<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: ‘Lucida Sans’;" class="R~sep~ACopyBody">I thought that a person who had served time in prison and is guilty of other stuff couldn’t run for office. But I see David Duke is running for senator from the state of Louisiana. He became the 24th person to sign up as a candidate. How can he run?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The Informer addressed a similar question in 2014, when David Duke’s one-time gubernatorial rival, Edwin Edwards, sought a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives after his stint in federal prison.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The Louisiana Constitution disqualifies felons — except the pardoned and those who served prison time over 15 years ago — from seeking or holding a “public elective office or appointment of honor, trust, or profit in this state.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But Duke — sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2003 after pleading guilty to tax and mail fraud charges — is running for federal, not state, office. And no federal law prohibits felons from running for seats in Congress.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">From Article I of the U.S. Constitution, which sets the qualifications for Senate membership: “No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The two dozen candidates for Louisiana’s second U.S. Senate seat: Beryl Billiot, Charles Boustany, Foster Campbell, “Joseph” Cao, Thomas P. Clements, Donald “Crawdaddy” Crawford, David Duke, Derrick Edwards, Caroline Fayard, John Fleming, Le Roy Gillam, Troy Hebert, John Kennedy, Gary Landrieu, William Robert “Bob” Lang Jr., “Rob” Maness, Kaitlin Marone, Charles Marsala, MV “Vinny” Mendoza, Abhay Patel, Joshua Pellerin, Gregory Taylor Jr., Arden Wells and Peter Williams.</span>

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<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Online:</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">www.legis.la.gov; www.congress.gov; www.geauxvote.com.</span>

<span class="R~sep~AHeadBrief">Democratic delegate in story La. resident</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: ‘Lucida Sans’;" class="R~sep~ACopyBody">I’m reading the article on the front page of Friday, July 29, which says that a young person was a delegate to the DNC. I’m curious as to how that can happen if the person — and I quote — “is an elementary school teacher in Atlanta.”</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: ‘Lucida Sans’;" class="R~sep~ACopyBody">He has to be a resident of the parish — or the district, I believe it is — for 30 days and he has to be elected in the general primary. How could a person be an elementary school teacher in Atlanta and also meet those qualifications?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Beau Tidwell, a spokesman for the Louisiana Democratic Party, said the delegate, Davante Lewis, “is a Louisiana resident who is pursuing his advanced degree in Georgia. His work as a teacher is part of his degree program.”</span>

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<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Online:</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">https://louisianademocrats.org.</span>

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<span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">The I</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">nform</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">er answers questions from rea</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">ders each Sunday, Monday a</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">nd Wednesday. It is re</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">searched and written by</span> <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Andrew Perzo</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">, an</span> <span style="font-style: italic; font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">American Press</span> <span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">staff wri</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">ter. To ask a question, call</span> <span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">494-409</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">8 and leave voice mail, or ema</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">il informer@americanpress.com.</span>