"I think he meant he supported the same policy ideas as David Duke, but he wasn’t David Duke"

Roy Fletcher, a Baton Rouge-based political consultant who has managed campaigns for Republicans like former Gov. Mike Foster and Senator John McCain, said Mr. Duke may have become a toxic political personality, but he foreshadowed the state’s coming political and ideological shift.

“Now he doesn’t matter anymore,” Mr. Fletcher said. “But politicians here have still co-opted part of his message without having the same baggage.”…

Jason Doré, the executive director of the Louisiana Republican Party, said Mr. Duke put it in the awkward position of campaigning for Mr. Edwards, who was later indicted on federal racketeering charges. The slogan, “Vote For the Crook: It’s Important,” caught on like wildfire in 1991. But he rejected the notion that Mr. Duke was somehow the architect of the state’s modern conservative politics.

“A lot of these things the conservative movement had supported, like limited government and a stronger defense, since Barry Goldwater and William F. Buckley,” Mr. Doré said. “We already supported a safety net over an entitlement mentality. David Duke did not invent this. He probably co-opted it.”