Louisiana gov’s career derailed by Hurricane Katrina
BATON ROUGE, La. — Former Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, who became the state’s first female elected governor only to see her political career derailed by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, has died.
After struggling for years with cancer, Ms. Blanco died Sunday in hospice care in Lafayette. She was 76.
“Our hearts are broken, but we are joyful in knowing that she is rejoicing in her heavenly reunion with Christ. Please pray for God’s peace to carry us through the coming days and months of sorrow as we mourn her absence from our lives,” Ms. Blanco’s family said in a statement released by Gov. John Bel Edwards’ office.
Ms. Blanco had a rare eye cancer that she battled successfully in 2011, but it later returned and spread to her liver. Her death came more than a year after the Democrat who served in state government offices for more than two decades announced in December 2017 that she was being treated for the incurable melanoma.
Ms. Blanco held Louisiana’s top elected job from 2004 to 2008. Until her campaign for governor, she spent much of her political career moving steadily and quietly through state politics, rarely creating waves or controversy. Katrina raised her profile nationally and forever impacted her legacy. The devastating August 2005 hurricane killed more than 1,400 people in Louisiana, displaced hundreds of thousands and inundated 80% of New Orleans.
Historians will continue to debate whether any governor could have been prepared for such a catastrophe, but Ms. Blanco shouldered much of the blame after images of thousands stranded on rooftops and overpasses were broadcast to the world, and the government was slow to respond. Ms. Blanco was criticized as unprepared, overwhelmed and indecisive. The recovery she guided moved ploddingly.
“While she knew that her name would forever be linked with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, it was her dying wish that she be remembered for her faith in God, commitment to family and love of Louisiana,” Ms. Blanco’s family said.
In the immediate aftermath of the storms, Ms. Blanco said Louisiana’s miseries were worsened by a Republican-led White House desperate to blame someone else for its disaster response failures. “I just thought I could shout more loudly than the noise around me, but in the end I couldn’t. There was just too much pain,” she once said.
A former high school business education teacher from the small Cajun village of Coteau, Ms. Blanco launched into politics as a consultant with her husband Raymond on local redistricting issues before going on to serve 24 years in elective office. Her first, in 1984, was a seat in the state House. Then came positions on the state utility regulatory commission and as lieutenant governor.
Political insiders often dismissed Blanco as a lightweight She dropped out of the governor’s race in 1991, then stunned many political prognosticators in the 2003 election by defeating Republican Bobby Jindal. Jindal later succeeded Blanco as governor after Katrina stopped her plans to seek a second term.
“Kathleen loved Louisiana and served the state for decades. She faced every struggle, including her last, with good cheer and a strong will. She will be missed,” Jindal said on Twitter.