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Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (born December 15, 1942) served from January 2004 to January 2008 as the 54th governor of the U.S. state of Louisiana. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the first woman to have been elected as governor of Louisiana. When first elected, Blanco outlined her top priorities as providing affordable healthcare, improving the education system in the state, and helping to create a strong and vibrant economy through aggressive economic development initiatives. Her work as governor changed dramatically when, in 2005, coastal Louisiana was severely damaged by two hurricanes that stuck less than a month apart. In August, Hurricane Katrina devastated the New Orleans region, an urban area of 1.4 million people. Then, in September, Hurricane Rita struck the southwestern coast, displacing another 300,000 people. More than 200,000 housing units were destroyed, 81,000 businesses closed, entire electrical and telecommunication systems were torn apart, and one million people were made homeless as a result of severe flooding caused by levee failures and storm surges. Many believed the immediate response from the city, state, and federal governments was inadequate, and Blanco later acknowledged there were failures on the part of her administration before and after the storm; much criticism, however, was directed at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, for what was seen as a slow initial response to the disaster and an inability to effectively manage, care for and delivered promised resources to those trying to evacuate from New Orleans. Blanco announced in March 2007 that she would not seek re-election later that year, saying that she would instead "focus () time and energy for the (of her term ) on the people's work, not on () politics" of running for another term. ==Early life and career== She was born Kathleen Babineaux in New Iberia, Louisiana, the daughter of Louis Babineaux and his wife, the former Lucille Fremin, both of Cajun ancestry. Her Babineaux grandfather was a farmer and grocer with a country store, and her father was a small businessman who moved to the rural hamlet of Coteau near New Iberia; the community has one church and one elementary school. Blanco attended Mount Carmel Academy, an all-girls school run by the Roman Catholic Sisters of Mount Carmel, which was situated on the banks of Bayou Teche. (The school closed in the middle 1980s with the majority of girls transferring to Catholic High School). In 1964, Blanco received a Bachelor of Science in Business Education from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, then named the University of Southwestern Louisiana. She is also a member of Kappa Delta Sorority.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Notable Kappa Deltas )〕 On August 8, 1964, she married Raymond Blanco, a football coach and educator; the couple had four daughters: Karmen, Monique, Nicole, and Pilar and two sons: Ray, Jr., and Ben. Following college, she taught business at Breaux Bridge High School. She then worked for roughly fifteen years as a stay-at-home mom for her six children. She later worked as a District Manager for the U.S. Department of Commerce during the 1980 Dicennial Census initiative and with her husband, owned Coteau Consultants, a political and marketing research firm. Prior to her election as governor, Blanco served twenty years in public office. In 1983, elected as the first woman legislator from the city of Lafayette, she served five years in the Louisiana House of Representatives. In her first term, she and her friend Evelyn Blackmon of West Monroe were two of only five women in both houses of the legislature.〔"Former state representative Blackmon dead at 89", ''Monroe News-Star'', May 22, 2014〕 Blanco in 1988 defeated the Republican Kernan "Skip" Hand to become the first woman in Louisiana elected to the Louisiana Public Service Commission, a post that she held for seven years, She was also the first woman chairman of the PSC. She was then elected Lieutenant Governor, a post that she held for eight years. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kathleen Blanco」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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