Gov. Kathleen Blanco Democrat leaves office Jan. 14. After serving 2004-2008, she chose not to run for re-election to a second term. In the middle of her term, back-to-back hurricanes Katrina and Rita tarnished her legacy. But Blanco did post many accomplishments. Here's are some highlights of her term.

HURRICANE RECOVERY

--Oversaw the spending of $49 billion in hurricane recovery aid after Katrina and Rita, though complaints were widespread about red tape and the slow speed of aid.

--Created the multibillion dollar Road Home program to give grants to homeowners with severe damage from the hurricanes. The federally financed program started with insufficient funding and complaints that it was cumbersome. The pace has picked up, and Congress agreed to fully fund the program.

--Established the Louisiana Recovery Authority to guide the recovery.

--Won support for the state to take charge of 117 of 128 public schools in New Orleans through a state-run Recovery School District.

--Pushed for the creation of a statewide building code to improve standards after the storms.

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EDUCATION

--Continued education reforms and the accountability system started by her predecessor, Mike Foster, opposing attempts to steer away from the efforts.

--Expanded the state's free pre-school education program for poor students to every school district in the state.

--Pushed for new dollars for public school teacher pay, getting teachers to the Southern regional average.

--Poured millions of dollars into the state's colleges to fund them at the level of peer institutions in the South for the first time since 1981.

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ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

--Traveled the globe seeking new business investment, taking trips to Germany, Japan, China, Taiwan, Kuwait, England and Spain to meet with business leaders. Anticipating the opening of Cuban markets, she also visited the communist island nation.

--Praised for her efforts to lure business and her regular phone calls to company CEOs and leaders seeking their business.

--Pushed lawmakers to phase out the sales tax on manufacturing machinery and equipment and the corporate franchise tax on debt, though she won support to extend a business utility tax.

--Under her watch, Shintech announced it would build a $1 billion chemical plant in Iberville Parish, creating 200 new jobs; Union Tank Car announced it would locate in Louisiana, bringing 850 new jobs; and Roy O. Martin Lumber announced it would open a new wood products plant with 500 jobs in the state.

--After a much publicized effort to lure a new $4.2 billion steel plant with 2,700 jobs to Louisiana, the state lost out to Alabama, a blow to Blanco.

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HEALTH CARE

--Championed health care reform in a summit shortly after taking office, but the efforts were much more piecemeal and far less sweeping than initially expected.

--Backed money for new primary and preventive health care clinics.

--Increased by 40 percent the number of Louisiana children enrolled in a free state health insurance program.

--Increased spending on doctors and nursing homes that cared for the poor and uninsured.

--Numbers of uninsured residents remains high, at an estimated 22 percent of Louisiana residents.

--Discussions of "health care redesign" got bogged down in disputes between the Blanco administration and the White House. The White House pushed a sort of state-subsidized insurance plan that would strip money away from the charity hospitals. Blanco said the state would need new federal dollars to cover the costs or risk leaving thousands without insurance and without safety net services.

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COASTAL RESTORATION

--Consolidated the fractured system of levee boards around Louisiana and required appointments to be based on background and experience, rather than political connections.

--Created the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority to coordinate and oversee Louisiana's hurricane protection efforts, which had been spread among different state and local agencies.

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ETHICS

--Backed ethics law changes that banned the governor and lawmakers from raising campaign money during legislative sessions.

--Won passage of a bill putting lobbyists who try to influence the executive branch under the same expense disclosure requirements as those who lobby the Legislature.

--Failed in her push to require lawmakers and other statewide elected officials to submit to the same financial disclosure requirements as the governor.

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TRANSPORTATION

--Won support to spend more than $600 million in state surplus cash on a backlog of road and bridge repairs and construction and port improvements, but the backlog is much larger, at $14 billion.

--Backed new money to complete Interstate 49 north to Arkansas.

--Borrowed money to accelerate work on a decades-old list of highway and bridge construction.

--Opposed efforts to steer an annual increase of $450 million more for roads, saying it could jeopardize education funding.

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JUVENILE JUSTICE

--Worked to reform the state's system for dealing with youthful offenders, after years of complaints about Louisiana's youth lockups, including accusations of beatings and rapes.

--Reduced the number of young people behind bars and moved more to less harsh settings.

--Took the juvenile corrections agency away from the state prisons department, creating a separate Office of Youth Development to run the facilities and focus less on punishment and more on rehabilitation.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)