Shuffling Race Cards

AP's Nossiter reports, the role of race in the '03 LA GOV race has "been a great unmentionable" since ex-HHS official Bobby Jindal's (R) loss to LG Kathleen Blanco (D). But the issue "could have been critical" to the outcome. The "nasty paradox" is that "racism, an aid to so many" Southern GOP wins "may have saved" Dems in the LA GOV race, and Jindal "may have lost because he was found insufficiently American."

The influence of race in the campaign "can't be proved" and the only evidence is "anecdotal -- disturbing comments from voters, Jindal's rapid polling drop and suggestive vote deficits" from parrishes Bush carried "strongly" in '00. Nevertheless, "it seems clear" that Jindal's origins were not "forgotten." Blanco was reported as telling AG Richard Ieyoub (D) the night before the election: "A Hindu out-Catholic'd both of us, Richard," even though Jindal has been a "fervent Catholic all through adulthood."

Pollster Verne Kennedy's survey had Jindal 10 points up with four days to go and then 3 points down the day before the election, but Kennedy "downplays" racism. Lance Hill, a Tulane Univ. "racism expert" says "analysts have underestimated the racial-ethnic factor" in the LA GOV race. In Bossier, Ouachita and Caddo parrishes, Jindal received 34K fewer votes than Pres. Bush in '00.: "If Jindal had been white he'd be governor right now." In Amite, LA voters spoke about the "foreigner" running for gov. "Even the mayor remarked on Jindal's problematic 'appearance,' saying he was going to vote for Blanco" (11/27).

Or Perhaps Not?

Jackson, MS Clarion-Ledger's Minor writes, nationwide GOPers were "drooling" over the possibility of Jindal winning the LA GOV race, but GOPers "crapped out, big time." Jindal was "counting on a significant black vote," but "evidently failed to pull the black vote he expected." In that courtship, Jindal kept Bush out of LA, unlike MS Gov.-elect Haley Barbour (R), remembering how Bush "turned off" blacks in the '02 LA Sen race. Blanco's "prime" strategist was Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), and Blanco's win and Landrieu's role has "substantially elevated" Landrieu's "stature" in the Senate.

Barbour's "ace in the hole" was "to tap into the state's stream of racial prejudice via the Confederacy-tinged state flag," and that "gambit" brought white voters to the polls who "otherwise would have stayed home." Blanco won without "the slightest reference" to Jindal's race. MS "can take a lesson" from LA if it's "going to claim to be a 'new' Mississippi" (11/30).

Jindal Split The Gandhi/Mother Teresa Demographic

New Orleans Times-Picayune's Alpert and Walsh write that after watching LA GOV returns at a Washington, D.C. restaurant, Toby Chaudhuri of the Indian-American Leadership Initiative said that many Indian-Americans "were hoping" for a Jindal win to "mark a turning point in terms of influence if a group that has not been very politically active." Chaudhuri: "Many of us supported Bobby ... But the fact is that he is a conservative Republican, and most Indian-Americans tends to be liberal and Democratic. So, there were a lot of mixed feelings. I like to say that Gandhi probably would not have voted for Bobby, although Mother Teresa probably would have been on his side" (11/30).

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