\"vote for the crook!\" how 86-year-old ex-con edwin edwards turned a house race upside down

For such a big-than-
Edwin Edwards\'s life numbers at the campaign headquarters are surprisingly low --key.
Snuggle in a neat, middle
Located in the class division near downtown Baton Rouge, Edwards at Congress headquarters looks the same as other white people
Walled townhouse in the area, often with soccer mom and half
Young professionals.
However, through the solid wooden doors of the building, it can be proved that the contents are very different from the original appearance.
It\'s only a few days from November.
The building was a vibrant place in the Congressional constituency elections in the state of Luis Anna.
Four young badges.
Supporters dressed in Edwards happily sat at their desks and answered the phone on behalf of the candidate;
The phone rang and instructions were sent out. people went in and out of the room.
Edward\'s wife Trina, 51 years younger than him, is a tenacious woman who runs around with information about her husband.
Along the corridor, away from the commotion, the man, the candidate, the swindler, the returning child sitting behind a large wooden table.
\"Hi,\" he said, holding out a hand and a face with no expression.
\"I\'m Edwin Edwards.
\"In a country with a long history of politicians, Edwards is one of the Giants. A former U. S.
Members of Congress, between 1972 and 1996, 4-
Edwards, then governor of the state of Luis Anna, was a skilled politician with questionable morals and razors. sharp wit.
He is one of the few former politicians, and because of his long history in politics and in the larger sphere, his name is recognizable in Louisianans of all agesthan-life notoriety.
Long plagued by corruption charges, Edwards\'s career seemed to end in 2001 when he was finally convicted of extortion and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. It wasn’t.
After his 2011 release, he went straight back to the public eye and married former prison pen pal Trina Grimes Scott, who was born in Edward\'s second term, and took part in a reality TV show called the wife of the governor.
He quipped at the time: \"I am only as big as the woman I feel . \".
In March 2014, a few months after rumors circulated, he officially announced his candidacy for members of Congress in the sixth district of Louis Anna.
At the age of 86, the governor came back.
Edwards, who is a savvy political operator, will not be involved in a battle that he will definitely lose.
While the sixth district of the state of Luis Anna is a firm Republican-a result of a controversial practice of constituency division that no one seems to like, no one is trying to stop it, either-early polls showed Edwards ahead of his Republican rivals in the November public primary.
In June he was asked to have a survey of 32%, two of his closest rivals, while in July he was voted 35%, far more than 13% conservative businessman Paul Ditzel.
The only Democrats in the game were numerous.
The first thing is one thing;
Runoff is another case.
If no one gets 50% of the vote, the election will take place on December.
The victory between the first two contestants in the primary election.
Edwards will almost certainly be one of them, but here his numbers are lower;
Most polls show he is 15 points behind.
\"It will be a touch and a move,\" he admits . \".
\"But I just have to face my opponents in the run-off and want to get my message across in debates and other ways.
Although I won\'t tell you this is definitely a small episode, I\'m sure everything will be fine.
I think I will take part in the runoff because I am the main candidate [in the primary].
It will be close after that, but I am ready.
It\'s no stranger to Edwards.
His most famous one was in 1991, when he defeated former KKK wizards and new elves due to corruption charges and rare defeats in 1987 governor\'s campaignNazi David Duke
Bumper stickers that read \"Vote for lizards, not Wizards\" and \"Vote for cheats\" began to circulate as Edwards accepted his dubious position in the public mind when attacking.
In the end, almost everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and Edwards beat Duke with nearly 400,000 votes.
\"We do have one thing in common,\" he said . \".
\"We are all executed.
\"As a somewhat shabby politician, he has never evaded his public reputation.
\"Doing opposition research on people like Edwards is a complete waste of time and money,\" said Garret Graves, one of his challengers in this year\'s election, who told the Wall Street Journal in early October.
\"He admits everything.
Nevertheless, even Edwards himself expressed surprise at the support he received after serving his recent prison sentence.
For some time, he said, another campaign for political office appeared to be out of his reach.
He said: \"I have never thought about it, because even I don\'t know how much understanding and sympathy the people of Luis Anna will have.
But after I came out, I went to 53, 54 towns and villages to sell books and give speeches, and I was surprised by the reception and encouragement of people.
I \'ve just been convinced for many reasons that people in this state want me in the office because they know I can get things done.
They know I answer the phone and I\'m here when things happen and I make things work.
The way I do it may be weird, but I did get things working.
Despite all his shortcomings, Edwards is an organized and highly skilled governor.
\"He is very popular because he has actually done a lot of work,\" said Leo holicat, a biographer at Edwards . \".
\"He has done a lot of personal things for people, and that\'s what the governor should do.
