NOT YOUR FATHER'S GOP:

Surprise Front-Runner In La. Governor's Race: Son of Indian Immigrants Seeks 'Bubba' Vote (Lee Hockstader, October 4, 2003, Washington Post

Something is happening in Louisiana.

Twelve years ago, the race for governor pitted an ethically challenged incumbent against a devotee of the Ku Klux Klan. Both now reside in federal prisons.

This year, with a first round of gubernatorial voting on Saturday, the front-runner is a 32-year-old former Rhodes scholar with an Ivy League pedigree, a gold-plated record in public service and unchallenged integrity whose rivals -- when they are not murmuring their admiration for his intellect and good manners -- are stammering that his career advancement may possibly have been too swift.

He is Bobby Jindal, a son of Indian immigrants who served as a senior Bush administration health policy official and ran Louisiana's biggest university system as well as its largest cabinet-level department, all by the time he was 30. Now, as a Republican newcomer to electoral politics, he is not only leading the pack but doing so partly by staking out conservative positions that appeal to the same rural whites (Bubbas, in the local vernacular) who backed Klansman David Duke in 1991.

That the sensation this political season in Louisiana is a dark-complexioned young policy wonk who neither hunts, fishes, drawls nor feeds from the public trough has astounded every political pro in the state -- to say nothing of his five major opponents, all of whom are old enough to be his parent.

Sen. Winters will run for Congress (STEVE LAW, October 2, 2003, Statesman Journal)

Salem state Sen. Jackie Winters formally entered the race to unseat Democratic Congresswoman Darlene Hooley on Wednesday. [...]

Winters hasn’t started raising money for her campaign and figures that she needs $500,000 just for the primary. She is banking on support from national GOP leaders and donors who are eager to see more African-American Republicans elected.

There are no African-American Republicans in Congress, and Winters is one of only three known to be running this cycle, said Nathan Gonzales, who analyzes congressional races for The Rothenberg Political Report.

Winters has cultivated ties to the Bush White House, but it is doubtful that that will provide much help in the GOP primary, Gonzales said. National party leaders are mostly eager to see a strong challenger to Hooley after Boquist failed to gain traction the past two times, he said.

“This will be a targeted race for Republicans, as long as they get a candidate not named Brian Boquist,” Gonzales said.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 4, 2003 7:03 PM