page_title: Bobby Jindal
section_title: First term
hierarchical_section_title: Bobby Jindal / Governor of Louisiana (2008–2016) / First term
caption_attribution_description: English: Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal greets children of deployed Louisiana National Guard Soldiers at a ceremonial Christmas tree lighting at the Governor's Mansion in Baton Rouge, La., Dec. 5. The children were presented with coloring books and had their pictures taken with the Governor and Santa Claus.
context_page_description: Piyush "Bobby" Jindal is an American politician who served as the 55th Governor of Louisiana from 2008 to 2016. Jindal previously served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and Chairman of the Republican Governors Association.
  In 1995, Jindal was appointed secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. In 1999, he was appointed president of the University of Louisiana System. At 28, Jindal became the youngest person to hold the position. In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed Jindal as principal adviser to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.
  Jindal first ran for governor of Louisiana in 2003, but narrowly lost in the run-off election to Democratic candidate Kathleen Blanco. In 2004, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the second Indian American in Congress, and he was reelected in 2006. To date, he is the only Indian-American Republican to have ever served in Congress. Jindal ran for governor again in the 2007 election and won. Jindal was re-elected in 2011 in a landslide, winning more than 65 percent of the vote.
context_section_description: As governor-elect, Jindal named a new ethics team, with Democratic Shreveport businesswoman Virginia Kilpatrick Shehee, the first woman to have served in the state senate, as the vice chairman of the panel. Jindal assumed the position of governor when he took the oath of office on January 14, 2008. At thirty-six, he became the youngest sitting governor in the United States. He is also Louisiana's first non-white governor since P. B. S. Pinchback served for thirty-five days during Reconstruction, and the first non-white governor to be elected (Pinchback succeeded to the position of lieutenant governor on the death of Oscar Dunn, then to governor upon the impeachment of Henry Clay Warmoth). Additionally, Jindal became the first Indian American to be elected governor of any state in the United States.
  In 2008, Jindal was ranked one of the nation's most popular governors with an approval rating of 77%.
  One of Jindal's first appointments was that of Mike Edmonson as superintendent of the Louisiana State Police. Edmonson had been for twenty preceding years the bodyguard and confidant of LSU Tigers football coaches. Edmonson was also the deputy secretary of the Department of Public Safety, an agency with more than 2,900 employees and a budget of nearly $500 million.
  In 2014, Jindal was compelled to urge repeal of a state law that he had earlier signed which provided enhanced retirement benefits to Edmonson and, inadvertently, to one other state trooper. Jindal said that he was unaware that the legislation, called in the media the "Edmonson Act," applied only to two persons. He urged the legislature to rewrite the law. Thereafter, Janice Clark, a state district court judge in Baton Rouge, declared that portion of the law enhancing the retirement benefits of Edmonson to be unconstitutional.
  Another early appointee was that of former state representative Frank P. Simoneaux, a Baton Rouge attorney, as the chairman of the Louisiana Ethics Commission. Jimmy Faircloth, an attorney from Alexandria and Pineville, was the influential executive counsel from 2008 to 2009, when he stepped down to run unsuccessfully for the Louisiana Supreme Court. Faircloth was considered the legal architect of the special 2008 legislative session on ethics reform. He guided the Jindal administration through the aftermath of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. After leaving the administration, he continued as a periodic legal advisor to Jindal.
  On June 27, 2008, Louisiana's Secretary of State confirmed that a recall petition had been filed against Jindal in response to Jindal's refusal to veto a bill that would have more than doubled the current state legislative pay. During his gubernatorial campaign, Jindal had pledged to prevent legislative pay raises that would take effect during the current term.
  Jindal responded by saying that he is opposed to the pay increase, but that he had pledged to let the legislature govern themselves.
  On June 30, 2008, Jindal reversed his earlier position by vetoing the pay raise legislation, stating that he made a mistake by staying out of the pay raise issue. In response, the petitioners dropped their recall effort.
  Standard and Poor's raised Louisiana's bond rating and credit outlook from stable to positive in 2009. In announcing this change, the organization gave credit to the state's strong management and "commitment to streamlining its government functions." Jindal met with President Barack Obama in October 2009 where the governor pushed for increased federal dollars to cover rising Medicaid costs, speeding the construction of hurricane-protection barriers, and financing the proposed Louisiana State University teaching hospital. During a town hall meeting, Obama praised Jindal as a "hard working man who is doing a good job" for the State, and expressed support for the governor's overhaul of the State's educational system in the area of increased charter schools.
  Louisiana state government watchdog C.B. Forgotston, former counsel to the House Appropriations Committee who supported Jindal's election in 2007, has expressed disappoin
caption: Governor Jindal greets children of deployed Louisiana National Guard Soldiers at the lighting of the State Capitol Christmas tree.
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