Blanco wins La. governor’s race

NEW ORLEANS, LA (AP)– Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco became the first woman ever elected governor of Louisiana, defeating a conservative Indian-American and scoring a rare gain for Democrats in an election season marked by a string of Republican victories.
With all 4,143 precincts counted, Blanco had 52 percent, or 730,737 votes, to Bobby Jindal’s 48 percent, or 676,180.
“You have demanded change, and we will deliver,” Blanco told cheering supporters. “We’re going to do this by working together. We’re going to usher in a new Louisiana.”
A 20-year veteran of public office, Blanco, 60, sought to portray herself as a warm, family-oriented public servant, while depicting Jindal, a former assistant health secretary under President George W. Bush, as a heartless number-cruncher.
Many voters in tradition-bound Louisiana appeared befuddled by the ballot choice– either because of resistance to supporting a woman or a non-white, or because the two candidates were so close ideologically.
This is the same state where, just over a decade ago, a majority of white men voted for former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
Jindal, a 32-year-old former Rhodes Scholar and son of Indian immigrants who converted to Catholicism in high school, would have been the first non-white elected governor in the Deep South since the 1870s.
“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,” Jindal said in his concession speech. “Something special happened here.”
Jindal had been slightly favored, partly due to strong backing from Republican Gov. Mike Foster. But Blanco accused him of harming the poor by enacting budget cuts when he served as Foster’s health secretary.
“It’s time a woman steps in, and I think she’s the right one for the job,” said Leuna Davis, who voted for Blanco. “She’s been in the system longer, and she’s more established.”
Karey Victoriano, 24, said she voted for Jindal partly because she liked his focus on the state’s economy.
“He’s got a young family, and he’s worried about his children not having a future here,” said Victoriano, a new mother from the New Orleans suburb of Marrero. “I get the feeling he would work hard to change that.”
Both candidates focused their campaigns on promises to bring jobs to Louisiana, which is near the bottom in most U.S. economic indicators and the only Southern state to experience a net outmigration of population in the 1990s.
With their approaches differing little _ lower taxes on business, no new taxes on citizens _ the race came down to style, personality and resume.
Jindal sought to neutralize possible opposition based on his ethnicity. He campaigned far to the right, running radio ads extolling the Ten Commandments, deriding gun control, and promoting his strong Catholic faith.
“It’s not about race, it’s about which candidate has the qualifications and experience to lead our state forward,” Jindal said last week. Less than a week before the election, 12 percent of the electorate had not made up their minds.
“I’m really undecided,” said Tommy Schwebel, a firefighter in Amite, 80 miles (128 kilometers) north of New Orleans. “The ones I talk to out in the street, they don’t want to vote for either one of them.”
Stacy Tanguis, 32, said she was proud of Louisiana for selecting two historic candidates in the primary.
“It says we’ve come a long way, and we’re ready for a change,” she said.
Blanco’s victory puts the Louisiana governorship back in the Democratic column for the first time since Foster won the first of his two terms eight years ago.