Duke, Edwards Disavow Pasts in Debate : Politics: Louisiana gubernatorial candidates square off two weeks before their runoff. Racketeering trial and klan ties are issues.

Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke and former Gov. Edwin W. Edwards tried to put their pasts behind them Saturday night in a televised debate in the Louisiana governor’s race.

“The thing that’s affected me more than anything else . . . is my relationship with Christ,” Duke said when asked why he has backed off racist remarks he made during his days as a klan leader and neo-Nazi sympathizer.

“I’m very concerned about leaving a better record for historians,” said Edwards, who was acquitted of racketeering charges during his third term in the mid-1980s.

Duke downplayed the many endorsements Edwards has received since the two ousted Gov. Buddy Roemer in an Oct. 19 vote. A runoff is scheduled Nov. 16.

“No, I don’t have the endorsements that Edwin Edwards had,” Duke said.

“Doug Green had a lot of endorsements, too,” Duke said, referring to a former Louisiana insurance commissioner who ran on a reform platform but wound up in federal prison for corruption.

In his closing statement, Duke said Edwards should not be reelected just because he wants to vindicate himself.

“You want to be governor to resurrect your past, to prove that you’re not a crook,” Duke said. “That’s not good enough.”

In his closing statement, Edwards said he has the ability to bring together divergent factions to solve the state’s problems, including a slow economy and a projected budget deficit of $1 billion in the next fiscal year.

Duke stressed his campaign platform--an end to affirmative action, opposition to busing for desegregation, welfare reform and no new taxes.

He also promised to work for a clean environment and blamed Edwards for making Louisiana “the biggest toxic waste dumping ground in the United States of America.”

Edwards made scant direct mention of Duke’s past but did say the controversy Duke generates could harm the state.

He cited a warning by Timothy Ryan, a University of New Orleans economist, who said the state could be hurt economically if it sends a wrong signal, such as the election of Duke, to the rest of the country.

Duke predicted that for each business convention that may be lost, others will be scheduled by people who believe as he does.

Edwards, 64, a Democrat, served three gubernatorial terms--from 1972 to 1980 and again from 1984 until 1988. He was defeated by Roemer.

Duke, 41, a Republican state representative, has been spurned by GOP leaders because of his past. He led a Ku Klux Klan faction in the 1970s and associated with neo-Nazis in the 1980s.

Dismissing such episodes as youthful indiscretions and moments of intolerance, Duke has since won a wide following.