Shreveport Times Endorses Jindal (R) for Governor

bobbyjindal.com | 11-02-03 | Shreveport Times Editorial

[Theodore R.]

Bobby Jindal for governor Louisiana shouldn''t settle for less Posted on November 2, 2003

Boiled down to the basics, the 2003 gubernatorial election isn't as much of a campaign as it is a job interview. Voters will be hiring the person who will lead the state for the next four years.

To be the right job candidate takes specific leadership skills: vision, salesmanship, tact and tenacity. The best political experience is more than mere existence in government. It's a track record of accomplishment that counts.

The right candidate will lead a corporation rich with resources, but weighted down with years of inefficiency. Fiscal repairs are sorely needed. The annual budget, now $17 billion, needs a consistent focus that mirrors the proper priorities that will put Louisiana on the path of economic revival.

Louisiana voters should hire Bobby Jindal. He's qualified. He has a solid plan. He can put Louisiana back on the map as a place new businesses want to locate and existing businesses want to grow. A Jindal-led Louisiana can reverse the trend of being the sole Southern state losing population.

Why would an opponent point out - sometimes subtly, but increasingly less so - Jindal's age and ancestry? Old political habits die hard, especially in the face of Jindal's impeccable credentials. Louisiana born and educated at Baton Rouge High School, Jindal graduated from Brown University and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University.

He has worked in state government to make lasting changes in education and health care. He has worked with Congress on Medicare reform, and he has a viewpoint not limited by the state's borders. Now, Louisiana needs him to work on a vast array of issues.

It's not that Jindal just understands Louisiana's problems; he has a solid grasp on what it will take to fix them. He's not about dodging the tough issues; he's about addressing them head-on and honestly.

For too long, Louisiana has languished with politicians bluffing their way through campaigns with fluff and platitudes. That is not the Jindal way. State voters have long called for candidates to be specific about their vision and plans, and Jindal answered. His "Blueprint for Louisiana" offers a strong to-do list for the state, ranging from economic development and education to health care and government ethics.

A plan with specifics

Jindal is committed to wiping out business taxes that penalize investment and expansion. He'll lead the state toward developing the community and technical colleges into a workforce training asset that will help lure new industries to the state. He'll push the state to follow up talk about priorities by making the state budget reflect those priorities.

Jindal's campaign is about fulfilling the state's potential, not just filling voters with promises.

Part of the potential depends on changing the image of Louisiana. Electing Jindal sends the right message - that Louisiana is ready to be a good partner, willing to prepare its people for job competition, willing to work, and open for business.

Governor as salesman

As much as anything, Louisiana needs an energetic salesman, someone not only willing to travel outside the state to aggressively pitch the reasons why Louisiana is the place where businesses and families should come, but also to travel within the state to maintain a firsthand knowledge of Louisiana's assets and liabilities.

After the January inauguration, who better to send into corporate board rooms to be Louisiana's chief salesman than Bobby Jindal, the one who wants to tighten the lobbyist disclosure law to include the executive branch and strengthen the Ethics Administration Program? His commitment to aggressively address potential conflicts of interest, to require public officials to disclose their sources of income, to preserve a strong and independent Legislative Auditor's Office tells industries Louisiana won't be doing things the old way any longer.

Jindal represents the best opportunity to position Louisiana as being accountable in the classroom and a viable competitor in the board room. His leadership and experience will help the state deal with cost, quality and accessibility issues from the emergency room to the hospital room.

The next four years will be difficult even with the proper leadership, but they will be excruciating if the next governor is indecisive, unprepared, disorganized and ineffective. That's a risk Louisiana cannot afford to take if there is to be any hope of scraping the state off the bottom.

Louisiana needs a governor who has a plan now and the skills to build support for the plan and implement it.

Louisiana needs to elect Bobby Jindal Nov. 15

[Theodore R.]

The Times endorsed the Democrat Randy Ewing in the primary. He finished fifth. In 2000, it endorsed Gore for president. In 1992 and 1996, it endorsed the Clinton-Gore ticket.

[whereasandsoforth]

For all those that don't know, Shreveport/Bossier is a wonderful place with wonderful friendly people. It is the area that defines Louisiana to me. Naw'lenz is in a different world.

[petercooper]

Go Bobby!