One of the more enduring slogans in American political history comes from the push to elect flamboyantly corrupt Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards: “Vote for the Crook: It’s Important.”

It first appeared on bumper stickers in 1991, when Edwards, a former governor, mounted a comeback bid five years after he was acquitted on federal bribery charges. Edwards made no secret of his grifting—he joked that he had been tried by “a jury of my peers” when he learned that many of them had stolen towels from the hotel they were sequestered in.

But why was it so “important” to vote for this crook? Because his opponent that year was David Duke, a Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard running as a Republican.