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which Jindal has expounded for national audiences — the governor’s political financiers don’t seem too hard pressed for work these days, particularly when their paychecks come from the public treasury. As a candidate, Jindal promised voters an ethical “gold standard.” As a candidate for re-election, he has a different kind of gold standard: He goes for the gold, wherever he may find it. One recent statewide survey suggests that Jindal’s cozy relationships with contractors are finally beginning to eclipse his talking points about “ethics reform” in the minds of voters. This year’s Louisiana Survey, released last month by LSU’s Public Policy Research Lab, noted: “In 2008 during the first special session of the state Legislature [called by Jindal], a comprehensive package of ethics reforms was passed and signed into law. The immediate effect on public attitudes about corruption was striking — a six-point decrease in the percent of respondents saying the state had become more corrupt. Since the passage of ethics reform, however, there has been little or no subsequent movement in public attitudes toward corruption.” In fact, the survey shows that 20 percent of Louisiana residents believe the state is more corrupt now — and 40 percent contend the state is just as corrupt as ever. “Overall, perceptions of corruption appear to have stabilized,” the LSU survey concludes. Maybe that’s why Jindal is none too picky about where he gets his money. As long as he continues to say one thing while doing the opposite — while piously denying any conflicts — he truly cannot take anything for granted. Particularly voters’ tolerance for hypocrisy.
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CorreCtions
In “Pleading the Fifth” (News & Views, March 29), we mistakenly identified Jacques Morial as an attorney. He is not. In “Blake Pontchartrain” March 29, we misspelled the name of Reuther Baking Company. In the Annual Guide to Schools, March 29, we misstated the tuition amount for Louise S. McGehee school as per year instead of per semester. Gambit regrets the errors.
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where he gets his campaign money. Then there’s the peripheral action. Steve Theriot, Jindal’s first inspector general, who vacated the office in 2009, now has a $100,000 consulting contract with the state related to the oil spill. More recently, Angele Davis, Jindal’s former commissioner of administration, has been jockeying for a piece of the $15 million that BP ponied up for rebranding and marketing Louisiana and its products in the wake of the disaster. Davis is working with an international firm that is expected to bid on a project related to the fund for the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board (LSPMB). In response to a recent request from Davis, the Louisiana Board of Ethics told her that she would not be prohibited from consulting with FleishmanHillard, a worldwide communications firm, as it seeks to win the LSPMB marketing contract. In her request, Davis made it clear that she would not personally enter into any contract with the LSPMB, nor would she be advising Fleishman-Hillard in any transactions with the Division of Administration, which she left in August of last year. Elsewhere, plaintiff lawyer Walter Leger Jr., the father and law partner of state Rep. Walt Leger III of New Orleans, has been retained by St. Tammany, St. Bernard and Lafourche parishes to handle potential oil spill litigation. The senior Leger was named by then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco to the nowdefunct Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) after Hurricane Katrina — before his son ran for the state House — and was re-appointed by Jindal. He served as LRA’s vice chairman under Jindal and thus had a voice in allocating hurricane relief dollars to the parishes he now represents against BP. Leger’s law firm, Leger & Shaw, donated $5,000 to Jindal’s campaign last fall. That contribution coincides with a splashy Jindal fundraiser on St. Charles Avenue hosted by big-time trial lawyers in September 2010 — and it offers further evidence that Jindal doesn’t much care where he gets his campaign cash. (In the House, Rep. Leger, a staunch Democrat, is a frequent critic of Jindal. Just last week, he led the fight against a Jindal-backed amendment that would have carved up Democratic House districts in New Orleans in order to preserve Republican districts in Jefferson Parish. The amendment failed by just two votes.) For all the economic hardships inflicted upon coastal Louisiana — on
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