November 7, 2009

Nixon's Challenge: Matt Lyons

By David Catanese, KY3 Political Reporter

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By Brian Vandenberg

Story Published: Jan 11, 2009 at 10:59 PM CST

Story Updated: Jan 11, 2009 at 10:59 PM CST

Matt Lyons is active in Republican politics in Springfield.

Nixon's Biggest Challenge: "The biggest challenge Nixon faces boils down to doing more with less. Long before the recent economic downturn, political scientist David Osborne (of "Reinventing Government" fame) wrote that states were finding themselves in a "permanent fiscal crisis". If that was true in 2004, it's doubly true today. Barring real and substantive assistance from the federal government as proposed by President-elect Obama, tough choice are going to have to be made. Even if the president-elect gets his wish in the form of massive public works and infrastructure programs to boost state economies, it will take a number of months before any real affect can be ascertained at the state level. With this uncertainty, Nixon is tasked with two difficult challenges: reducing the rate of growth in state government while growing the economy. This will be made more difficult if the domestic auto industry fails and displaces workers in the St. Louis area. During the campaign Nixon talked about instituting a program by program evaluation of state government to determine performance and to eliminate waste and redundancy. He should follow through on that, and enlist the Republican-led legislature to assist him in the effort. The fact that the other party controls the legislature is another challenge to Nixon: the million dollar question is whether he can translate a large victory at the ballot box into a mandate that solves difficult issues without unnecessary partisanship that negates any progress that could otherwise be made."

Top Issues of Concern: "Whatever the issues, the governor-elect needs to begin with those that he can build the easiest consensus on, and score a few early victories. This will give him a sense of momentum and a supply of political capital that he can draw upon when the battles get tougher. Reprising the economic theme above, he could work with the legislature on cutting waste and redundancy from government. He could also look for ways to seed the ground for future economic growth by making Missouri a business-friendly climate in much the same way that Mitch Daniels has done in Indiana."

Advice For Nixon: "My advice to the Governor-elect would be that leadership many times requires making the hard calls. If he shows courage and is purposefully transparent with Missourians, willing to enunciate, articulate, and defend his decisions, both he and the state will do well."

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