Hawai'i has 8 (eight!) candidates for the Lieutenant Governorship in November's elections.
Why? The job is full of nothingness. It has no authority except that which the Governor cedes to its holder. It's essentially seen here as a way station on the road to running for Governor. That's okay, but it means giving at least four if not eight years of your political life to a position where you have little to no impact on state policy.
Even stranger, the primaries determine who the party's nominees are in November, but candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor don't run as a ticket in those primaries. It's only when those are done that the two top vote-getters form a partnership.
Weird.
Posted by Linkmeister at June 24, 2010 10:24 AM | TrackBackI guess it's kind of like being VP of the USA -- the job's "not worth a bucket of warm piss." But there's always the chance that the #1 guy will leave office.
In the past few years we have had NY's Eliot Spitzer's sex scandal, AZ's Janet Napolitano's and KS's Kathleen Sebelius's elevation to the cabinet, and AK's Sarah Palin's quitting to seek fame & fortune in the twitterverse/wingnutsphere. (And Mark Sanford clings to the governor's chair in SC simply because that state is an open air insane asylum.)
So, it seems being 2nd in command is a pretty good stepping stone to the governor's mansion after all. Wait around long enough cutting ribbons at the openings of shopping centers and the prize may fall into your lap.
Posted by: Rob_in_Hawaii at June 24, 2010 01:25 PM