Having declined former Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s invitation to join her in the chief executive’s Superdome suite to watch LSU’s bid for the national championship, Gov. Bobby Jindal planned, like most of us, to watch the game at home.
Not only was he not horning in on Blanco’s last hurrah, he was also maintaining his general approach toward public appearances during the transition: fewer the better.
Besides a speech to Council for a Better Louisiana [he came and left through a back door and took no questions] and a few brief announcements, he has mainly avoided cameras and comment.
True, it’s smart to say little before he has the power to do anything. Yet it is also fair to assume that his famously focused mind is absorbed on decisions the likes of which he has never faced, appointing the scores of people who will run his administration.
It’s a compressed process for which there is neither training nor room for error. The missteps or closeted skeletons of one ill-advised hire can spoil a gubernatorial honeymoon before the lights are dimmed.
Jindal’s first pick was no big surprise but historically a gamble. Choosing 32-year-old Timmy Teepell as his chief of staff reflects the utmost confidence Jindal has in his former congressional aide and campaign manager. Yet past governors have learned the hard way that campaign warriors aren’t always well-suited for the diplomacy and compromise required in governance.
In early going, Teepell has performed well to a tough audience by reaching out to build relationships with legislators, particularly senators, while keeping Jindal involved but not ensnared in the leadership races.
The most critical appointment was commissioner of administration, the chief financial officer of state government.
The man asked to lead the search, former commissioner Dennis Stine, chose not to pull a Cheney when he turned down Jindal’s offer of the position. From the short list Stine recommended, Jindal reached over one outgoing and three former legislators to pick Angèle Davis, 39, the former secretary of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, who was deputy commissioner in ex-Gov. Mike Foster’s administration.
Well-liked and respected by legislators, much of Davis’ appeal is that she is not one of them, and brings no past political ties, agendas or grudges to the job.
Jindal also went outside the Legislature, but not far, to hire retired BellSouth lobbyist Tommy Williams, 65, as legislative director. Besides his easy bedside manner, Williams offers some needed gray hair to the largely young Jindal team.
The cabinet secretaries are a combination of new faces, promotions from within and a few old hands. In two agencies where things are going swimmingly for the state, Natural Resources and Revenue, Jindal reappointed secretaries Scott Angelle, 46, and Cynthia Bridges, 50, respectively. Bridges, an African-American, provides some diversity to the administration that Jindal’s campaign lacked.
Conversely, the sorry condition of state roads could be why Jindal did not keep Johnny Bradberry at Transportation, despite the management streamlining he achieved, and instead chose William Ankner, 60, a former Rhode Island road chief with a national reputation.
To lead Louisiana Economic Development, it took a hard sell to lure Stephen Moret from his high-powered job at the Baton Rouge Area Chamber. Moret and reappointed Social Services secretary Ann Williamson, both 34, are the only cabinet officers younger than the boss.
Hiring Pineville attorney Jimmy Faircloth, 43, as executive counsel was a newsmaking, learning experience, in that order. When Faircloth mentioned that he would maintain a “passive” role with his old law firm, whose clients include the casino-owning Coushatta Indian tribe, Blanco broke her transitional silence by warning that would be trouble.
Faircloth retorted that the former governor was being presumptuous and had made an “ill-informed comment.” Turns out, though, Blanco had it right. The Advocate editorialized that anything less than the new counsel’s clean break with his old firm posed a potential conflict of interest for an administration that promises it will set the gold standard on ethics.
That very day, Faircloth reassessed who was ill-informed and stated he would sever all ties with his firm. Jindal acknowledged his legal adviser had made “an error in judgment.” Serve and learn, but learn quickly.
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