'Saying ‘no’ is not enough,' Jindal tells POLITICO. Jindal group bids to win 'war of ideas'

Bobby Jindal will announce Thursday that he is creating a policy-focused nonprofit to help Republicans shed their image as “the party of no.”

The Louisiana governor wants “America Next” to produce detailed proposals for how conservatives would improve health care, education and energy policy if they were in charge again.


As he seriously considers a run for president in 2016, the 501(c)(4) could help Jindal bolster his bona fides as one of the party’s intellectual leaders and give him a fresh national platform as his term leading the Republican Governors Association ends next month.

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Jindal outlined his vision for “America Next” in an exclusive interview Wednesday. He complained that the GOP has focused excessively on criticizing Barack Obama without saying what it would do instead. Jindal cited Mitt Romney’s failed effort to make the 2012 election a referendum on the president.

The 42-year-old said his group will bring together big thinkers to “play offense in the war of ideas.”

“Saying ‘no’ is not enough,” he told POLITICO. “We’ve got to get beyond the bumper-sticker slogans. We’ve got to get beyond the 30-second attack ads.”

Jindal said Obamacare needs to be repealed, for example, but a replacement needs to ensure people with preexisting conditions get coverage.

“There’s a void, and there’s an opportunity to offer specific conservative ideas on the most important issues of the day,” he said.

His first hire, executive director Jill Neunaber, has experience in the early states. She managed Romney’s Iowa campaign last fall and was deputy manager of his New Hampshire operation during the primary season. She managed Gabriel Gomez’s unsuccessful Senate campaign in Massachusetts this spring.

Jindal confidant Curt Anderson, the veteran GOP strategist who runs On Message Inc., will serve as an adviser for the group.

Those involved stressed that this is not a campaign-in-waiting. They expect to consult with outside experts for short-term projects, including from academia, and to hire perhaps five to seven full-time staffers to help produce serious policy prescriptions.

“I don’t know if I’m going to run for president or not,” Jindal said when asked about 2016.

He quoted former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who said that you need to win the war of ideas before you can win elections.

Jindal, a former Rhodes Scholar, made a name for himself as a policy wonk. In his 20s, after studying at Oxford, the son of Indian immigrants ran the Louisiana Department of Health and then took over the University of Louisiana system. George W. Bush appointed him in 2001 as assistant secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. He ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2003 and was elected to the House in 2004 before winning statewide in 2007.

His second term as governor ends at the start of 2016 – around the time of the Iowa caucuses.

Jindal will be replaced as RGA chairman by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, another potential 2016 contender, at a meeting in November. But Jindal will stay on as vice chairman, and he plans to raise money and travel aggressively to help Republicans up for reelection in 2014.

Jindal said he believes America cannot accept 2 percent economic growth and the “decay in our culture” as a sort of “new normal.” He hopes to branch out beyond the three initial policy focus areas, mentioning his desire to “blow up” the tax code and start fresh.

The governor said “America Next” will not be afraid to take controversial positions that run afoul of GOP orthodoxy.

“Everything needs to be on the table,” said Jindal. “This is not a time to be timid.”

“There will probably be people in both parties who don’t like the specifics, but that’s okay,” he added.

The announcement has been long planned, but Jindal said there’s a helpful contrast between the paralysis in D.C. and the reforms being pursued by 30 Republican governors in the states.

“A rebellion is brewing outside the Washington Beltway,” said Jindal. “The American people know that the policies coming out of Washington are leading us to a dead end.”

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