I'm going to talk a little bit about, sort of the way I look at Governors as leaders. I'm going to talk a little bit about several different categories. One is, leader during a crisis. The second, during legislative initiatives. Third, which is really the one that most of the time very few people focus on. But leadership in changing the priorities and the expectations and the values of citizens. Let's talk a little bit about what I would call silent leadership. And then leadership that starts with a Governor but actually ends up creating a national movement. So one of the things that's happening now is that we have more and more crises, oftentimes weather-related, than we ever did before. So, Governors have to handle these all the time. Earthquakes and hurricanes and oil spills we've had nuclears in, in the past and so on. So these are getting very, very common. One thing we know is if you screw up during this period you're probably not going to get reelected. Governor Blanco during Katrina is an example. It's also an example where the three levels of government never got together, never got on the same page and therefore created worse problems than there should have been. because you had the mayor arguing with the Governor. And then you had the President really trying to federalize the whole thing. Now, I mentioned that in Virginia, you've actually have had some very good leaders. Linwood Holton was elected in 1970, sort of at the beginning of forced integration in the schools. Actually, it's quite progressive. Ran on a platform of getting rid of discrimination against African Americans in the hiring state government. He also personally was for integration, but was opposed to busing. And busing was a big problem in Richmond and throughout the state. But he followed the court order. He reached out to all parties. And led the state through a very, very difficult time. So the example of not only somebody who is a leadership in crisis but also in my mind a person who changed the expectations and the values of citizens in the state. I'm a Yankee, I would have thought Massachusetts would have done a much better job at immigration than would have Virginia. It's not true. Virginia was the only state who never called out the National Guard to quell riots. Even though they had protests of 400 people at the Capital. Not only did he lead, but he influenced a whole group of other Southern Governors to lead on that issue. Jimmy Carter in Georgia, John West in South Carolina, Reuben Askew in Florida, Dales Bumpers later says Senator from Arkansas. Edward Edwards from Louisiana and so on. So, it's an example again of crisis management, changing expectations and being a jump off place to actually influence the nation. Another example I have put out oftentimes of a person who changed expectations was Lamar Alexander, former governor of Tennessee. And he told his people after he got elected, he said, I want you to tell everybody who calls me for a speech that number one, I'm not going to come until you're ready for dessert because it's not worth my time to sit and eat with you all. But more importantly, secondly, I don't care what you ask me, talk about, I'm talking about education. So, he spent the next eight years trying to change the citizens' attitude about education in the state. Now he had initiatives. Sort of pay for performance for teachers. Choice for students and so on. But he actually did change the expectations. He spent eight years, it was his number one issue, his number two issue, his number three issue, number four issue. Then you have leadership around legislative issues, okay? Government Donald around transportation finance, Governor Warner around, a huge gaping deficit. I think those are important, but in all honesty, they're sort of the blood sport of the media. Chalking up whether the legislature won this one or the Governor won this one. I would argue it is less than important than most of the other leaderships. Because if you trace legislation, you'll find after five years, or eight years, or ten years, the legislation has been dramatically changed and modified. So a lot goes into it. It's often necessary and some things are lasting, but not a lot. What I call about a silent revolution is that there are some Governors who really spend their entire time on trying to make the State bureaucracy more efficient and more responsive to the needs of citizens. You can generally do all that including some reorganization through executive order. You don't have to go to the Legislature and say, can I make it more efficient? And oddly enough, that's something that gets in the DNA, and in the culture of the state and it has an enormous lasting impact. So what state do you think is the most efficient? Well, it's Utah. Very good culture, probably one of the best at purchasing and integrating technology. In fact, you get a sense after you've been around a while you can walk into a capital and sort of snoop around for an hour and pretty much determine whether that's an efficient capital or not. When I make the point states have certain cultures,. If I were to pick out a state that is quite innovative and is willing to take risks, I would pick out Oregon. because they actually have an attitude around experimentation, innovation is it's not a big deal to fail. So they're willing to experiment with some fairly big things. Some states are so scared of the politics that they're reluctant to sort of experiment. So when you look at the different types of leadership, crisis management is really key, because if you follow that up, you're probably not going to get re-elected. In fact, when we used to train new Governors after they got elected, we'd get them for a long weekend. Teach them how to be Governor. But, the very first session you focus on is crisis management. because sometimes, within the first 90 days, they have a very serious crisis. Take Thornburg in Pennsylvania. Had Three Mile Island nuclear. Changing the values and priorities of people, I think, is really key. It's very underplayed. But it's the type of thing that lasts a long time. Utah and efficiency of government. Omar Alexander with respect to education. Linwood Holton with respect to race relations. Huge impacts.
