The First Indian-American Governor in America

Nothing is ever certain in politics, but odds are that shortly after October 20th Louisiana will have the nation’s first-ever governor-elect of Indian descent. And if that doesn’t happen then, it is virtually a certainty that it will happen after November 17th.

Piyush “Bobby” Jindal is no stranger to regular readers of Chowk, but I figured a brief bio is in order. Jindal is the Republican candidate for Governor of Louisiana and is currently a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing a New Orleans suburban district. He is 36 years old, Catholic, married to Supriya and the father of Celia, Shaan, and Slade. He is a Brown and Oxford graduate and Rhodes scholar who worked for McKinsey after graduation, then was appointed Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health & Hospitals, followed by a stint as executive director of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare. He was the youngest-ever president of the University of Louisiana System between 1999 and 2001. From 2001 to 2003 he was Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation. Jindal narrowly lost the race for governor in 2003, but this helped propel him on the national stage. In 2004 he ran for and was elected (later re-elected) to the U.S. House of Representatives, and since then he has in essence been campaigning for the job of governor.

Jindal’s politics are about as close to those of George W Bush as it gets. According to ontheissues.org, Jindal is a “Moderate Libertarian Conservative”, but on all the issues that website lists he appears to have a strongly conservative Republican philosophy. His politics are in sync with the district he represents, and the state as a whole. In a nutshell, he is a social conservative, a national security and foreign policy hawk, weak on environmental issues, supportive of business in general and the energy and health/pharma industries in particular, and supportive of gun rights and immigration enforcement. Since all politics is local the one thing that voters really want is for their representatives to bring home the bacon, and Jindal has done well on that score. His support for expanded offshore oil and gas drilling, as well as his support for tax breaks and other federal assistance following the devastating hurricanes of 2005 has been well regarded by local newspapers and has been beneficial for the local economy.

Jindal has been dealt a lucky hand. Following the 2005 hurricanes the racial composition of the state changed as Louisiana lost a chunk of its population. African-Americans (who vote predominantly for Democrats) were the majority of those that were permanently displaced. There has also been a perception in the state that outgoing governor Blanco was not effective enough to deal with the issues that arose after the 2005 hurricanes. The bottom line is that Louisiana is one of the few states that have defied the national trend in favor of Democrats, and is more Republican now than it was in 2003.

Louisiana has an open primary on October 20th, so if a candidate receives “50% plus 1”votes he is the next governor, if not then a runoff election will be held on November 17th. For the last couple of years Jindal has been polling at well over 50% in the governor’s race, and only recently have some polls shown him at less than 50%. Being the front-runner he had avoided gubernatorial debates but has recently been a participant in them.

If Jindal wins he will have both opportunities and challenges. Due to record oil and gas prices the state’s budget surplus will be over $1 billion, and there is still federal assistance flowing into the state. At the same time the state is one of the worst in the nation on education, crime, poverty, healthcare, infrastructure, corruption and business climate.

On a personal note, I wish Jindal success but I will vote for his Democratic opponent. I was here when Katrina and Rita hit and I suffered due to the incompetence and apathy of Jindal’s party. Seven years of misdeeds by the Bush administration have soured me on his politics and policies and I really look forward to President Clinton or President Obama in January 2009.