Former legislator Jenkins re-emerges as voice of conservative EBR

Woody Jenkins has never shied away from a crusade. As a state lawmaker, he regularly staked out unpopular positions and held his ground, even while colleagues and reporters rolled their eyes at yet another of his diatribes. As the also-ran in the 1996 U.S. Senate race, he refused to concede defeat after losing to Mary Landrieu by a razor-thin margin, taking his claims of election fraud all the way to Capitol Hill. As a community newspaper publisher in Central, he has taken on the powers that be over a public records request, driving a wedge between the political factions in an already divided community and alienating those whose support he would seemingly need most. Now, after a 40-plus-year career in politics and the media, he is embarking on a crusade to—in his words—make Baton Rouge a wonderful place to live, with low crime, good schools and economic progress. To him, that means fighting taxes and government inefficiencies and leading the charge for the creation of independent school districts in East Baton Rouge Parish. At 65, that is the legacy Jenkins would like to leave, and it explains in part why he is seemingly everywhere lately. This year alone, he has become chairman of the East Baton Rouge Parish Republican Party, helped form the Chamber of Commerce of East Baton Rouge Parish, and launched a new, second community newspaper—Capital City News—which, in combination with his existing Central City News, will double the size of the audience he reaches on a now-weekly basis. Read the complete cover story on Jenkins by Editor Stephanie Riegel in the new issue of Business Report here.