BATON ROUGE, La. – Pledging to make a “clean break with the past” and root out corruption, Republican Bobby Jindal tried to separate himself from politics as usual as he was sworn in as Louisiana’s governor Monday.

Jindal, the nation’s first elected Indian-American chief executive and the state’s first non-white governor since Reconstruction, thanked past governors for their service – but said it was time to rid the state of its reputation for corrupt government.

“We have the opportunity – born of tragedy but embraced still the same – to make right decades of failure in government,” Jindal said.

“In our past, too many politicians looked out for themselves. Too many arms of state and local government did not get results. And the world took note,” the new governor said.

Jindal’s election puts a new public face on Louisiana politics, often stereotyped as a haven for backslapping good ‘ol boys who hold office for decades. The 36-year-old son of Indian immigrants, Jindal is the nation’s youngest sitting governor, and many of his top administrators are new to the halls of the Louisiana Capitol.

He takes over from Democrat Kathleen Blanco, who had defeated him four years earlier but whose image was battered by the state’s response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. She did not seek re-election.

Blanco attended the inaugural ceremonies with three other former Louisiana governors. The state’s only other living ex-governor is Edwin Edwards, who could not attend because he is serving a federal prison sentence on corruption charges.

Jindal, a second-term member of Congress when he was elected, said he will call the state Legislature into a special session beginning Feb. 10 to tackle the centerpiece of his campaign: strengthening Louisiana’s ethics laws.

He didn’t provide details of what types of proposals he will seek lawmakers to enact in the first special session.

“We will come to this Capitol to make a clean break with the past,” he said.

A conservative who has held a series of high-profile positions since heading the state health department at age 24, Jindal won 54 percent of the vote in October’s primary election in a field of a dozen candidates.

While he has focused on reputation and ethics reform, Jindal inherits an array of problems that have dogged his predecessors. Louisiana is among the nation’s most unhealthy and poorest states, its students still perform below average on national educational tests, and its population is dwindling.

Worsening the state’s long-term history of problems, back-to-back blows from Katrina and Rita two years ago continue to plague the region. The pace of hurricane rebuilding has been sluggish, with thousands of homes left abandoned, residents displaced and basic government services destroyed.