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November
1, 2002 8:30 a.m. |
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ith nearly the entire media spotlight focused on the race for the control
of Congress, little attention is being paid to the governors races this
year. This year there are 36 of them, and many of them are nail-biters.
Arguably, the three most-important elections on November 5 will be the gubernatorial races in California, Florida, New York, and Texas. The GOP will win three of four and maybe all four! And since governors can actually do things — cut taxes, launch welfare, fix the schools, muzzle the trial lawyers, balance the budget — these are powerful public figures that have a profound impact on policy.
The GOP has had majority control of the governorships since the grand conservative landslide election of 1994. That's likely to shift back to the Democrats after Tuesday. But what is exciting is that four or five real conservative policy pioneers are going to win on Tuesday and then push through dramatic free-market changes in their states. Case in point: Mark Sanford of South Carolina wants to abolish the South Carolina income tax. Name a member of Congress who has a big idea like that.
So without further ado, here's my smart-aleck assessment of many of the hottest races:
Alaska: Frank Murkowski wins back Alaska for the GOP. This will be a boost for drilling in ANWAR.
Arizona: Matt Salmon is down in the polls, but still has a good shot at winning. Salmon is a free marketer who loathes big government and bureaucracy. Janet Napolitano, the Democrat, is bosom buddies with the trial lawyers. She represented Anita Hill. She's bad news.
California: Call me a hopeless romantic, but I still think that Bill Simon has a shot at besting Gray Doofus. Doofus has approval ratings in the 40s, which is dreadful for an incumbent.
Colorado: Bill Owens, America's best governor, wins in a landslide and preps for a seat on the GOP ticket in '08.
Florida: Don't believe the hype. Jeb wins easily. How about Bush-Owens in '08, or vice versa?
Georgia: Roy Barnes is my favorite Democrat. He should win, continuing the GOP's 150-year lockout of the governors' mansion.
Hawaii: Sakes alive, Hawaii goes Republican! But Linda Lingle is no conservative.
Illinois: Republicans lose. What a relief. The brain-dead Illinois Republicans are out of power. Now they can spend the next four years thinking about all the things they did wrong.
Kansas: The Dems will likely win here because the backstabbing liberal Republicans (read: Bill Graves and co.) would rather have a liberal Democrat in office than a conservative Republican. So much for the big tent!
Maryland: Ehrlich wins. KKT turns into TNT.
Michigan: Dems win. Thank God that Jennifer Granholm is a Canadian, or she would be running for president next.
Nevada: Safe Republican — can we put the nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain?
New York: Hopefully the Dems finish in third place. Let's also hope Pataki's third term is more like his first when he was cutting taxes, not his second, when he was raising them.
Ohio: Taft wins. But he is still one of America's worst governors.
Oklahoma: Now let's see what Steve Largent can really do!
Pennsylvania: Rendell wins. Okay, Pennsylvanians, hold on to your guns and your wallets. The governor's coming after both.
South Carolina: Mark Sanford wins and becomes this generation's Tommy Thompson.
Tennessee: This one's a toss pup, but my crippled dog could do a better job as governor than Don Sundquist.
Texas: Did you really think that George W. Bush would let the Democrats win his home state? To quote papa Bush: "Not gonna happen."
— Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and president of the Club for Growth.