Bobby Jindal '92 is not the typical Louisiana politician. The son of Indian immigrants - his birth name was Piyush - and a converted Catholic, Jindal, at only 33, is running for Congress in a district that gave considerable support to former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke in the 1991 governor's race.
Nevertheless, after a meteoric rise through Louisiana state government, a position in George W. Bush's administration and a near-win in last year's gubernatorial race, Jindal, a conservative Republican, is ahead in the race to represent the First Congressional District and is poised to become the only Brunonian in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Jindal, who last year was elected to the University's Board of Trustees, won a Rhodes Scholarship after he graduated magna cum laude from Brown with a degree in biology and public policy. For two years he studied politics at Oxford University, and from there, he rapidly moved from a job as a consultant to Fortune 50 companies to successive appointments as secretary of Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals, president of the University of Louisiana system and assistant secretary in the Department of Health and Human Services under the Bush administration.
When the representative of the First Congressional District, which includes conservative suburbs of New Orleans, resigned to run for the U.S. Senate, Jindal - though he is originally from Baton Rouge - moved to the area fresh off his unexpectedly strong showing in the governor's race. According to Stephanie Grace '87, a columnist for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Jindal's entry into the race precluded what would typically be a hard fight for a seldom-vacant seat.
"He's the virtual incumbent, which is very unusual (for) an open congressional seat," she said.
Jindal's most prominent opponent, State Rep. Steven Scalise, failed to get any traction and dropped out of the race in August. Jindal is "the 800-pound gorilla, and there's nothing (Scalise) could do," Grace said.
Jindal's five remaining opponents "have no money and no one's ever heard of them," she said.
Now, leading in an uncompetitive race, Jindal is "going through the motions," Grace said.
Jindal has raised over $2 million and spent about $1 million, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission data by the Center for Responsive Politics' Web site. The Jindal campaign did not run TV ads until last week and has donated money to Republican candidates around the country.
In last year's gubernatorial race, Jindal's first foray into electoral politics, he was a dark horse. He ran on the strength of his resume, conservative values and his charisma.
According to Grace, one of the surprises of the race was that "he has really good political instincts, (though) he'd always been a bureaucrat."
In Louisiana's unique election system, instead of party primaries, every candidate runs in a general primary on Election Day. If no candidate receives 50 percent of the vote, the top two vote-getters advance to a runoff, held a month later. In the gubernatorial primary, Jindal won the clear plurality of the vote, earning 33 percent, with Democratic Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Blanco coming in second with 18 percent. However, Jindal lost the runoff, garnering 48 percent of the vote to Blanco's 52 percent.
Jindal told The Herald last week that he credited his strength in the governor's race in part to "the value of having detailed policies." Jindal's campaign released about 100 pages of point-by-point policy positions about issues facing Louisiana.
"I think voters are tired of the traditional politicians that give them easy answers instead of detailed policies," he said.
"It was a risk - many political experts would've cautioned us not do it - but I'm proud of the fact and grateful for the fact that voters responded so well to it," he said.
Jindal also said some experts blamed his defeat on his failure to strike back when Blanco ran negative ads in the race's final weeks. "One of the things we felt strongly about is that you can win by telling voters why they should vote for you, not why they shouldn't vote for your opponent ... and I got no regrets about last year," he said.
Jindal does not hold the political views of a stereotypical Brown alum. He supports President Bush's policies on terrorism and Iraq, he favors aggressively lowering taxes and he wants the government to crack down on frivolous lawsuits. Jindal, who was president of the Brown College Republicans, said he enjoyed his time at Brown precisely because he was politically outnumbered.
"Certainly having a minority viewpoint at Brown forced me to reexamine my beliefs - the basis for those beliefs - and it forced me to learn to explain those beliefs," he said.
Jindal said that "there were certainly quite a few people that were surprised that I had the views I did," but "I found the Brown community very respectful, even when we disagreed."
But as a student, Jindal said he did not see himself entering politics. He came to Brown as a PLME student, intending to become a practicing physician. But after his time at Oxford, he accepted a string of jobs and ultimately abandoned the idea of medical school.
Jindal said he originally decided to enter the gubernatorial race when he saw more and more of his friends leaving Louisiana because of a grim economic picture.
"I decided after realizing nobody else was going to talk about the issues I thought were important that it was up to me if I wanted to force those issues to the front," he said.
Grace, the columnist, attributed Jindal's dominance of the current race in part to the perception that he would wield a lot of influence in Congress.
"People see a young, energetic, smart guy ... (who) has a lot of Washington contacts," Grace said. "The feeling is that he would be more than your average freshman."
According to Grace, a "carpetbagger" label has not hindered Jindal's success in the race, largely on account of his popularity. Jindal's wife is from the First District, but the entire family, including his daughter and infant son, moved there only last February.
Grace said Jindal does not often talk about his ethnicity, though she said that some people think he lost votes last year in northern Louisiana because of his race.
"I'm sure there are people who are not going to vote for him (this year) because he's Indian," she said, but added that she thought others like the idea that Jindal may reflect favorably on Louisiana's image on racial issues. White supremacist and former Klansman David Duke was elected to the state legislature from Metairie, an area in the First Congressional District, in 1989. Duke also reached the runoff in the 1991 gubernatorial election.
Jindal told The Herald that if he is elected, he hopes to get on a House committee that deals with health care issues. He said he would try to employ his background in health care to push for Medicaid reform and work for affordable, high-quality insurance for all.
Chris McAuliffe '05, president of the Brown College Republicans, told The Herald he was enthusiastic about Jindal's success.
"I think it's really cool for us," McAuliffe said. "I think it will be really good for Brown ... to have a high-profile Republican come from the school."
