THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 3, 1996 TAG: 9611020021
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: 82 lines
Here's an accolade you'd never see applied to a Virginian: ``Jim Hunt today is America's most experienced governor.''
That's from the 1996 Almanac of American Politics. It's a reference, of course, to North Carolina's sitting and soon-to-be-re-elected chief executive, Jim Hunt.
Hunt, who is standing for his fourth (and final?) term in Tuesday's elections, is the closest thing the United States has to a governor-for-life. His status is in contrast to that of Virginia's chief executive, George Allen. Allen is the closest thing the United States has to a governor-for-a-day.
Virginia alone of the 50 states tells chief executives that they can serve no more than one, four-year term in a row. A governor can hold office more than once, as did Mills E. Godwin Jr. of Suffolk from 1966-70 and from 1974-78. But if he's interested in continuity or, God forbid, even a little long-range planning, he'd best either hand-groom a successor or head on down Tobacco Road.
North Carolina used to limit a governor's service to one successive term. So did several other states. They've all dropped the clause from their constitutions. Hunt persuaded North Carolina voters to move into the 20th Century during his first term in the late 1970s.
With the 21st a hop-skip away, it's time for Virginia to follow suit. Term limitations may be in vogue with the electorate. But no sensible person is suggesting that congressmen or senators or presidents serve a single term before they retire. Governors are no less deserving of a chance to grow in office.
The rationale behind Virginia's one-term, constitutionally-imposed limit is the belief that it will put a chief executive in touch with the better angels of his or her nature. If one is not worrying about garnering votes for re-election, so the thinking goes, what possible motive could there be for acting in a nasty or partisan way?
Hmmm. Let us pause here for deep thought.
While meditating, we might commune with the spirits of certain Democrats who've wound up in the crosshairs of Republican Allen. Or with Republicans - and Democrats - similarly situated during the reign of Allen's Democratic predecessor, Doug Wilder.
Partisanship is alive, well, and metastasizing hourly in the Old Dominion, one-term governorship or no. As for manners, if one has no political future, one might take that as a license for rudeness.
There's also the matter of continuity. Perhaps once, a distant moon ago, governors here marched in lock step, regardless of party. These days, Allen's tax-cutting, privatizing, socially- conservative agenda bears no resemblance to the service-expanding, infrastructure-enhancing approach of predecessors such as Gerald Baliles or Chuck Robb.
Voters can no longer assume that, when the engineer changes, the brakemen, porters and conductors will stay behind and the train will keep tooling along in the same direction.
Nor can they count on a politician's aspirations to crest with the governorship. A governor with his eyes set on the U.S. Senate (see Robb and Allen) or the presidency (see Wilder) is no less likely to be guided by politics than a governor focused on a second term.
A downside of the current arrangement is the demand that governors go-for-broke early in their terms. There is no learning curve, no tomorrow. Two years after they're elected, they are already being regarded as lame ducks. Key appointees are starting to bail out. The focus is shifting to the next gubernatorial race.
The luxury of shepherding an idea over the course of a decade, as Hunt is attempting to do in his push for early childhood education, is non-existent.
Handling of the state's $34.5 billion, two-year budget offers an egregious example of the failure of the current system.
Because of the way gubernatorial terms and budget cycles are staggered, a governor cannot propose, enact and wholly implement a two-year budget during a single, four-year term. At one end or the other of the budget cycle, a different governor can tinker with his work.
Some voters may find that oversight appealing. Some critics of recent administrations are grateful that there's no opportunity for a second, successive term.
But that decision should rest with the voters.
Twenty years ago, Jim Hunt had the foresight and the courage to push for change. Both he and the residents of North Carolina have been the beneficiaries.
Virginia is awaiting a similarly far-sighted hero. MEMO: Ms. Edds is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot. by CNB