In 1918, Brooks came to Tensas Parish, where two years later, he purchased the Botany Bay Plantation on Lake Bruin near the parish seat of government of St. Joseph. In the Senate, he was assigned to the Agriculture, Land, and Levees committees. Brooks was also the chairman of the Senate Public Parks and Public Buildings Committee He served alongside Norris C. Williamson of East Carroll Parish, an unwavering conservative and an unyielding critic of GovernorHuey Pierce Long, Jr. Williamson retired to private life in 1932, rather than face likely defeat at the hands of the Longites, and his seat passed to Andrew L. Sevier of Tallulah. Brooks was unseated in his 1932 bid for a third Senate term by the banker Daniel B. Fleming of Ferriday in Concordia Parish. Himself generally anti-Long in the preceding term, Brooks equivocated regarding Longism and disappointed some of his original supporters who felt that he had not stood by his principles. Josiah Scott, editor of the Tensas Gazette, wrote that Brooks had "a way of 'standing in' with both sides.... keeping posted on all that goes on in the camp of his friends and in the camp of his enemies alike." Scott noted that Brooks had found ways to get policies and programs supported in the delta, such as bridge work, approved despite the general hostility of the Long administration. In December 1931, Brooks appeared at a Long rally in Lake Providence in East Carroll Parish on behalf of Long's chosen successor as governor, O. K. Allen. Brooks endorsed Allen for governor and promised if retained in the Senate to support the Long-Allen agenda over the next four years. Brooks, however, was caught between pro-Long sentiment in the lower delta which coalesced behind Fleming and the conservative planter candidate, Andrew Sevier, in the upper delta. Two seats were at stake; Fleming and Sevier prevailed, with Brooks cast aside for reelection. Emerging pro-Long voters in Brooks' own Tensas Parish even turned to Fleming.
Personal life
Brooks was affiliated with the Knights of Pythias. In 1915, he married the former Linda Mae Sibley, a native of Bossier Parish, who was residing with her parents in Shreveport. Linda took an active role in civic matters and founded the first Girl Scout troop in St. Joseph. Four years after Brooks' death, Linda married Dr. George Watts Dubuisson, who died in 1952. She continued to operate Botany Bay Plantation after the deaths of both husbands. She died at the since defunct St. Charles Legion Memorial Hospital in Newellton. Both Dubuissons are interred at Legion Memorial Cemetery in Newellton; Clifford Brooks' burial place is unknown.
