Editing Edwin Edwards (section)

==First two terms as governor, 1972–1980==
[[File:Edwin Edwards (LA 2).png|150px|thumb|left|Edwards during his first term as governor.]]
[[File:Nixon Contact Sheet WHPO-9690 (cropped1).jpg|thumb|right|Edwards with President [[Richard Nixon]] in 1972]]
Both in his political rhetoric and in his public persona, Edwards cast himself as a Louisiana [[populism|populist]] in the tradition of [[Huey P. Long]] and [[Earl K. Long]].<ref name=laststand/> He was inaugurated as governor on May 9, 1972. One of his first acts was to call for a constitutional convention to overhaul Louisiana's bulky charter.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}}

On taking office, Edwards hired J. Kelly Nix as his executive assistant and in 1974 elevated him to first executive assistant. In the second term, however, Nix left the administration to take office as the Louisiana state school superintendent.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lapoliticalmuseum.com/inductees.php?viewID=79|title=J. Kelly Nix|publisher=lapoliticalmuseum.com|access-date=October 7, 2013|archive-date=October 20, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020111207/http://www.lapoliticalmuseum.com/inductees.php?viewID=79|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Dale Thorn]], who had been Edwards' press secretary while he was in Congress, continued in that position for the first and most of the second Edwards terms. He was later associate commissioner of higher education for the [[Louisiana Board of Regents]], and an LSU journalism professor.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/clarionledger/obituary.aspx?n=jesse-dale-thorn&pid=170968700#sthash.g1JbouVI.dpuf|title=Jesse Dale Thorn|newspaper=[[The Advocate (Baton Rouge)|Baton Rouge Morning Advocate]]|access-date=May 17, 2014}}</ref>

Under Edwards, [[Michael O'Keefe (Louisiana politician)|Michael H. O'Keefe]] of New Orleans in 1976 was named president of the state Senate, an office that was held by the lieutenant governor prior to the implementation of the state Constitution of 1974. In 1983, as Edwards prepared to return to office, O'Keefe was engulfed in scandal and forced to resign as senate president.  He was as replaced by Edwards loyalist [[Samuel B. Nunez Jr.]], of [[Chalmette, Louisiana|Chalmette]] in [[St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana|St. Bernard Parish]]. On the same day Edwards won election to a third term, O'Keefe lost his bid for a seventh term by a wide margin to state Rep. Ben Bagert. In 2013, O'Keefe was still serving time in prison for a 1999 conviction.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=NameSearch&needingMoreList=false&FirstName=Michael&Middle=&LastName=O%27Keefe&Race=W&Sex=M&Age=81&x=53&y=26|title=Inmate Locator: Michael O'Keefe, Sr.|publisher=bop.gov|access-date=June 21, 2013|archive-date=October 29, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029190838/http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=NameSearch&needingMoreList=false&FirstName=Michael&Middle=&LastName=O%27Keefe&Race=W&Sex=M&Age=81&x=53&y=26|url-status=dead}}</ref>

During his first two terms in office, Edwards developed a reputation for being one of the most colorful and flamboyant politicians in the history of a state known for its unorthodox political figures. Charismatic, well dressed, and quick with clever one-liners and retorts, Edwards maintained wide popularity.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}}

===Policies and achievements===
[[File:Gerald Ford Edwin Edwards 1976.jpg|right|thumb|Edwards shakes hands with President [[Gerald Ford]], April 1976]]
[[File:Ford A9450 NLGRF photo contact sheet (1976-04-27)(Gerald Ford Library) (cropped2).jpg|thumb|right|Edwards with President Ford, April 1976]]
After enduring three grueling rounds of voting in the 1971–1972 campaign, Edwards pushed a bill through the legislature that limited state elections to two rounds by having Democratic, Republican, and independent candidates run together on the same ballot in a [[nonpartisan blanket primary]]. Though the [[jungle primary]] system was intended to benefit Edwards' own political career, many observers cite it as being a major factor in the eventual rise of the state's Republican Party and the creation of a genuinely competitive two-party system. For this, Edwards was facetiously christened "father of Louisiana's Republican Party".

[[William Denis Brown, III]], a lawyer and a state senator from [[Monroe, Louisiana|Monroe]], was Edwards's floor leader in the upper legislative chamber in the first term as governor. A native of [[Vicksburg, Mississippi]] reared on a plantation north of [[Lake Providence, Louisiana|Lake Providence]] in [[East Carroll Parish, Louisiana|East Carroll Parish]], Brown was instrumental in drafting the Louisiana Mineral Code. Thereafter from 1980 to 1988, Brown was the chairman of the Louisiana Board of Ethics.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thenewsstar/obituary.aspx?n=william-denis-brown&pid=156381763|title=Obituary of William Denis Brown, III|newspaper=Monroe News Star|access-date=March 10, 2012}}</ref>

Early in the first gubernatorial term, Edwards initiated the creation of the first new Louisiana state constitution in more than a half century. He intended to replace the Constitution of 1921, an unwieldy and outmoded document burdened with hundreds of amendments. A constitutional convention was held in 1973; the resulting document was put into effect in 1975. {{as of|2021}}, the 1973 Constitution remains in effect.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ballotpedia.org/Louisiana_Constitution#:~:text=Louisiana's%20current%20constitution%2C%20the%20version,of%20the%20constitution%20of%201898|title = Louisiana Constitution}}</ref> Edwards also undertook a major reorganization of the state government, abolishing over 80 state agencies and modeling the remaining structure after that of the federal government.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}}

