Times have changed, Louisiana’s Edwin Edwards hasn’t

Edwin Edwards had a lot to say about fighting for the poor, inequality, civil rights and all the other weighty topics candidates were to bring up at the Baton Rouge rally on the eve of election day.

But first, the former Louisiana governor and convicted racketeer would open with a joke. It was about premarital sex between two brooms in a closet. The punchline? “We haven’t swept together.” It was apropos of nothing. It wasn’t particularly funny.

The crowd ate it up.

And they loved it later on in the speech when he joked that his supporters were welcome to bring their wives to his election night party at a hotel downtown. “Or somebody else’s wife,” he said. “But not to our function. Leave her in the car.”

At a time when the quirky, outlandish politics Louisianans have long prided themselves on are giving way to focus group-tested messaging and consultant-driven strategies, the Edwards sideshow is a welcome diversion for some voters.

It has proven to be at least as entertaining as the short-lived reality show “The Governor’s Wife” in which Edwards co-starred with Trina Scott, a pen pal who became his third bride.

Edwards’ less-than-law-abiding ways have long been fodder for the state’s political campaigns. In his 1991 campaign for governor, supporters plastered cars with perhaps the best political bumper sticker ever: “Vote for the Crook. It’s Important.” (Edwards was running against avowed white supremacist David Duke, and the crook won.)

After serving more than eight years in prison for fraud, racketeering and extortion in connection with the state’s licensing of riverboat casinos, an unrepentant Edwards is running for Congress. The fiery, folksy Democrat is a long shot for victory in the heavily GOP district. But he is the only Democrat running in a field crowded with Republicans, and as such he is expected to advance to a runoff next month.

He makes no apologies for his crimes.

“The trial was a fraud,” he said after the rally Monday night. “I mean it was a put-up thing by people who were bribed by the fed government to testify falsely against me.”

He said all that time behind bars has certainly not changed his outlook on what is and what is not appropriate behavior when governing.

“If you like what I did as governor, vote for me,” he told the crowd. “If you don’t like it, you better vote for someone else because I am going to be the same kind of congressman that I was as governor.”

Again, the crowd ate it up.

Evan.halper@latimes.com