Jindal is the new Louisiana Governor

Bobby Jindal will be the next Governor of Louisiana, as the GOP picks up a governorship from the Democratic Party. With 89% of precints reporting, he has 53% of the vote. This means Jindal can avoid the runoff in December which would have been mandated if he had failed to get 50%. Jindal is also the first Indian-American governor of any state. Jindal is also a very socially conservative figure -- a born again Catholic, he wants to repeal all hate crime laws and ban all abortions.

This means that in one week Republican picked up a governorship and got within 5% of grabbing a solidly Demoratic House district in MA-05. This is likely to lift Republicans spirits -- perhaps even boost recruitement and fundraising if GOPers feel that things aren't bad for them as they were supposed to be. This would not be particularly fair: MA-05 has been close the previous times it opened up, and the Republican candidate distanced himself from the national party. As for Louisiana, this is the one state in the nation that has been trending Republican in the past few years. But whether or not a morale boost would be justified, Republicans will still likely be smiling today.

Thankfully for Democrats, they will reverse this in two weeks by picking the Kentucky governorships, which is even more likely to switch over than Louisiana one was.