Governor-elect Bobby Jindal and his wife Supriya walk to the podium Monday, Jan. 14, 2008 at the start of his inauguration ceremony on the steps of the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge, La. Jindal became the first elected Indian-American governor in the United States. (AP Photo/Tim Mueller)
Jindal Pledges to End La. Corruption
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Pledging to make a "clean break with the past" and root out corruption, Republican Bobby Jindal tried to separate himself from politics as usual as he was sworn in as Louisiana's governor Monday.
Jindal, the nation's first elected Indian-American chief executive and the state's first non-white governor since Reconstruction, thanked past governors for their service — but said it was time to rid the state of its reputation for corrupt government.
"We have the opportunity — born of tragedy but embraced still the same — to make right decades of failure in government," Jindal said.
"In our past, too many politicians looked out for themselves. Too many arms of state and local government did not get results. And the world took note," the new governor said.
Jindal's election puts a new public face on Louisiana politics, often stereotyped as a haven for backslapping good 'ol boys who hold office for decades. The 36-year-old son of Indian immigrants, Jindal is the nation's youngest sitting governor, and many of his top administrators are new to the halls of the Louisiana Capitol.
He takes over from Democrat Kathleen Blanco, who had defeated him four years earlier but whose image was battered by the state's response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. She did not seek re-election.
Blanco attended the inaugural ceremonies with three other former Louisiana governors. The state's only other living ex-governor is Edwin Edwards, who could not attend because he is serving a federal prison sentence on corruption charges.
Jindal, a second-term member of Congress when he was elected, said he will call the state Legislature into a special session beginning Feb. 10 to tackle the centerpiece of his campaign: strengthening Louisiana's ethics laws.
He didn't provide details of what types of proposals he will seek lawmakers to enact in the first special session.
"We will come to this Capitol to make a clean break with the past," he said.
A conservative who has held a series of high-profile positions since heading the state health department at age 24, Jindal won 54 percent of the vote in October's primary election in a field of a dozen candidates.
While he has focused on reputation and ethics reform, Jindal 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 Katrina and Rita two years ago continue to plague the region. The pace of hurricane rebuilding has been sluggish, with thousands of homes left abandoned, residents displaced and basic government services destroyed.
Jindal described the storms as an opportunity to rebuild a better state.
"For reasons beyond our earthly comprehension, this opportunity, this mandate, has been placed on our generation. We must rise to this challenge," he said. "Our goal is a new Louisiana where success is shared by all Louisianians."
Barry Erwin, head of the nonpartisan Council for a Better Louisiana, said though Jindal's speech lacked specifics, it gave people a sense of encouragement and optimism about the state's future.
"It's really passing the torch to a whole group of new people," Erwin said. "I think there's a sense this is a real opportunity and not a rhetorical one."
The country's first Indian governor was New Jersey's transportation commissioner, Kris Kolluri, who held the post for 24 hours in 2006 when his boss was out of town. New Jersey law requires an acting governor to be appointed when the elected governor is away from the state.
Transportation commissioner ranks fourth in the line of succession, but the Senate president, the Assembly speaker and the attorney general also all were out of town — leaving Kolluri in charge for a day.
Bobby Jindal: "We have the opportunity — born of tragedy but embraced still the same — to make right decades of failure in government."
Piyush "Bobby" Jindal was inaugurated on Monday as governor of the U.S. state of Louisiana. He is the country's first Indian American elected governor and the first non-white governor of Louisiana since P. B. S. Pinchback in 1872. At 36 years old, he is currently the nation's youngest governor as well. Jindal succeeds Kathleen Blanco as the state governor.

The inauguration ceremony was held at the state capitol in Baton Rouge. In a speech, Jindal vowed to put an end to political corruption in the state and speed up recovery from the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season.

"We must win a war on corruption and incompetence in government," said Jindal.

Jindal was serving a second term in the House of Representatives when he was elected last October. He previously served as the head of Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals, a post to which he was appointed at the age of 24. A year earlier, he had graduated from University of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar.

Jindal is the son of Punjabi immigrants who came to Baton Rouge shortly before his birth. As a teenager, he converted from Hinduism to Catholicism. He takes his nickname from the character Bobby on television's ''The Brady Bunch''.