Rob Gurwitt

Recent Articles

• Larry Bartels: Playing Solomon
• Jun 1, 2001
• For a guy who doesn't vote, Larry Bartels sure knows how to get himself in a political tangle. True, he never intended to thrust himself into the contentious debate over racial fairness in public office. And he certainly didn't plan to put himself at the center of the first major redistricting case of the decade.

• Good Old Boy, Circa 2001
• May 1, 2001
• Mississippi's House speaker found he couldn't run the place the old- fashioned way. So he invented a better way.

• John Chichester: Governor's Nemsis
• Apr 1, 2001
• Three decades ago, as a young man in his early 30s, John H. Chichester left Virginia's Democratic Party because he thought it had become too friendly to big government. Fifteen years ago, at the mid-point of the Reagan years in Washington, he ran for lieutenant governor as a Reagan supporter and spokesman for his party's conservative wing.

• The Riskiest Business
• Mar 1, 2001
• Under attack by the feds, the insurance companies they regulate and the consumers they're supposed to protect, state insurance commissioners are running out of friends.

• Mel Martinez: Up from Orlando
• Feb 1, 2001
• Last winter, when Elian Gonzalez went to visit Walt Disney World in Orange County, Florida, county workers got a chance to see what a media pile-on looks like. Turns out, it was just a preview.

• Land Grab
• Jan 1, 2001
• How the eminent domain bulldozer created a private-property backlash.

• Judy Martz: Cautious Ambition
• Dec 1, 2000
• Judy Martz, soon to become Montana's first woman governor, likes to wear a turtle pin on her blouse. It's a symbol, she says, of her motto: "Behold the turtle. He only goes forward when his neck's stuck out." But as Martz might now be the first to tell you, sometimes not sticking your neck out gets you further.

• Not-So-Smart Growth
• Oct 1, 2000
• One way for communities to expand is to grab any piece of unattached territory nearby. But compulsive annexation carries a high price.

• Bill Sizemore: Initiative King
• Oct 1, 2000
• Two years ago, Bill Sizemore got drubbed in Oregon's gubernatorial election. Running as a Republican against the incumbent Democrat, John Kitzhaber, he didn't even attract a third of the vote.

• Rudderless in Hartford
• Sep 1, 2000
• Connecticut's capital city seemed on the verge of a comeback, but the recovery has largely stalled. The problem may be the structure of its government.

• Tom Coleman: Safe Driver
• Aug 1, 2000
• Almost half a century ago, after he'd gotten home from the Korean War, Tom Coleman found himself selling chemical fertilizer to the farmers of south Georgia.

• The Lonely Leap
• Jul 1, 2000
• So far, Kansas is the only state to have outsourced child welfare on a large scale. It is still grappling with the consequences.

• Jim Brulte: Doing It All
• Jul 1, 2000
• Midway through his first year in the California Assembly, Jim Brulte decided the place wasn't for him. It was 1991.

• Upside Down on Long Island
• May 1, 2000
• Democrats won a big victory in Nassau County after years of defeat. Now they have to find a way to keep the county from going broke.

• Michael Porter: Cluster Power
• Apr 1, 2000
• At first glance, Michael Porter's key insight, that the ability to compete is the key to business success, doesn't sound all that relevant to state and local policy.
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