Amid anti-incumbent fervor, ex-governors seek reelection

At least four, and perhaps as many as six, former governors may be on the ballot around the country next year, a pattern apparently without precedent or any clear-cut explanation beyond the fact that few jobs in American politics beat the chance to run your own state, even in these difficult times.

“It just makes me sick, thinking, ‘I know I could do this better,’ ’’ said Terry Branstad of Iowa, a former Republican governor who is returning to politics to seek a fifth term after more than 10 years away.

The trend seems odd at a time of fierce anti-incumbent sentiment, manifested in the dismal approval ratings for Congress, state legislatures, and lawmakers across the country. Now hardly seems the moment for a renaissance of the career politician. But the tough times also make for a contrast, allowing these comeback candidates - in California, Georgia, Iowa, and Oregon - to tout the days when they were in charge.

“Recycling old politicians is not a good message,’’ said Stuart Rothenberg, a nonpartisan campaign analyst. “But bringing back somebody who governed when times were good, that’s a whole different ballgame.’’

Branstad, for instance, boasts of leading Iowa from the farm crisis of the 1980s through the boom years of the 1990s, leaving behind a surplus and record high employment after an unprecedented 16 years in office. He expects to face Governor Chet Culver, a Democrat, who has confronted, among other problems, Iowa’s highest jobless rate in decades.

Brown, who has yet to officially declare his gubernatorial candidacy, declined to be interviewed. But on his campaign website, the Democrat offers a similarly rosy-tinged remembrance of his two terms as governor, ending in January 1983.

“During Gov. Brown’s tenure,’’ the site reads, “California produced 25 percent of the nation’s new jobs, significantly reduced taxes and built up the largest state surplus ever. His eight years in office are generally considered among the most innovative in California history.’’

Analysts who follow State House races say it is not unusual, every now and again, for a former governor to try to win his old job back. Among those who did: Bill Clinton, who lost his first reelection bid in 1980, then returned, humbled, to spend 10 years as Arkansas governor before becoming president.

None of those experts, however, can remember an election cycle when so many former governors have run at the same time.

Along with Brown and Branstad, Democrats Roy Barnes of Georgia and John Kitzhaber of Oregon are seeking return engagements. After a single term, Barnes lost reelection in one of the biggest political upsets of 2002. Kitzhaber, elected twice, left office in 2003 when term limits prevented him from serving a third consecutive time. Brown, Branstad, and Kitzhaber all start as the front-runner in their respective contests.

On the Republican side, former one-term governor Robert L. Erlich of Maryland and Tommy Thompson, who served 14 years as Wisconsin governor, are considering another run.

Each of the return candidates starts with advantages, among them considerable name recognition which, by itself, is worth millions in advertising - a big help in this tough fund-raising environment. They also enjoy a ready-made campaign structure, with a sizable network of previous donors and supporters.

But with experience comes at least a certain amount of political baggage. In California, for example, Brown’s GOP opponents blame many of the state’s perennial fiscal problems on its public employees unions, whose bargaining power was boosted under his administration, and they are prepared to raise that issue in the fall campaign. (Brown is running effectively unopposed for the Democratic nomination.)

In Georgia, hard feelings still linger from Barnes’s education overhaul efforts, which attacked the teacher tenure system, and his remake of the state flag, greatly diminishing the size and prominence of the Confederate emblem, which alienated conservatives and many rural voters.

Barnes, who suffered a reputation for arrogance in office, seems to have learned from his defeat.

“When I was governor before, I didn’t do enough listening,’’ he said in his June announcement speech.