The First Indian American Governor

In a widely expected victory Saturday night, Bobby Jindal, a 36-year old Republican congressman, won the Louisiana gubernatorial election, becoming the nation’s first governor of Indian-American descent and the youngest chief executive of any state. Jindal took 54% of the vote in the state’s off-year open primary, the first since Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, and became the first non-white politician to hold the state’s highest office since Reconstruction. Jindal, one of the few young rising stars in the GOP ran on a strong reform platform. “Don’t let anyone talk badly about Louisana,” he said during his Saturday night victory speech at a Baton Rouge Holiday Inn. “Those days [of corruption and incompetence] are officially over. There has never been a clearer mandate for our state.”

The State Of . . . the Republicans. Is this the new face of the Republicans? “Bobby,” who was born Piyush, converted from Hindu to Catholicism when he was a teenager. He’s just 36 year-old. What do you think is next?