against Johnston. Treen filed but withdrew in the wake of his loss the previous year for governor. Ross ran as the best-known of the Republican candidates. The tally was 838,181 votes (85.7 percent) for Johnston, 86,546 votes (8.9 percent) for Ross, and others took 52,745 votes (5.4 percent). Johnston v. Duke Johnston's closest re-election race was in 1990 against State Representative David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klansman and Republican candidate, who was not endorsed by his party's leadership. Louisiana State Senator Ben Bagert of New Orleans dropped out of the primary race in a bid to try to prevent a runoff battle between Johnston and Duke. Eight Republican U.S. senators endorsed Johnston over Duke. These included Ted Stevens and Frank Murkowski of Alaska, David Durenberger and Rudy Boschwitz of Minnesota, John Danforth of Missouri, William Cohen of Maine, Warren Rudman of New Hampshire, and Nancy Landon Kassebaum of Kansas. The HUD Secretary at the time, Jack Kemp, also endorsed Johnston. Johnston defeated Duke in the primary, 752,902 votes (53.9 percent), to 607,391 votes (43.5 percent), far less than expected. Other candidates took the remaining 35,820 votes (2.5 percent). Johnston retired after his fourth term ended in 1997; he was succeeded by his choice for the seat, fellow Democrat Mary Landrieu of New Orleans, daughter of Jimmy Carter's HUD Secretary and former New Orleans Mayor Moon Landrieu. Notable achievements Considered a conservative within the Democratic caucus, Johnston procured Senate passage in 1981 of a measure to limit school busing for purposes of racial balance to a distance of no more than five miles or fifteen minutes of time. Johnston's bill passed the Republican-controlled Senate 60 to 39, with liberal Republican Lowell Weicker of Connecticut leading the opposition. House Speaker Tip O'Neill of Massachusetts blocked the measure from being considered by the House of Representatives, and it did not pass the Congress. Johnston broke with his party in 1991 to authorize the use of military force in Operation Desert Storm in Iraq. He also broke ranks to support the narrowly achieved confirmation of Clarence Thomas as associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. In 1987, Johnston had voted with his Democratic majority against President Ronald W. Reagan's choice of Robert Bork, former D.C. Appeals Court Judge, for elevation to the Supreme Court. Johnston was one of the few Senate Democrats to vote against the Budget Act of 1993, which was