State Government All-Stars

...When a state official does attract national attention it is generally a tribute to his showmanship rather than a reward for tangible accomplishment...

...But the last two years have witnessed the gradual emergence of the consumer’s viewpoint on utility questions and even a couple of minor victories...

...Early this year, Denenberg made it clear to the new Democratic governors in California and New York that he was willing to travel in return for the right job, but these efforts led nowhere...

...He supports his office (which has mushroomed from two to 27 employees since his election in 1970) and provides work for it by hustling grants from the federal government and from foundations...

...These days state government is again becoming fashionable...

...Langhorne orchestrates legislation well...

...senator last year but lost the primary to Pete Flaherty, the mayor of Pittsburgh (see The Washington Monthly,, July/August 1974...

...Brown pledged to use his office to ensure that the state would instead transfer funds to small-town banks...

...His major accomplishment is the passage of the Texas Open Records Act, which is one of the broadest and most rigourously enforce d freedom-of-informa tion statutes in the country...

...Robbins also administers the state’s food programs for the poor...

...They raised corporate tax revenues by 33 per cent-largely by discovering that corporations claimed in other states that they made their money in North Dakota and argued just the opposite in North Dakota itself...

...Although formerly a highly successful Houston malpractice lawyer, Hill has departed from the narrow traditions of Texas government...

...The reforms...

...But he has become a master at taking the things every government must do and making them painless...

...Although Vermont is one of the few states without a food-stamp program, Robbins has otherwise tried to humanize surplus food distribution by using milk men (yes, they still have them,in Vermont) to deliver state food on a house-tehouse basis to those who need it...

...Here was an office that has been virtually ignored for years...

...yet, the treasurer has incredible powers which, if wielded conscientiously, could benefit communities and people all over the state...

...Far more important than the specifics of his battles with the insurance industry is the sense of possibility which he Richard Hall D an editor of this issue of The Washington Monthly...

...Anyone with that kind of power in that state must know how to play politics, and Bond does...

...Robbins claims that gamma rays from the plant affect nearby buildings and demands that the company build a protective wall...

...Pennsylvania Governor Milton Shapp attempted to appoint him to the Public Utilities Commission, but the nomination was blocked by the state senate, still bitter over Denenberg’s criticism of it when he was insurance commissioner...

...On the contrary, Bond recently blocked Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s dream of a cross-town expressway...

...I’m going to bury everything I can and fund as many programs as I can with soft dollars...

...He tried to win the Democratic nomination for U.S...

...The real revolution in state government seems to come from the bottom up to, but not including, the favorite son...

...When utility companies proposed a restructuring of rates that would have boosted electricity prices by one-third...

...it’s hard to believe that in the late 1950s “Soapy” Williams of Michigan, Robert Meyner of New Jersey, and Nelson Rockefeller were thought to be our leading governors...

...Under Schoen, Minnesota’s prison population has decreased significantly, and the state’s maximum security prison will close in 1977...

...Appointed to fill a vacancy in 1969, Dorgan unleashed a team of four auditors on ‘the books of multi-state corporations operating in North Dakota...

...For example, Riles has made no secret of his belief that the practice of tenure should be curtailed...

...Although generally a lone voice on the utilities commission, Ziegler did get Alabama to review a rate increase for the first time in history...

...The problem is rooted in the size and the diversity of the country...

...He takes this job seriously, challenging Yankee Electric, which owns the plant, on a number of safety issues...

...Kenneth Schoen is not this kind of prison administrator...

...The press’ taste in governors was always erratic...

...Schreiber has developed an ingenious method of transforming his largely cere mo ni a1 post into something far more substantive...

...Another regulator worth mentioning is Jim Ziegler of Alabama...

...He publically vowed to resign if the law went on the books...

...One of Bond’s strengths is his understanding of federal programs, which comes from having worked in Washington as a special assistant to the U.S...

...The nation’s best-known lieutenant governor is Mary Anne Krupsack of New York, but that is almost entirely because of her symbolic importance to the women’s movement...

...A recent conference in Madison, Wisconsin, on radical innovations in state and local government, sponsored by the Institute for Policy Studies, drew an encouraging crowd of state-level reformers...

...As superintendent, Riles has been willing to tangle with the powerful teachers’ unions...

...And in some Southern states they were both...

...Riles’ major accomplishment has been the development of an Early Childhood Education Program, serving about one-third of the state’s elementary school pupils below fourth grade...

...Attorney General: John Hill, Texas Given the conservative political cast of the state, it would be easy to envision the Texas attorney general leading well-publicized crusades against subversives, pornography, and marijuana...

...During an era when crime is a major social issue, a corrections commissioner could win easy headlines with a policy of “getting tough” with prisoners...

