The LSU Law Center kicked off their “Centennial Society” with a gala at the Governor’s Mansion — and one “ragin’ Cajun.”
James Carville, Democratic political strategist and law center alumnus and his wife, Republican strategist Mary Matalin, provided the entertainment for the fund-raising event.
“We are at the dawn of a platinum era,” Carville said. “I know the only thing standing between us and the next measure is the financial support.”
In U.S. News and World Report’s current rankings, the law center is 89 on the list of the best graduate schools in the nation.
Carville said it is imperative that the center get the funding needed to propel the school into the top 50.
“The kinds of people we are getting are the people who love progress,” Carville said. “This is a place people know we can make work. Once we get the attitude turned around in this state, we’ll make more progress faster than you can imagine.”
Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who was acting as host of the event, pointed out the law center’s prestigious past.
“The law center has brought us some distinguished lawyers, both in Louisiana and in the country,” Blanco said.
While the event was centered around the law center, Carville and Matalin also found time to discuss the upcoming presidential election.
“This is a historic election,” Matalin said. “We are not in a conventional war. This nation is having to make decisions in a new historical epoch. Republican or Democrat, we just have to react.”
Carville said this election is historic for other reasons.
“We have never had anything in American politics of this duration and intensity,” Carville said.
He said the campaigning has started earlier than ever before and both campaigns are spending more money than ever before.
Carville also said Louisiana is not only a swing state, but a crucial one for the Republican campaign.
“It’s a swing state, but it is a must-win state for Bush,” Carville said.
He said Pres. George W. Bush’s upcoming speech at the University’s spring commencement ceremony shows the importance of the state.
“The fact that he is coming here shows that this state is what we call ‘swing, must-win Republican,'” Carville said.
He said it would be difficult to envision a scenario in which Bush lost both Arkansas and Louisiana en route to winning the election. In contrast, he said it was difficult to imagine Democratic candidate John Kerry losing strongholds like Iowa and Minnesota and still win the election.