Ex-KKK leader Duke tries political comeback in US Senate run

BATON ROUGE, La. -- A quarter century after his credible run for governor of Louisiana rattled the national political establishment, white supremacist David Duke has jumped into the crowded competition for a U.S. Senate seat in his home state, receiving rebuke from Republicans who don't want him running on a ballot as a member of their party.

Duke — once an avowed Nazi sympathizer who headed a Ku Klux Klan group — fell back into relative obscurity after losing a 1991 runoff to scandal-scarred Democrat Edwin Edwards.

A follow-up presidential run from Duke went nowhere, and 10 years later, he pleaded guilty to bilking supporters in 2002 and spent a year in federal prison, although he later declared he did nothing wrong. He had occasional run-ins with authorities in Europe, such as the time he was detained by Czech authorities in 2009 on suspicion of denying the Holocaust.

On Friday, however, he declared "the climate of this country has moved in my direction," as he registered to run on the Nov. 8 ballot as a Republican for the Senate seat being vacated by David Vitter. Duke said he was partially spurred by the recent shooting deaths of three law enforcement officers by a black man.

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