Louisiana Elections

For the 600 students at predominantly black Southern University who crowded into an assembly hall for a rally here, the issue on the table was their future in a state governed by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. But what filled the air Wednesday afternoon was the past, lingering in sharp, precise images they are too young to remember: riding in the back of the bus, drawing water from a fountain marked Colored, fearing to disdain a man wearing a sheet.

Anh "Joseph" Cao, a Vietnamese-born former ethics teacher and Catholic seminarian, last winter surprised and delighted Republicans by defeating a longtime incumbent in a heavily Democratic congressional district in Louisiana. He provided another surprise -- but probably no delight -- to his party on Saturday when he became the lone Republican to vote for the healthcare bill pushed by President Obama. "I have always said that I would put aside partisan wrangling to do the business of the people," Cao said in a statement posted on his website.

Beverly Sylvester would rather vote for a scoundrel than for David Duke. That is why she said she will vote for Edwin W. Edwards in the Louisiana governor's race on Saturday. David Duke, the Republican candidate, is a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, former Nazi sympathizer and a one-term member of the state House of Representatives.

Democrat Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, riding an eleventh-hour surge in support and fending off a political upstart, was elected Louisiana's first female governor Saturday, dashing Republicans' hopes for a sweep of governor's seats in the Deep South. Blanco, 60, a conservative Democrat, seventh-generation Louisianan and lieutenant governor for the last eight years, becomes the seventh woman governor in the nation.

Democrat Edwin W. Edwards crushed former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke on Saturday to win a Louisiana governor's election keenly watched around the nation as a referendum on race relations and voter discontent. With 99% of the precincts reporting, Edwards, a three-time former governor, defeated Duke, a Republican state representative, by 61% to 39%. The vote totals were Edwards 1,061,233, Duke 681,278. More than 78% of Louisiana's 2.

It is decision day in Louisiana. Across the state, voters are expected to turn out in record numbers today to settle the gubernatorial race between former Democratic Gov. Edwin W. Edwards and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke--an election whose reverberations will be felt around the nation, if not the world. After a raucous campaign that has simultaneously riveted and revolted a state accustomed to extravagant elections, surveys conducted earlier this week gave Edwards the lead.

Football fans familiar with pro football's first 72 years divide into two groups when evaluating the last decade or so in the NFL. There are those who call it an era of mediocrity. And there are those who say that football is better than ever. Some support for the second view came the other day from the editors of Pro Football Weekly, who rated nine 1990s players as certain Hall of Famers in future voting.

Just four years after former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke galvanized Louisiana with a close run for governor, people woke up Sunday to a new political day--a runoff featuring the first black candidate since Reconstruction. Experts gave Democratic Rep. Cleo Fields virtually no chance of winning the governor's mansion when he faces state Sen. Mike Foster on Nov. 18.

Former state Rep. David Vitter was elected to succeed Bob Livingston in Congress, winning a close election over former Gov. Dave Treen. With 99% of the precincts reporting, Vitter got 51% to Treen's 49%. The two solidly conservative Republican lawyers, both veteran politicians, struggled to point out their differences after they were the top finishers in a field of nine in a May 1 primary.

Patrick J. Buchanan on Wednesday became the second major GOP presidential candidate to refuse to sign an Iowa Republican Party pledge to boycott Louisiana's caucuses. The pledge is part of the Iowa GOP's effort to protect the state's status as host of the first presidential caucuses. State party officials had set Wednesday as the deadline for presidential hopefuls to sign a pledge to boycott Louisiana unless it rescheduled its caucuses to follow Iowa's. The Louisiana caucuses are set for Feb.

Louisiana Gov. Mike Foster won a second term Saturday, becoming the second member of his family to usher in a new century as governor. The state's unique open primary system pits all candidates against one another in one primary race, regardless of party. If no one wins more than half the votes, the top two candidates go into a runoff. Foster, a Republican, received well over half, easily besting his 11 challengers. His top-running challenger, Rep.

Former state Rep. David Vitter was elected to succeed Bob Livingston in Congress, winning a close election over former Gov. Dave Treen. With 99% of the precincts reporting, Vitter got 51% to Treen's 49%. The two solidly conservative Republican lawyers, both veteran politicians, struggled to point out their differences after they were the top finishers in a field of nine in a May 1 primary.

Two death threats, both signed "KKK," against a Louisiana Supreme Court candidate and a campaign supporter are considered "very serious" and are being investigated as hate crimes, an FBI spokeswoman said. Democrat Bill Quigley, a teacher at Loyola University Law School who volunteers as a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, said he received the threat Thursday.

After months of partisan wrangling, the Senate Rules Committee affirmed the election of Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu and voted, 16 to 0, to end an inquiry that had disrupted Senate business. The committee cited evidence of "some irregularities and isolated incidences of fraud" in Landrieu's close November 1996 win over Republican Woody Jenkins--but not enough to justify reversing the outcome.

Democrats on the Senate committee investigating allegations of voting irregularities in last year's Louisiana Senate election withdrew from the probe. Sen. Wendell H. Ford of Kentucky, ranking Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee, said members of his party view the investigation as partisan. The probe stems from complaints of fraud and corruption filed by the GOP loser in the election, Woody Jenkins, who lost to Democrat Mary Landrieu by 5,788 votes.

Records show dead people voted for Democrat Mary Landrieu for senator, part of a pattern of widespread election law fraud, a political education group charged. A national Democratic group called it a conspiracy theory of "wild accusations." Leaders of the Voting Integrity Project Inc. said they had confirmed some of the allegations made by Republican Woody Jenkins, who lost the Nov. 5 election to Landrieu by 6,000 votes, and urged the Senate and FBI to investigate.

After months of partisan wrangling, the Senate Rules Committee affirmed the election of Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu and voted, 16 to 0, to end an inquiry that had disrupted Senate business. The committee cited evidence of "some irregularities and isolated incidences of fraud" in Landrieu's close November 1996 win over Republican Woody Jenkins--but not enough to justify reversing the outcome.

For incumbents, this continues to be the year of living dangerously. On Saturday in Louisiana, three-term Democratic Sen. J. Bennett Johnston narrowly escaped a stunning challenge from state Rep. David Duke--an improbable opponent, whose political baggage included service as the grand wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, ties to neo-Nazi and other anti-Semitic groups, fabrication of a war record in Vietnam and embarrassing disclosures that he had once authored a sex manual for women.

Republican state Rep. Woody Jenkins, who opposes all abortions and wants to abolish the Internal Revenue Service, capped a remarkable surge Saturday by finishing first in Louisiana's Senate primary. Former state Treasurer Mary Landrieu edged a fellow Democrat for the second spot in a November runoff. Jenkins had appeared destined for a third-place finish as recently as a week ago, when polls suggested the GOP might be shut out of the runoff altogether.

Patrick J. Buchanan got the official Republican presidential campaign off to an astounding start Tuesday by defeating Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas in Louisiana's caucuses--an arena that Gramm, himself, had fashioned in the hopes of jump-starting his own campaign. The victory allows Buchanan to present himself as the preeminent conservative challenger to the current front-runners, magazine publisher Steve Forbes and Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas.