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Piyush Darbash "Bobby" Jindal
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana's 1st district
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 3, 2005–
Preceded by	David Vitter
Succeeded by	Incumbent
Born	June 10, 1971 (age 35) Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Supriya Jolly Jindal
Religion	Roman Catholic

Piyush Darbash "Bobby" Jindal (born June 10, 1971 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana) is a Louisiana politician. Jindal was elected as a Republican to the United States House of Representatives on November 2, 2004, from Louisiana's First Congressional District (map), based in the suburbs of New Orleans.

He was re-elected to Congress in the 2006 election with 88 percent of the vote in the 1st district. He is a candidate for Governor of Louisiana in the 2007 election.

Contents 1 Biography 2 2003 campaign for Governor 3 House victory 4 Positions on selected issues 5 References 6 External links

Jindal was born in Baton Rouge to recently arrived Indian immigrants who were attending graduate school. Jindal was a Hindu but converted to Catholicism as a teenager. He attended high school at Baton Rouge Magnet High School. In 1992, he graduated from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, with honors in biology and public policy. He is listed as a top 100 all time graduate of Brown. Afterwards, he received a master's degree in politics from New College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. After Oxford he joined McKinsey & Company, a consulting firm.

At the age of 24, he was appointed Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health & Hospitals by Republican Governor Murphy J. "Mike" Foster, Jr.; he served from 1996 to 1998. From 1998 to 1999, he was Executive Director of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare. He was also the youngest-ever President of the University of Louisiana System between 1999 and 2001. Newly-elected President George W. Bush appointed him Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation; he held that post from 2001 to 2003.

He is the only Indian-American currently serving in Congress, and the second in congressional history after Dalip Singh Saund, a Democrat who represented California's 29th District from 1957 to 1963.

He was chosen by Scholastic Update magazine as "one of America's top 10 extraordinary young people for the next millennium."

He was India Abroad Person of the Year 2005 ^[1]

In 1997, he married Supriya Jolly (born 1972). The couple has three children, Selia, Shaan, and Slade.

On Tuesday, August 15, 2006, Jindal assisted in delivering his third child when his wife awoke, in labor. The child was born before ambulances had time to respond.^[2]

On Monday, January 22, 2007, Jindal announced his candidacy for Governor of Louisiana in the upcoming election. ^[3]

In the 2003 jungle primary for governor of Louisiana, Jindal came in first place with 33 percent of the vote. He received endorsements from the largest paper in Louisiana, the New Orleans Times Picayune, the Democratic mayor of New Orleans, C. Ray Nagin, and the outgoing Republican governor, Mike Foster. In the second balloting, Jindal faced the outgoing Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Lafayette, a Democrat. Despite winning in Blanco's Lafayette, he lost many normally conservative parishes in north Louisiana, and Blanco prevailed with 52 per cent of the popular vote.

Political analysts have offered myriad explanations for his loss. Some have blamed Jindal for his refusal to answer questions about his record brought up in several advertisements, which the Jindal Campaign called "negative attack ads". Others note that a significant number of conservative Louisianans remain more comfortable voting for a Democrat than for a Republican. {fact}} Still others have mentioned the race factor, arguing that many voters are uneasy voting for a person of color.

Despite losing the election, the run for governor made Jindal a well known figure on the state's political scene. He formally declared his intention to run again on January 22, 2007, and is considered a leading Republican candidate for the Louisiana gubernatorial election of 2007.

A few weeks after the gubernatorial runoff, Jindal decided to run for Louisiana's 1st Congressional District. The incumbent, David Vitter, was running for the Senate seat being vacated by John Breaux. He moved to Kenner to run for the congressional seat. He was endorsed by the Louisiana Republican Party in the primary despite the fact that Mike Rogers, also a Republican, was running for the same seat. The 1st District has been in Republican hands since a 1977 special election and is widely considered to be the most Republican district in Louisiana. Although Democrats have a plurality in registration, the 1st tends to vote for socially conservative candidates. Jindal also had an advantage because his campaign was able to raise over a million dollars very early in the campaign, making it harder for other candidates to effectively raise funds to oppose him. He won with 78 percent of the vote.

He was elected Freshman Class President and appointed to the House Committee on Homeland Security, the House Committee on Resources, and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Furthermore, he was made the Vice-Chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Prevention of Nuclear and Biological Attacks.

Congressman Jindal has stated that he is "100% against abortion, no exceptions"[1]. During his run for Governor he distinguished himself from Blanco, who was also pro-life, by embracing an abortion ban without exceptions for medical necessity, rape, or incest. His definition of abortion differs from the medical community as it only includes procedures that target the embryo or fetus, a definition that exclude procedures, such as a salpingectomy, that do not target the embryo specifically but may result in what the medical community would call an abortion. He has stated that he would allow emergency contraception, which some pro-life groups consider morally equivalent to abortion.^[4] He has voted with the Republican Party on all abortion related issues.^{[5] [6]}

When the plan was submitted to the voters, Jindal voted for the "Stelly Tax plan", an idea, named for former state Representative Vic Stelly of Lake Charles, which was supposed to reduce the tax burden on a majority of Louisiana taxpayers. Whether or not the "Stelly Plan" is giving the desired results is still hotly debated statewide. Early Republican challenger Steve Scalise challenged Jindal on his vote for this tax plan before Scalise dropped out of the congressional race in 2004.

Jindal supported a constitutional amendment banning flag burning, and the Real ID Act of 2005. Jindal has an A rating from Gun Owners of America. He was the congressional sponsor of the Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act.

He is a member of the conservative Republican Study Committee.^[7]

Jindal also supports co-payments in Medicaid.

• U.S. Congressman Bobby Jindal official House site
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Federal Election Commission - Bobby Jindal campaign finance reports and data
• On the Issues - Bobby Jindal issue positions and quotes
• OpenSecrets.org - Bobby Jindal campaign contributions
• Project Vote Smart - Representative Bobby Jindal (LA) profile
• SourceWatch Congresspedia - Bobby Jindal profile
• Washington Post - Bobby Jindal voting record
• Bobby Jindal for Governor official campaign site
• Bobby Jindal's Power Ranking by Congress.org

Articles

• Little India Interview Little India, December 2004
• Bobby Jindal, a whiz kid takes the reigns of Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospital Little India, June 1996
• SIFY - Newsmakers: The People Behind Today's Headlines, 2003] brief profile
• Bobby Jindal Saves Louisiana - Profile article from pro-Jindal website
• Jindalisbad.com, anti-Jindal website

Political offices
Preceded by David Vitter	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana's 1st congressional district 2005–Present	Succeeded by Incumbent

Louisiana's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators: Mary Landrieu (D), David Vitter (R) Representative(s): Bobby Jindal (R), William J. Jefferson (D), Charles Melancon (D), Jim McCrery (R), Rodney Alexander (R), Richard H. Baker (R), Charles Boustany (R) All delegations: Alabama • Alaska • Arizona • Arkansas • California • Colorado • Connecticut • Delaware • Florida • Georgia • Hawaii • Idaho • Illinois • Indiana • Iowa • Kansas • Kentucky • Louisiana • Maine • Maryland • Massachusetts • Michigan • Minnesota • Mississippi • Missouri • Montana • Nebraska • Nevada • New Hampshire • New Jersey • New Mexico • New York • North Carolina • North Dakota • Ohio • Oklahoma • Oregon • Pennsylvania • Rhode Island • South Carolina • South Dakota • Tennessee • Texas • Utah • Vermont • Virginia • Washington • West Virginia • Wisconsin • Wyoming — American Samoa • District of Columbia • Guam • Puerto Rico • U.S. Virgin Islands