Gov. Jindal spent 165 days outside of Louisiana in 2014

Written by Howell Dennis (LSN Writer)
BATON ROUGE - According to an article in Sunday’s edition of The Advocate, Governor Bobby Jindal spent 165 days of 2014 in places outside Louisiana, costing taxpayers $314,144.
It further stated that only one of those trips, an economic development foray to Asia, “seems to have been for official state business.”
It has been no secret that Jindal has been flirting with the idea of a bid for the presidency in 2016. The problem with a growing number of people, both Democrat and Republican, is the belief that Jindal may not always have “what’s best for Louisiana” as a top priority.
Many people disagree that “having the state’s top official talking up Louisiana and building up his name in the process is the best use of his time with the state facing a massive deficit, exacerbated by the drop of oil prices.”
“There’s some feeling, some expectation that a governor would provide leadership,” said Barry Erwin, president of the Council for a Better Louisiana. “That seems hard when it seems the governor’s attention is diverted out of state. We really do need to know that our leadership is focused. This is a critical moment for our state.”
The article states that most of the money spent by state taxpayers for Jindal’s trips is to fund a group of state troopers who travel with the governor.
The governor also was criticized for his response to the news that lawyers for the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East filed a lawsuit seeking damages against 97 oil, gas and pipeline companies for the damage done to the state’s coastline.
Jindal issued a blistering response stating that the lawsuit was “nothing but a windfall for a handful of trial lawyers.”
It wasn’t the governor’s response that drew criticism so much as the fact that he made it from his hotel in Aspen, Colorado.
Other subjects that the governor enjoys talking up during his trips are his support of the Robertson family in the West Monroe-based reality show “Duck Dynasty” and his opposition to Common Core.
“In part, Louisiana citizens feel that the governor has other things on his mind,” said G. Pearson Cross, who heads the political science department at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. “It puts Louisiana in the role as a spurned suitor. We’re no longer young enough, good-looking enough or sexy enough to keep our swain’s attention.”