Louisiana elects first woman governor
 

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Democrat Kathleen Babineaux Blanco made history Saturday night as the first woman ever elected governor in Louisiana.

With all but 13 precincts counted, Blanco had 52 percent, or 725,908 votes, to Bobby Jindal's 48 percent, or 672,484, according to The Associated Press.

"The people of Louisiana have spoken. We have sent a new message out to the nation -- that this is a new Louisiana," Blanco said, according to the AP.

Blanco carried her native Cajun area and swamped Jindal in New Orleans, where Democratic Mayor Ray Nagin had endorsed Jindal, the AP reported. She held her own in Jindal's home city of Baton Rouge and in northern Louisiana. Jindal ran strong in the GOP-dominated suburbs of New Orleans, according to the AP.

"Although our campaign did not come out on top tonight, Louisiana and America did," Jindal said in his concession speech, according to the AP. "I stand before you tonight, proud. Proud to be a Louisianian; proud to be an American."

Blanco and Jindal were the top vote-getters of the 18 candidates in the October 4 election. In Louisiana, all candidates run in the general election. If no candidate wins a majority, the top two finishers, regardless of party, advance to a runoff.

Democrats, who lost two governor's races and a recall this year, had hoped Blanco would win to avoid losing a fourth executive office.

Kentucky, Mississippi and California each recently replaced Democratic governors with Republicans.

The Blanco victory is also welcome news for Democrats in the South, where sitting Democratic governors have been ousted in Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama since November 2002.

Together, the 13 Southern states have 168 electoral votes -- almost two-thirds of the total needed for the presidential election. Last time around, President Bush carried the South, and reapportionment has added five more votes to the Southern tally in 2004.

Blanco is a former high school teacher and stay-at-home mother who has held public office for 20 years, eight of them as lieutenant governor. She is running on her experience, her 20 scandal-free years in public office and her centrist record.

Before the election, she said she would expand kindergarten, increase teacher pay and phase out certain business taxes to attract business to the state.

Blanco jumped into politics with an upset victory for a state House seat in 1983. She made another surprise win in 1988 when she was elected to the state Public Service Commission.

During her term as lieutenant governor, she has focused on expanding the state's tourism industry. She says that during her term, the industry has grown from $6.5 billion to $9 billion and created 21,000 jobs.

Blanco is married and has six children. She is from Lafayette, the largest city in Acadiana.

Jindal is a former federal and state health official who was born in Baton Rouge six months after his parents emigrated from India.
:drinkup :GFYBand

The Repukes are going to be crying over this one. They thought Jindal was a sure thing. All the polls I had seen had her down 5-6 pts or more.

There's really no ideological difference between the two. Quite conservative, quite right of center. Which is just par for the course for Louisiana politics.

Jindal is part of the lunatic fringe right and Blanco is a right leaning moderate. This is big though everyone was predicating a Jindal win. I suspect it was the anti-Bush turnout that killed him. So much for the short lived idea that Democrats can?t win the south.

Yo, Kingfish. Love your nick. Very Louisiana :) For those playing the home version: kingfish = Sen. Huey Long of Louisiana, a 1 man political legend!