Free Republic

<p>Posted on November 10, 2003 Republican Bobby Jindal's campaign to become the first Indian-American governor in American history has touched a nerve with some Pakistani-Americans, who are lining up to support Democrat Kathleen Blanco of Lafayette in Saturday's runoff.</p> <p>The support culminated during an Oct. 21 fund-raiser for Blanco in Lake Charles sponsored by the Pakistani-American Business Association of Louisiana, which gave Blanco $50,000 for her campaign.</p>

<p>Absentee voting slowed statewide for a while Thursday when the St. Landry Parish registrar of voters ran a program to check if precincts are registered correctly.</p> <p>The state computer used to verify registration and tell registrars of voters which precinct ballots to hand to absentee voters mysteriously became bogged down for about 45 minutes, state Assistant Elections Commissioner Pat Bergeron said. State computer experts checked the system when two registrars called to find out why it was taking two minutes instead of a few seconds for the computer to issue the information.</p>

<p>BATON ROUGE - State Rep. Tony Perkins will take over as president of the Christian right-wing Washington lobbying group Family Research Council.</p> <p>Perkins, 40, said he will take over Sept. 1 at a salary "in the neighborhood" of $220,000 to be spokesman for the lobby, which is associated with the Rev. James Dobson of Colorado Springs, Colo.</p>