Richard Alvin Tonry

Richard Alvin Tonry (June 25, 1935 – July 3, 2012) was an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the United States House of Representatives for Louisiana's 1st congressional district for a partial term in 1977.

Education He graduated in 1962 from Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama. In 1967, he earned a Juris Doctor degree from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. He practiced law in the New Orleans area for almost a decade before being elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in the first-ever nonpartisan blanket primary held at the state level in the fall of 1975.

Politics He served a year (1976) in Louisiana House District 103. In the state House, he was an unabashed supporter of organized labor and was particularly close to Louisiana AFL-CIO leader Victor Bussie. Tonry led the push to kill a right-to-work bill in the 1976 legislative session, but those efforts failed and the bill became law without the signature of Governor Edwin W. Edwards, who, like Tonry, was a strong supporter of organized labor and close friend of Bussie's. Thus, Louisiana became the last Southern state to adopt a right-to-work bill.

Shortly after taking his state House seat, Tonry declared his candidacy for the United States Congress from Louisiana's 1st congressional district after the 36-year Democratic incumbent, F. Edward Hébert, announced his retirement. In the Democratic primary, Tonry upset New Orleans City Councilman James Moreau, then narrowly defeated Republican Bob Livingston, an assistant state attorney general, in the general election. It was one of the last congressional elections held before Louisiana adopted its nonpartisan blanket primary for such elections in 1978. on charges of allowing subordinates to steal votes by stuffing ballot boxes in St. Bernard Parish, a suburb of New Orleans. He was also charged with receiving illegal campaign funds beyond the $1,000 federal limit then imposed per contribution.

These allegations ultimately led to his resignation, his guilty pleas of campaign-finance irregularities, and a six-month prison sentence at the Federal Prison Camp in Montgomery, Alabama.

Death Tonry died of natural causes in 2012 at the age of 77 and is interred at St. Bernard Memorial Gardens in Chalmette, Louisiana.