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Jindal Takes Over As Governor Of Louisiana

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By MELINDA DESLATTE, The Associated Press

Published: January 15, 2008

BATON ROUGE, La. - Republican Bobby Jindal was sworn in Monday as Louisiana's 55th governor, and moved quickly to make good on a campaign promise to clean up the corrupt image of this hurricane-battered state.

"We have the opportunity - born of tragedy but embraced still the same - to make right decades of failure in government," Jindal said in his inaugural speech, referring to hurricanes Katrina and Rita of 2005.

Jindal, a former congressman, became Louisiana's first nonwhite governor since Reconstruction and the nation's first Indian-American chief executive.

He said he will call a special legislative session Feb. 10 to address the state's image as a haven for cronyism and self-serving politicians.

"We can build a Louisiana where our leaders and our people set the highest standards and hold every member of our government accountable, a Louisiana where incompetence is not a synonym for government, a Louisiana where corruption does not hold us back," he said without providing specifics.

Jindal, 36, a conservative Republican, won more than 50 percent of the vote in October's primary election. He takes over from Democrat Kathleen Blanco, who had defeated him four years earlier. Blanco chose not to run after heavy criticism of her performance after Katrina.

While Jindal has focused on fixing the state's shady reputation and overhauling ethics laws, he inherits an array of problems that have dogged his predecessors.

Louisiana is among the nation's most unhealthy and poorest states, its students still perform below average on national educational tests and its population is dwindling.

Worsening the state's long-term history of problems, back-to-back blows from hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated much of south Louisiana and left New Orleans struggling to recover. The pace of hurricane rebuilding has been sluggish, with thousands of homes left abandoned, thousands of residents displaced and basic government services destroyed.

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