Who are the most progressive governors of red states?

[skipos]

I was thinking about Mitt Romney, and how he really seems to be WAY to the right of your average Massachusettes resident. Are there governors who are the opposite of that? Democratic governors of red states who are surprisingly progressive?

Here are a list of Dem governors of red states:
Brad Henry of Oklahoma
Joe Manchin of West Virginia
Brian Schweitzer of Montana
Dave Freudenthal of Wymoning
Bill Richardson of New Mexico
Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas
Phil Bredesen of Tennessee
Janet Napolitano of Arizona
Tim Kaine of Virginia
Tom Vilsack of Iowa
Michael Easley of North Carolina
Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana

[yardwork]

1. Mike Easley is not particularly progressive

However, a lot of people outside North Carolina might be surprised to learn that the state legislature is majority Democratic. It's very rare for NC to elect a Republican governor or for Republicans to be in the majority in the state legislature.

This doesn't mean that they are all that progressive, but at least they're not Republican.

[skipos]

3. I just looked up voter affiliation and it is 39% D, 34% R, 20% I

but NC hasn't gone for a Dem since Carter in 1976. What gives? Are these just old Dixiecrats who haven't gotten around to changing their affiliation yet?

[Esse Quam Videri]

7. Its the churches......

Most people in the more rural counties go to church every Sunday and for 6 months before any presidential election all they hear is - make sure you vote repug so no baby killer gets into office.

Its just totally unbelievable.

[NMDemDist2]

2. Janet in AZ! n/t

[enfield collector]

8. big +1

[OKNancy]

4. Brad Henry would not be a progressive by DU standards

but I'm pretty happy with him overall. He has done a good job in Oklahoma.
As a small business person, my favorite legislation is Insure Oklahoma where the state pays 60% of the healthcare premiums for small businesses ( business pays 25%, employee pays 15% )

And I can't help it... he and his family are so cute.

[ncrainbowgrrl]

11. that sounds like a great program.

now there's an example of something that could be posed as a "new idea" that the democrats could stand behind as proactively supporting the economy and in addition, doing something about the large number of uninsured americans.

[Ninja Jordan]

12. Does Henry have a future in national politics?

Is he a future dark horse?

[OKNancy]

13. I've heard it mentioned

He is 100% squeaky clean. Baptist, but not pushy. He sure knows how to do TV ads. His are folksy, but not corny and very effective.
I don't think he is liberal enough to gain a mass internet/blog following though.

[Ninja Jordan]

14. A lot of positives

Only 42 and from a state where Dems don't win. I haven't seen him give a speech, but he seems perfect. If a Dem doesn't win in '08, you may see some movement from Brad Henry.

[Mr. Blonde]

32. I think he has the same problem with liberals that

Mitt Romney has with conservatives. They are automatically skeptical that anyone from Oklahoma (in this case) can truly be a liberal. And any compromises he has made because of the political reality in Oklahoma will be viewed with an angry eye.

[fishwax]

22. I like Henry and voted and campaigned for him, but

I have a hard time seeing him as a national politician. From most of what I've seen (and I've been out of Oklahoma for a year now, so it might be different), I'm not sure he could be a heavyweight.

It was a strange confluence of events that secured him the election the first time--there was an independent who split some repub votes, the gop candidate (steve largent) made some really assinine comments and tried to coast through the election on his name, he had the support of barry switzer, and the initiative to ban cockfighting appeared on the ballot at the same time, causing an unusual spike of voters in the dixiecrat counties of the SE--yellow dog democrats who were motivated to vote by the threat of the cockfighting ban but also cast a vote for governor.

Since then he eventually got the lottery passed, and the program that OKNancy mention sounds stellar. Still, though, I'm not sure he conceives of himself as a front bench national politician.

[Ninja Jordan]

27. what reasons?

Why isnt he a national player?

[fishwax]

28. the alignment of stars that got him elected in the first place

were barely enough to get the job done. It was a very close election, even with those factors in his favor. That win was a great win for us liberals in OK, but it wasn't a groundswell, exactly. According to the most recent polls I saw, he was 20+ points ahead and should win reelection easily, but his re-election strategy (in the first couple years of his term, anyway) seemed to be to keep as low a profile as possible.

