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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Louisiana: Bill would expand racketeering crimes

Bill would expand racketeering crimes
BY MICHELLE MILLHOLLON
Capitol news bureau

Without discussion, a Louisiana House committee agreed Wednesday that racketeering should target more white collar crimes in Louisiana.

House Bill 99 by state Rep. Cameron Henry, R-New Orleans, sailed through the House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice. The legislation moves to the House floor for consideration.

The bill would greatly expand the definition of racketeering in state law. More crimes would apply, exposing more offenders to lengthier sentences for criminal patterns.

Henry said he is seeking uniformity.

“It was brought to my attention that our state racketeering laws don’t mirror federal racketeering laws,” he said.

Henry said he is not trying to pick on what are known as white collar criminals who commit nonviolent crimes.

In Louisiana, 11 offenders are in state prisons for racketeering activity, according to the Legislative Fiscal Office.

Federal racketeering charges helped send former Gov. Edwin Edwards to prison for 10 years in a case involving riverboat casino licenses.

State racketeering charges generally are for more violent crimes such as murder.

The charges currently included as racketeering activity under state law are solicitation for murder, first-degree murder, solicitation for murder, second-degree murder, assault by drive-by shooting, aggravated kidnapping, second-degree kidnapping, aggravated arson, carjacking, extortion, theft, certain controlled dangerous substance violations, pandering, money laundering, simple kidnapping, simple arson, aggravated criminal damage to property, simple criminal damage to property, aggravated burglary, simple burglary, simple burglary of an inhabited dwelling, simple burglary of a pharmacy, unauthorized entry of inhabited dwelling, first-degree robbery, second-degree robbery, simple robbery and unlawful securities practices.

Henry’s bill would add 14 charges to the list: public bribery; corrupt influencing; public intimidation and retaliation; threatening a public official; terrorism; aiding others in terrorism; intimidating, impeding or injuring witnesses; injuring public records, filing or maintaining false public records; abuse of office; public salary deduction; public salary extortion; public payroll fraud; public contract fraud; and prohibited splitting of profits, fees or commissions.

E. Pete Adams, executive director of the Louisiana District Attorney Association, said Henry is focusing on corruption crimes as a way to establish a chain of criminal activity.

“It ups the ante,” he said.

Adams said racketeering gives prosecutors a way to enhance penalties by showing a pattern of criminal activity.

On Henry’s behalf, Adams outlined the bill to members of the House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice.

“There are no questions,” state Rep. Helena Moreno, D-New Orleans, said when Adams finished.

The Legislative Fiscal Office estimated the legislation could increase the state’s expenses by convicting people under new additions to the racketeering law.

“You broke the law, you go to jail,” Henry said after the meeting.

Edwards is out, era ends "" or does it?

Edwards is out, era ends "" or does it?

Former Gov. Edwin W. Edwards signed papers this week that effectively ended his nine years of federal incarceration on a 2000 riverboat racketeering conviction. The last six months have been spent in house arrest with reporting requirements at a halfway house. That all ended Wednesday with the ex-governor's trip to a Cracker Barrel restaurant for breakfast without permission from federal authorities.

So ends a sorry episode in the life of a popular four-term governor and in the history of Louisiana. The entire Edwards prosecution, from the time he testified before a federal grand jury in 1998 to his release on Wednesday, spanned more than 13 years. We'd like to think that those 13 years might have provided a deterrent, or at least a useful lesson, to anyone tempted to stray from ethical standards of conduct in politics. Sadly, the evidence suggests otherwise.

The federal case against former Gov. Edwards was about corruption on a scale and with a brazenness that placed it in a class by itself. Former San Francisco 49ers owner Ed DeBartolo Jr. testified that he had paid $400,000 to Edwards in 1997 for the former governor's help in obtaining Louisiana's final riverboat casino license — only to feel another Edwards squeeze, a request for a $10,000-a-month retainer for Edwards' son, Stephen. A tugboat owner, Robert Guidry, testified that while Edwards was still governor, he negotiated a deal with a member of the Edwards administration to pay $1 million in cash, sometimes in $100 bills, for a hearing that might have let Guidry open a casino.

Edwards was already 72 by the time he was convicted. He is now 83. The book tour he plans to launch soon would have been a better way for the governor to spend retirement than being locked up for eight years in a federal prison.

If the crimes were brash and the prosecution well publicized, we'd expect other officials to notice and, maybe, to change their behavior. Sadly, the evidence suggests otherwise.

U.S. Rep. William Jefferson was convicted in a bribery scheme.

Locally, an audit found hundreds of thousands of dollars in questionable spending at the Opelousas Housing Authority, including money described as "severance" for former Executive Director Walter Guillory, even though it was paid by check to his consulting company. In Lafayette, the housing authority was criticized in an audit for throwing hundreds of thousands of federal dollars at employees who were supposed to be helping hurricane victims find a place to live. Back in Opelousas, yet another audit says that two employees stole from the city government for years before they were caught.

Some have compared the Edwards case to a Greek tragedy, in which a single flaw brings a great man low. But the purpose of a stage tragedy is to impart a lesson. And it's not clear that public officials learned anything from the tale of Edwin Edwards' crime and punishment.

Louisiana style Crime and Corruption

Timeline Of Key Developments In Edwards Case

Key developments in the federal investigation, conviction and imprisonment of former Gov. Edwin Edwards:

-April 1996: Texas brothers Patrick and Michael Graham approach FBI in New Orleans with information about alleged criminal activity involving elected officials in Louisiana.

-October 1996: Federal investigators tap Edwards' Baton Rouge home phone.

-December 1996: Federal investigators place microphone and video camera in the law office Edwards shared with his son, Stephen Edwards.

-April 1997: FBI agents raid Edwards' home and law office. The homes and offices of Edwards' relatives, friends and business associates are also searched.

-Nov 1998: Edwards indicted in gambling corruption case. Also indicted are Edwards' son, Stephen, and several others.

-January 2000: Trial begins.

-May 9, 2000: Edwards convicted. Four others, including Stephen Edwards also convicted.

-January 2001: Edwards sentenced to 10 years and $250,000 fine.

-Oct. 21, 2002: Edwards reports to a federal prison in Fort Worth, TX.

-February 2003: U.S. Supreme Court rejects Edwards appeal.

-November 2004: Edwards moved to the federal prison at Oakdale.

-September 2007: Stephen Edwards released from Beaumont, TX, prison.

-January 2011: Edwards released from Oakdale prison and moved to a halfway house.