Chapter 6: Governors and the Executive Branch

Tasks: Mapping, Univariate, Scatterplot, Cross-tabulation

Data: STATES, USTRENDS, USPRES

During the colonial period of U.S. history, the governor was usually appointed by the British crown and had a great deal of power and authority over legislation. However, after the Revolutionary war, governors were viewed as the symbols of former English rule. Thus, the powers of governors in the newly created states were weakened as a symbol of the distrust Americans had for executive power. The newly written state constitutions had an early emphasis on legislative authority and diminished powers for state governors.

However, over the years, with the faltering and perceived weaknesses of state legislatures and the growing demands citizens placed on state government, governors have gradually gained more power and many of the early restrictions that limited their roles in state politics and policy were removed or greatly reduced. Certainly, compared to the President, most governors appear to be “weak” executives because they do not command the media attention for their actions and their policies. However, the image of weak governors is rapidly changing stereotype. Today, state governors have emerged as the most significant forces in state policymaking.

The importance of governors did not happen overnight. It has taken several years for governors to shed the negative image most Americans have had of state executives. During the 1960s and 1970s, most Americans had a negative view of government.

[insert MicroCase graphic 6.1]

Data File: / USTREND
Task: / Historical Trends
Variables: / 78) GOV.CROOK?

During this era of civil rights, this negative impression of our elected leaders was especially focused on state governors. Governors were viewed as obstructionist men (and they were all men) who opposed progress and innovation. For example, many people often recall the image and actions of Alabama governor George Wallace who adamantly fought against integration and fought to maintain the policies of segregation.

But today, governors, when compared to the Congress and state legislatures, are viewed as policy innovators and able to make swift and decisive decisions. In this way, governors are becoming more like the President in that they enjoy higher approval ratings than state legislatures. Also, like the President, the foremost resource of the modern governor is that of persuasion – the use of charm, personal appeal, solid arguments and the status of the office – to pursue their own policy agendas.

Career Path

In terms of a career pattern, it is typical for most governors to have started out in state legislatures or some other high profile state or local office. For example, many governors have been local prosecuting attorneys. Several governors have jumped straight from the state legislature directly to the governorship. Some have been lieutenant governors or holders of another state-wide elective office, such as secretary of state or attorney general, prior to becoming governor.

Today, governors are even considered prime candidates for the office of President. In recent years being a governor has replaced membership in the U.S. senate as the immediate steppingstone to the White House. This has not always been the case throughout U.S. history.

First let’s look at the number of presidents who were governors before the Civil War. In order to do this, we will use the subsetting facility of MicroCase to look only at pre-Civil War presidents.

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Data File: / USPRES
Task: / Univariate
Primary Variable: / 21) GOV?
> Subset Variables / 35) ERA
View: / Pie

Once you select 35) ERA as the subset variable, a menu will appear with categories to select. Use your mouse to check off the category for pre-Civil War presidents. Make sure that the option of “Include Selected Categories” has a black dot in the circle. If this option is not selected, click on it with your mouse.

As you can see, 14 pre-Civil War presidents (or 87.5%) never served as a governor prior to becoming president. Only 2 pre-Civil War presidents (or 12.5%) were governors before they were president.

Now let’s contrast this period to post-Civil War presidents. To do this, let’s click on the “change variables” button at the top right of the screen; then click on the 35) ERA variable to highlight it and then right click on the variable and select the “modify” option. Now, deselect the pre-Civil War category and check off the category for post-Civil War presidents.

During this period, as you can see, 14 presidents (or 53.8%) were not governors before becoming president but 12 post-Civil War presidents (or 46.2%) held the office of governor before being elected to the highest office in the land.

Another measure of the increased prestige of governors can be found in the fact that of the four of the last five presidents were former governors (only George H. Bush was not a governor). Carter was the governor of Georgia, Reagan was the governor of California, Clinton was the governor of Arkansas and George W. Bush was the governor of Texas. Recently, we have also seen some members of Congress leave their seats to run for governor of their state.

Roles of the Governor

Governors play several important roles within their state and state governments. Governors, in their various roles, must deal with an assortment of activities, both in regards to policy and administration. Governors serve as chief of state, commander in chief and chief administrator.

In their role as chief of state, governors represent their state on important formal occasions and in events dealing with other states or the national government. Dealing with the national government has increasingly become an important job for governors. It has not only become important to the political careers of governors but it has become an increasingly essential in regards to state fiscal affairs. Governors are not only central political figures within their states but are also major intergovernmental political figures. In a highly fragmented and diffused intergovernmental system, state governors are a pivotal link between the states and the national government. Today, they must be able to manage and attract money from the federal government.

[insert MicroCase graphic 6.3]

Data File: / STATES
Task: / Mapping
Variable 1: / 32) %REVFED00
View: / Map
Display / Legend

In this map, the darker the state the higher the percentage of revenue the state government receives from the federal government (in 2000). The states shown in the lightest color receive lower percentages of revenue from the federal government. From this map you might notice that there is no discernible regional pattern in terms of revenues states receive from the feds. That is, no one region appears to get more money from the federal government than another.

