Gumbo Politics: How It Cooks in Louisiana : The mix of three candidates in a fall gubernatorial primary may indicate trends in 1992 national races.

Will voters select the reformer-technocrat, the old line populist, or the firebrand right-winger in Louisiana’s gubernatorial contest?

Although Louisiana’s strange mix of politics often defies extrapolation, both Republicans and Democrats sense that the October primary may be a precursor of broader sentiment for the 1992 national elections.

Here incumbent Gov. Buddy Roemer will test President Bush’s coattails. Roemer, sensing political advantage, switched from the Democratic Party to the GOP earlier this month.

He will be opposed by former Gov. Edwin W. Edwards, who will test whether a Democratic coalition of blacks and poor whites can still rally to the call for economic justice.

And the third major candidate, David Duke, a Republican state representative, will test the reach of a “white power” message built on resentment of affirmative action and civil rights legislation.

Of course, the contest is spiced as only Louisiana can do it.

Roemer, who won in 1987 promising no more politics-as-usual, failed to get his fiscal reform package passed and now is known to rely on pop psychology to get him through some tough times.

Edwards is the veteran of six grand jury investigations and two trials, one on bribery charges and another on federal charges of improperly profiting from the award of state approval certificates for hospitals. He was acquitted both times.

Duke is the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan who gained national prominence after his election to the Legislature and a strong showing in last year’s U.S. Senate contest.

“It’s going to be one hell of a horse race,” Edwards said.

BACKGROUND: By all accounts, this was not supposed to have happened with Roemer at the helm. When he was elected governor in 1987, Roemer was the reformer, the technocrat, the New South Democrat with the just-so haircut who would bring about the “Roemer Revolution.”

He was the governor with the Harvard MBA and the pretty wife who was going to put an end to the state’s deal-making, cigar-chomping politics.

Roemer got emergency powers to deal with a $750-million deficit out of a $5-billion budget. He slashed payrolls and unemployment benefits and other state spending. But his uncompromising style soured his relationship with the Legislature. His popularity waned and his fiscal reform package went down to defeat.

The pretty wife and son have departed and Roemer’s mother has moved into the mansion. Roemer has taken to practicing his own brand of down-home pop psychology espoused by his childhood friend, Shreveport preacher Danny Walker. As a way of working through difficulties, he snaps a rubber band looped round the wrist while saying, “Cancel, cancel” to zap negative thoughts from his mind.

THE CAMPAIGN: “Roemer does not have a real big reservoir of good will with the people,” said John Maginniss, editor of the Louisiana Political Review.

That much might be said about Edwards and Duke as well.

“All three guys have relatively high negatives,” said Jim Brady, the chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party. “The pollsters will tell you that, on paper, none of them could be elected in a normal race.”

Louisiana, of course, is not normal, not even in the way it holds elections. In this state, the primary is open, meaning that candidates from all parties are on a single list. The top two finishers, regardless of party affiliation, then go on to a runoff.

The conventional wisdom for now is that it will be Roemer and Edwards battling it out at the end. But Brady also will not discount Duke, who pulled far more votes in the U.S. Senate race than pollsters predicted.

Edwards has said he wants to re-enter the political fray partly as a way of proving that, unencumbered by worry about lawsuits and the possibility of prison, he can run the state better than anyone else.

“Nobody likes to go out a failure, not to succeed in a last great effort,” Edwards said.

Edwards, who in the past has had an unabashed eye for the ladies and a fondness for a deck of cards, calls his past legal troubles a “closed chapter in my life.” Louisiana political buffs are quick to point out that those are the exact words used by Duke to gloss over his past relationship with the klan.

Duke, meanwhile, said that although all three candidates have had failed marriages, “only two candidates are failed governors.”

Mark McKinnon, who helped run Roemer’s campaign in 1987, but may bow out this year because of the governor’s party switch, called Roemer the “bomb thrower (in 1987). He tapped a nerve at a time when people were aching for change. This time around, he’s got a bomb thrower on the right and a flame thrower on the left. That’s not a comfortable place to be.”

Gov. Buddy Roemer, 47, Republican

Political base: Mainstream conservatives

Electoral history: Former congressman from northeast Louisiana who won governorship in 1987 on a reform platform as a Democrat. Changed to GOP on March 11.

Former Gov. Edwin W. Edwards, 63, Democrat

Political base: Old line Democrats, including a large share of black population

Electoral history: Former congressman and three-time governor. Lost to Roemer after being acquitted twice on corruption charges.

State Rep. David Duke, 40, Republican

Political base: The far right

Electoral history: Elected in 1989, winning by 227 votes. In October, 1990, lost U.S. Senate election to J. Bennett Johnston but won 44% of the total vote and nearly 60% of the white vote.