America's Worst Governors

Stateside Dispatch. Posted May 3, 2006.

The story of American democracy is one of heroes and disappointments. Every day in this great nation, elected leaders make their constituents proud by fighting for democracy, working families, and American families. And then there are the disappointments: the elected officials who play politics with people's lives and shill for special interests.

Here are three of America's worst.

Colorado: Bill Owens

Colorado's Bill Owens is wrapping up his final legislative session. It must be a bittersweet period. Although Owens was once hailed as the leading light of the GOP by no less an authority than National Review (by the second paragraph, they glowingly write of his principled decision to drink Coors beer because of the Coors' families support of Contras), his political future has been declared over by Grover Norquist, the well-known anti-tax activist and good friend of Jack Abramoff. What mess does Colorado have left to clean up? Let's take a look.

Placing workers last: Owens vetoed a series of bills passed by Colorado's progressive legislature designed to protect workers. Among the bills were measures to ensure that workers locked out of their jobs during contract negotiations are eligible for unemployment insurance, to increase penalties for employers that fail to pay "wages owed to a terminated employee," and a bill to give employees access to their own personnel files.

Local control of schools? That depends: While Norquist lost his patient with Owens over a little moderation on spending caps, spending is not the only issue where Owens shows inconsistency. While he demanded a policy this legislative session that would punish schools that failed to comply with state law regarding flags, he also vetoed a bill requiring school vending machines include healthful snacks. His argument? The bill "micromanages school districts and their policies."

Academic rightwing Bill: Governor Owens and other conservative leaders in Colorado met with rightwing hack David Horowitz to discuss the so-called "Academic Bill of Rights," a proposal to steep public universities in political control and fear. Horowitz's proposal has been nearly universally rejected, but Colorado was the first state to consider a legislative proposal. College Presidents kept it at bay by agreeing to "monitor their own institutions and report back to the Legislature." Somehow academic freedom involves legislative accountability. We can only imagine that in Bill Owens' America, free speech will also require government review.

Spending cap stop-gap: You want to know how hard it is to keep the far right happy? Ask Owens. After living with Colorado's experiment in spending caps for 13 years, virtually everyone had enough. The business community was on board to raise money to let the state government spend more money. That's how dire the situation was. When Governor Owens joined in to support compromise reform, he got immediately ostracized by the national conservativement movement, despite the fact that his version of reform failed to go far enough to actually solve Colorado's fiscal crisis.

Maryland: Robert Ehrlich

Governor Robert Ehrlich may be best known nationally for vetoing Maryland's recent Fair Share Health Care bill, but his shameful record did not begin there and is unlikely to end there. In fact, there's a good chance that Governor Ehrlich will continue to be an embarassment as long as he remains in office.

Picking employers over employees: Governor Ehrlich has racked up an amazing anti-worker record. In May of 2005, he vetoed both the Fair Share Health Care bill that prevents Wal-Mart from shifting their health care costs to the public and a bill to increase Maryland's minimum wage by a dollar. Even better -- Ehrlich lied about the fact that Wal-Mart hosted a major fundraiser for him, claiming that the event never occured.

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