\"Wherever we go, there will be people coming up to Edwards and they say, \'You have my son in the army and you have my son out of the Army.
You sent my son to medical school, my daughter to college, and my aunt to the hospital.
I mean, it keeps going.
Even if we were in prison, people would come up to him and say, \"Governor, you really helped my family 18 years ago.
\"He is a big representative.
He is one of the state\'s most efficient government managers ever.
Honeycutt noted that Edwards was one of the last governors to keep the budget balanced.
He\'s also a populist.
Eat for a long time
He enjoys a reputation for working for minorities and the poor, and he spends most of his time in prison working for some of the most vulnerable.
\"Prison makes me more sensitive to the needs of people who are not as good as us,\" he said . \".
\"It made me realize more that some people have no friends, no family . . . . . . So I help my fellow prisoners as much as I can.
People don\'t read or write, so I do basic legal work for them.
\"I keep myself busy because I don\'t think I\'m going to waste my time, I\'m going to cry, I\'m going to feel sorry for myself.
I just made myself useful.
\"It is his charm, his political ability, and his focus on the underrepresented, that greatly helps to explain why he is still so popular, not just the old voters who have supported him in the past.
In fact, Edwards is already involved.
When many of his current fans were born, he had been political for 20 years.
\"When I was a child, my dad used to tell me the story of \'legendary Edwin Edwards, \'\" said one of the 25-year-old new generation supporters. year-
Edwards campaign intern Joshua Finney
\"He has always had such a high reputation in helping the poor and poor.
His loyalty is something I have never seen before.
He is one of those polarized candidates, but the people who really adore him regard him as our last hope.
There is almost no doubt about this.
People say, you know, why do we vote for someone else ? \" This is Fini, along with Edward\'s wife Trina and several campaign advisers, when Edwards came to a candidate debate in Baton Rouge, he surrounded a well-dressed Edwards on a hot morning in October.
As Honeycutt recalled, before the Edwards team passed the gate, it was stopped by an older man who thanked Edwards for giving it a few years ago, possibly decades ago
\"He told me if I saw you say hello,\" he said gratefully.
Edwards shook the man\'s hand as he did before going in.
The debate was presided over by the vision leader, a non-affiliate branch of the Women\'s Electoral Union, which turned out to be a typical political lunch hosted by WHO
Local politicians in the audience and a group of four journalists, asking who the main criteria for candidates are and occasionally leaving
Ask questions on the spot.
Once everyone sits down and the debate begins, it will soon be clear who is the star.
Sitting at the end of the table, it looked very peaceful and it was clear that Edwards was part of him.
While it is unfair to say that Edwards is running around his competitors-potentially saving his potential competitor, Paul dizer, often appears flustered, at least on this occasion, a bit beyond his depth-he seems to be the most --
People who relax on the podium.
Whenever he stood up and spoke, he caught the attention of the whole audience.
After most of his answers, he was also the only candidate to get applause, although the organizers tried to ban such outbreaks before the debate ended.
His tact, as always sharp, has been fully displayed;
When asked who he would support other than himself, he objected.
\"I don\'t want to hurt anyone by naming them,\" he said . \" This caused widespread laughter.
He picked a few of his favorite.
Liners also pointed out that smoking marijuana is \"one of the few crimes I have never been charged with and claimed that if he is elected to the National Assembly,\" at least I can\'t make things worse . \"
After a comment, Leo holicat sat in the audience, leaning across the table, laughing.
\"Rodney dansfield, political,\" he said, shaking his head and whispering with a smile.
When the debate is over, Edwards will not stay and his team will probably go all out for another engagement.
This is the classic Edwards: Rest assured, confident and charming.
He is not far from the age of 90, which is easy to forget.
\"We all have something worth working on,\" said someone in awe . \".
\"I don\'t think I will even reach 87, let alone that.
\"Even his critics in the audience-there are a lot of people considering the old numbers --
Time for journalists and Republican members to attend-it is clear that he still wins a lot of respect.
Maybe more than ever.
Will he win the final victory in December?
6 in the air.
He\'s fighting a hard fight.
It was one of Edwards\'s toughest games in his career, and even the candidate himself admitted it was not easy, says Mr.
\"I never thought about it [losing]
Because there is no win in my history, no win in my mind, not even in the possibility.
Nevertheless, \"he added with a smile,\" it is possible.
\"Carl Redman, a former editor of Baton Rouge daily, is more outspoken, noting that Democrats can only count on about 20% of their support in District 6.
\"He will get all this, [
Edwards\'s victory was
\"It\'s almost beyond the scope of possibilities,\" he said . \". Then he pauses.
\"But,\" he said with a smile, \"Don\'t count him in.