Split in Louisiana GOP Means Trouble for Bush

As George Bush struggles to hold together the “Solid South” that helped seal recent Republican presidential victories, his campaign finds itself facing an especially vexing problem in Louisiana--weaving its way through one of the nation’s most intricate and volatile intraparty feuds.

“Historically, the case in Louisiana has always been that the Democratic Party is divided and the Republicans are unified,” said Edward F. Renwick, director of the Institute of Politics at New Orleans’ Loyola University. “This year, we have the exact reverse--the Democrats are unified and organized, and the Republicans are in serious disarray. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

Even without party strife, the President faced a struggle laying claim to Louisiana’s nine electoral votes. Bush’s 10-percentage-point victory in the state over 1988 Democratic rival Michael S. Dukakis represented his smallest margin in the Deep South. And the entrenched economic woes that hurt the Republican cause in the state four years ago have only worsened.

Now, as national GOP strategists survey the Louisiana scene, they confront a party composed of four warring factions. They are:

--The established, upper-crust Republicans who first flocked to the Republican banner as Barry Goldwater supporters in 1964.

--So-called “Reagan Democrats” who joined the Republican Party by the thousands after Ronald Reagan won the White House 12 years ago.

--Evangelical Christians who became party enthusiasts during the same period.

--Activists loyal to the cause of former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke, who came close to winning the state’s governorship as a Republican last year.

Duke’s supporters have launched an intensive effort to take over the state party, and their interest in helping the President seems minimal.

“We don’t give a damn about Bush,” said Howell Farrell, a former Duke aide.

Adding to the turmoil is that the one person some might expect to promote unity--state party Chairman William Nungesser--was the only such official in the country who backed Patrick J. Buchanan’s primary challenge to Bush.

Despite all of these hurdles--and the additional obstacle of facing an all-Southern Democratic ticket in Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and Sen. Al Gore of Tennessee--many leading Louisiana Republicans remain confident that Bush can carry their state. They note that the latest polls show that the presidential race in this state is a tossup.

Former Gov. David Treen, who heads the President’s Louisiana campaign, said, “Bush just has to get out and talk about the benefits of things like the (North American) Free Trade Agreement and Clinton’s draft record, which is going to turn out to be a big issue throughout the South.”

As in most other states, Ross Perot’s decision to enter the presidential race has stirred little interest in Louisiana.

Earlier this year, polls showed him with a large chunk of support. But his decision not to run in July “pretty much ruined him around here,” pollster Silas Lee of Xavier University said. “People don’t like a quitter and that’s how Perot is perceived. . . . Getting back in the race for him is just a way of rearranging his political obituary. One way or the other, he’s still dead.”