Louisiana poll blunts Reagan’s hopes

Press, 4 November 1983, Page 13

Louisiana poll blunts Reagan’s hopes

The overwhelming victory of a Democrat, Edwin Edwards, in last month’s election for Governor of Louisiana, over David Treen,'the first Republican to occupy the State House since the civil war, is being studied for what it augurs for President Ronald Reagan’s re-elec-tion chances next year.

The election of Edwards to the Governor’s mansion marks the second Republican loss of a Southern state in less than a year. Last autumn, the • Democrats regained the governorship of Texas. The loss of these oil-rich states, which have been deeply affected by Reagan’s economic policies, appears to shrink the President’s and the Republican Party’s Southern base. ’ ■■

Reagan carried Louisiana in 1980 with the help of Treen, who had won the governorship in 1979 as the country turned to the flight. Treen,

who tried to cultivate black voters, refused to ask the President to campaign in Louisiana for fear that a Reagan visit would upset his strategy. Shunning the President’s support was to no avail. Edwards buried Treen’s re-election hopes in an avalanche of votes — 1002,589 to 585,-385, or 61.9 per cent of the total votes.

In many ways Edwards defied current political wisdom and espoused the traditional policies of the Democratic Party. He dismissed criticism that this would inhibit local and Wall Street investment in. the state’s industries.

Treen, a former Democrat and former segregationist, stood bn a platform of honesty in government and fiscal responsibility. Republi-. cans maintain that his defeat has not hurt the President or the party, which is weak |M)t only in Louisi-

ana but throughout the South. Supported by blacks and organised labour in the cities, and by white Catholics and Protestants in poor rural areas which are still suffering from the economic recession that has ravaged the South, Edwards charged that Treen’s fiscal policies, which parallel those of the President, had caused needless unemployment, and had hurt the elderly, poor and blacks. More important, Edwards committed himself to restoring taxes that have been cut or reduced by Treen.

Many observers dismiss the national implications of Louisiana because Louisiana politics are so lusty and bizarre. Louisianans enjoy wit and humour in politics and admire slick politicians like Edwards, a jaunty lawyer who speaks with the slight French accent of the state’s Cajuns dubs himself

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a “Coonass,” that being the term Cajuns use for themselves as a separate ethnic group. Edwards spent more than $l2 million on his campaign and Treen nearly 35 million. The total of $l7 million made it the most expensive election in Louisiana history. Without doubt Edwards is the most popular politician in the state since Huey Long, who championed the cause of the poor in the late 1920 s and early 1930 s and who anticipated public works and welfare measures of the New Deal. Edwards, Governor from 1970 to 1978, is, very much in the Long tradition, and like Long is anathema to the state’s entrenched conservatives.

On the eve of the the

MIGUEL ACOCA

in New Orleans

federal Government announced it was sending monitors to a few parishes, a decision that Edwards promptly denounced as an attempt by the Republican Administraton to intimidate black voters. Why the Justice Department took such a step remains a mystery. There is no doubt that Louisiana elections are frequently marred by frauds and vote buying, a leftover from the days when bosses cast the votes of their poor and illiterate followers. The state’s elections are more enjoyable than electoral contests in the rest of the country. Candidates campaign in Cajun French in south-western parishes, and they bring along a traditional Cajun band to play old French songs. They also eat spicy.

dishes of seafood and rice, hot sausages, and beans. Jazz and brass bands march up and down crowded streets in New Orleans bearing posters with the name and picture of the candidate who is paying for the music. Edwards and Treen also paid political satirists for skits ridiculing each other in radio broadcasts which were aired over and over again until the polls closed. Television was, naturally, -used extensively, and so were pollsters and consultants.

What gave the election the unique flavour of Louisiana politics was that the candidates still visited little towns to deliver old-fashioned speeches complete with jokes and all the garnish of old-fashioned rallies. Edwards visited every parish in the state and Treen nearly every parish. — Copyright — London Observer Service.