Josh Goodman is a former staff writer for GOVERNING..
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Lieutenant Governors: The Grass Is Always Greener...
New Jersey policymakers didn't like having the State Senate President -- someone who most voters never elected -- as second in the line of gubernatorial succession. So, they (and the state's voters) created a lieutenant governor's office. Last year, Kim Guadagno was elected as the state's first lieutenant governor.
Arizona may soon do the same thing. The secretary of state is second in the line of succession there. Some lawmakers view that as confusing. Voters don't realize that when they're electing a secretary of state, they're also electing a potential governor.
But, Arizonans should pay attention to what's going on in Louisiana and Illinois. In Illinois, there's talk of getting rid of the lieutenant governor's office because nobody pays attention to it anyway. That's how a fundamentally flawed candidate like Scott Lee Cohen could win the Democratic lieutenant governor's nomination. In Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal also is talking about eliminating the lieutenant governor's office.
Lieutenant governors: You can't live with them, you can't live without them.
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