Royal Alexander

Richard Royal Alexander is an attorney and politician in his native Shreveport, Louisiana, who in 2007 was the Republican-endorsed candidate for state attorney general.

Education and career

The fifth of twelve children born to a prominent Shreveport businessman, Alexander was educated in private elementary and secondary schools. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Louisiana State University in Shreveport. He obtained his law degree from Oklahoma City University School of Law where he served on Law Review and Moot Court, both intramural and on the Benton National Moot Court Team. He was a law clerk to Judge Rebecca F. Doherty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. An appointee of former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, Doherty is based in Lafayette and Opelousas. Himself a former administrative law judge, Alexander has also been in private practice, handling both criminal and civil cases.

Alexander was chief of staff to former U.S. Representative Rodney Alexander of Louisiana's 5th congressional district. The two are unrelated. In 2006, the Democrats in Washington, D.C., accused Royal Alexander and several others, including members of Congress, of having acted too slowly regarding the disclosure of the name of the congressional page who was sent inappropriate email messages by then U.S. Representative Mark Foley of Florida. (The page lived in Rodney Alexander's House district.) Evidence showed that Royal Alexander reported the inappropriate email messages to the staff of House leadership upon his learning of the information. No one, including Alexander, was punished, fined or sanctioned. The matter quickly died after the 2006 congressional election, in which Democrats gained control of both houses of Congress.