I wanted to bring back some old political history, simply to fulfill folks curiosity. Everyone here has probably heard of Edwin Edwards, of "The only way I can lose this election is if I'm caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy" fame. Well, here's some background so that political junkies and history buffs have some background to go on.
Edwards first ran for Governor in 1971, after served just over one term in the U.S. House, and one in the Louisiana State Senate, (where he had upset a 20 year incumbent in 1964, for a seat covering Crowley and Acadia parish). Incumbent populist Democrat John McKeithen was term limited, and Edwards ran to replace him, along with the legendary Jimmie Davis (his last campaign), and the young upstart Shreveport State Senator J. Bennett Johnson. Both ran as reformers, but Edwards proved a more deft campaigner, and, despite Louisiana's typical aversion to Cajun politicians, defeated Johnson in the Democratic primary 50.2% - 49.8%, on the basis of Cajun, Creole, and black voters. He went on to defeat Republican David Treen 57-43 in the General Election.
On a side note. J. Bennett Johnson went on to run against the 82 year old, 6 term incumbent U.S. Senator, Allen Ellender of Houma. My grandfather played flag football on Ellender's lawn and used to caddy for him, and when asked about him, still praises the man. Ellender was a standard conservative Democrat, with the exception that he wasn't very hawkish on foreign policy and opposed the Vietnam war. Ellender was well known among his Senate colleagues for his Cajun cooking, and the U.S. Senate Dining Room still serves "Ellender Gumbo." However, in 1972, during the Democratic primary Ellender died and Johnson won the priamry and general election, holding the seat for 24 year until his preferred sucessor, Mary Landrieu won it in 1996.
Edwards was easily reelected in 1975, and in 1979 he sabotaged the campaign of Democrat Louis Lambert, and put Republican Congressman David Treen in office, believing Treen would be easiest to defeat. Indeed Treen had to govern with the specter of Edwards over him, as Edwards began campaigning and crisscrossing the state long before 1983, maintaining his "government in waiting." Treen was wildly popular as governor, for sure, but he was unprepared to deal with the loyalty of Edwards' coalition and political skills. Edwards hit Treen with some truly stunning put downs, including the memorable, and classic, "David Treen is so slow it takes him an hour and a half to watch 60 Minutes." And Edwards also made his famous "dead girl, live boy" remark in relation to this election, which he won 63-37 despite Treen's 70% approval rating.
This third term proved to be a disaster (more on that later). And the next time around Edwards faced a crowded field of opponents, as the religious anti-gambling lobby, North Louisiana, and good government types came after him with the long knives. It was quite an election. Republican Congressman Bob Livingston, then Democratic Congressman Billy Tauzin of Houma (who later founded the Blue Dog Coalition and then switched to the Republican party for no discernible reason other than assholishness), Secretary of State Jim Ferriday, and Democratic Congressman Buddy Roemer of Shreveport all ran against him.
In the end, Buddy Roemer's hypocritical self-righteousness vaunted him to 1st place in the first round of the blanket primary. During a debate, all candidates were asked if they would endorse Edwards should they fail to make the runoff. Roemer took off after saying "No, we've got to slay the dragon. I would endorse anyone but Edwards." I find it hypocritical because Roemer's dad was a high-level Edwards official who was indicted for corruption and mafia ties during Edwards' first tenure as Governor. The results in the first round of voting were 33% - Roemer, 28% - Edwards, and Edwards promptly dropped out, a move that to people at the time seemed to show Edwards acknowledging the end of his political career.
However, it was actually political kabuki, very high level political kabuki. By dropping out, Edwards actually subtly set Roemer up for failure. Conceding the governorship to Roemer before the runoff campaign meant that Edwards' denied Roemer the chance to establish a real, governing coalition and made him a 33% governor lacking in rapport with various political groups. Ironically, after the 1987 gubernatorial election, the Shreveport Times wrote that the only way Edwards could ever be elected again was if he ran against Adolf Hitler.
In 1991, Buddy Roemer was bogged down himself, having been a spectacularly inept politician. Roemer did the right thing in finally getting Edwards' gambling and lottery proposals through, but it meant the "Baptist" lobby was pissed off at him. And his decision to switch to the Republican party pissed off all the old school Democratic establishment voters. Lastly, Roemer vetoed a highly controversial abortion bill, the Cross Bill, that banned abortion even in cases of incest, and he did it practically, saying it simply wasn't a legal measure and would get overthrown. Well, his veto was overridden, (which is how socially conservative Louisiana's legislature has almost always been), and the bill was later struck down by a Federal District Judge, but the political damage to Roemer was done. Roemer also tried ambitious reforms, had to deal with big budget deficits, and actually put importance to environmental protection and angered the gas and oil industry.
So why did Roemer switch parties? Taking the disastrous advice of the continually idiotic and inept John Sununu, Bush's Chief of Staff who was meddling with parochial state politics. Roemer's party switch didn't just anger Democrats, it actually upset the party he was switching to! Roemer had to skip the Louisiana Republican party's endorsement convention, where they endorsed social conservative congressman, Clyde Holloway. Marine Shale, a company targetted by Roemer's administration as a polluter, spent half a million dollars on anti-Roemer ads.
In essence, Roemer wasn't a bad governor. Most of what he tried to do was fundamentally sound in my opinion, and he was actually a genuine moderate, opened minded and pragmatic. But his lack of political skills and attempts to do the right thing, meant that he had no natural base his 1991 reelection campaign, and thus came in a distant 3rd place, behind a crook and a neo-nazi Republican State Representative, the legendary-for-all-the-wrong-reasons David Duke. Now David Duke had run for Senate against the non-offensive 3 term incumbent, J. Bennett Johnson in 1990, and had the same clouds of white supremacy hanging over his head, and come up short only 54-46, so he had a strong base of supporters and that was before he became totally deranged and still had some political charm and campaigning skills, including the ability to disgusie his racism like most Republicans do these days.
Edwards' charm and wit were once again in full swing. When asked if he had anything in common with Duke, Edwards replied, "The only thing we have in common is that we both have been wizards beneath the sheets." His campaign released popular bumper stickers like "Vote for the Crook. It's important." And poked fun at his serpentine reputation from the 1987 campaign ("Slay the Dragon"), with "Vote for the Lizard, not the Wizard." bumper stickers. That's the kind of chutzpah Edwards had; to turn his own ubiquitous corruption into a running gagline and marginalize its importance. In the end, Edwards did much better than Johnson, defeating Duke 61-39.