[1] Wooley attended Ouachita Parish High School in Monroe, where his father headed another educational institution for special-needs children.
He obtained his Juris Doctor degree in 1977 from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, and was admitted to the Bar on October 7, 1977.
In that same election, the Democrat Kathleen Babineaux Blanco defeated the Republican gubernatorial choice, Bobby Jindal,[6] who rebounded four years later to claim the state's highest constitutional office.
Wooley resigned as commissioner on February 15, 2006, to take a legal position with the firm Adams and Reese in Baton Rouge, which also employs former Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives E. L. "Bubba" Henry.
[8] Donelon subsequently won the office in a special election held in the fall of 2006 by defeating Republican State Senator James David Cain of Beauregard Parish.
He is a member of the First United Methodist Church of Baton Rouge, LA and is Past President of the Board of the Wesley Foundation Campus Ministry at Louisiana State University Wooley is a sailing enthusiast who holds a 100-ton master's license from the United States Coast Guard and has raced sailboats across the Caribbean Sea.