August 6, 2018 News & Press Releases

ICYMI – Northam off to impressive start as governor (Gordon Morse for Virginian-Pilot)


by Virginian-Pilot

KEY POINT: “Ralph Northam’s art of governing is evident in his style of persuasion,” Baliles says, “asking, studying and thinking before acting.”

“He has the strategic skills and a golden opportunity,” Baliles says, “to improve the quality of life for all Virginians.”

The operative word there, of course, is “golden.” Of the many different circumstances that can visit a gubernatorial administration, none gets more happily received than an improving economy.

Right now, Northam has the benefit not only of a rising tide, which includes state revenues, but also a federal mentality that favors military spending. Under such conditions, Virginia grows and glows.

But Northam benefits from more than happy economic circumstances. The man is doing things for himself.

Northam off to impressive start as governor

EDITORIAL BY GORDON MORSE FOR THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

It's good to be the Virginia governor.

You know, like “It’s good to be the king,” as Mel Brooks kept saying in his film, “The History of the World, Part 1.”

Ask Ralph Northam, our commonwealth’s affable chief executive. It’s obviously working for him, and he continues to demonstrate a notable aptitude for the job.

Unlike being king, however, being governor — thanks to the Virginia Constitution — is knowing that you’re tethered to a four-year term and a brutal, unyielding clock.

Which is to say that you better show up ready to roll — and roll, as it were, with the punches.

“You have to take the office — or the state, if you like — as you find it,” says Jerry Baliles, who occupied the state’s highest elected post from 1986 to 1990.

I worked for Baliles from stem to stern. Once emerged from the experience, you discover a more than passing interest in all succeeding governors — of whom, in the years since, there have been eight.

You watch. How will they handle the regular stuff? The unexpected? You feel an occasional urge to say, “Oh, heavens, don’t do that” and wince at acts of executive self-destruction.

Thus far, there has been none of that with Northam, who has quickly found his stride while completing his first, important year in office. It has been an impressive start.

So, what’s driving his success?

It certainly helps to have a conceptional framework for what the job is. You do not own the office. If anything, it owns you. Specific, high public offices generally come with specific, high public expectations.

Move outside those expectations — which may be stylistic, as much as substantive — and you take a risk.

Baliles had a way of impressing upon his staff that every action, every choice, sometimes literally every word, had to be thoughtfully considered. The more room you make for careless spontaneity, the more room you make for mistakes.

That all falls under the heading of discipline. You don’t have to be a stiff, but a little restraint and thoughtful reflection don’t hurt.

“Ralph Northam’s art of governing is evident in his style of persuasion,” Baliles says, “asking, studying and thinking before acting.”

“He has the strategic skills and a golden opportunity,” Baliles says, “to improve the quality of life for all Virginians.”

The operative word there, of course, is “golden.” Of the many different circumstances that can visit a gubernatorial administration, none gets more happily received than an improving economy.

Right now, Northam has the benefit not only of a rising tide, which includes state revenues, but also a federal mentality that favors military spending. Under such conditions, Virginia grows and glows.

But Northam benefits from more than happy economic circumstances. The man is doing things for himself.

“He’s set a nice tone for the state,” says Joel Rubin, the longstanding Virginia Beach public relations guru and a thoughtful observer of all things Virginian. “Especially compared to the national conversation.”

“Look, people like him,” says Rubin. “He’s level-headed and has a great bedside manner.”

That latter point cannot be discounted. It may be the key. Gov. Northam, who is a doctor, is by profession a healer and a people person — both of which come with political dividends.

Just last week, the governor’s office announced that Northam, a pediatric neurologist, would be making a round of lectures in August to Virginia medical students on the subject of the opioid epidemic.

No modern Virginia governor has ever brought the same level of credibility to a public discussion over a health crisis — more than 1,200 Virginians died from opioid abuse last year — and the governor’s office seems intent on not letting that credibility go to waste.

“As a doctor, I’ve seen this firsthand,” the governor’s press release said on Wednesday, “and I want to do all I can to engage my fellow physicians on this issue and discuss ways we can help reduce addiction to painkillers.”

Northam packed the room in Charlottesville on Wednesday for his first talk.

Opioids are one thing. But for a nation in political pain, you can see how this could be conjured up as generalized therapy.

You could advance the thought, for instance, that doctors don’t normally reject science.

Doctors do not tweet rude prescriptions and gratuitously insult passers-by.

Doctors traffic in patience and do not fuel partisan rallies with appeals to hate and prejudice.

And you wonder — you just wonder — whether this approach, with a person like Ralph Northam doing the approaching, could work nationally.