JACKSON, Miss. — The ambitious Republican governors of Mississippi and Louisiana are a study in contrasts as an oil spill threatens coastal economies still reeling from Hurricane Katrina. 
 
 Mississippi's Haley Barbour, a well-connected former Washington lobbyist, has calmly said the oil slick looming offshore is just a sheen in most places and there's no reason for people to panic. 
 
 Louisiana's Bobby Jindal, meanwhile, has questioned oil giant BP PLC's response capability and the federal government's plans to clean up crude spewing from a well blown out by an offshore oil rig explosion April 20. He activated the Louisiana National Guard and called on coastal parish leaders to draw up their own response plans after saying he couldn't get answers from BP or the Coast Guard. 
 
 Both governors are considered possible 2012 presidential candidates, and their responses to the spill may say more about where they've been than where they hope to end up. 
 
 Jindal's predecessor was Kathleen Blanco, a Democrat who chose not to run for re-election after she was heavily criticized for appearing indecisive when Katrina struck in August 2005. Jindal was in Congress at the time. 
 
 "This oil literally threatens our way of life," Jindal said. "Here in Louisiana, we're going to do everything we can do. We're going to do what it takes to protect our way of life." 
 
 Barbour, 62, is a second-term governor who was in office during Katrina and was widely praised for his response to the storm. He's now chairman of the Republican Governors Association. Barbour has said the oil spill is "not Armageddon," but he believes news coverage has hurt tourism in his state. 
 
 "Come on down here and play golf, enjoy the beach, catch a fish and pay a little sales tax while you're here," Barbour said Wednesday during a televised news conference in Biloxi, Miss. 
 
 While Barbour downplays the possibility of a 2012 presidential run, he hasn't dismissed it. Jindal, 38, says he's only running for a second term as governor in 2011, not president, but the son of Indian immigrants is considered a sharp politician with a national future as his party seeks to diversify its public image. 
 
 In Mississippi, Barbour has been juggling oil-spill briefings with his response to two consecutive weekends of severe weather, starting with a deadly April 24 tornado that cut a 149-mile swath through his state. 
 
 He told The Associated Press the oil spill could be disastrous for Mississippi's coastal economy. Then he added: "But it's just as possible that what happens here will be manageable and of moderate and even minimal impact." 
 
 Oil has not started washing up on shore in any large quantities, and Barbour likened much of the spill to the gasoline sheen commonly found around ski boats. 
 
 "We don't wash our face in it, but it doesn't stop us from jumping off the boat to ski," Barbour said. 
 
 While Jindal was initially slow to criticize and publicly react to the Gulf oil well blowout, he quickly stepped up his rhetoric and toughened his response as the spill worsened and fears grew about the potential damage to fragile wetlands and coastal fishing industries. 
 
 He has handled it much like he would a hurricane, holding regular news conferences with rapid-fire lists of state response efforts and weather forecasts. Such responses are a clear bid to bolster his image as the take-charge, disaster-fighting governor and escape the criticism that plagued his predecessor, who was seen as unfocused and overwhelmed after Katrina. 
 
 Both approaches have received praise. Mississippi's Democratic speaker of the House, Billy McCoy, frequently clashes with Barbour but said he respects the governor's handling of disasters. 
 
 "He knows what he's doing," McCoy said. "He moves in a hurry and makes a difference." 
 
 Bob Mann, who led Blanco's communications strategy during Katrina, said Jindal appears to be aggressively responding to the spill. 
 
 "I looked really hard to try to find something to criticize and honestly I can't," said Mann, now a Louisiana State University professor. "Based on what he knew and what we all knew at the time, what more could he have done?" 
 
 That was echoed by Jerome Moore, a roofer sitting outside a Baton Rouge seafood restaurant. 
 
 "He can't go down there and close it himself," Moore said. 
 
 But both responses to the spill also have their critics. 
 
 Louisiana state Rep. Juan LaFonta, a New Orleans Democrat running for Congress and a frequent Jindal critic, complains Jindal was too slow to declare a state of emergency. The declaration came nine days after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded. Early estimates of how much oil was leaking were much lower than the current 200,000-plus gallons a day. 
 
 "Because of Gov. Jindal's slow response, we are now behind the curve," LaFonta said. He added: "You're talking to a veteran of Katrina. I saw what a lackluster response did last time." 
 
