BATON ROUGE - You've probably seen Raymond Blanco without knowing it. He was in the back of the crowded victory stage the night his wife, gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Blanco, made it into the Nov. 15 run-off election.

Known by his friends as "Coach," Blanco says staying in the background is where he likes to be when it comes to his wife's politics.

"My primary involvement is worrying about how they're spending money," he said. "I make sure they don't spend money on frivolous things, that they're not throwing money away. I don't do policy."

Raymond Blanco was forced from the shadows last week when Gov. Mike Foster asserted that he is a driving force behind his wife's political life and "would be the most powerful man in the state" if she is elected.

Raymond Blanco says it's not true. "I've never been involved in her work, and she's never been involved in mine."

Talking and dabbling in politics is fun, he says, but he'd rather go hunting or fishing. Many times he does both at the same time.

Former U.S. Sen. J. Bennett Johnston is one of Blanco's hunting buddies.

"We go duck hunting together and stay up late talking," Johnston said. Occasionally, they have stayed up so late they didn't wake up in time to go hunting the next morning.

Friends call Raymond Blanco "a people person" and say he's ideally suited for his job, vice president of student affairs at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, because he takes a personal interest in the students. He has taken leave from the university to work on details of his wife's campaign, as he did in her previous campaigns for the Legislature, the Public Service Commission and lieutenant governor.

He said he looks forward to returning to the university after the election to counsel some students he affectionately calls "my basket cases."

Former UL-Lafayette Police Chief Joey Sturm said Blanco often rushed to students' aid when they called for police assistance. Sometimes the vice president beat campus police officers to a scene because he monitored police calls.

Blanco initiated emergency call boxes across campus and established a 24-hour "Dean On Call" program so students can call administrators if they need assistance off campus.

Former state Sen. Edgar "Sonny" Mouton of Lafayette, who has known the Blancos since 1964, describes them as "personal friends, as we are political friends.

"Coach is a very astute politician in the sense that he can judge an election," Mouton said. "He's issue-oriented and he's people-oriented."

The Blancos discuss issues, he said, and his friend Coach "has his own ideas about practically everything. But Kathleen is independent enough to make up her own mind."

"I don't think he has an undue bad influence on Kathleen," Mouton said, with a laugh.

Johnston became friends with the Blancos when they worked in his unsuccessful 1971 gubernatorial campaign against Edwin Edwards. He said they bucked pressure in Lafayette, which strongly supported Edwards, and "they were, and remain, quite idealistic" in their political beliefs.

He describes the Blancos as "loving people, full of fun and who love to talk politics and government. Raymond is some of the best company you can find. He and Kathleen have a very interesting relationship - a very good, a very solid marriage."

The Blancos are life-long Catholics, Raymond growing up in predominantly Protestant Birmingham, Ala., and Kathleen in predominantly Catholic Acadiana. They've been married for 38 years and are the parents of six children and the grandparents of five.

Johnston said he learned long ago that if he wanted to get a message to Kathleen Blanco "you don't go through Raymond. I have tried that and he told me 'I am not a conduit.' He is busy with what he does at ULL and he respects the fact that she should be independent, and she is."

Blanco, 68, says he's going back to work at the university when the election is over, regardless of the outcome.

He is responsible for many student life operations including student personnel, campus safety, the student union, counseling and testing, and housing.

If she wins, "Kathleen says I'll have to commute like she has had to do for the past several years," Blanco said. "I'll go to Baton Rouge some nights but I'll stay in Lafayette most nights."

As a former PSC member and as lieutenant governor for the past eight years, Kathleen Blanco maintained her primary residence in Lafayette.

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Reporter Mike Hasten contributed to this report.