NEW ORLEANS — Edwin Edwards realized every Louisiana politician’s fondest dream: He was elected governor on his first try.
He also endured every politician’s worst nightmare: He went to jail for corruption.
Between those two extremes, Edwin Edwards remade Louisiana politics in his own image — a wise-cracking Cajun who charmed voters and politicians alike, even as he tested ethical and legal boundaries. He was the embodiment of the Cajun motto, “Let the good times roll.”
In many ways, he was our first modern governor, the first not affiliated with Huey or Earl Long, or their enemies. He gave us a new constitution, modernized oil and gas taxation, and championed civil rights. He didn’t drink, but he did gamble – both at the crap tables and in his dealings. In the end he lost at both, brought down by a scandal involving the sale of casino licenses.
Many wrote him off politically when he entered prison in 2002. But he did his time and emerged just as cagey as ever. He lost a race for Congress in 2014, but he continued to draw crowds wherever he went. And those of us who knew him all along can attest, he never lost his keen political insight, or his wit.
There will never be another like him.