re: Edwin Edwards vs. David Duke Governor Race 1991

IIRC, Duke got almost 40% of the vote against Edwards. So Edwards won in a landslide, but the reality is that almost 4 out of 10 LA voters voted for Duke. I can assure you that they weren't all Edwards "protest" votes. Duke had plenty of supporters.

I was born in New Orleans, grew up in Metairie and was living Uptown and working in the CBD 1991. Most people in business who supported Duke had the good sense to be discreet about it, but he obviously had supporters.

Duke was very popular in the Bucktown area of Metairie. He lived on Lake Ave. and there were Duke signs everywhere. There were Duke signs all over Metairie, but they were almost in front of every house in Bucktown.

I was working for a large bank, so voting for Duke was not in my best interest. But there were plenty of people to whom Duke's NAAWP movement appealed to ... Approximately 4 out of 10 state wide. Locally, you had people who felt black Democratic leadership was running New Orleans into the ground and that Duke might be able to counter that.

The reality is that the guy has been proven to be a con artist, just like many politicians. As bad as Edwards was, I think Duke would have been worse.

I would vote for Buddy Roemer today.

He has very good ideas for the state. Perhaps his political collapse has taught him some humility and some appreciation for organizing to advance his ideas.

I was living in Oklahoma at the time and Louisiana was a laughing stock. Known as “looser-Ana.”

This was my first election as a newly registered voter! I am a conservative but I voted for two democrats in my life. One was Edwin Edwards in this election and the other was Sen John Breaux!

It was embarrassing for the state.

I think his call to get rid of welfare was what people were really supporting. Not saying that isn't rooted in racism also, just what I remember from back then. I was a child though.

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Since James Meredith became a Republican well before that, it doesn't surprise me that he endorsed Duke. All that was after he benefited from the civil rights movement, sort of like Clarence Thomas. Guess they didn't need the civil rights movement after they got theirs.

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I guess you must be too young to know that MLKing was a Republican as were the original leaders of the Civil rights movement.

LBJ attempt to take ownership of the civil rights movement after the Kennedy assasination so that he could get the black vote onto the Dem Plantation.

The Dems had been anti black since the civil war days...

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That election was a no-brainer, except for closet racists like you who justified voting for a racist neo-Nazi because he said the right things to you about welfare and how white people were being "oppressed."

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You sure are mad about a vote I cast almost 30 years ago as a young man.

I was dumbstruck at how many idiots supported Duke. I get that Edwards had baggage, but it was still too close for my liking.