NEW ORLEANS — Norma Jane Sabiston, a force in local, state and national politics for more than 30 years as a political consultant, strategist, lobbyist and chief of staff to former Sen. Mary Landrieu, died Friday at Touro Infirmary after a brief illness. She was 65.
“Norma Jane was a true friend, a trusted advisor, a passionate advocate for our state and a guiding light to me and countless others who were fortunate indeed to know her and be loved by her,” Landrieu said in a statement.
Landrieu’s brother, former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, called Sabiston “one of the brightest lights that I have ever known.” In a tweet, he wrote that “she was so singular and wonderful to so many it is almost impossible to put into words.”
Gov. John Bel Edwards called Sabiston a “trailblazer for women in Louisiana politics,” deeply devoted to Louisiana and its people.
Sabiston was best known as former Sen. Landrieu’s chief of staff and campaign manager, but her time in Washington, D.C. also included years spent as a state and political director for former Sen. John Breaux and legislative assistant to former Rep. Billy Tauzin in the 1980s.
Over the years she also managed the political campaigns of many Democrats, including Mary Landrieu in her races for U.S. Senate. She also advised Mitch Landrieu during his campaigns for mayor and Lt. Governor.
Sabiston’s ties to the Landrieu family go back to childhood. Her mother Norma was a receptionist for former Mayor Moon Landrieu in the 1970s. As a teenager, Sabiston became close friends with Mary Landrieu as the two, both class presidents at their respective high schools, bonded on a trip to Louisiana Youth Seminar in Natchitoches.
The story of their friendship was chronicled in the 2000 book, “I Know Just What You Mean: The Power of Friendship in Women's Lives,” by authors Ellen Goodman and Patricia O’Brien.
“I didn't know a soul, and I looked around and I saw Norma Jane and she looked like the friendliest person,” Landrieu said in the book. “So I just went and sat right next to her. I mean, I could see she had the most spirited manner of the whole group.”
“What I remembered most about Mary on that trip was just how smart she was," said Sabiston. “I just knew this young woman was going someplace. And I watched her at the seminar, even though I was totally caught up in what I was doing, and so was she. I kept my eye on her the whole time. And actually, I've kind of done that throughout our friendship."
In the book, Landrieu recounts how she asked Sabiston to manage her 1995 campaign for Louisiana governor, which was ultimately unsuccessful. Soon after, Sabiston encouraged Landrieu to run for U.S. Senate in the race to replace the retiring J. Bennett Johnston.
“I wouldn't have done it without her," said Landrieu. “I just couldn't go through a race again without somebody that I absolutely, totally trusted."
Once Landrieu won, she named Sabiston as her chief of staff. "If I had looked all over the world, I couldn't have found a better person," Landrieu said in 1997 as she took office. "She's just a tremendous manager, great at inspiring and motivating people. She knows Louisiana well, she's home grown, and I'm very proud she's accepted the job."
In 2005, Sabiston left Landrieu's office and returned to Louisiana to join Marmillion Company as vice president. She later established her own firm, Sabiston Consultants, focusing on corporate and political consulting.
In politics, business and civic affairs, friends and colleagues said Sabiston excelled at leveraging her outgoing personality and personal connections to serve the public interest and those of nonprofit groups or clients with whom she worked.
“A great friend of countless people in Louisiana, Washington and across the nation,” is how WWL-TV political analyst Ron Faucheux described Sabiston on Saturday. He replaced Sabiston as Mary Landrieu’s chief of staff in 2005. He knew Sabiston from her youth, when she was a student volunteer for his first campaign for the Louisiana legislature.
“To say she was a dynamo is an understatement,” he said. “She was the ultimate ‘people person’ who had boundless love for everybody, especially the people of New Orleans and Louisiana. We never thought we'd know a world without her.”
Sabiston was a graduate of the University of New Orleans and former president of the school’s alumni association. She was named Distinguished Alumna of the College of Liberal Arts in 2001.
At the time of her death she served on the Audubon Park Commission. Other current or former board memberships include Louisiana Youth Seminar, E Pluribus Unum Institute and Fund, NORD Foundation, New Orleans Tricentennial Commission, LSU Health Sciences Foundation and Louisiana ArtWorks.
Survivors include her mother, Norma Lyttle Sabiston; four siblings, Dottie Belletto, Walter Sabiston III, Anita Pollack and Donna Linares; and several nieces and nephews.
Funeral arrangements have not been announced.
The family asks that donations be made in her name to Louisiana Youth Seminar and Krewe de Pink, a group that funds breast cancer research and supports cancer survivors, which Sabiston was.
