Liz Swaine

Elizabeth Swaine Culp, known as Liz Swaine (born May 11, 1960), is an American journalist and former civil servant. Formerly a television anchorwoman with the ABC affiliate KTBS-TV, she ran unsuccessfully in 2006 for the office of mayor of Shreveport, the seat of Caddo Parish and the third largest city in Louisiana.

A native of Chipley in Washington County in the Florida Panhandle, Swaine was the daughter of Albert M. Swaine (1914-1983). She holds an Associate of Arts degree in broadcast journalism from the University of West Florida in Pensacola, Florida, which she attended from 1978 to 1980. She was employed by WEAR-TV, which covers the Pensacola and Mobile, Alabama, media market.

In 1981, the 21-year-old relocated to Shreveport to join the KTBS news department, having been personally recruited for the position by station manager Edwin Wray, who saw her on WEAR-TV while he was vacationing in the area. She remained at KTBS, having worked alongside such journalists as Al Pierce and Ed Baswell, until she resigned in 1998 to become executive assistant to then Shreveport Mayor Keith Hightower, who was subsequently term limited in 2006 after consecutive elections in 1998 and 2002. Swaine’s annual salary as executive assistant was $108,526.56, only $1,100 less than Hightower’s $109,623.84.