 Louie Miller, executive director of the Mississippi Sierra Club, said Barbour's response shows he is an apologist for petroleum interests. 
 
 "I don't think we need to underestimate his sympathy toward that industry and his allegiance to that industry," Miller said. "He's apologizing for this and trying to downplay it, and I think that's unfortunate." 
 
 Barbour said BP, which was operating the rig and is responsible for the cleanup, was not a client of the Washington lobbying firm he helped found – previously called Barbour Griffith and Rogers but now shortened to BGR. 
 
 Since Barbour became head of the Republican Governors Association last June, records show oil companies have contributed $51,350 to RGA. Shell Oil provided the largest portion of that, $50,000. BP America gave $450. 
 
 Records show BP America gave RGA $10,000 in 2003, the first year Barbour ran for Mississippi governor. It's not possible to trace that donation directly to Barbour, but his campaign received about $2 million from RGA in 2003. 
 
 A review of Jindal's state campaign finance records from 2005 to 2009 showed no donations from BP. Jindal was elected to Congress in 2004 and 2006, and federal records show his campaign received $1,000 from BP's political action committee in 2006. 
 
 As governors, Barbour and Jindal have little influence over oil drilling in federal waters off their shores, but both have long supported it. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Deslatte reported from Baton Rouge, La. AP writer Sonia Smith contributed from Baton Rouge. ||||| (AP) Gov. Haley Barbour says he's pressing BP and federal officials to increase resources in Mississippi, where oil has reached the shoreline and continues to flow into the waters around barrier islands."While command and control of on-water resources has improved, it must get much better and the amount of resources to attack the oil offshore must be greatly increased," Barbour said in an e-mailed statement.Barbour said resources are needed to attack the oil as far south as possible.The governor said "under the circumstances, we are taking some of that into our own hands." Officials announced Friday the state has contracted to buy skimmers being built by two Mississippi companies.On Sunday, oil was found in at least two areas on Mississippi's shoreline in Jackson County.Donald Langham, the county emergency management director, said tar balls and a patch of oil were spotted at the St. Andrews beach and at the Lake Mars pier in Gulf Park Estates.Langham said cleanup teams were on the scene and two skimming vessels were working the channel between Deer Island and the shore."We're trying to catch as much as we can right now before we get any more impact," Langham said.There are 723 vessels deployed in Mississippi, according to a regional command center in Mobile. A total of 2,077 vessels have been contracted.Richard Judy, a spokeswoman for BP, said the company appreciated Barbour's support and would work with his staff and local agencies to step up resources to combat the oil.He said BP is "determined to stick with this effort to get this work done no matter how long it takes."Barbour said more oil was found in the Mississippi Sound, north of Petit Bois and Horn islands. Barbour said oil also was in the passes between those islands and Ship Island.Barbour said the boom protecting Biloxi Bay near Deer Island was closed to boat traffic. He said skimming vessels were brought in to prevent additional oil from getting into the bay.Barbour warned residents against trying to clean up the emulsion or any new tar balls unless they've had proper training.Barbour said while the emulsion that came ashore is weathered, it "is messy, and cleanup crews are handling it and disposing of it."Mike Brainard, a biologist with the state Department of Marine Resources, said more coastal waters would be closed to fishing.Brainard said beginning Sunday night, areas from Gulfport to the Alabama state line would be off limits. The exclusions were the bays, which would still open for fishing.For weeks, Mississippi's coast had been spared from the massive oil leak that's inundated fragile marshes and beaches in other states. But in recent days, more oil has found its way into the state's waters and barrier islands.Barbour said strong winds have caused the oil to move in Mississippi's direction and that activity is expected to continue until the middle of next week."It's in our area now and there's nothing we can do about it," said BD Root, a Jackson County Recreation Department employee. "It's the brown stuff, which is not as bad as the heavy crude."
– Oil officially hit Mississippi's shoreline yesterday, and the state's governor has finally decided that this spill is bad news: Gov. Haley Barbour, who just last month suggested that the spill would have "minimal impact," is now pushing BP and federal officials to boost his state's resources, reports the AP. "While command and control of on-water resources has improved, it must get much better and the amount of resources to attack the oil offshore must be greatly increased," said Barbour in an email statement.