Business is good

Lots of money being raised this year (ostensibly) to defeat one entirely hopeless Senate candidate. 

The list of avowed enemies of former KKK leader David Duke goes well beyond the other candidates in the 2016 Louisiana Senate race.

That proved true Tuesday (Aug. 30), when the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism PAC was resurrected with the sole mission of eighty-sixing the white nationalist's candidacy.

"The struggle for racial, religious and ethnic goodwill is never really done," said the PAC's chairman, Tulane professor Lawrence Powell, in a statement. "And that's why we've decided to reactivate the Louisiana Coalition: to affirm the values of decency and civility against champions of white nationalism and racial anti-Semitism."

The anti-Duke committee's membership comprises more than a few political heavy-hitters, including former senators Trent Lott, R-Miss., John Breaux, D-La. and Bennett Johnston, D-La., and former governors Edwin Edwards and Buddy Roemer. It also includes Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand, Jefferson Parish Clerk of Court Jon Gegenheimer and former Jefferson Assessor Lawrence Chehardy.

And, hey, good for all the illustrious has-beens willing to put their names on this no-brainer of a cause, unnecessary as it may be. A UNO poll at the beginning of August showed Duke with an 80 percent unfavorable rating. There's zero danger of him being elected.

There's a chance, though, that his presence in the race narrows the chances for some of his Republican opponents. It may even set up an all Democrat runoff under the right circumstances although that is a long shot. Still, there are candidates who benefit from Duke being there just like there if only as a handy fundraising foil. Here, for example, is Democratic candidate Caroline Fayard getting a little free national air time from MSNBC as a direct result of Duke's candidacy.

Of course that isn't exactly why Duke is running. He's running because, one way or another, there's money in it for him. Which is why we're always interested in what happens to money raised in the name of either supporting or opposing him.  In every case it's worth asking how or if he's getting a cut of it.