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Louisiana's Rising Star

Do the Republicans have another hot governor in their future?

Nov 10, 2003, Vol. 9, No. 09 • By FRED BARNES
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New Orleans


THE LOUISIANA governor's race is interesting and nationally important for one reason: Bobby Jindal. He's the Republican candidate in the November 15 election and is probably the most unconventional major party candidate in the country. Louisiana often produces exotic political creatures like Edwin Edwards and David Duke, both now in jail, or even the current Republican governor Mike Foster, best known for his political incorrectness. But Jindal is as different from them as one could get. Rather than a good old boy or a scoundrel, he's a 32-year-old policy wonk who's never before run for office. He's a graduate of Brown University in Rhode Island and an expert on health care. He's an Indian American whose parents moved to Baton Rouge just before he was born. And Jindal is a thoroughgoing conservative.

It's a stretch to liken him to Arnold Schwarzenegger, but let's go there anyway. Both have immigrant backgrounds. Both are Republicans who don't quite fit the party mold. Both are reformers. Both decided to run not in response to a groundswell, but because they wanted to. Both promise to turn around states in decline, economically and demographically. Schwarzenegger is now governor-elect of California. Jindal has at least a 50-50 chance of winning the Louisiana governorship. If he does, Jindal will join Schwarzenegger as a new Republican star whose emergence reflects an increasingly diverse party.

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