Voters in Louisiana go to the polls tomorrow to choose their next governor. There is little question that U.S. congressman Bobby Jindal will win the most votes; he did back in 2003, and every poll taken in recent months shows him well in front of the others running. But Louisiana has a unique voting process, in which a candidate must receive more than 50 percent of the vote in the first election, which is open to candidates and voters from all parties, in order to avoid a two-person runoff a month later. Jindal should be close. Political analyst Charlie Cook says the young Republican has an even chance of winning tomorrow. Early voting, which is taking place for the first time this election in Louisiana, has been strongly Republican. And Jindal’s team has put in place a campaign infrastructure and get-out-the-vote effort that simply wasn’t available four years ago. Another major difference: In 2003, Jindal was subjected to harsh attacks in the waning days of the campaign, including an ad by the state Democratic party that had racist overtones. Many observers, including Jindal supporters, thought his campaign did not do enough to fight back against those attacks. This year, the Jindal campaign responded quickly each time one of its opponents went after the candidate. In one case, when Louisiana Democrats launched a specious attack on Jindal’s religious views, the campaign responded quickly, and even used the controversy to counterattack one of Jindal’s opponents. More recently, Jindal’s ad team mocked the last-minute mud-slinging with a funny ad making light of the desperation shown by his opponents. You can see it here. This willingness to fight back hard could mean that Louisiana will be governed by a Republican a little more than two years after the Bush administration (and Democratic governor Kathleen Blanco) botched the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort. There could be a big party in Baton Rouge tomorrow night – even if LSU loses to Auburn.
