Louisiana GOP Won’t Censure Duke

The state’s Republican Committee on Saturday declined to censure state Rep. David Duke for his past as a leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

The committee has no authority to kick Duke out of the party, but two committee members who worked on the censure said they had done so because of Duke’s past of “promoting racial violence, his anti-Semitism and his neo-Nazi philosophies.”

Neil Curran and Elizabeth Rickey, both of New Orleans, tried to introduce the resolution at the party’s quarterly meeting. The resolution was tabled without debate.

Curran and Rickey worked for Duke’s opponent, John Treen, during the campaign, Duke said.

“Basically, they can’t accuse me of doing anything wrong. They can’t question my stated platforms. They have to go back in my past,” Duke said.

Lee Atwater, chairman of the Republican National Committee, censured Duke after he won his legislative seat in February. But the state Republican Party has shied away from any move to censure Duke.

Duke, from Metairie, joined the klan in 1968 and left in 1980 after six years as grand wizard, a national post. Duke later founded a group called the National Assn. for the Advancement of White People, which he still heads.