Now let’s look at the actual percentages.

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Data File: / STATES
Task: / Mapping
Variable 1: / 32) %REVFED00
View: / List: Rank

North Dakota ranked highest with 28.8% of its total revenue coming from the federal government. West Virginia ranked second with 27.5%. Montana ranked third with 26.9% of its revenue coming from the federal government. Moving down this list you discover that Nevada had the lowest percentage of federal revenues (12.9%), followed by Virginia (14.1%) and New Jersey (15.3%).

In the role as commander in chief, governors have control over the National Guard. However, when National Guard troops are called into duty by the national government, the guard is under the direction of the President. The National Guard (formerly called the state militia) may be called into service by the governor to perform rescue and relief missions in the event of a natural disaster or to enforce the law in instances of civil disorder, such as riots, labor strikes or campus disturbances.

As chief administrator, the governor is the state’s chief bureaucrat. Generally, governors are responsible for the management of all state administrative agencies. These agencies have grown both in terms of budgets and employees

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Data File: / USTRENDS
Task: / Historical Trends
Variables: / 58) #ST&LC EMP

As you can see, the growth in state and local employees has increased significantly over time. In 1945 there were slightly more than 317,000 state and local employees. Since the end of World War II, state and local employment has increased to more than 17 million employees. Along with the management of these agencies, the governor is also in charge of preparing the state’s budget and overseeing the implementation of state programs.

However, in some states, the governor’s role as chief administrator is weakened by the fact that agencies in the executive branch are independently elected and not part of a governor’s cabinet. Thus, if a governor wanted an agency or department to take some kind of policy action, he or she must convince the head of that agency, who may or may not be a member of the governor’s party, to go along with the governor’s request.

[insert MicroCase graphic 6.6]

Data File: / STATES
Task: / Mapping
Variable 1: / 112) #STELEC
View: / Map
Display / Legend

As you can see, across the country every governor has to compete against another statewide elect official – anywhere from 2 to 12 others. Nevertheless, most states have a cabinet form of executive branch organization that concentrates responsibility and authority in the hands of the governor and creates a cabinet of department secretaries who are appointed by the governor. We will look more closely at these other statewide elected officials later in this chapter.

Governors, particularly in large states, also have a number of political and administrative staff. These staff members provide the governor with assistance to deal with the often complex and diverse problems facing the states. These staff may include those who work with the legislature, those who do liaison work with administrative agencies, federal agencies and local governments. There are staff members who also function as personal aids to the governor, such as a press secretary, budget director and executive secretary. Other staff may include a legal adviser and at least one speechwriter if not a team of them.

Research suggests that the governors’ staff members tend to be young (in their thirties), well educated and have political experiences and ambitions. Most of them have participated in election campaigns either for the governor or some other candidate of the same party. Many, of course, are lawyers. There are also a few professional planners, engineers, political scientists and public administrators who work on specific projects and a number of people with journalism or media backgrounds that advise the governor on public and press relations. The majority of these staff members are generally personal appointees of the governor. Party leaders usually play a minimal role in the selection of the governor’s staff.

Formal Powers of the Governor

State residents expect their governor to take on many leadership roles and responsibilities. Citizens expect the governor to take address a variety of state problems ranging from economic development to long lines at the DMV. Generally, however, these public expectations far exceed the powers governors have to solve many citizen concerns.

Throughout the states, governors differ in the amount of formal executive and legislative power given them by state constitutions and in the amount of political leadership they can exert on any single issue. When we talk about the powers of governors, we are talking about their formal powers. Formal powers are those powers that can be found in a state’s constitution or statutes. The more important formal powers are those dealing with tenure, appointment, control over budget, and ability to veto legislation.

Tenure

During the past 30 years, there has been a strong trend toward giving governors four year terms. Historically, governors had short terms in office – usually one or two years. Gradually states moved to four-year terms for governors, which today can be found in almost all the states.

Another element of tenure power is term limits. A few states follow the model of the U.S. constitution which limits the president to serving two terms. In these states, governors can only serve two terms. Other states limit the number of consecutive terms to two terms as well. So, it would be possible for a governor to serve two four-year terms, leave office for one term and then serve another two terms.

Appointment

Another power that governors have is their appointment powers. Appointment power is the strongest when the governor can appoint people to any position without the approval of the legislature. Despite limitations on appointive power, it can be a powerful way for governors to influence state policy. Certainly, just because a governor appoints a person to a particular position does not mean that official will always agree with the governor but generally a governor will appoint someone with similar values and views on the issues as the governor. Having as many like-minded public officials in the government can only help a governor accomplish his or hers goals and priorities.

Budget

An important formal power most governors do have over the administration of state government is in regard to budgeting. Through an executive budgeting system state agencies must get their spending proposals approved by the governor or the governor’s budget director. The governor then submits a single executive budget request to the state legislature for approval.