Edwards named State Representative [[J. Burton Angelle]] of [[Breaux Bridge, Louisiana|Breaux Bridge]] as his director of the [[Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries]], a key appointment which Angelle filled for Edwards' first three terms of office.<ref>{{cite news |last=Stickney |first=Ken |title=Angelle: Local guy with a long-term vision |url=http://www.thetowntalk.com/story/news/politics/state/2015/08/29/angelle-local-guy-long-term-vision/71398046/ |newspaper=[[The Town Talk (Alexandria)|Alexandria Town Talk]] |date=August 29, 2015 |access-date=August 31, 2015}}</ref>

Edwards' tenure in the 1970s coincided with a huge boom in the state's oil and gas industry after the gas pricing crisis of 1973. Edwards was able to greatly expand the state's oil revenues by basing [[severance tax]]es on a percentage of the price of each barrel rather than the former flat rate. This oil money fueled a massive increase in state spending (a 163% increase between 1972 and 1980), and Edwards was able to consistently balance the state budget due to the boom in oil revenue. Much of this increased spending went toward health and human services programs and increased funding for vocational-technical schools and higher education.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}}

Edwards easily won reelection in 1975, with 750,107 votes (62.3 percent). In second place was Democratic state senator [[Robert G. "Bob" Jones]] of [[Lake Charles, Louisiana|Lake Charles]], son of former governor [[Sam H. Jones|Sam Houston Jones]], with 292,220 (24.3 percent). Secretary of State [[Wade O. Martin Jr.]], ran third with 146,363 (12.2 percent). Thereafter, Jones and Martin became Republicans. [[Addison Roswell Thompson]], the perennial segregationist candidate from New Orleans, made his last race for governor in the 1975 primary.<ref>[[Louisiana Secretary of State]], Louisiana election returns, November 1, 1975</ref>

===Early scandals===
Though arguably minor compared to the Edwards scandals of the 1980s and 1990s, the governor was embroiled in several ethics controversies during his first two terms in office. At the time, Edwards was remarkably candid about his questionable practices. When questioned about receiving illegal campaign contributions, he replied that "It was illegal for them to give, but not for me to receive."<ref name=returnguv/> He also insisted he saw no problem with investing in a proposed New Orleans office building called "One Edwards Square" (it was never actually named that) while still governor, and demonstrated his gambling prowess to the press on one of his frequent gambling trips to [[Las Vegas]]. Later, Edwards' commissioner of administration Charles Roemer{{spaced ndash}}father of future governor [[Buddy Roemer]]&nbsp;– was convicted of taking bribes and having connections with [[Italian-American Mafia|Mafia]] boss [[Carlos Marcello]]. Edwards managed to avoid direct implication in the Roemer case.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}}

During the governor's first term, a disaffected former Edwards bodyguard named [[Clyde Vidrine]] made several high-profile accusations of corruption, including the sale of state agency posts. The accusations were investigated by a grand jury, but the Edwards administration attacked Vidrine's credibility and the investigation stalled. Later, Vidrine published a tell-all book called ''Just Takin' Orders'',<ref>{{cite book |last=Vidrine |first=Clyde C. |author-link=Clyde Vidrine |date=January 1, 1977 |title=Just Takin' Orders: A Southern Governor's Watergate |asin=B0006CZEYY |publisher=Vidrine}}</ref> which included salacious details of Edwards' frequent gambling trips and extramarital escapades. Vidrine was murdered in December 1986 by the husband of a woman he was guarding, who believed Vidrine was having an affair with his wife.<ref>{{cite news |url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-12-17-mn-3282-story.html |title = Gov. Edwards' former bodyguard is killed: Friend's husband held |date = 1986-12-17 |access-date = 2013-09-19 |last = United Press International |newspaper = [[Los Angeles Times]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1367&dat=19861217&id=kO8VAAAAIBAJ&pg=6921,238375|date = 1986-12-17 |title = Governor's ex-guard killed outside court |access-date = 2013-09-19 |agency=Associated Press |via=Google News}}{{Dead link|date=December 2021}}</ref>

In a 1976 scandal known as [[Koreagate]], it came to light that Edwards and his wife Elaine had received questionable gifts in 1971, while Edwards was a U.S. representative. South Korean rice broker [[Tongsun Park]] was under investigation for trying to bribe American legislators on behalf of the South Korean government, and for making millions of dollars in commissions on American purchases of South Korean rice. Edwards admitted that Park gave Elaine an envelope containing $10,000 in cash, but insisted that the gift was given out of friendship and that there was nothing improper about it. In the course of the controversy, Edwards stated that he thought it was "super moralistic" for the U.S. government to prohibit American businessmen to accept gifts from foreign officials in the course of their business dealings. The scandal also engulfed Edwards's former congressional colleague [[Otto Passman]] of [[Monroe, Louisiana|Monroe]], who was later acquitted of all charges in the case, but nonetheless was defeated in his 1976 re-election bid by [[Jerry Huckaby]] of [[Ringgold, Louisiana|Ringgold]].