It seems Gov. Bobby Jindal’s $500,000 advertising campaign was good money thrown after bad.
You’ve probably seen those ads paid for by Believe in Louisiana, the non-profit 527 political organization founded by Jindal supporter and Baton Rouge Business Report publisher Rolfe McCollister.
The advertising blitz was supposed to turn the tide in favor of Jindal’s proposal to abolish the state income tax in favor of a state sales tax increase that kept changing. The ads laid it out loud and clear: you either wanted to get rid of the state income tax or you preferred to “keep loopholes for lobbyists.” The ad concludes with the question, “Whose side are you on?”
Pretty simplistic. Very much like former President George W. Bush’s “If you’re not with us, you’re against us” in his dust-up to his Big Iraq Attack.
But just as Bush’s “Mission accomplished,” and his “You’re doing a heckuva job, Brownie” were a bit premature, so was the ad campaign.
And they were still running on Tuesday, a day after Jindal suddenly folded like a cheap suit on his tax proposal. That’s what happens when you make a large media buy. Just like furniture store and automotive ads that often continue to run a couple of days after a special promotional ad, the tax ads continue to implore viewers to tell their legislators to support the tax plan.
Jindal unexpectedly pulled the rug from under legislators who first heard that he was pulling the tax proposal bills when the governor announced it during his uncharacteristically brief 13-minute address to open the 2013 legislative session on Monday.
His decision, besides catching legislators short, also disappointed many who have grown to detest everything about this governor.
“I was almost sorry Jindal folded,” one Baton Rouge resident said. “I was hoping for a well-deserved humiliating defeat, which would have been good for the state, if not for him. He’s got about three more years to keep wrecking Louisiana. I’d rather have Edwards or Uncle Earl (Long) when he was in Mandeville,” he said in reference to Long’s commitment to East Louisiana Hospital in Mandeville in 1959 during the waning days of his last administration.
“Jindal is wrong about the GOP being the stupid party,” he said. “It’s the crazy party now and for the immediate future.”
Another longtime political observer said, “I wasn’t surprised that he capitulated. That was going to happen sooner or later. But I really was surprised that he had no Plan B,” he said. “How could they not have a fallback plan?”
The sudden retreat should not have caught anyone by surprise. Trying to decipher the governor’s tax plan was closely akin to trying to watch a black and white movie from the back row of an old drive-in theater in a thick fog.
But then, anyone parking on the back row of a drive-in theater on a foggy night probably had no intention of watching a movie in the first place, so perhaps that’s a bad analogy.
The lack of an alternative plan prompted retired Louisiana State Budget Director Stephen Winham to say that Jindal “never had a plan beyond elimination of income taxes and franchise taxes as an ancillary.”
But then Winham perhaps captured the quintessential Jindal when he predicted that Jindal would turn lemons into lemonade. “I think he can possibly salvage his national reputation, again based on my original premise that he can claim he tried to lead us to the Promised Land, but we just didn’t have sense enough to go.”
Winham said in a guest LouisianaVoice column way back on Jan. 25 that Jindal had “already achieved a major goal of this proposal—getting extensive national media coverage for making a bold proposal to fix Louisiana’s budget and economic development problems.”
A somewhat jaded Baton Rouge political junkie said Jindal realized his ambitious tax plan was stalled and would never get out of the House Ways and Means Committee. “No governor could have his plan die in committee, so he got in front of it and pulled it,” he said.
“I also think he did the smart thing by throwing it to the legislature. Now it’s on their backs. If they don’t come up with a plan (and they won’t) Jindal can blame the legislature,” he said, echoing Winham in predicting Jindal will play the blame game on his renewed national speaking tour.
Moving forward at the end of the day (as Jindal is fond of saying), the blame game is about all that is left for him in his efforts to save face in the coming weeks.
With the tax issue all but dead now, we can all turn our attention to the legislative debate on Jindal’s patchwork budget proposal.
That should be every bit as interesting as the highly anticipated tax debate that went out with a whimper after a lot of bravado, buildup and B.S.
Louisiana Voice 
Personally, I am sorry he folded. Cowardly abandonment of a so-called “principle” but not unexpected. For a reportedly brilliant man, he seems to be unbelievably stupid.
I was thrilled that he did not prevail against the will of the people. Those who stood up and spoke out against his non-plan are to be commended. Nothing he ever proposed has had real merit, therefore why would anyone be surprised that no back up plan exists?
Is he really brilliant or is that a lie like everything else? I can’t wait until the rest of his administration follows their leader and fails.
Can’t wait for him to open that chain of Quickie Marts in North Baton Rouge in 2016.
I’ve never been privy to any “brilliance” by the Gov. He supposedly is “intelligent”, by which I guess “they” mean that he is educated. He’s certainly not smart, beyond convincing the Louisiana citizenry to again vote against their best interests by electing him the first time and again for a second term. He’s truly a legend in his own mind. I saw him as a charlatan the first time I heard him speak and that was reinforced when he rammed poorly crafted and math challenged legislation through our spineless legislature (but that was their own fault).
Like the old saying “He may have book sense but no common sense whatsoever.” The guy has lead such a privy life that he thinks he is untouchable and can get away with anything. Now as was stated early on he can blame it all on the legislature or the people of Louisiana. Man, I hope the people of Louisiana and the US see what a joke he is and know how quickly he can talk himself out of a situation. Like I said book sense, no common sense.
