Mike Foster, a former two-term Republican governor of Louisiana who shepherded the state through a period of relative calm — in the wake of the corruption scandals of his flamboyant predecessor, Edwin W. Edwards, and before the devastation of Hurricane Katrina — died on Sunday at his home in Franklin, La. He was 90.
Marsanne Golsby, his longtime former spokeswoman, confirmed the death.
After two terms as a Democratic state senator, Mr. Foster switched to the Republican Party in 1995 in the midst of his successful first run for governor, joining a broader Republican realignment among conservative white Southerners in the latter half of the century.
During that campaign, Mr. Foster publicly welcomed the endorsement of David Duke, the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan who had lost a runoff election for governor four years earlier. It was later revealed that Mr. Foster had bought Mr. Duke’s list of contributors and supporters.
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