Complaining that Gov. Bobby Jindal spends more time out of state than in Louisiana, Louisiana State University’s student body president wrote to a New Hampshire newspaper and urged the governor to come home and work on the state’s budget problems.”Gov. Bobby Jindal is spending more time in your state than the one he was elected to represent,” J Hudson wrote in a letter published this weekend in The Keene Sentinel in New Hampshire. “I read almost daily about his trips to other states, which makes me believe that he is more interested in running for president than running the state of Louisiana.”
Jindal was in New Hampshire last week to attend a campaign event and fundraiser for Republican John Stephen’s campaign for governor.
The Louisiana governor has been a frequent traveler during the fall campaign season, stumping for GOP candidates and attending Republican fundraisers in Florida, Missouri, California, Minnesota and Georgia. He has also met with GOP governors in Ohio and New York.
On Monday, he was in Wisconsin to campaign and help raise money for two Republicans, gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker and U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson.
Hudson, a 21-year-old Republican from Houma, wrote that Jindal should be paying attention to the massive budget cuts facing colleges.
“On behalf of the students whose hopes for a brighter future will soon be crushed, I beg you to return to Louisiana and fix your state’s serious problems. You’ve neglected your constituents long enough,” Hudson wrote to Jindal.
Hudson, who called himself a strong Jindal supporter, said he sent the letter to newspapers in Florida, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Iowa and New York.
At a Madison, Wis., news conference with Walker, Jindal defended his travels, saying he spends more than 90 percent of his time in the state and has been to every parish multiple times. He said it was important for him to be in Wisconsin because the outcome of the election there could affect Louisiana.
“Some of the decisions that are getting made in Washington, D.C. have hurt my state. Some of the policies coming out of D.C., including the Obamacare legislation, will impose unfunded mandates for my state, so it was important for me to speak out during this election cycle,” Jindal said.
Highereducation has been hit with $280 million in state budget cuts over the past two years. Colleges and universities face another round of multimillion-dollar mid-year cuts this year and are bracing for cuts of $290 million or more from the state in the budget year that starts July 1.
Jindal spokesman Kyle Plotkin said the administration is working to limit cuts to classroom spending.
“The reality though is that highereducation officials are not delivering the value our students deserve. That’s why we’ve encouraged highereducation administrative officials to prioritize reductions so that they come mainly from administrative overhead, not teaching and research,” Plotkin said in an e-mail.
Class sizes have grown, programs have been cut, faculty have been laid off and student services have decreased. Highereducation officials have warned that next year’s looming budget cuts could devastate campuses and student educational programs.
Jindal has denied he is running for president in 2012 and insists he is only running for re-election next year. But he’s traveled the country since he took office in 2008 to raise money for himself and other Republicans, tapping into an extensive network of GOP fundraising and consulting firms that could help launch future political campaigns on a national stage.
Hudson offered Jindal some political advice: “You’ll have a much better chance of becoming president if you save, instead of destroy, Louisiana’s universities.
