Governors who quit in their first term...

[headscratcher4]

http://www.themudflats.net/2009/07/09/first-term-quitters-hall-of-fame/

Interesting. The author's research says that since 1900, of all the governors who have been elected in all of the states...taking out those who died in office, accepted higher office (like Spiro Agnew) or went to jail...only three resignations....

Spitzer, McGrevey and Sarah P. And, arguably, without resignation Spitzer and Jimmy McG might have been on the prison path -- or, at least, that their individual scandals were so large as to make it impossible for them to govern.

[Brainster]

Three governors since 1900 resigned in their first term without moving up to a higher office and all of them are in the last five years? I'm going to call BS on this one.

[Upchurch]

Three governors since 1900 resigned in their first term without moving up to a higher office and all of them are in the last five years? I'm going to call BS on this one.
Possibly. Is this a "you prove it" kind of thing?

I'll take my home state of Missouri (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Governors_of_Missouri).

The only governor since 1900 to not server a full term is Roger Wilson, who filled the remained of Mel Carnahan's term after he died.

1 down, 49 to go.

[Meadmaker]

This proves that Sarah Palin is an exceptional person!

[ZirconBlue]

This proves that Sarah Palin is an exceptional person!

She certainly is. . . unique.

[Lisa Simpson]

Only one California Governor has served less than one term since 1900 and he died in office. While searching for this information, I learned that the first Governor of California was also the Governor of California to resign while in office.

Characterized as an aloof politician with little support from the Legislature by the San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles press, Burnett grew frustrated as his agenda ground to a halt, and his governance style increasingly criticized. He became a regular fixture of ridicule in the state's newspapers and on the floor of the Legislature. With little over a year in office, Burnett, the first governor of the state, became the first to resign, announcing his resignation in January 1851. Burnett cited personal matters for his departure. Lieutenant Governor John McDougall replaced Burnett as the Governor of California on 9 January.

[Brainster]

There are a whole bunch of asterisks at the Arizona Governor's page. First, AZ govs served only a 2-year term until the mid-1970s, and there are many of them who only served one of those terms and then did not run for re-election. True, they served out one term, but it was a shorter term than Sarah Palin.

Raul Castro, one of the first AZ governors to be elected to a four year term, served about the same time as Mrs Palin, and became the US ambassador to Argentina. Is ambassador to Argentina a higher office than state governor?

ETA: I can see picking Buenos Aires over Phoenix, though I love the latter.

[tyr_13]

Is ambassador to Argentina a higher office than state governor?

Higher than Arizona at least. :p

[Lisa Simpson]

There are a whole bunch of asterisks at the Arizona Governor's page. First, AZ govs served only a 2-year term until the mid-1970s, and there are many of them who only served one of those terms and then did not run for re-election. True, they served out one term, but it was a shorter term than Sarah Palin.

But they completed their terms.

[Tricky]

She certainly is. . . unique a maverick.
Fixed that for you.:p

[Brainster]

But they completed their terms.

Yep. 47 states still unheard from.

[winnietheblue]

In New Mexico, two Governors died in office, and one resigned to be appointed to the US Senate. In 1917, Gov. De Baca died in office; he was less than 2 months into his first term. In 1933, Gov. Seligman died in office; he was 9 months into his second term. In 1962, Gov. Mechem resigned so he could be appointed to the US Senate; he had 1 month left of his third (non-consecutive) term. The rest of the state of New Mexico's governors served out their terms. Until 1970, terms were 2 years and very few governors were elected to a second-term.

After 1900, but while New Mexico was still a territory, Gov. Hagerman was fired by President Roosevelt in 1907, after about a year in office. Gov. Curry resigned in 1910 so he could help frame New Mexico's State Constitution. After New Mexico became a state in 1912, Curry represented New Mexico in the U.S. House for the remainder of the 62nd Congress.



Colorado had a bad election in 1904 where they ended up having three different governors on the same day (March 17, 1905). Adams was forced out of office when the Colorado legislator decided his opponent, Peabody, had actually won. As part of the political deal that declared him the winner, Peabody resigned immediately, and it was his Lt. Governor, McDonald, that served out the remainder of the term. It was Adams third time as governor, Peabody's second, and McDonald's only time as governor.

Other than that, three Colorado governors resigned to take another office: In 1937, Gov. Johnson resigned to become a US Senator; there were about 2 weeks left of his second term. In 1950, Gov. Knous resigned to take a seat on a US District Court; there was about 9 months left of his second term. In 1973, Gov. Love resigned to join the Nixon Administration; there was less than 2 years left of his third term. The rest of Colorado's governors served out their terms. Until 1960, terms were 2 years.

