafood and burgers handwritten on a blackboard. Chabert yelled cheerfully, “Hey, patna,” and “How’s everything?” and “Thanks for coming,” to friends and strangers in the restaurant.
Chabert, a former LSU Board of Supervisors member, just finished two days of board and committee meetings in downtown Baton Rouge.
After helping approve the higher education budget for Louisiana, he relaxed momentarily at his restaurant before meeting with colleagues, then finally driving 100 miles south to his home in rural Chauvin, Louisiana. Chabert’s demeanor shifted from that of a board member to a friendly local as he bragged about his restaurant’s roast beef po’boy and the countless bayous in his hometown.
“I grew up in Chauvin, Louisiana, below Houma and above Cocodrie, and we were Cajun before it was cool to be Cajun,” he said.
Chabert’s family draws connections to Cajun culture and Louisiana politics. After running the first crawfish business in Terrebonne Parish in the late ’60s, his father served as a state representative and state senator throughout the ’70s and ’80s before dying in office in 1991, when Chabert took over his father’s position.
Chabert’s first taste of politics was working as an “unpaid legislative assistant” for his father when he was 18 years old. He said he took phone calls, ran coffee and sodas and did “everything that you could think of.”
“Just a wealth of knowledge — more than anything — was meeting all the interesting characters in Louisiana politics from the ’70s through the ’90s,” he said.
Some of those characters eat at Marty J’s, he said, rattling off a half dozen names of political acquaintances he made over the years.
The budget deficit today’s politicians expect is nothing new to Chabert, who entered the legislature in the ’90s with a $700 million hole to deal with. He said the governor called nine special sessions and a small constitutional convention to solve it.
He also recalled his time in the legislature, before social media and partisan divisions, as a time when politicians could still compromise.
“We were friends,” Chabert said. “We all had our different set of issues. The republicans had their issues, the democrats had their issues, the whites had their issues, the blacks had their issues. We debated them, we came to a conclusion — sometimes we shouted, sometimes we shook hands, but at the end of the day we were on somebody’s porch eating crawfish etouffee and fried fish.”
Chabert served on higher education boards after his time in the Senate. Then-Gov. Mike Foster appointed him to the University of Louisiana System Board of Supervisors in 1996 and governed a host of Louisiana universities before moving to the LSU Board of Supervisors in 2004.
“I’ve always been fascinated with higher education — when I was in the legislature ‘til today,” he said.
Strong higher education is the key to solving poverty, bringing business and helping students in the state, Chabert said.
Last month, Gov. Bobby Jindal appointed Chabert to the Louisiana Board of Regents, where he oversees all Louisiana public universities. He said the biggest difference between the LSU Board of Supervisors and the Board of Regents is the focus on “global issues.”
Chabert said the next governor should commit to funding higher education and give Board of Regents more authority.
“It’s gonna be interesting to see what the next governor brings to the table,” he said.
Chabert said between tackling higher education issues and running his businesses, he spends most of his time driving, travelling between Baton Rouge, Chauvin and Woodville, Mississippi, where he maintains a hunting lodge.
“My car was a year old in July and I put 46,000 miles on it,” He said. “So when people ask me where I live — I tell them in my car,” he said.
Chabert’s younger brother Republican Senator Norby Chabert, holds the same seat their father and Marty held in the ’80s and ’90s.
Marty said his brother found a paper from seventh grade documenting Marty’s ambitions — to own an offshore supply business, be a senator and own a fried chicken restaurant.
“Basically in 1992 me and my brother built a convenient store that served fried chicken, so I was a state senator, I was in the offshore supply business, and so I kinda hit all my goals there,” he said.
After decades of operating businesses and dipping his hand into different political offices, Marty opened Marty J’s on Nicholson Drive so his children could run it.

Gallery • 2 Photos

Nicholas Martino

Louisiana local, Marty Chabert, becomes new committee member for the Louisiana Board of Regents, on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2015, at Marty J’s.