Political Horizons for Feb. 1, 2009

• By MARK BALLARD
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Mar 8, 2009 - Page: 7B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Last week, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich took to the national airwaves to praise the “extraordinary” efforts of Gov. Bobby Jindal to put a new face on Louisiana by stemming corruption here.

Unfortunately, Gingrich’s analysis sounded a lot like the “politics as spicy as their gumbo” superficiality that people from north of Interstate 20 fall into when they try to describe,  usually without nuance, “quaint and colorful” Louisiana.

Gingrich, for instance, is correct that Jindal is largely responsible for new laws that require elected officials to disclose their personal finances and that limit — with several gaping loopholes — how much special interests can wine and dine legislators. And that was a good thing.

It should be noted, however, that Jindal also allowed legislation that made the new ethics laws more difficult to enforce and excluded a vast number of his own personal staff who, it could be argued, have far more influence over far more taxpayer dollars than the average police juror.

Gingrich is flat wrong when he described to the rest of the world a Louisiana that was, until these new laws, the most-corrupt place in America. But Gingrich can be forgiven because it’s a refrain that Jindal frequently uses when talking to audiences outside Louisiana.

Certainly, state and local governments here are no paragons of civic responsibility, and this state has packed away to prison a large contingent of corrupt officials. But Louisiana is not in the same league with, say, Illinois, whose governor was caught on tape peddling a U.S. Senate seat.

The real issue in Louisiana always has been the “who’s-ya-momma?” culture that tilts the playing field towards those special interests that have the best relationships with the government officials who control the spending of billions of taxpayer dollars.

The three insurance commissioners who Louisiana sent to prison, and the former governor who is there now, all were convicted of charges that started when they gave special consideration to a group of supporters over another group.

Jindal’s ethics revamp does nothing to address the state’s weak legal structure that is supposed to restrain the influence a government official can exert on awarding contracts, doling out grants, delivering useful regulation and directing services paid for by taxpayers.

In fact, last week Jindal again showed that he was no different than past Louisiana governors.

For the first time in his memory, he said, Jindal as governor threw his support behind a candidate in a state legislative race. Usually Republican officials stay out of races that involve more than one GOP candidate.

But Jindal chose to endorse one of three Republicans in the state Senate District 16 race. He picked Lee Domingue, who had contributed $118,500 to the governor’s interests since 2006. Domingue’s Republican opponents Laurinda Calongne and Dan Claitor did not give money to Jindal.

The 16th Senate District is staunchly GOP and stretches from the LSU lakes past the Country Club of Louisiana in southeast Baton Rouge.