Indian-American to face female lieutenant governor in runoff for Louisiana governor

NEW ORLEANS, La. — A 32-year-old American of Indian descent will face Louisiana’s female lieutenant governor in a November runoff for the governorship in the conservative deep south state, where white males have dominated politics for generations.
With all but two of the state’s 4,143 precincts counted in the Saturday primary, Bobby Jindal, running as a conservative Republican, had 441,951, or 33 percent, and Kathleen Blanco, a Democrat, had 249,152, or 18 percent, officials reported Sunday.
Jindal, a son of Indian immigrants who is already a veteran of high-level government posts at the age of 32, confounded political prognosticators who predicted a non-white could never win in Louisiana.
He will run against Blanco, 60, who faced equal skepticism in the state’s male-dominated political world.
”This is a new day for Louisiana,” Blanco told cheering supporters. ”You have a Cajun woman against an Asian-American, and I’m telling you, it speaks to the whole nation.”
Jindal’s margin was decisive, but the battle for second place was close. Blanco edged out state Attorney General Richard Ieyoub, who had 223,089, or 16 percent. Former Congressman Buddy Leach had 186,733, or 14 percent.
The run-off will be Nov. 15.
Jindal is a protege of Gov. Mike Foster, who could not run for a third consecutive term.
A former assistant secretary in President George W. Bush’s Department of Health and Human Services, Jindal was a Rhodes Scholar and was appointed by the governor to head the state Department of Health and Hospitals at the age of 24, then appointed him head of Louisiana’s university system.
”I’m not a politician, but I am a problem solver,” Jindal told a cheering crowd Saturday night.
He campaigned as a conservative, extolling the Ten Commandments and deriding liberals and gun control while promising fiscal sobriety.