Look to Governors Races for Signs of Change

Nov. 3, 2006 — -- What are this year's midterm elections about? Even in the most closely fought face-offs, it's not always clear. Is Iraq the deciding issue? Or will the vote be a broader verdict on the Bush presidency or incumbency in general?

Tuesday will tell.

And yet, there's another place to look for clues about the direction of American politics, and that is in a group of not-so-tight gubernatorial races.

Less covered than the tensest, most partisan congressional fights, the likely blowout wins of popular governors in both parties, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger's race in California and Janet Napolitano's in Arizona, propose a story line as suggestive and deserving of note as the high-profile Iraq referendums and party-line slugfests.

In these gubernatorial blowouts, the easy re-election of nimble, energetic and pragmatic governors in key states marks the success of nonideological problem solving in an era that may be growing tired of ideological partisanship.

In this respect, astute governors of both parties are going to be rewarded big time this year for breaking with convention and governing in ways that eschew narrow partisanship in order to respond with alertness and creatively to America's 21st century challenges:

Amy Liu is deputy director of the metropolitan policy program at the Brookings Institution, and Mark Muro is the policy director of the Brookings Institution.