The Lame-Duck Guvs Are Coming!
Democrat Dave Freudenthal announced today that he will not run for a third term as governor of Wyoming; he is term-limited this year, but had been talking about passing a law that would let him run again. Guess he changed his mind.
This comes days after embattled New York Governor David Paterson announced that he will not run for re-election, should he somehow survive that long.
That makes a total of 23 state governors not running for re-election this year, either because of term limits or personal reasons.
Plus, several of the 14 incumbents who are running face primary challenges in the coming months.
What I'm getting at is that this July, when the National Governors Association holds its big annual meeting right here in Boston, roughly half of the 50 state guvs will be in their final months in office, with no re-election on the horizon. (I'm not counting the territorial governors, b/c I'm too lazy to research them right now.) A few more, who aren't up for election this year, face term limits in 2011 or '12.
That could make for a certain amount of candor at that gathering about the current political and fiscal climate around the country.
Of course, some of those lame ducks aren't exactly walking away from the political arena. Charlie Crist (Fla.) is running for Senate, and Tim Pawlenty is planning a Presidential campaign, to give two examples.