User:SarahJaneJohns/Christopher Tidmore

Christopher Tidmore is best know as an investigative journalist and a political activist. Tidmore has served as senior advisor to two U.S. Senatorial campaigns and hosted one of Louisiana’s top political talkshows, political blogs and newspaper columns. He currently serves as Political and Associate Editor of The Louisiana Weekly, the state’s oldest and most respected African-American Newspaper, and hosts Tidmore Mornings on WSLA 1560 AM Slidell/New Orleans and KKAY 1590 AM White Castle/Baton Rouge from 7-8 AM, Monday-Friday. A native New Orleanian, Tidmore attended St. Martin’s High School, where he was known for his participation in Debate tournaments and Student Congresses--on a local and national level. In college, he interned at the Leadership Institute in Washington DC, the training ground for many young political activists, and served as the last research assistant to the late historian Dr. Stephen Ambrose, University of New Orleans. Jumping into politics at an early age, Tidmore first served as a campaign aide to Republican Quentin Dastugue’s bid for Governor in 1995 and Regional Campaign Coordinator for Woody Jenkins’s 1996 run for U.S. Senate. Later, while running his own marketing business and managing several others, Tidmore began to write columns for the Louisiana Weekly and several local publications, and unearthed political deals that were holding back the state, especially within the New Orleans Levee Board. His frequent editorials explored reforms that could be enacted quickly. In the late 1990’s, Tidmore launched his radio career on WTIX 690 AM with a successful political talkshow, called “Politically Speaking, Louisiana Style”. Amongst its achievements were getting former KKK leader David Duke to admit that he had not paid income taxes on the voting list he sold to Mike Foster--leading to search warrants of his home and offices, and his eventual indictment. Christopher hosted gavel to gavel national coverage of the opening of the D-Day Museum, and the first announcement of a presidential candidacy on his show. On his TV program of the same name, he hosted Louisiana’s only Presidential debate with representatives of all four campaigns, explored reforms in education, and the state of the local media. By mid 2001, Tidmore was part of the team that converted WBYU AM into a talk station. He also co-hosted a radio show with partner Sidney Arroyo (and in his newspaper column), first revealed that the President of the Orleans Levee Board Jim Huey had used public money to hire private investigators to follow a member of the media and several dissenting employees of the Levee District. This led to a statewide radio program with Louisiana Network on 14 stations across Louisiana and to several nationally syndicated newspaper columns covering war protests in Western Europe at the on-set of the Iraq War and to two series of articles about attitudes towards America in Egypt and in Russia. Also in late 2002, Tidmore took a leave of absence from his reporting work to serve as Communications Director for Republican Suzie Terrell in her race for the US Senate. Post-Katrina, Tidmore helped form the news department at 99.5 FM, the state’s newest news/talk radio station with mission statement of holding our politicians to account. He also first conceived, with his friend Roger Wilson, a proposal called Broadway South. It would extend the state tax credits that the film industry enjoys, to live legitimate performances: jazz, opera, ballet, cabaret, and theater. In 2007, Tidmore took a break from the news and ran for the Louisiana Legislature from District 82, which encompasses parts of Uptown, Old Jefferson, and Metairie. As a first time candidate, he won 43% of the vote while being outspent 4-1, losing to Cameron Henry. Most recently, Tidmore returned to daily radio, hosting the morning show from 7-8 AM on WSLA 1560 AM Slidell/New Orleans and KKAY 1590 AM White Castle/Baton Rouge. He serves on the Board of Directors for Crimefighters, Inc. (Louisiana's leading Victims Rights Organization) and as a Board member of the Winston Churchill Society of New Orleans, overseeing the group's annual high school essay contest. He continues to write a nationally syndicated column for the NNPA press association. He has appeared on ABC's Nightline and MSNBC's Maddow Show as an expert political commentator. (See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WpN4SkN50g and http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30686694/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/) Over the last ten years, Christopher has visited 37 countries. He has camped with Bedouins in the Sahara desert, rode stallions with Indian Princes across Rajasthan, fished with locals in the Arctic sea above Norway, and narrowly missed being bombed in the London Terrorist attack of 2005. He has written extensively on all these topics and more. Tidmore's articles can be found at www.gtmorning.com