I never sensed that he necessarily wanted a national stage (could be wrong, of course, don't really know the man), and part of the appeal of his campaign for some voters, I think, was that the governor's mansion was his ultimate goal. The two governors before him--repub Frank Keating and dem David Walters--had both had national ties and ambitions, and Brad Henry presented himself as an Oklahoma kid trying out for his dream job. This could all be part of a long-term plan, of course, who knows, but he seemed disinterested in national politics and (perhaps as a result of his posturing) he seemed not quite ready for prime time, in the way he carried himself, the way he spoke about the issues, etc. He lacked gravitas, in my estimation. I thought him a great candidate for Oklahoma but not (yet, anyway) a particularly imposing candidate nationally.

[bobbieinok]

30. Henry's 1st win was in a 3 way race -- the 3rd guy

had some sort of thing going about toll roads and costs. I never really understood exactly what was going on, but many on the right seemed to agree with his views.

Also, although they would never say so, it may be that even republicans were irritated that Largent thought he was entitled to be OK governor. He resigned from the House to prepare his campaign; Keating called a special election, and then Keating's wife ran for Largent's seat in the republican primary. (She lost.) I never understood how the governor's wife in OKC was able to run for the House in Tulsa.

[finecraft]

5. Take Kathleen Blanco off any list that contains the word Democrat

Unless, of course the list is titled: "Democratic Governors that act like right-wing Republicans". She considers anything more to the left of, oh say...Tony Perkins and James Dobson, to be too liberal. She is my governor, so I know from experience.

[skipos]

9. I am no fan of Blanco but

something tells me that an extreme right wing Republican is going to run against her in 08 and probably win, and then Louisiana democrats may long for the days of Blanco. Then again, with her post Katrina approval ratings, maybe they won't.

[Hippo_Tron]

15. Bobby Jindal will be her opponent

And honestly I would genuinely have trouble deciding who to vote for. Jindal's family values preaching pisses me off, but hell Blanco's just as bad with that abortion ban she signed. The only thing that I like better about her is that Jindal is a huge hack for Bushco but frankly the company that Blanco keeps isn't all that much better.

I'm changing my registration back to Louisiana to vote for Landrieu's re-election in 2008 but if I do it in time for the '07 Governor's race I have no clue who I will vote.

[finecraft]

17. I'm there with you Hippo

I don't know which is worse, Jindal or Blanco. As far as I am concerned, they are both bad. It has been said that a lot of Louisiana Republicans stayed home last time (or voted for Blanco) because they just couldn't bring themselves to vote for Jindal. I don't see that happening this time. I think Jindal is going to win by a wide margin. I don't see anything that Kathleen can do to overcome her huge negatives, and frankly, I don't care if she does or not. She has not done a damn thing to further the Democrats in Louisiana. Every Democratic idea is just "too liberal" for her tastes. Given the choice between Republican and Republican-light, I'll just stay home.

[Hippo_Tron]

18. I'm almost inclined to go a step further and actually vote for Jindal

He has a good 50 IQ points on Blanco, which is something that could make the decision for me. Rarely will I admit that a Bush loving Repuke like Jindal could've possibly done a better job in office, but this might've been one of those times. I think at the very least he's more politically astute and would've been able to more effectively lobby congress after Katrina than Blanco. He also would've given command of the national guard to Bush so that it would've been entirely his fault instead of joint responsibility. I think that just like we tell our Republican friends that they were wrong about voting for shrub, very seldomly we might have to admit we were wrong as well. Voting for Blanco in 2003 might've been one of those times.

I remember that election very well too. I thought it was brilliant that Blanco ran ads with kids saying that Bobby Jindal would take away their healthcare. I was really excited that getting a democratic governor would help our eventual nominee get some ground in Louisiana. I thought that we would re-district to combat Tom DeLay's antics in Texas. Blanco did none of those things and barely brought herself to endorse Kerry. She was a disappointment from the moment she took office. Frankly if it weren't for the setbacks of having total nutcases like David Duke and Woody Jenkins for candidates, the Republicans would've taken complete control of Louisiana years ago. The only reason people keep voting Democratic is because the Republicans run KKK grand wizards and people who are so politically inept that they don't know that waving around a plastic fetus is a dumb idea even in Louisiana.

