Posted on 10/06/2003 3:53:16 AM PDT by RJCogburn
A conservative Republican and the lieutenant governor led the state's open primary on Saturday and are headed to a runoff on Nov. 15.
The Republican, Piyush Jindal, a 32-year-old political newcomer, easily topped a number of veteran politicians.
Mr. Jindal, who is known as Bobby, won 33 percent of the vote, and Lt. Gov. Kathleen B. Blanco, a Democrat, finished with 18 percent. Because none of the 17 candidates on the ballot won more than 50 percent of the vote, the contest advances to the runoff.
Mr. Jindal's strong performance defied the predictions of many political experts, who said youth and his background as the son of Indian immigrants might work against him.
The predictions underestimated Louisiana voters, Mr. Jindal said on Sunday.
"I'm proud they've spoken so loudly, saying, `We want to move our state forward. We're willing to elect a problem-solver,' " he said.
Mr. Jindal gained that reputation, acknowledged even by opponents, when as Louisiana's health and hospitals chief he closed a multimillion-dollar deficit in the state's Medicaid program. He was 24 at the time.
The achievement later helped gain him a spot in the Health and Human Services Department under President Bush, who called Mr. Jindal on Sunday to congratulate him.
No matter who wins in November, the decades-old hold of white men on the governor's office will be broken.
"It moves past all the traditional concepts of what Louisiana looks like," Lieutenant Governor Blanco said from her home in Lafayette Parish.
Mr. Jindal led the field by appealing to conservative rural whites as well as urban moderates impressed by his résumé, political experts said. But he gained almost no black votes in a state where they make up 30 percent of the electorate, and he faces a tough runoff, said Bernie Pinsonat of Southern Media and Opinion Research, a Baton Rouge polling firm. Mr. Pinsonat said Mr. Jindal would need at least 65 percent of the white vote to win.
You aren't swallowing Bernie Pinsonant's line, are you? Apparently Bobby Jindal won several black precincts Saturday. Won. And got strong minorities (no pun intended) in many others. He finished 4th among black voters, behind Blanco in 3rd.
My prediction: Blanco ain't gonna have the black vote she'll need to become governor, and Jindal will get more black votes than any Republican in modern, at least, history. If she wins, it'll be by hogging the middle and freezing out Jindal on the Right.
Oh, sure, Cleo & Co. will exact a blood price, but they can only do so much if people don't really care to go out and vote, and blacks don't see Jindal as a threat or Blanco as a boon.
Ieyoub and Leach had these folks on board in the primary, and they couldn't even break 16%. Hell, even giving Blanco EVERY black vote Ieyoub and Leach got -- a dubious assumption -- that only gets her to, what, 40%?
Race aside, New Orleans determines the statewide Louisiana races. And New Orleans voters, both the living and the dead, will INVARIABLY and WITHOUT EXCEPTION, pull the lever next to the D.
Jindal is a good man and would make a good governor. But the only way he will be elected governor is if the New Orleans voters stay home, and north Louisiana has a record turnout.
Ditto.
My prediction: a deal with Blanco will be cut.
Ditto.
From now until election day, the message from the pulpits in black churches across Louisiana will be to vote for Blanco, because Jindal is an evil Republican who wants to revive slavery.
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