In their gracious concession speeches, his Democratic opponents Walter Boasso and Foster Campbell and independent John Georges also called on their supporters to rally behind Jindal.
While this sunshine-and-rainbow honeymoon will end the minute that Jindal's sworn into office, the temporary truce is welcome ' especially by my e-mail inbox. For the past four months, I've been flooded with a dizzying 10-20 campaign announcements an hour. In the final weeks leading up to the election, it all blended into a blur of LOOK AT THESE ENDORSEMENTS and JOE MISREPRESENTED MY POSITION ON HEALTH CARE and WE JUST RAISED $10,000 and THEY'RE RUNNING A DIRTY CAMPAIGN and WATCH THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO and MY OPPONENT HATES CHILDREN AND PUPPIES, until I was ready to take a sledgehammer to my computer monitor.
And that doesn't even take into account letters to the editor. Campaigns bring out some of the most, shall we say, spirited letters. One anonymous writer called The Independent "a slime bag group of radical disgusting right-wing a--h---s," while regular reader Roder Russo of Youngsville says The Independent is "not interested in facts only the typical liberal hyper filly, innuendos and lies."
There will still be plenty of those types of missives sparked by the statewide runoffs for attorney general and commissioner of agriculture and forestry, where you can take it to the bank that AG candidates Royal Alexander and Buddy Caldwell and Ag commish candidates Bob Odom and Mike Strain will be smiling for the cameras and scratching and clawing like vultures over a carcass behind the scenes. There are also runoffs in a number of local city council races and state representative races.
But it's all over in the race for the state's top spot. Like it or not, Jindal is the new leader of Louisiana.
Longtime Louisiana political analyst and demographer Elliot Stonecipher presented some interesting theories regarding Jindal's future at his recent Oct. 3 Lafayette speech as part of The Independent Weekly's Lecture Series. Stonecipher believes that for Jindal to have a real shot at meaningful ethics reform and substantive legislative changes, our new governor is going to have to show voters how the sausage is made.
Stonecipher may be onto something. In Jindal's acceptance speech, he promised: "If and when folks try to stop [ethics reform], I will call them out. If and when people try to throw in amendments designed to derail ethics reform, I will call them out."
Go for it. Name names. Point the finger at legislators who load up bills with unrelated pork and poison pills and delay the process with procedural nonsense.
That cuts both ways. Members of the Legislature, whether they're Democrat, Republican or independent, need to have the courage to stand up to Jindal and similarly call him out if they believe he's pushing legislation that would take Louisiana down the wrong path. Battles between governors and the Legislature are nothing new, but far too often it descends into rote partisan posturing. Both sides would do well to tone down the sniping and grandstanding and give voters an honest, unfiltered peek at some of the ridiculous stunts pulled behind closed doors.
How will this factor into Jindal's ability to lead? Stonecipher has another theory worth keeping in mind: one of the reasons the state Republican Party is so united behind Jindal is because the national Republican Party views Jindal as a rising star. He represents a potential national voting base that's traditionally eluded Republicans, even more so in recent years: young minorities. With that in mind, the national party won't wait too long before bringing Jindal up on the national stage ' possibly even as a vice presidential candidate on the 2012 or 2016 ticket.
Using Stonecipher's hypothesis, Jindal can make some bold moves and fail. If his major policy initiatives are thwarted by the Democratic-majority Legislature, the national party can hold Jindal up as a candidate who vigorously tried to enact change but was derailed by partisan politics. If he succeeds, he'll have a positive track record to run on, and the national party won't risk the potential damage from any Jindal missteps in a second four-year term.
In either scenario, Jindal's likely a one-term governor. Here's hoping he makes the most of it.
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
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