Beyond Words: Edwin W. Edwards

After Years in Politics and Prison, Louisiana Ex-Governor Will Run for Congress

Edwin W. Edwards announced his candidacy for Congress at a luncheon in Baton Rouge, La., on Monday.

William Widmer for The New York Times

 

By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON

March 17, 2014

BATON ROUGE, La. — After seven years in Congress, 16 years as governor, eight years in the federal penitentiary and several weeks of coyly prodding the speculation of political reporters, Edwin
Edwards, 86, announced on Monday that he would be running as a Democrat to represent Louisiana’s Sixth Congressional District.

“Iacta alea est,” Mr. Edwards said, after describing how Julius Caesar came to the rescue of the unhappy citizens of Rome. “The die is cast. Today I cross the Rubicon.”

The announcement, delivered at a gathering of the Baton Rouge Press Club, did not come with Caesar’s element of surprise. When Mr. Edwards entered the conference room at the Belle of Baton Rouge Casino and Hotel, leading his 35-year-old wife, Trina, and pushing his 7-month-old son, Eli, in a stroller, a large crowd was waiting with camera phones at the ready.


At the lectern, Mr. Edwards, who was released from prison in 2011, raised and rebutted various reasons he should not run, from his age to his criminal record. On the latter point he did not explicitly maintain his innocence, but forcefully questioned the propriety of his conviction in 2000 on federal charges of extortion in connection with the distribution of casino licenses.

On the issues, Mr. Edwards laid out a classic Blue Dog Democratic platform: urging the approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, criticizing President Obama’s health care plan while supporting certain elements like Medicaid expansion. He was more serious than salacious, holding in reserve his renowned talent for dirty jokes, but still showing flashes of wit, mostly in reference to his time in prison.

“I did not vote for Obama,” he said, apparently referring to the president’s 2008 election. “Where I was at the time there were no voting machines.”

While good-government advocates in Louisiana find an Edwards candidacy somewhere between exasperating and offensive, Mr. Edwards’s primary liability is probably the mere fact that he is a Democrat.

The Sixth is a solidly conservative district, wrapping around the city of Baton Rouge to allow for the majority-minority Second Congressional District, which follows the Mississippi River from New Orleans. The suburbs of Baton Rouge were never strong territory for Mr. Edwards, and while his most reliable constituencies — black voters and the voters in Cajun country — are likely to be enough to send him to a runoff, they would not be nearly enough, by themselves, to deliver a victory.

The district is represented by Bill Cassidy, a Republican, who is running for the Senate seat now held by Mary L. Landrieu, a Democrat. Several Republican candidates are already vying to take his place. One of them, Garret Graves, showed up to wish Mr. Edwards luck; others dismissed his candidacy as a throwback.

Among the most discussed political questions is what Mr. Edwards’s campaign might mean for Ms. Landrieu, who needs every Democratic vote she can get. Mr. Edwards said he had not discussed the race with her. (“Frankly,” he said, “I thought a long time about running for her seat.”) But in a brief interview after his announcement, Mr. Edwards took credit for her initial election to the Senate in 1996, saying his efforts to turn out the black vote on her behalf put her over the top.

The other question most often raised is why Mr. Edwards is running at all.

“I think the real reason he’s doing this it is it would just be fun,” said John Maginnis, a political columnist who has written two books on Mr. Edwards. “He gets to speak in black churches and march in parades, and he’ll be a big hit in the forums, which would be awful otherwise.”

Mr. Edwards’s post-prison life has hardly been quiet: He has gotten married and had a child, toured the state signing copies of his biography and starred with his family in a reality television show, “The Governor’s Wife.” The show was dropped by the A & E channel last year for low ratings, but its creator, Shaun Sanghani, said he hoped that it could come back to chronicle Mr. Edwards’ congressional run.

“When I got out of prison I assumed that I was just going to fade away because I didn’t know what kind of public reaction I would have,” Mr. Edwards explained in an interview. In his travels around the state, he continued, “everybody that I meet wants me to run for governor. Which I’d like to do.

But I’m prohibited by state law. But I’m qualified by the United States Constitution to run for Congress.”

Not everyone is dismissive of his prospects.

“Edwards has always kept his popularity even when he was in jail,” said Richard P. Guidry, a former Democratic state legislator. “You have to be a unique person to do that.”

Being sent to a federal prison, he noted, is “the kind of thing that gets you defeated.”


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