If the past is any indication of the future, I’d expect this angry man to lash out with vindictiveness at those he blames for his failure. Then I’d expect Jindal to redouble his efforts to implement his plan to transfer wealth from the lower- and middle- to the upper-class.
I liked Margaret Thatcher, but her “poll tax” plan would have had the same long term effects, and it caused the people of Britain riot, which caused her to lose her Prime Ministership.
By the way, it’s a ridiculous supposition to suggest that Louisiana could emulate the financial success of Texas by eliminating the income tax. There must be hundreds of important differences between our states (some of which cannot be changed by laws) that account for their success.
However, one important difference between Louisiana and Texas that could be changed is the fact that their legislature and governor couldn’t propose new laws last year (or next year) because they take every other year off!
Can anyone seriously imagine Jindal proposing the Louisiana legislature (and governor) take alternate years off for the good of the economy? It’s the kind of thing he could only contemplate when HE was through with the office. In the mean time, lookout for a thousand new laws being proposed each and every year Jindal is still in power.
Of course you are correct on everything regarding Jindal. He continues to be a disaster for this state.
But the reason the ads are still running is simple. It is a convention with media outlets nation-wide that all political advertising is paid in cash.up front. So, once his plans changed, his only choice was to throw the ads away or let them run. On furniture store ads running after the sale is over. It is either 1) a mistake and a make good will be issued or 2) The sale wasn’t producing so the client elected to give it a couple more days, doubling down as it were. More often the latter, though traffic managers don’t like it because it looks like a mistake.
Keep up the good fight. Jindal can still do a lot of damage before he leaves. The job now is to put a public face with his cronies so they aren’t able to carry on his work after he’s gone.
I too have to admit to being disappointed that he pulled or “parked” the legislation. I was looking forward to a big ole smackdown.
The Greenstein contract regurgitated, announced Sir Jindal’s lameness. His pulling his beloved and highly touted tax plan announces that he is featherless too. What’s next? The oven, of course, as the heat is turned up!
Please roast him as thoroughly as he roasted the teachers in the buildup of his insane and court challenged education reform! After 5 years of Jindal’s falling skies, this state is courting oblivion and absurdity. This administration’s highly touted ethicality is now clouded with questions of criminality. Was the Greenstein contract standard operating procedure? Is it roast chicken (Jindal’s retreats), roast duck (his lameness and featherless condition), or roast turkey vulture (his five retirements will definitely fill his craw and qualify him for this dubious distinction).
The first trial balloons, the expensive ads, and everything else, including the scenario Tom presents about the foggy drive-in where people weren’t watching the movie anyhow and his speech Monday said one thing with consistency, “Get rid of the income taxes”. That was, is, and will always be the Jindal “tax reform plan”. I predict the legislature will pass and Jindal will sign a bill phasing in the elimination of income taxes over a period of years. That will, of course, add tremendously to the already huge projected outyear deficits, but it will also be a clear victory for Jindal. I can hear the ads now: “He promised to eliminate Louisiana income taxes and he did! Bobby Jindal, America’s Hope!!” And, because of the phase-in, he’ll be long gone before the big hits kick in. What a win for him!!! If I am correct, I have to ask, “How can we, Louisiana citizens, be so dumb as to accept this – not just from our governor, but even more importantly, from our legislature?” Remember, the legislature makes the law, the governor simply proposes it. When the complacent among us are looking for someone to blame, they need only find the nearest mirror.
Maybe I am less optimistic than most, but he is going to be pushing the jindalclones to go ahead and do this mess and their plan will probably be even worse than his. But he won’t get the blame and the income tax cut will be snuck in without the voters even being aware.
Jindal needs to be gotten for those ads. Since when are the people on fixed incomes, families iwth children and the working poor “lobbyists for special interest groups”. He was actually referring to Romney’s 47%.
I am no Jindal apologist, but what I think he means by that remark in the ads is the corporate welfare embedded in the corporate taxes. Do away with those taxes and you are doing away with the special interest exemptions. Well, duh, now none of them pay the taxes instead.
If the legislature wants to be assertive, it would propose a “user fee” upon those who take LA jobs, and never take up residency within the state. They use the taxpayers roads, highways, city services, garbage collection, etc. Why not serve them first on the Louisiana’s path to prosperity, in the elimination of special interest groups? I am sure the “user fees” would contribute much to the Louisiana economy.
The ad is still running and still pitching elimination of income taxes only. I rest my case.
Great job Tom and Stephen Winham! Jindal has improved his pitch and even tried to imitate President Obama, “bring me a bill.” And the legislators will do everything Jindal and Teepell “OnMessage” tell them. Look at Dr. Cassidy pushing the gun law “rights” and fighting “Washington, DC.” Isn’t that our Capital???
ron thompson
Mr. Bo-Jindal will dance to the defeat of the conservative party, while his tea pot is tipped over and poured out. He can’t serve 2 masters! In the words of Forrest Gump’s momma, “Stupid is as stupid does”! “If we can’t fix stupid as it is, how will we fix stupid as it does”? Mr. Bo-Jindal will never understand the people of Louisiana aren’t as stupid as he believed us to be. There is power in numbers. It’s not always about the almighty dollar, neither will it forevermore be. Somewhere along the way, justice surfaces and we become wise and discern the difference between right and wrong. Our futures lie in liberty and justice for all!