Editing Edwin Edwards (section)

===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>