Word: blanco
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...crisis prompted Mayor Ray Nagin this week to issue an impassioned plea to Louisiana's Governor, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, for a centrally located crisis intervention unit, either in a reopened third floor at Charity or in a designated section of University Hospital, an L.S.U. medical school affiliate that houses the city's only trauma center and where, on one recent night, 18 of the emergency department's 23 beds were occupied by mental health patients. "These patients are still getting their medical evaluations in a routine emergency department. But then they are left there," says Cathi Fontenot, the hospital...
...Soft-spoken and matronly, Blanco retained the mannerisms of the Cajun Country high school teacher she once was even as she rose through the ranks of Louisiana politics to become, in 2003, the state's first female governor. And those qualities served her well until Hurricane Katrina hit. In the storm's chaotic aftermath, when Louisianans craved strong leadership, she came across as weak and indecisive. Blanco's performance earned her the dubious title of one of TIME magazine's "worst governors"; as her approval ratings plummeted, so did the Democratic governor's prospects for a second term...
...Public opinion polls showed Blanco losing by a whopping margin in a rematch with her 2003 runoff opponent, Republican Bobby Jindal, now a U.S. representative and one of only two Republicans who have announced plans to run for the state's top job. Jindal, who tacked hard to the right to win his suburban New Orleans district seat in 2004, has the backing of the state party. Now, another candidate, state Senator and wealthy businessman Walter Boasso, has been running television ads touting his anti-establishment credentials...
...remains a popular, widely known figure, but there's one problem: having changed his permanent address to Maryland, he may be ineligible to run for state office under residency requirements set forth in Louisiana's constitution, a snag Republicans started hammering away at in television attack ads even before Blanco stepped aside...
...first Indian-American governor. But Louisiana's peculiar open primary system, in which candidates of all parties vie for a spot in the November runoff election, has a way of producing surprises; throw the lingering effects of Katrina in the mix, and anything is possible. Just ask Kathleen Blanco...