Kathleen Blanco in Leadership and Crisis, by Gov. Bobby Jindal

On Principles & Values: 2003 TV ad: "Wake up, Louisiana!" beat Jindal 52-48

When the dust cleared on primary night in 2003, I had come in first with 33% of the vote, a full 15% ahead of Blanco. It's hard to pinpoint the reason for my victory. I think it was a combination of hard work, discipline, people power, and the power of ideas.

Still, the election wasn't over. [We faced] a runoff with the perfectly positioned Kathleen Blanco--she didn't have a controversial record to defend, she seemed non-threatening, and she could attract bipartisan support as a Democrat campaigning as a cultural conservative. She was widely known and I was not. At the very end of the campaign, Blanco went on the attack, running a TV ad that featured a voice shouting, "Wake up, Louisiana!" Displaying an unflattering picture of me, the ad warned that people were in danger of electing some guy no one really knew. The ad played to Blanco's strengths as a safe, status quoi candidate, which was a good place to be at the time, pre-Katrina. In the end she beat us, 52 to 48 percent.

Source: Leadership and Crisis, by Bobby Jindal, p. 90-91 Nov 15, 2010

The above quotations are from Leadership and Crisis, by Bobby Jindal. Click here for other excerpts from Leadership and Crisis, by Bobby Jindal. Click here for other excerpts by Kathleen Blanco. Click here for other excerpts by other Governors.
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