The crook is back.
Edwin Edwards, the former Democratic congressman and four-term Louisiana governor who was released from prison in 2011 after serving eight years on corruption charges, will run for Congress in Louisiana’s 6th District, he announced Monday.
NOLA.com reported Edwards’ announcement, which he made Monday at the Press Club at Baton Rouge.
“I acknowledge there are good reasons I should not run. But there are better reasons why I should,” Edwards said.
Edwards is a colorful character, to put it mildly. In his 1991 gubernatorial race against Klansman David Duke, bumper stickers supporting him read: “Vote for the crook. It’s important.”
He is on his third marriage to his wife Trina, a woman five decades younger than him whom he met while serving in prison, when she became his pen pal. When the 86-year-old was warned by his brother that consummating the union might be dangerous to his health, Edwards supposedly told his brother, “Well, Marion,” Edwards replied, “if she dies, she dies.” He also reportedly told 560 people at his 84th birthday roast, “I give blood for them to make Viagra.”
The marriage, which spawned a short-lived reality show on A&E called, “The Governor’s Wife,” has, Edwards said, finally given him a use for Republicans: “You sleep with ’em.”
The seat is currently held by Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy, who is forgoing re-election in order to challenge Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu.