BATON ROUGE - Louisiana's four-term former governor Edwin Edwards is having an ostentatious 90th birthday bash, with a $250-per-person price tag to attend.

  

A more traditional person might call it crass. But Edwards isn't anything close to traditional.

  

The powerful and charismatic Democrat was the dominant figure in Louisiana politics for decades before he went to federal prison for a corruption conviction.

  

Out of prison six years, Edwards has a wife 50 years his junior, a 4-year-old son and continued popularity.

  

The birthday festivities Saturday night at a posh Baton Rouge hotel sold out weeks in advance. The ballroom will be packed with 500 people: elected officials, lobbyists and onlookers watching what is expected to be pure Louisiana political spectacle.

  

Among those to attend is Louisiana's current governor, Democrat John Bel Edwards.