AFFIRMATIVE ACTION DEBATE : DUKE: FORMER KLANSMAN CONFIDENT ABOUT QUALIFICATIONS.

Byline: Yvette Cabrera Daily News Staff Writer

For 15 years, David Duke has been a vocal opponent of affirmative action, authoring a Lousiana law that dismantled racial preferences, debating the issue on college campuses and giving press interviews condemning the practice.

But his scheduled Wednesday appearance at Cal State Northridge to debate affirmative action against civil rights leader Joe R. Hicks has caused a debate over whether the former Ku Klux Klan leader is fit to speak on the issue.

Backers of Proposition 209, the Nov. 5 California ballot initiative to end racial and gender preferences in state and local government, contend that Duke is being imported solely to taint the initiative with the stench of racism.

In a phone interview from Covington, La., where he recently ran his second unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Senate, Duke defended his credentials.

``I was the first person to make affirmative action a political issue,'' said Duke, 46, who finished fourth with 11 percent of the vote in Saturday's Louisiana primary. Only the top two finishers move on to the November runoff.

``I was the first Republican candidate in the country to use that as a major campaign issue - no other candidate had done that,'' Duke said. ``I've debated the issue at over 100 universities, I've done over 1,000 radio and television programs, I've written articles. I also, as a legislator, authored the first bill (against affirmative action) in American history to pass a legislative body.''

``I believe that my record stands for itself,'' he said. ``I'm an effective spokesperson, and when the people of California see the debate they will see that.''

Supporters of Proposition 209, however, remain outraged that Duke - with his past in the Ku Klux Klan and other racist groups - would be chosen to speak on affirmative action only six weeks before the Nov. 5 election.

``He knows nothing about affirmative action programs or practices in California, and could only be included in your event because of his reputation, sordid that it is,'' wrote Proposition 209 Chairman Ward Connerly in a letter to CSUN President Blenda Wilson.

``His history is that of a man who supports racial discrimination, while I am dedicated to its eradication. He supports white supremacy, while I spend virtually every moment promoting the proposition that all people should be treated the same,'' wrote Connerly.

Duke has disavowed his KKK membership, but still clings to his belief in white separatism.

``I want America to remain a country of European descent and I'm probably one of the few public officials that will say that,'' said Duke, who served in the Louisiana state Legislature from 1989 to 1992 and remains a local Republican party official in that state.

Critics say Duke has simply hung up his KKK hood to make his views more acceptable to a mainstream audience.

``He has no reservations about lying about his contemporary views, let alone his past,'' said Lance Hill, executive director of the Southern Institute for Education and Research at Tulane University and former director of the New Orleans-based Coalition Against Racism and Nazism in New Orleans.

``That's a fundamental part of his political strategy. He's a racist anti-Semite pretending to be a Republican conservative,'' Hill said.

Duke has made his opposition to affirmative action a centerpiece of his campaigns for public office, including the 1990 U.S. Senate race, the 1991 governor's race in Louisiana and the 1988 presidential race.

He was named grand wizard of the KKK in 1975, but says he left the Klan in 1979 and no longer has ties to the group.

``I left the Klan because I got tired of fighting that (negative) image. I wanted to talk about the issues on an intellectual plane,'' said Duke, adding that his segment of the Klan was legal, nonviolent and law abiding.

In the 1980s, Duke's racial rhetoric softened as he sought to win votes among mainstream conservatives.

``When we're young, I think we're a bit more radical, and as we get older we become wiser and more tolerant in our lives,'' Duke said. ``I want to preserve my heritage, my way of life, my America.''

But Hill, from the Southern Institute, isn't buying that.

``Duke's speeches are permeated with appeals to the fears and hatred that his white audiences have,'' Hill said. ``The conservative issues he's chosen have all centered on race, exploited the differences between black and white and more importantly blamed America's problems on blacks and on minorities.''

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Photo: DAVID DUKE