KENNER, LA. — Changing Louisiana’s reputation for corruption would do more than just make over its image, Gov.-elect Bobby Jindal said Sunday; it could help the state attract businesses and win federal aid for hurricane recovery.
The Republican congressman, a day after his historic win in an election that featured a dozen candidates for governor, pressed ahead with his campaign pledge, saying in an interview that one of his first acts will be to call a special legislative session to reform ethics laws.
“I think we’re setting the bar too low when we say, ‘Look, isn’t it great that we haven’t had a statewide elected official go to jail recently?”‘ Jindal said.
“The reality is there are a lot of practices that are accepted ways of doing business in Baton Rouge that are considered unethical in other parts of the country, that are considered illegal in other parts of the country,” Jindal said.
The son of immigrants won more than 50 percent of the vote Saturday to make him Louisiana’s first nonwhite governor since Reconstruction and the nation’s first Indian-American chief executive. That tally averted the need for a November runoff election.
His two predecessors, Democrat Kathleen Blanco and Republican Mike Foster, governed with no allegations of cronyism, but the state has a well-earned reputation for shady politics.
Four-term Democratic Gov. Edwin Edwards is serving prison time in a bribery-and-extortion case involving the awarding of riverboat-casino licenses. In the past decade, Louisiana has had an insurance commissioner and elections commissioner serve time in jail, and a litany of corruption cases are pending in New Orleans.
Jindal wants legislators to create new state laws requiring themselves to disclose their sources of income and their assets – a bill that failed to pass in the most recent legislative session – and to bar their family members from doing business with the state.
Louisiana’s ethics laws lag too far behind other states’ requirements, he said.
And while he acknowledges that some of the concerns are more about perception than reality, he said they can still can harm the state’s ability to attract businesses and its requests for aid.
Jindal said he and Blanco will work together during his transition to lobby Congress for hurricane-relief assistance, saying it’s a federal obligation.
