Louisiana Elects First Indian-american US Governor

Louisiana Elects First Indian-American U.S. Governor

"Change begins tonight," Jindal tells supporters in state's capital: Bobby Jindal made history on October 20 when Louisiana voters chose him, the son of Indian immigrants, as their next governor. He is the first Indian American to be elected as a state's chief executive.

When he made his victory speech, Jindal had garnered 53 percent of the 625,036 votes counted, with about 92 percent of the vote tallied. That majority vote granted Jindal victory without facing a runoff election on November 17. Unlike other U.S. states, Louisiana holds an "open" election in which all registered candidates, regardless of party affiliation, compete. Louisiana requires its elected officials to win by more than 50 percent of votes cast -- a majority -- rather than a plurality, which awards victory to candidate with the most votes.

The governor-elect's nearest competitors were Democrat Walter Boasso, with 18 percent of the vote; Independent John Georges with 14 percent; and Democrat Foster Campbell with 13 percent. Eight other candidates also sought the governor's house. Boasso and Georges, both multimillionaires, spent millions of their own dollars on the campaign. In one of the most expensive political races in Louisiana history, Jindal's campaign alone raised $11 million. (See related article.)

In the United States, the structure of state government loosely mirrors that of the federal government with executive, legislative and judicial branches. As governor, Jindal will perform many of the same functions at the state level that the U.S. president does at the national level. The 36-year-old Republican will be the nation's youngest governor, joining a short list of serving governors born after 1960. (See related article.)

When he takes the oath of office in January 2008, Jindal also will become Louisiana's first nonwhite governor since Reconstruction, a period following the U.S. Civil War in the mid-19th century. P.B.S. Pinchback, a black Republican, served briefly as governor between 1872 and 1873, at a time when many white voters were disenfranchised because they supported the southern states that sought to form a separate nation during the Civil War.

Indian Roots

Jindal was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1971, but his family's hometown is Maler Kotla in India's northern Punjab state. His parents left Maler Kotla to enable his mother to study at Louisiana State University.

"My folks came to this country in pursuit of the American Dream," Jindal said during his victory speech in Baton Rouge on October 20. "And guess what happened -- they found the American Dream to be alive and well right here in Louisiana!"

Although his given name is Piyush, Jindal in 1975 began calling himself Bobby, after the youngest son on the Brady Bunch television show. Later, in high school, he gave up Hinduism to become a Christian, and was baptized as a Roman Catholic while attending Brown University.

After studying as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University, Jindal turned down admissions to the medical and law schools of both Harvard and Yale universities to serve as secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. He later was appointed to an assistant secretary post at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. After an unsuccessful race for governor in 2003, he was elected in 2004 to the U.S. House of Representatives from a district in suburban New Orleans.

Race And Religion

In American politics, experience, leadership and a candidate's vision for the future are important factors in appealing to voters. But sometimes race, religion and ethnicity can affect voters' perceptions and, ultimately, their votes. Such issues surfaced in the governor's race, but Jindal refused to be distracted from his core message of building a better future for Louisiana.

"People want to make everything about race," he said during one debate. "The only colors that matter here are red, white and blue."

In late August, commercials that attacked Jindal's Catholic religious beliefs were shown in primarily Protestant northern Louisiana. As the days wore on, the ads were denounced and discredited; they might have garnered Jindal additional support because many voters objected so strongly to the ads.

Jindal ran on a platform that stressed accountability and reform, a message that had special resonance in a state with a colorful political history, one rife with politicians whose illicit behavior made them legendary.

"I have said throughout the campaign that there are two entities that have the most to fear from us winning this election -- One is Corruption, and the other is his sidekick Incompetence. ... I can promise you this -- when they rear their heads, they will not be tolerated, no excuses will be accepted."

The Louisiana governorship is one of approximately 176,000 elected offices that will be filled by voters in 2007 in races termed "off-year elections" because they are held in years in which no members of the U.S. Congress are elected. In 2007, in addition to votes on many state and local ballot issues, two other states -- Kentucky and Mississippi -- will elect governors, four states will vote for their state legislators, and many major cities -- including Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Baltimore and San Francisco -- will elect their mayors.

ENDS

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