...The one thing [this bill] did for me,” Brown says, “was convince me not to give the legislature a candid budget next year...

...Sam Brown’s race last fall for state treasurer of Colorado symbolized this changed attitude...

...Denenberg managed to combine both: his “Shopper’s Guides’’ to insurance were not only an aid to the public, but made good newspaper copy, as well...

...Since the days of the New Deal, liberals have either mistrusted or ridiculed state government...

...Agriculture Commissioner: Jim McHale, Pennsylvania There is nothing even slightly expedient about Jim McHale’s policies as Pennsylvania’s secretary of agriculture...

...ripoff...

...Some of Bond’s interest in innovation may be attributable to the presence on his staff of such anti-highway advocates as former public-interest lobbyist John Kramer...

...Donald Brazier, chairman of Washington’s Public Utilities Commission, is typical of this new breed of regulator...

...Lieutenant Governor: Martin Schreiber, Wisconsin Shall we say that it is not the most demanding job in state government...

...That’s where the matter stands, with Robbins showing no signs of backing down...

...Bond, like Massachusetts’ Fred Salvucci, is that unusual breed-a transportation commissioner who is not obsessed with highways...

...Post-card voter registration, which is a boon to the Democratic party, has been emulated already by other Democratic secretaries of state...

...Robbins also aroused controversy with the selection of Chicago Seven defendant John Froines as occupational safety and health director...

...State Utilities Commissioner: Donald Brazier, Washington State utilities commissions have long seen their job as one of automatically approving power company policies...

...State Treasurer: Sam Brown, Colorado During his campaign last fall, Sam Brown argued that it was wrong for the state of Colorado to deposit 70 per cent of its cash in just five large banks in Denver...

...Among the reforms which Schoen guided through the state legislature were a system of cost incentives to encourage local governments to place offenders in rehabilitation programs rather than in prisons, parole arrangements which take much of the arbitrariness out of the system, and pre-trial rehabilitation programs for first offenders...

...Brazier went on television to call it a “consumer...

...The criticisms generally involved one of two themes-either those in state government were corrupt or they were reactionaries...

...Since then Schreiber has also received a $333,000 grant from the Kellogg Foundation to develop and test a system of providing home-based care for the elderly as an alternative to institutionalization...

...It is hard to become a national celebrity when you work in Albany, Sacramento, Springfield or Harrisburg...

...For a variety of state posts, ranging from lieutenant governor to state corrections commissioner, we have tried to single out an official who illustrates that state government does not always have to be political backwater...

...Yankee Electric contends that such a wall would be prohibitively expensive and threatens a rate increase in a state where electric costs are already sky-high...

...Riles once actually proposed abolition, but quickly backed down in face of union objections...

...Even when a governor briefly caught the attention of the national press, those serving under him were still generally considered to be mediocrities...

...The efforts of the Nixon Administration to decentralize the Great Society have given governors control over large portions of federal spending in their states...

...Which doesn’t mean he is a pushover...

...He successfully blocked a telephone rate increase, getting a ruling from the state supreme court in the process that the attorney general has the power to challenge all future changes in utility rates...

...Dangerous prisoners will be housed in maximum security facilities in other prisons...

...Now that disenchantment on all sides with the possibilities of federal initiatives is well-nigh complete, it is time for another look at the states...

...But it wasn’t until Herb Denenberg burst on the public scene in 1972 and 1973 that anyone realized it was possible to be creative and effective in little-known state offices as well...

...and I finally hit on state treasurer...

...Political scientists used to hold a great strength of the federal system to be that state governments could act as laboratories of democracy, testing ideas which, if successful, could be copied on a national level...

...Dorgan has served two terms as chairman of the Multi-State Tax Commission, an organization of 23 member states and 15 affiliates that cooperates on corporate auditing across state lines...

...With the growth of national power in Washington, little has been heard on this theme in recent years...

...Richard Austin’s job involves few questions of high policy...

...McHale’s department has supported cooperative markets, where the farmer and consumer deal directly with each other, and has tried to get the land-grant colleges to research the problems of the small farmer rather than just the concerns of agribusiness...

...But instead of asking the voters to send him to Washington, Brown campaigned for a traditionally minor state post...

...Riles has been a firm supporter of the California Supreme Court’s Serrano decision, which ordered that disparities in funding between school districts be eliminated...

...He likes solving mass transit problems with gadgets-double-decker buses and elongated buses that bend in the middle to negotiate narrow city turns-and he is also working hard to preserve Chicago’s extensive rapidtransit system...

...Secretary of Transportation...

