To: combjelly who wrote (760640 ) 1/1/2014 1:00:32 PM From: d[-_-]b Read Replies (1) | Respond to David Duke was a democrat for most of his political life and switched to republican in an attempt to win - not due to party ideologies. He was a fraud from the beginning and is today and was repudiated by the party from 1991 onward.Duke first ran for the Louisiana State Senate as a Democrat from a Baton Rouge district in 1975. He received 11,079 votes, a third of those cast. [31] In 1979, he ran as a Democrat for the 10th District Senate seat and finished second in a three-candidate race with 9,897 votes (26 percent). [32] Duke allegedly conducted a direct-mail appeal in 1987, using the identity and mailing-list of the Georgia Forsyth County Defense League without permission. League officials described it as a fund-raising scam. Duke was accused by several Klan officials of stealing his organization's money. "Duke is nothing but a con artist," Jack Gregory, Duke's Florida state leader, told the Clearwater Sun (of Florida) after David Duke allegedly refused to turn over proceeds from a series of 1979 Klan rallies to the Knights. Another Klan official under Duke, Jerry Dutton, told reporters that Duke had used Klan funds to purchase and refurbish his home in Metairie. Duke later justified the repairs by saying most of his home was used by the Klan. In 1979, after his first, abortive run for president (as a Democrat) and a series of highly publicized violent Klan incidents, Duke quietly incorporated the nonprofit National Association for the Advancement of White People (NAAWP) in an attempt to leave the baggage of the Klan behind. [33] Duke ran initially in the Democratic presidential primaries . His campaign failed to make much of an impact, with the one notable exception of winning the little-known New Hampshire Vice-Presidential primary . [34] Duke, having failed to gain much traction as a Democrat, then successfully sought the Presidential nomination of the Populist Party . [35] He appeared on the ballot for President in eleven states and was a write-in candidate in some other states, some with Trenton Stokes of Arkansas for Vice President, and on other state ballots with Floyd Parker for Vice President. He received just 47,047 votes, for 0.04 percent of the combined, national popular vote. [36] Republican Party . [2] Charles Cusimano of Metairie resigned his District 89 seat to become a 24th Judicial District Court judge, and a special election was called early in 1989 to select a successor. Duke entered the race to succeed Cusimano and faced several opponents, including fellow Republicans, John Spier Treen , a brother of former Governor David C. Treen , Delton Charles, a school board member, and Roger F. Villere, Jr. , who operates Villere's Florist in Metairie. Duke finished first in the primary with 3,995 votes (33.1%). [37] As no one received a majority of the vote in the first round, a runoff election was required between Duke and Treen, who polled 2,277 votes (18.9%) in the first round of balloting. John Treen's candidacy was endorsed by U.S. President George H. W. Bush , former President Ronald Reagan , and other notable Republicans, [38] as well as the Democrat Victor Bussie (president of the Louisiana AFL-CIO ) and Edward J. Steimel (president of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry and former director of the "good government" think tank , the Public Affairs Research Council). Duke, however, hammered Treen on a statement the latter had made indicating a willingness to entertain higher property taxes , anathema in that suburban district. [39] Duke with 8,459 votes (50.7%) defeated Treen, who polled 8,232 votes (49.3%). [40] He served in the House from 1989 until 1992. [41]
