Ex-Klansman, Activist in GOP Face Off at Polls : Racism Becomes Issue in Louisiana Contest

David Duke, a former grand wizard in the Ku Klux Klan, and home builder John Treen faced off Saturday for a seat in the Louisiana Legislature in an election peppered with charges of racism and extremism.

Duke, 38, and Treen, 63, have battled for a month to represent the almost all-white district in Metairie, a New Orleans suburb with about 21,000 voters. Both are running as Republicans.

Polls made public more than a week ago showed the candidates neck-and-neck in a race for the state House of Representatives that attracted reporters from around the world.

Fearing a Duke victory and an embarrassment for the GOP, President Bush and former President Ronald Reagan threw their considerable weight behind Treen, a longtime party functionary.

Expects Heavy Turnout

“The prediction is there’s going to be a very heavy turnout, and the polls indicate with a heavy turnout I’m going to win,” Treen said.

Turnout was high, with poll commissioners reached in a spot check reporting 25% to 43% of the people in their precincts voting in the first six hours of the 14 hours that polls were open.

“I think we’re going to have a very fine victory,” Duke said.

Duke won 33% of the vote to lead a field of seven in the Jan. 21 primary. Treen got 19%.

Under Louisiana’s open primary system, the top two vote-getters in a primary, regardless of party, face each other in a runoff if no candidate receives more than half the vote. The seat opened up when Metairie’s representative was elected to a judgeship with about three years left in a four-year term.

Spokesman for Klan

The election returned the spotlight to Duke, who in the 1970s was photographed in a Nazi uniform and boldly removed the hood of his white robe to become an international spokesman for the klan.

It is an era that Duke claimed to be sorry for, but Treen said he did not believe that.

“I regret it because . . . people might think I’m racially or religiously intolerant,” Duke said.

Duke left the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in 1980, accused by another leader of selling secret membership rolls. He formed the National Assn. for the Advancement of White People, which he says is a civil rights organization for everyone.

The final days of the race brought renewed charges that Duke still was associated with right-wing extremists, including ex-American Nazi leader Ralph Forbes of Arkansas. Duke acknowledged that Forbes had been campaign manager in his 1988 bid for the presidency as a member of the Populist Party.

Attracts Few Votes

In the general election, he ran in 15 states and drew less than .05% of the national total vote.

He began his presidential bid as a Democrat but was repudiated by party officials. He got no delegates at the Democratic National Convention.

Two days before qualifying for the state House race, he registered with the GOP, but the Republican National Committee rejected him.