KENNER, La. — Changing Louisiana’s reputation for corruption would do more than just make over its image, the governor-elect, Bobby Jindal, said yesterday: It could help the state attract businesses and win federal aid for hurricane recovery.

The Republican congressman, a day after his historic win in an election that featured a dozen candidates for governor, pressed ahead with his campaign pledge, saying in an interview with the Associated Press that one of his first acts will be to call a special legislative session to reform ethics laws.

“I think we’re setting the bar too low when we say, ‘Look, isn’t it great that we haven’t had a statewide elected official go to jail recently?'” Mr. Jindal said.

“The reality is there are a lot of practices that are accepted ways of doing business in Baton Rouge that are considered unethical in other parts of the country, that are considered illegal in other parts of the country,” Mr. Jindal said.

The son of immigrants on Saturday won more than 50% of the vote in a primary election to make him Louisiana’s first non-white governor since Reconstruction and the nation’s first Indian-American chief executive. That tally averted the need for a November runoff election.

His two predecessors, Democrat Kathleen Blanco and Republican Mike Foster, governed with no allegations of cronyism, but the state has a well-earned reputation for shady politics.