BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gov. Bobby Jindal said he has a book deal with a conservative publishing house, with a co-author for “a lot of the heavy lifting.”
The move is likely to refuel speculation about national ambitions, already sparked by fundraisers in at least 11 states since Jindal took office 15 months ago.
Jindal said Friday that his book will mix autobiography, life lessons and policy thoughts.
“I just want to offer my ideas and my experiences to the conversation,” Jindal said.
Jindal’s fundraising conversations remain fast-paced — he was in Arizona on April 6, will be in Boston on Wednesday and in Florida on Saturday. This is at least his second fundraising trip to Florida; he also has been to Missouri, Illinois, Mississippi, Texas, California, Connecticut, North Carolina, Arkansas and Washington, D.C.
The invitation for the $5,000-a-plate event April 18 at the Destin “estate” of Florida Marine Transporters owner Dennis Pasentine of Mandeville describes Jindal as “widely seen as a potential 2012 GOP presidential contender.”
Wednesday’s is sponsored by Mitt Romney, himself a contender for the GOP nomination in 2012. The money could not be used for a federal race, because it is targeted for Jindal’s state campaign fund.
Jindal again said he only plans to run for re-election.
“I’d be writing this book even if I never ran for anything again,” he said Friday.
Jindal said he does not yet have a contract, but has an agreement with Regnery Publishing of Washington, D.C., for a book tentatively scheduled in 2010.
He says he doesn’t expect to spend a lot of time on the book, to be co-authored by Peter Schweizer, who has written nonfiction books about the Bush family and President Reagan, and co-authored a novel with former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger.
“One of the reasons I’m doing this with a co-author is to make sure there’s somebody else doing a lot of the heavy lifting,” Jindal said, adding that he expects most of his work on the book will be in the evenings and on weekends.
“This isn’t something that will take a lot of my time,” he said.
Regnery has published political books by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, actor Chuck Norris and political commentator Ann Coulter, among others.
Jindal said he will start work on the book after the two-month legislative session, which runs through June, and expects much of it to be as interviews with Schweizer.
“It’s certainly a long way from today to actually having something written,” Jindal said. Jindal said he has received occasional requests from publishers since 1997, long before he started in politics. When interest picked up in recent weeks, New York agent Glen Hartley signed on to sift through the offers, he said.—-Contact The Daily Reveille news staff at [email protected]