[StBernard] In Case You Missed It

[Westley Annis]

Boasso goes back to Demo roots 

By Stephanie Grace
New Orleans Times-Picayune
May 15, 2007 

Why did Walter Boasso become a Democrat? 

On one level, the answer is obvious. It's because Bobby Jindal is a
Republican. 

Actually, make that THE Republican, at least as far as the state Republican
Party and a good many operatives and donors are concerned. 

Jindal, who lost to Gov. Kathleen Blanco four years ago, never took his eye
off the state's top job, even as he ran for and won a seat in Congress in
the interim. By the time Boasso, fresh off a successful reform drive to
merge and professionalize the region's levee boards, decided he wanted it
too, Jindal simply had too much of a head start. 

Boasso, of course, insists there's more to it than that. 

A self-made shipping container magnate who keeps a sprawling ranch stocked
with exotic animals in Mississippi, Boasso knows the good life. 

He also knows the opposite. His father, a union electrician, was disabled
when Boasso was 12. His mother stood in line for government milk and cheese
and used to shop at Schwegmann's with food stamps. Despite his lofty
success, he remains as plain-spoken as Jindal is polished. 

"I know what it is to struggle in life," he said. 

He knows it from more recent history, too, from watching 100,000 of his
Senate constituents lose everything, and from fighting for reform when the
power structure was stuck on politics as usual. 

Maybe it's the GOP's snub talking, but Boasso says he sees partisanship as a
big part of the problem. He said Exhibit A is a recent exchange between
Blanco and Jindal, in which each tried to score points off the Road Home's
multibillion-dollar budget shortfall, and he put the bulk of the blame on
Jindal. 

"So, you're gonna get some kudos because you slam the governor because there
isn't enough money?" he said. "Well, do your job in Washington." 

As he speaks, the exasperation wells up. He's mad at President Bush for
refusing to waive the Stafford Act's 10 percent local match on public
infrastructure projects, and said he "definitely regrets" voting for the
president because "he has failed to keep his promises when it comes to
making the rebuilding of Louisiana a top priority." 

And he's mad at Jindal for voting against the recent bill that contained
billions in hurricane aid but also called for a pullout from Iraq. 

"Did we send you to Washington to represent what the president wants you to
do, or did we send you to Washington to represent Louisiana?" Boasso asked.
"People are dying. They just don't feel the pain. I am just not going to let
them discard these people and their lives because of their little political
sparring back and forth." 

Talk like that can get a man labeled a populist, although it's hard to say
how that would translate into policy. So far, Boasso's proposals are a bit
vague -- reforming government, for example, and fixing the insurance crisis.
And Boasso insists he's the same guy he was before he jumped ship, even if
Hurricane Katrina did, as he put it, "refocus me on my mission to help
people." 

So the million dollar question: Did Katrina make Boasso a Democrat,
philosophically speaking? 

"I'm still fiscally conservative. I'm still pro-life. But yeah, the storm
has brought me back down to where I came from." 

Link to original text.
<http://www.nola.com/timespic/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-0/117921052463560
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