Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D) Elected 2003, 1st term up Jan. 2008
Born:	Dec. 15, 1942, Coteau
Home:	Lafayette
Education:	U. of LA at Lafayette
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	married (Raymond)
Elected  Office:	LA House of Reps., 1984-88; Public Service Comm., 1989-1995; Lt. Gov., 1996-03.
Professional Career:	H.S. teacher, 1964-65; District Mgr., US Census Bureau, 1979-80; Political Consultant; 1981-present.
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Mike Foster, a Republican, was elected governor of Louisiana in November 1995 and reelected in October 1999. He grew up in Franklin, in St. Mary Parish, in the Cajun country near the Gulf; he served in the Air Force and founded a contracting firm and served as president of Sterling Sugars. He is a large landowner who loves duck hunting, piloting helicopters and riding tractors; a critic of trial lawyers, he started taking law school classes in August 2000, at 70. He was elected to the state Senate in 1987, and in 1991 was appointed chairman of the Commerce Committee. He portrays himself as an amateur in politics, convincingly, given his penchant for blunt, impolitic statements; bald, with a mustache, he campaigned as ''not just another pretty face.'' But he had a political pedigree: His grandfather Murphy Foster was governor from 1892-1900 and played a part in abolishing Louisiana's graft-ridden lottery.

Foster ran in 1995 as a not very well-known candidate in a large field; he switched parties in mid-campaign. A gambling opponent, he pledged to hold a referendum on video poker (operators had been caught bribing legislators), riverboat gambling (allowed in many parishes) and the New Orleans land-based casino. At first he attracted little attention. Former Governor Buddy Roemer seemed to be the leading Republican, brandishing a Contract with Louisiana and criticizing New Orleans as ''Cape Fear.'' Congressman Cleo Fields was the one well-known black candidate, but New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial, who is black, endorsed both Fields and Democratic State Treasurer Mary Landrieu. Landrieu called for cleaning up Louisiana; she was running ahead of Lieutenant Governor Melinda Schwegmann, whose family owned New Orleans's biggest supermarket chain. Foster surged ahead in fall campaigning, and in the October 21 primary led with 26%. There was almost a three-way tie for second place. Fields edged into second place with 19%, to 18.4% for Landrieu and 17.8% for Roemer. In the runoff against Fields, Foster called for a vast consolidation of state agencies and reform of state education and welfare. Fields said he would get tough on juvenile crime and accused Foster of ''race baiting'' after Foster referred to ''that jungle in New Orleans.'' Foster won 64% to Fields's 36% and took 84% of the white vote, while Fields took 96% of the black vote.

In his first term, Foster pushed through a food tax cut and a $25 per child tax credit; he increased teacher salaries and initiated a school-based accountability system. Foster's job rating for three years hovered around 75%, and he took his own political course at every turn. He pushed for initiatives and referenda, unpopular with just about every other Louisiana official. Endorsed by Patrick Buchanan in October 1995, he announced he was voting for Buchanan just before the February 1996 caucus, in which Buchanan won his upset victory. Foster declined in 1995 to disclaim his endorsement by David Duke; it was revealed in May 1999 that his campaign purchased Duke's mailing list for $150,000, for which it was fined $20,000. Foster's actions do not always produce the results he wants: the gambling referenda he sponsored in November 1996 resulted in approval of all proposed casinos and a big New Orleans turnout which may have elected Landrieu to the Senate.

Foster entered election year 1999 an overwhelming favorite. His only well-known opponent was New Orleans Congressman Bill Jefferson, who raised $2.2 million but who, as an urban black with a liberal voting record, was not well positioned. Foster won the October primary with 62% of the vote, well over the 50% required to win; Jefferson had 30%, carrying New Orleans and one rural parish. In the new year Foster faced fiscal problems, a shortfall in revenue and no apparent way to keep his promises to raise teacher's pay to the regional average and to alleviate poverty with early childhood education and job training. In April 2000 he persuaded the legislature to accept his plans to renew a temporary 3 cent sales tax on food and utilities and to convert the state economic development commission to a private agency, but it was rejected 68%-32% by voters in November. In May he proposed a net $700 million tax increase, with new business taxes; legislative leaders were aghast, and instead passed a fourth cent on the sales tax on food and utilities. In November 2000 voters rejected Foster's two-pronged tax package, which would have eliminated the 4 cent tax and raised most income taxes. Scrambling for revenue to raise pay for teachers, who were refusing to show up for work, Foster made a deal with Harrah's Casino; the state would lower its $100 million minimum tax payment (Harrah's threatened to close down otherwise) combined with a tax on riverboat casinos which would fund a $2,000 raise for teachers and college professors. This passed, and two crises were at least temporarily averted; voters also seemed pleased with the plan, Foster's job approval rating had bounced back to 62% in April 2001. In 2002 he got the legislature to extend for 10 years the temporary food and utility taxes and to put in place a formula that would reduce taxes in line with the growth in the state's general fund. To attract new businesses, he got the legislature to pass tax credits for biotech, technological and customized software investments. In February 2003 he proposed a pilot program of school vouchers and state takeover of failing schools, most of them in New Orleans.

Louisiana elects a new governor in 2003; candidates of all parties compete in the October primary and then, if no one gets 50% of the vote, the top two finishers regardless of party compete in the November runoff. In early 2003 a runoff seemed a certainty, since five Democrats and seven Republicans were running what looked like serious campaigns. Early polls showed that none of them was a frontrunner. They might as well be listed in alphabetical order, Republicans first. Public Service Commissioner Jay Blossman, from St. Tammany Parish, who said, "We can't sell the state until we change how we tax business"; state Representative Hunt Downer; state Senate President John Hainkel; state Senator Ken Hollis, who called for slot machines at racetracks; Bobby Jindal, appointed by Foster at 24 as head of the Department of Health and Hospitals and later as head of the University of Louisiana system, and appointed by George W. Bush as HHS Assistant Secretary; Auditor Dan Kyle, who criticized other Republican legislators in the race as tax and spenders and said the state was facing "a bottomless pit" of fiscal disaster; and former Governor David Treen. Democrats included Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Blanco; former state Senate President Randy Ewing, who argued that programs can be funded without additional taxes; Attorney General Richard Ieyoub, who favored increasing the cigarette tax from 50 cents to $1; Treasurer John Kennedy, who argued that programs can be funded without additional taxes and spent $250,000 of his own money; and former state Representative and one-term (1979-81) Congressman Buddy Leach, who favored new taxes on the oil and gas industry, increased taxes on gambling and a minimum wage increase; he loaned his campaign $1.39 million by March 2003 and started running TV ads in December 2002.

Update: March 10, 2004
On Nov. 15, 2003, Democrat Kathleen Babineaux Blanco won election as Louisiana's first female governor. Blanco defeated Republican Piyush "Bobby" Jindal, who sought to become the nation's first Indian-American governor, by a 52 percent to 48 percent margin.

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State Capitol, P.O. Box 94004, Baton Rouge 70804, 225-342-0991; Fax: 225-342-7099; Web: www.gov.state.la.us.

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent
2003 general	Kathleen Blanco (D)	731,358	52%
2003 primary	Bobby Jindal (R)	443,389	33%
1995 general	Mike Foster (R)	984,499	64%
	Cleo Fields (D)	565,861	36%
1995 primary	Mike Foster (R)	385,267	26%
	Cleo Fields (D)	280,921	19%
	Mary Landrieu (D)	271,938	18%
	Buddy Roemer (R)	263,330	18%
	Phil Preis (D)	133,271	9%
	Melinda Schwegmann (D)	71,288	5%
	Other	69,881	5%