Jindal gone, but not forgotten in Louisiana governor's race

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Bobby Jindal left the Louisiana governor's office nearly four years ago and evaporated from the state political scene after a failed presidential bid. Still, he's a permanent fixture in Louisiana's current governor's race.

Democratic incumbent John Bel Edwards keeps his Republican predecessor front and center in his reelection quest.

In speeches, advertising and fundraising pitches, Edwards frames his GOP opponents as other versions of Jindal, the two-term governor whose financial policies are blamed for driving the state into a decade of budget troubles and left office with dismal approval ratings. Edwards, the Deep South's only Democratic governor, campaigns for the Oct. 12 election as the leader who brought Louisiana out of the fiscal ditch Jindal created.

"When I walked into office, I found a $2 billion budget deficit, the largest in the history of our state, left to me by Bobby Jindal. Working hard in a bipartisan fashion, we turned that into surpluses," Edwards said in a debate.

A recent fundraising email from Democratic operative James Carville told potential Edwards donors that U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham and businessman Eddie Rispone would return Louisiana to "the way things were when Bobby Jindal was governor."

Abraham and Rispone note that when he was a state lawmaker, Edwards voted for most of the Jindal-era budgets that he now derides. The two don't defend Jindal's budgeting tactics, and they bristle that Edwards keeps bringing the ex-governor up.

"Bobby Jindal's not running for governor. I'm running for governor," Rispone said when asked about Jindal's handling of the budget.

Jindal has avoided Louisiana's political scene since he exited the governor's mansion in January 2016 and his presidential campaign sputtered shortly...