La. Secretary of State Rehires Former Top Deputy Away from Insurance Dept.

Louisiana Secretary of State Fox McKeithen, who was paralyzed in a fall last month, has rehired his former top aide.

Al Ater, who once served as first assistant secretary of state, will return to the office, leaving his job as chief deputy insurance commissioner.

Ater served as McKeithen’s top deputy from 2001 to last August. He is a longtime personal friend and political ally of McKeithen.

Rene Fontenot Free moves from being McKeithen’s top deputy to Ater’s chief of staff.

Free said she did not feel slighted by the move.

“This is a good thing,” she said. “I have six months of experience and he had three years. Al is obviously well versed in politics and dealing with the Legislature.”

Ater said McKeithen, who has trouble talking because he is on a ventilator at times, asked him to return to the secretary of state’s office and Free went along with it.

“I returned because I was asked,” Ater said. “It gives me a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction in assisting a friend.”

Ater oversaw the merger of the commissioner of elections office into the secretary of state’s office in 2003 and 2004.

McKeithen is expected to be released from Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge to begin rehabilitation, said Jennifer Marusak, a spokeswoman for McKeithen. Doctors have not yet determined if the paralysis is permanent, she said.

McKeithen was injured in a fall at his home.

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Topics Louisiana