[fudge stripe cookays]

6. I love Brian Schweitzer...

The guy manages to hold his own among conservatives since he's a hunter and fisherman, which goes over big in Montana.

But to hear him talk about environmental issues is to be flabbergasted at how together the guy is. I heard him on AAR a few months ago, and he was talking about the glaciers melting up there, and how their runoff provides the source of many rivers. He also spoke about how the melting was going to affect towns downstream.

Once those glaciers are gone, where are those towns going to get their hydroelectric power?

He was thinking YEARS down the road, where others haven't even begun to consider. To me, THAT'S progressive.

[fishwax]

23. I like him too

Did you catch him on the Colbert Report? It was nice to see him getting that kind of exposure. Between his gubernatorial victory and Tester's likely win in November, things are looking up in Big Sky Country :)

[RamboLiberal]

29. I don't get to hear a lot about him but the few times I've

seen him I think this guy is just what the Democratic party needs. He's authentic and very intelligent IMHO. And he's a real life rancher who knows how to sit a horse. Not like the pretend cowboy Bush is.

[skipos]

31. Exactly. Schweitzer is what Bush wishes he was,

and I think if the GOP ran another pretend cowboy like Allen and Schweitzer was the Dem nominee, I think a majority of Americans would prefer Schweitzer.

[Awsi Dooger]

10. Notice how we can win those states with moderates

And in most cases the re-elections are by massive margin.

I know DU loves to throw out terms like DLC as catchall exclusionary terms, but I wonder how those posters can rationalize how well we fare with DLC-types in states like that? Or think it doesn't apply in presidential terms. Some of those states are too far gone and will never flip our way on the presidential level, but many of them WILL vote for an outstanding moderate, same as Ohio, Florida, Nevada and maybe a handful of other states not on the list.

I don't know how we can describe certain Republicans as wingnuts who can never survive a general election, like when we rooted for Laffey in Rhode island, while rejecting that the same principle doesn't apply to candidates who are far left. I'm in Nevada and Dina Titus is struggling in the gov race against a GOP mediocrity, simply because she is viewed as too liberal. Many Democrats are now mumbling on local sites that we should have nominated Jim Gibson, who was an inferior candidate to Titus in the primary but he's more moderate and fared better in general election polling than Titus along with raising twice as much money. Not all states and races are created equal and I hope our primary voters realize that, before forcefeeding candidates who the general election voters will reject.

[skipos]

19. I have spent some time defending Nelson of NE around here,

not because I agree with him on much, but because I don't think NE is going to ever yeild a Feingold senator. Lamont isn't exactly coasting to victory in CT, how could we expect a progressive Democrat to be elected in NE?

[justice1]

21. Bob Kerrey was a popular Governor.

The reason Nebraska is a red state is the fault of the democratic party. Most democratic Presidential nominees have focused on the needs of urban areas, and either ignored or didn't understand the economic situation of rural states. It isn't about "wedge" issues.

[Hippo_Tron]

16. Napolitano and Schweitzer definitely, possibly Kaine

Kaine's only been in office for a short time, though.

[nasher]

20. Schweitzer and Sebelius are pretty good, especially considering

how conservative the states they represent are. I know people like Richardson and Napolitano, but New Mexico and Arizona aren't nearly as conservative.

Blanco really is a disappointment.

[Tiggeroshii]

24. Ooops. I meant to respond to the parent thread...

sorry

[Tiggeroshii]

25. I think Schweitzer is pretty progressive.

I wouldn't be surprised if he leads his state in that direction as well. It start with character and personality, but people may start to warm up to the ideology as well. A trend I fear may be starting up in good old' California. Arnold isn't nearly as conservative as Schweitzer is liberal but his personality may get people to warm up to his more conservative side and get more people to go along with something alittle more so in the long run(for instance, the crazy fundy Tom McClintock could very well be our next Lt. Governor).

[skipos]

26. I agree that Arnie is a concern but

when you have a charismatic "likeable" incumbent repub, why not run the most charismatic "likeable" good dem you can find? So many people didn't have a strong preference between Angelides and Westly, yet they still voted for Angelides even though Westly polled a lot better against Arnie than Angelides did. I am no political consultant, but it was very obvious to me Angelides wasn't going to do well.