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By 1982, but actually long before, it became perfectly clear to voters Republican Dave Treen was not the freewheeling and flamboyant governor that Democrat Edwin Edwards had been. Louisiana’s fabled oil boom was hitting the skids and Edwards, who had served from the Fourth Floor from 1972-80 and was constitutionally prohibited from running for a third term, was waiting in the wings.

By tethering millions of dollars in available state money to long-term construction projects around the state when he left office, Edwards had spent all the oil money before Treen ever had a chance. Roughly halfway through his own first term, Treen was being labeled by Edwards as incompetent. “He is so slow it takes him an hour-and-a-half to watch 60 Minutes,” Edwards said of Treen.

The two candidates spent more than $18 million on their respective campaigns. Treen called Edwards a crook, while Edwards—as only he could have done—ran partially on a platform of openness and responsiveness. It was the first of many comebacks for Edwards—one that had been in the works for years. The day before the 1983 election, Edwards unleashed his notorious one-liner to reporters on his chances of being crowned a third time by voters: “The only way I can lose this election is if I’m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy.” Sure enough, the skilled politician from Crowley won the contest by an overwhelming 62%. He had promised reform and a new Louisiana, and the landslide was his mandate.

Fast-forward 25 years later to today’s political climate, where another election for governor is being waged with striking similarity. Louisiana is again in a transitional stage, only this time at the hands of the wretched 2005 hurricane season, which brought us Katrina and Rita. Oil prices, however, in concert with recovery spending, are keeping the state afloat. It’s certainly more boom than bust. During the 2006-07 fiscal year, which ended June 30, the state received a record $522.5 million in income from oil and gas royalties. It also earned another $600.1 million from bonus, leaseholder and interest payments, the highest tally since 1983.

Despite the fortunate turn, Gov. Kathleen Blanco, a Democrat, decided against seeking re-election earlier this year. Like Treen, her top competitor was in play before she even took office.

GOP Congressman Bobby Jindal, who lost to Blanco in 2003, has been walloping all others in publicly-released polls for months. He’s riding an unprecedented Republican wave that’s sweeping Louisiana—it’s actually been a trend in Southern states for years, but just now reaching the bayou. Jindal has the party movement so sewed up that state Sen. Walter Boasso dropped his Republican registration to run as a Democrat, and New Orleans businessman John Georges is considering the same, if he doesn’t go independent. Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell is the only lifelong Democrat holding his own—usually in single digits usually—in polling.

Edwin Edwards

Republicans are expected to take the state House this fall, and there are more GOP officials holding statewide office today than before (Treasurer John Kennedy flipped most recently). To see a comparable stronghold, you would have to date back to the post-Civil War period. But Reagan extremists can look back to the early 1980s, when Treen was elected the first Republican governor since Reconstruction. It wasn’t an across-the-board change, as Treen had Democrats in his administration and legislative-floor team. But it was the precise moment Louisiana truly became a two-party state.

The Louisiana Democratic Party knows Jindal won’t be as accepting, which is why it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a now-infamous 30-second TV commercial that has gleaned attention from national media outlets. It accuses Jindal of labeling Protestants “scandalous, depraved, selfish and heretical.” By any interpretation, the spot twists Jindal’s words from a 1996 article published by the New Oxford Review. Jindal, who converted from Hindu to Catholic, has responded to the ads and his many other writings on faith. The attacks seemed to have backfired on the party, though, with clergymen decrying the ads and calling for the resignation of party leadership.

It may be difficult to recall, but the Treen-Edwards matchup had its own religious flare-up as well. Luckily for Edwards, the news didn’t reach the masses until the week before his inauguration. Shreveport Journal Editor Stanley Tiner got Edwards on the subject of religion during an interview where he discovered in Edwards’ bathroom “Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, the Bible and the latest issue of Playboy,” John Maginnis writes in The Last Hayride, which chronicles the 1983 election.

Dave Treen

Tiner asked Edwards—who was raised Catholic, born again Nazarene, then reconverted Catholic—if he believed Jesus Christ died on the cross, was buried and resurrected. “No,” Edwards responded. “I think Jesus died, but I don’t believe he came back to life because that’s too much against natural law. I’m not going around preaching this, but he may have swooned, passed out or almost died, and when he was taken down, with superhuman strength, after a period of time he may have revived himself and come back to life.”

Edwards also said he was more than likely not going to heaven “just as will most people I know.” While the interview did little to stir emotions in south Louisiana, the piney woods up north were all in a tizzy. It’s the same base the Louisiana Democratic Party targeted with its religious ads regarding Jindal, and the same demographic that was seemingly turned off by the attempt. In the end, surprising even himself possibly, Edwards got away with his bold faith-based gesture, but the modern Democratic party may not.

Granted, some might argue Edwards eventually got his. He was indicted in 1998 by the federal government for essentially selling off the state’s casino licenses to the highest bidders. Transcripts, audio conversations, video footage and star witnesses laid the framework, and Edwards was found guilty on 17 of 26 counts, including racketeering, extortion and mail fraud. He was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, but even from the slammer, Edwards, along with Treen, is still making waves in this year’s gubernatorial election.

It still comes as a shock to some, but Treen has spent considerable time these days trying to free Edwards from his sentence, which is now halfway complete. He has enlisted the service of former U.S. Sens. John Breaux and J. Bennett Johnston, both Dems. But when he told reporters recently the GOP congressional delegation was on board, Treen made it a campaign issue. Reporters hounded Jindal to find out what might have been discussed, and the front-runner was forced to reveal that no meeting had taken place. Reps. Richard Baker and Rodney Alexander confirmed the story, placing Treen’s credibility on unstable ground.

Jindal may have avoided the ever-present Edwards issue during that round, but it’s bound to come back up again. Mary Volentine Smith, a retired hairdresser from Winnsboro and an Edwards “acolyte,” is the latest candidate to throw her hat in the ring for governor this year. She’s a one-issue Democrat. Her top priority? Securing a pardon for Edwards.

Edwin Edwards

From indictments and oil money to coastal restoration and ethics reform, the past 25 years of Louisiana politics are overflowing with scrupulous tales (possible kickbacks in the state’s movie industry) and examples of righteous evolution (campaign finance disclosure). But it’s all sandwiched between these two historic and parallel elections for governor that not only mirror themselves, but also expose a media and an electorate unwilling to let go of a fabled past while candidates do their best to continually stay clear of it.

After all of his trials—legal and otherwise—Edwards would often quote an old Chinese proverb: “If you sit by a river long enough, the dead bodies of your enemies will float by you.” Maybe he knew something we didn’t, because the farther down the river we go, away from the days of the storied Hayride, the strife and turmoil always seem to float back to the top for the world to see.