Kathleen Blanco Wins La. Governor’s Race

After defying the polls and confounding political observers, Democratic Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco grappled to explain why she was narrowly elected Louisiana’s first female governor.

“I think the voters got energized,” she said Saturday night after defeating the conservative Republican Bobby Jindal, an Indian-American and the protege of Gov. Mike Foster.

The win stopped a Republican sweep of governor’s races this fall and put the Louisiana governorship back in the Democratic column for the first time since Foster won the first of his two terms eight years ago. The governor could not run again because of term limits.

“Not only did we slow the Republican train. We stopped it in its tracks,” said Oliver Thomas, president of the New Orleans City Council.

With all 4,143 precincts counted, Blanco had 52 percent, or 730,737 votes, to Bobby Jindal’s 48 percent, or 676,180. More than half of Louisiana’s 2.7 million registered voters cast ballots, besting predictions of a 45 percent turnout.

Jindal led nearly all the polls leading up to Saturday’s election, but Blanco carried 53 parishes to Jindal’s 11 in the unofficial voting results.

Blanco, 60, took most of her native Cajun area and swamped Jindal in New Orleans, where Democratic Mayor Ray Nagin bailed on Blanco and instead endorsed Jindal. Blanco believes Nagin’s endorsement helped persuade some voters to go to the polls who may have planned to stay home.

“I think there was immense disappointment of the endorsement of Bobby. I think it had the effect of energizing our campaign,” Blanco said.

Only a few days before the election, more than one in 10 voters still was undecided.

Blanco credited her attacks on Jindal’s record as a former state health and education official and her final debate appearance, in which she tearfully recounted the death of her son when asked about the defining moment in her life.

“I’ve always felt or found in a big campaign, people eventually look for humanity,” Blanco said.

Sam Jones, the mayor of Franklin and a Blanco supporter, said the final debate clearly delineated distinctions between Blanco and Jindal, who often sounded alike in their positions – touting tax cuts, improving economic development and continuing education reform.

“Voters made up their minds after (that) night,” Jones said. “The energy came at the end when she drew hard distinctions.”

Blanco succeeded in bringing together the fractured Democratic vote from the primary, which had been split among three major candidates.

Jindal, a 32-year-old former Rhodes Scholar who converted to Catholicism in high school, would have been the first non-white elected governor in the Deep South since Reconstruction. The son of Indian immigrants, he is a former assistant health secretary under President Bush.

“I stand here tonight disappointed, but not discouraged. We made the case that the American dream is more alive in Louisiana than anywhere else in America. Something special happened here,” Jindal said in his concession speech.

Republicans had hoped Jindal would give them a sweep of governorships in every Deep South state – Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina – for the first time since Reconstruction.

Blanco’s victory echoed the election a year ago when Louisiana dented another Republican upswing with Democrat Mary Landrieu winning re-election to the U.S. Senate after the GOP had won control of that chamber.

“This sends a very strong signal out to the nation that the Louisiana Democratic Party basically has it together,” Landrieu said at Blanco’s victory party.

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On the Net:

http://www.kathleenblanco.com

http://www.bobbyjindal.com