CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
– POLITICS
Feb. 21, 2009 – 10:04 a.m.
Is a Future President In The Room As Governors Gather?
By Emily Cadei, CQ Staff
As the nation’s governors gather in Washington this weekend, they’ll be promoting themselves as much as their ideas for solving problems in the 50 states.
For many governors, the annual winter meeting of the National Governors Association is a chance to get attention for their positions on high-profile issues, network with their colleagues and show official Washington that they might become players in national politics.
“It is a huge launching stage for the national scene,” said political consultant Kirsten Fedewa, formerly the communications director for Republican Governors Associations.
The meetings, she said, give governors an opportunity to show their peers and the press that “they’re serious, that they’re drilling deep into their issues and they’ve got gravitas.”
Indeed, the NGA has long been used as a platform for state executives looking to build a bigger profile.
President Bill Clinton chaired the association when he was governor of Arkansas in 1988, and became a leading voice on policy discussions concerning education and Medicaid. Then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush used the association’s 1999 winter meeting to seal his status as front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.
In the last few years, Virginia’s Mark Warner , Arkansas’ Mike Huckabee and Arizona’s Janet Napolitano have made chairmanship of the NGA one of their tools for being viewed as more than just another governor.
And it’s not just the governor calling the meeting to order who can get a political boost.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin first met 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain at the NGA's winter meeting. Six months later, McCain asked Palin to join his ticket as vice president.
As McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker told reporters at the time, the senator “came away extraordinarily impressed” from his interactions with Palin at the NGA’s February 2008 confab.
Palin was scheduled to attend the weekend meeting but did not appear because the state legislature was in session.
The stated purpose of the three-day gathering is to let the governors compare notes on some of the nation's most pressing problems. The conference’s official work sessions are focused on infrastructure, but there is bound to be plenty of discussion about the new stimulus package (PL 111-5), health care reform, and other issues on which the states look for Washington to take the lead.
For Republican governors, in particular, the meeting offers a prime opportunity to test out campaign lines and build alliances in advance of the 2012 presidential election.
“It’s almost like a high school popularity contest,” said Fedewa. “It will be interesting to see who’s talking to who.”
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is widely regarded as one of the GOP’s faces of the future, and the Republican Party is showcasing him next week when he will deliver the response to President Obama’s first address to a joint session of Congress .
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty , who chaired the association in 2008, and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist , who recently appeared with Obama for a rally in his home state in support of the stimulus, will also be seeking to feel out support for a potential run in the 2012 Republican primaries.
Sanford, Daniels, Barbour
The meeting also will give governors known as behind-the-scenes players the chance to step into the public eye.
Three Republicans to watch are Mark Sanford of South Carolina, Mitch Daniels of Indiana and Haley Barbour of Mississippi. Each has been laying the groundwork for a more prominent role and voice.
Sanford, the current chair of the Republican Governors Association, has been an outspoken opponent of the stimulus package. He has had op-ed columns published in the Washington Examiner, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal and his stance has attracted media attention as far afield as the London-based Economist magazine, which described Sanford as “penny-pinching.”
Daniels has made his mark more quietly. The former head of the Office of Budget and Management under President George W. Bush has not been afraid to rile public opinion while pushing to change Indiana’s government bureaucracy.
He was recently named one of eight Public Officials of the Year selected by Governing magazine, a sister publication of CQ Politics.
Governing credited Daniels for helping keep Indiana’s government “running smoothly despite economic woes hitting much of the Midwest.” Indiana boasts a budget surplus, and has received high marks from business groups for improving its commerce environment.
That sort of experience could be valuable to Republicans as they look to regain the mantle of fiscal responsibility.
Barbour is a familiar presence in Republican circles, having led the Republican National Committee during the early years of Clinton’s presidency, when the party used governor’s races to help it mount a comeback. Barbour helped the Republicans win in Virginia and New Jersey in 1993, a prelude to their 1994 victories in Congress. Fedewa said that experience could come in handy now.
And Barbour, who is currently vice-chair of the RGA, is “the kind of governor who really can utilize these meetings,” Fedewa said. “He is the most masterful networker I’ve seen.”
On the Democratic side, governors don’t have a presidential race to look forward to until 2016. In the meantime, they are focusing on establishing themselves as standard-bearers in particular policy areas.
One example is new North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue. Perdue, who won a tight race in 2008 to become the state’s first female governor, has already been up to Washington three or four times to lobby on the stimulus package, noted Tom Jensen, communications director for Public Policy Polling, a North Carolina-based polling firm. And she was one of a handful of governors invited to speak directly to the House Democratic caucus in Virginia earlier this month.
Perdue may not have presidential aspirations, but Jensen said that on education, health care and the economy, “I think you’re going to be hearing a lot from her.”
Comments
If Palin is a candidate, the gop is terminally ill. And Jindal probably cooked his goose with his refusal to accept unemployment funds. Don't know the other guy, but it doesn't really matter. It'll be the next ice age before the republicans regain the WH unless they moderate their ideology and start putting country first.
Mitch Daniels (IN) has said time and time again that he does not want to run for nor become President.
It is a major mistake for the GOP to continue to look at Sarah Palin as a solution, she is factually part of the problem. The GOP needs to have smart and qualified faces to present to the public and not national jokes
POST A COMMENT
Oops! The following errors must be addressed: