If citizens around the United States had been listening closely enough on Nov. 15 night, they would have heard the collective sigh of disappointment that went up from the Indian-American community around the country. One of their’s had lost the Louisiana gubernatorial race, a race that had seemed impossible to win at the beginning, but in which victory seemed inevitable to many by the end.

Republican Bobby Jindal, the 32-year-old former Bush appointee, chucked his career in Washington to enter the quagmire of Louisiana politics and analysts there said this was the first time in the history of that state that the candidates vying for the runoff, Jindal and Democrat Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco, were not smeared by dirty dealings, and especially Jindal was largely free of the baggage of past politics.

For Indian Americans, the fact that one of them had the courage to run from a deep-South state that had seen the likes of White Supremacist David Duke, it was a victory ---- not just because Jindal lost by such a small margin, but because he brought the community to the forefront in national politics. His candidacy brought attention from the national press, national parties, as well as Mainstreet America.

Now Indian Americans are not going to be known just for being doctors and engineers, or entrepreneurs, but also savvy politicians, some in the community believe. After all, in the ultimate analysis, Jindal lost the race by 4 percent of votes but he made history anyway when he won theprimary this October and fought a good fight against a veteran politician. Louisiana ended up making history either way ---- Blanco became the first ever woman to become Governor of the state. For the former Assistant Secretary for Health and Human Services, it was a tough and often acrimonious battle against Blanco. And for Louisianans, it was a confusing choice as both candidates differed little on their conservative platform. But recent polls had shown Jindal in the lead as 12 percent of the voting public remained undecided on election day.

Even though exact numbers are coming in the week after the election, Jindal’s 48 percent and Blanco’s 52 percent are being sliced up in different configurations by political analysts.

Though Jindal won theprimaries on Oct. 4 with 33 percent of the vote, his gubernatorial victory was up in the air because Blanco’s 18 percent was going to be shored up by 29 percent other Democratic candidates garnered the same day. Also, the 30 percent African American vote which was predominantly Democratic, seemed split between choosing a Democrat or a colored person to occupy the Governor’s mansion. That convinced some savvy Louisiana analysts to think Jindal had the winning ticket.

In a virtual campaign blitzkrieg in the last two weeks, Jindal not only created history by getting major Black endorsements such as those from the Black Organization for Leadership Development, the North-Central Black Caucus, and CLOUT Ministerial Alliance, but campaign watchers said Jindal was the first Republican to make such anand persistent effort to get the Black support.

While some in the community feel Jindal did not take enough advantage of his connections to the White House; others say he was not aggressive enough in countering Blanco’s negative ads. Some Louisiana analysts believe it all finally came down to race as some White Republicans, who had voted heavily for George W. Bush, did not support Jindal when it came to the crunch. Some others say it was Blanco’s appeal made in last debate that turned the critical numbers.

This race could well be the subject of many Ph.D. theses in the months and years to come, but it also provides valuable lessons not just to Jindal’s future political career, which everyone agrees is only just beginning, but also to the Indian-American political agendas.

He fought on a platform of getting out the old and bringing in the new brand of politics, focusing on economic development of a state that was losing jobs and business to surrounding states, losing its youth and showing poor education results. Even after his defeat, New Orleans’ Democratic Mayor Ray Nagin, who had switched parties to endorse Jindal, said he was still not convinced about whether Blanco would be as good for his city’s economy as Jindal would have been.

His campaign picked up a string of important endorsements from U.S. Republican Congressmen as well as Louisiana politicians and conservative leaders in the last couple of weeks, and he ran a campaign like a pro, garnering the votes of the religious conservatives as well as moderates. “Political pundits said Bobby didn’t have a chance. He proved them wrong. They are saying he’s not going to win in November and he’ll prove them wrong,” Trey Williams, Jindal’s spokesperson told News India-Times when he won the primary. But it was not to be.