Gov. Kathleen Blanco ended her four-year reign in office Friday, leaving on what she called a “proud” note.
“I think we’ve changed the face of Louisiana,” Blanco said Saturday in an interview with The Daily Reveille. “It will never go back to the old ways, and we’ve got no place to go but up now.”
any say all Blanco’s achievements in office are overshadowed by the state government’s response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but that does not bother her.
“You can remember me for the storm response,” Blanco said. “I brought over $20 billion from Washington, and I had to fight for it.”
Blanco said the recovery process was trying because she had to maneuver through Congress to get adequate funding for rebuilding levees and housing programs.
She said at first the Republican Congress in Washington wanted to “simply insult” the state and “tried to rip us apart.”
“I just did an assessment of the situations, and I knew who was with us and who was against us,” she said. “I knew the pressure points I had to play each time.”
She said after the 2006 elections, legislators came back knowing the state’s recovery was important to their constituents, and the difference was like “night and day.”
Blanco said it was difficult to prove a small state like Louisiana needed so much money, an additional $3 billion for recovery.
“We had to prove it. If there’s no will in Congress or no will in the White House, you’re not going to get it,” Blanco said. “So we had to build the will.”
The governor’s husband, Raymond Blanco, said despite what her critics might say, she will be remembered for her honesty and dedication.
“She never gave up, no matter how hard it got and no matter how much criticism there was,” Raymond Blanco said Friday evening.
The governor’s Senate president, Don Hines, has worked closely with her for the past 12 years. Hines said she worked until midnight nearly every night.
“I think Gov. Kathleen Blanco was an extremely honest and sincere and hard-working individual,” Hines said.
Hines said the media and industry sectors tended to focus on the problems her administration faced, rather than its accomplishments.
“I think what happened is she was not their candidate for governor, the media or business,” Hines said. “There was no way that she was ever going to be their candidate.
Hines said that one of Blanco’s “big faults” was that she tried too hard to satisfy her opposition.
“I don’t think I could have gone through what she went through,” Raymond Blanco said.
He said his wife did not run for re-election because it would be difficult to start both the recovery process after hurricanes Katrina and Rita and run a campaign.
“It would have been tough, bloody,” he said. “The whole storm would have been brought back up, and that’s just politics today.”
The media played a role in the governor’s decision not to run for re-election.
“It was very difficult,” Raymond Blanco said. “There were a lot of rumors put out and a lot of politics played.”
Hines said Gov.-elect Bobby Jindal will not have the same problems with the media.
“The press liked Mike Foster, and they were not very critical of him in his eight years,” Hines said. “I think the same thing is going to be true with Bobby Jindal – they’re going to tend to report the positives and ignore the negative.”
Raymond Blanco said many people don’t remember the work the governor did before she was elected.
Kathleen Blanco served as state representative from 1984 to 1988, public service commissioner from 1988 to 1996, and lieutenant governor from 1996 to 2004.
“I think when all is said and done and the dust settles, funding of educations and economic development are the two strong points in her administration,” Hines said.
The governor said her administration worked diligently to raise teacher pay to the regional average.
The state was recently awarded fourth place for economic development in Business Facilities Magazine. This year, the state had a total of $5.75 billion in investments and 2,000 new jobs.
“We turned the tide on economic development in Louisiana very dramatically,” Kathleen Blanco said.
She said the state economic development was achieved by helping existing companies expand and giving incentives for investors outside of the state.
“In order to diversify the economy, we had to reach out to national and international businesses,” Blanco said.
Blanco said her job was not always easy because economic competition between states has become more aggressive.
“I think I was the first Louisiana governor in many years to take a very aggressive approach to economic development,” she said.
Hines said Kathleen Blanco’s first big economic project was bringing Union Tank Car to Alexandria in 2004. He said she also was able to lure Roy. O. Martin Lumber away from Texas, a project that brought the state $220 million.
Hines said the governor visited Germany twice to persuade a steel mill company to settle in Louisiana. But she was not successful.
“We had to pay a big price to get them here, and the infrastructure and all the requirements were going to be a big demand on the state,” Hines said
Hines said Jindal’s administration will have $2.3 billion to work with, including a $1 billion surplus from last year.
Raymond Blanco said the work from Kathleen Blanco’s administration will be continued, and Louisiana will start reaping the benefits.
“I think she feels [Gov. Jindal’s administration] will do all the right things,” he said.
He said the transition period between governors has been a positive time, and his wife has worked hard to get Jindal settled in office.
As Jindal is preparing for his inauguration Monday at 11:30 a.m., she is settling back into her Lafayette home.
Now that Kathleen Blanco is out of office and out of the spotlight, her husband said they plan to “just be a family again.” He said they are looking forward to spending time with their grandchildren.
Raymond Blanco said the future of Kathleen Blanco’s career is still in the works.
“She has some opportunities that haven’t been publicized yet on national and international opportunities,” Raymond Blanco said.
Blanco said she will be taking some time out for herself to write her life story.