...Ironically, the young governors who seemed the most promising, such as California’s Jerry Brown, Massachusetts’ Michael Dukakis, and Illinois’ Daniel Walker, often are found to be locking horns with their more daring subordinates...

...But even the best state officials generally labor in obscurity...

...Dorgan’s tax work has accounted for a 5Gpercent increase in the number of returns filed in a state that is actually losing population...

...Froines has set up a statewide study to determine the relationship between pharmaceuticals and bladder cancer...

...As a small effort to remedy this lack of coverage, we at The Washington MonthZy propose an All Star Team-a Who’s Who of the best in state government...

...His major proposal is “life-line” rates, which would guarantee electricity for the poor...

...In an interview with the Village Voice before his election, Brown made clear that he understood the difference between legislative and administrative power: “I spent the last year studying the state budget and state laws, trying to see where power really lies in Colorado...

...Hill retains some ties to the John Connally wing of Texas politics, but he has not shied away from battles with Southwestern Bell and other leading utilities...

...We have not chosen a governor...

...The press, taking their lead from David Broder of The Washington Post, discovered such governors as Reuben Askew of Florida, Daniel Evans of Washington, and Dale Bumpers of Arkansas (now a U.S...

...Despite the eclipse of his own career, Herb Denenberg’s legacy to state government is thriving...

...Corrections Commissioner : Kenneth Schoen, Minnesota A major function of state government is to run prison systems...

...Although it is notoriously difficult to measure’ the success of educational programs, ECE seems to have been a significant factor in raising the test scores of those who participated...

...seem small, such as authorizing the state to do business by check and allowing the sale of license plates by mail, but the effect has been to save the citizen time and aggravation in his dealings with the bureaucratic side of state government . At least one of Austin’s mechanical reforms has broader political implications...

...He’s a tremendous political animal,” says former Illinois Energy Coordinator Denis Hayes...

...Tax Commissioner: Byron Dorgan, North Dakota Byron Dorgan is the only elected tax commissioner in the nation, and as such he enjoys unique independence in the state government...

...Secretary of State: Richard Austin, Michigan In state government, the secretary of state is not a promising office for would-be activists...

...Schreiber’s first grant was for a 1971 HEW pilot study to set up an ombudsman program for residents of nursing homes...

...In May the legislature blocked one of Brown’s major bills, which would have set up a state version of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, thereby eliminating fear of bank failure as an argument against Colorado depositing state funds in small banks...

...All the rest are inspected by the federal government...

...Many of Brown’s efforts since he took office have been stymied by a recalcitrant state legislature...

...Realizing the limitations of his power, McHale has followed Denenberg’s model-traveling and testifying-but unfortunately he is tackling a more difficult problem...

...After all, if you want to save the world, it is a little annoying to have to distribute millions of license plates each year...

...The goal of the program has been to reduce adult-child ratios in the classroom from 25:l to 1O:l through the imaginative use of paraprofessionals and teacher aides...

...As a resplt, pressure from agribusiness interests led the state legislature in July to vote against his confirmation for another one-year term in 1976...

...Tony Robbins, Vermont Vermont is, of course, a small state, but Robbins is the country’s only health commissioner whose job includes monitoring a nuclear power plant...

...Governor Milton Shapp will try to get that decision reviewed before the end of the year...

...Brazier also has taken a hard line against the spread of nuclear power plants in his state...

...He might build some small things he doesn’t want in order to get others he does want...

...You can always tell a mdn by his enemies, and McHale has many, starting with Earl Butz and the National Farm Bureau...

...The rate restructuring passed the legislature, but Governor Dan Evans vetoed the measure to prevent Brazier’s resignation...

...senator...

...Transportation Commissioner: Langhorne Bond, Illinois Langhorne Bond of Illinois runs the largest highway program in the country...

...Brown, one of the leaders of the antiwar movement, shares a common background with many of the new congressional freshmen...

...Health Commissioner: Dr...

...An activist farmer, McHale is virtually the only state agriculture director whose primary orientation is toward the family farm...

...Although still far from typical, Brown and Denenberg are not entirely unique as state officeholders...

...This infusion of state funds would stimulate lending for mortgages and small business loans loans...

...He has begun an intelligent program of de-emphasizing incarceration...

...Reformers like Jim Lorenz (Employ men t Development ) and Erik Hirst (Energy Commission) in California, and Denis Hayes (Energy Director) in Illinois have been forced to leave office because they were out of step with their suprisingly fiscal-minded top executives...

...These pressures haven’t stopped McHale from trying to save the small farmer...

...brought to state government...

...Superintendent of Public Instruction: Wilson Riles, California Riles is the man who defeated arch-conservative Max Rafferty for administrator of California’s vast school system...