[Dancing David]

Three governors since 1900 resigned in their first term without moving up to a higher office and all of them are in the last five years? I'm going to call BS on this one.


Um, burden on you, your claim, your proof, nonetheless we are doing your work.

Illinois:
20 Govenors since ~1900

1 death in office
1 resignation to other office (later convicted, this is Illinois)
1 impeachment and resignation (this year)

[linusrichard]

Okay, I'll do Michigan...

Mitt Romney's dad resigned to become Nixon's HUD Secretary (1969).
Frank Fitzgerald died two and a half months in to his second non-consecutive term (1939).

Everybody else (since 1900 at least) served out their terms.

[applecorped]

In Massachusetts:

Several Governors resigned to accept appointments.

John Hancock resigned on January 29, 1785. Hancock cited his failing health as the reason, but he may also have been aware of growing unrest in the countryside and wanted to get out of office before the trouble came.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hancock

[TheJim]

Every governor in Florida since the civil war either finished a first term or died in office. The shortest term during this period was Wayne Mixson who was Governor for 3 days at the end of Bob Grahams second term because of a Florida law that required governors running for a different office to resign before they take that position and there was a 3 day overlap.

[drkitten]

Idaho : four resignations, all to take higher (national) office.

[drkitten]

Oregon : two resignations, both to take higher (national) office

This is getting boring, frankly....

[drkitten]

Montana : one two-term governor resigned due to failing health; one resignation to accept higher (national) office

[Lisa Simpson]

Alabama - one death, one removed from office
Alaska - one quit to take higher office, plus Sarah Palin
Arizona - see above
Arkansas - one left because of a nervous breakdown, one left to take higher office, one left to be a judge, one resigned to be President.
California - see above
Colorado - see above
Connecticut - one died in office, one resigned to become a Senator, one resigned to become Secretary of Edumacation, one resigned due to ovarian cancer
Delaware - two resigned to join the Senate, one to join the House of Representatives
Florida - see above
Georgia - the Wiki page isn't laid out as nicely as the others, but it looks like one death
Hawaii - every one finished their term
Idaho - see above
Illinois - see above
Indiana - resigned following a conviction for mail fraud
Iowa - resigned to take Senate seat
Kansas - resigned to take Senate seat and resigned to (with 11 days left in his term) to join the Kansas Supreme Court.
Kentucky - resigned to take Senate seat (2 of those)
Louisiana - died in office, resigned due to fraud scandal
Maine - died in office (2), resigned to take Senate seat (2)
Maryland - Spiro Agnew became Veep
Massachusetts - see above
Michigan - see above
Minnesota - two died in office, one resigned to take a Senate seat
Mississippi - two died in office
Missouri - everyone since 1900 has completed at least one term
Montana - see above
Nebraska - resigned to take Senate seat, died in office
Nevada - everyone finished at least one term
New Hampshire - one became ill and resigned
New Jersey - one resigned to become head of the EPA, plus McGreevey
New Mexico - see above
New York - one impeached, plus Spitzer
North Carolina- everyone finished at least one term
North Dakota - everyone finished at least one term
Ohio - one died in office
Oklahoma - two impeachments
Oregon - see above
Pennsylvania - resigned to take Senate seat


I'll finish it later, or someone else can.

[drkitten]

[...]
Connecticut - one died in office, one resigned to become a Senator, one resigned to become Secretary of Edumacation, one resigned due to ovarian cancer
[...]


I'll finish it later, or someone else can.

Not all of the listed resignations are first-term governors. For example, the ovarian cancer case was in her second term. Just a FYI.

[linusrichard]

Okay, I'll do Michigan...

Mitt Romney's dad resigned to become Nixon's HUD Secretary (1969).
Frank Fitzgerald died two and a half months in to his second non-consecutive term (1939).

Everybody else (since 1900 at least) served out their terms.

Oops, I wasn't reading carefully - neither Romney nor Fitzgerald left office in their first terms. So all Michigan governors since 1900 have finished out their first terms, including the incumbent. And all but two have finished out all of their terms, not including the incumbent yet, obviously.

[Lisa Simpson]

Not all of the listed resignations are first-term governors. For example, the ovarian cancer case was in her second term. Just a FYI.


Yes, I realized that later. I shouldn't post with a migraine.

[Dancing David]

I did not limit Illinois to first terms. Rod B resigned in his econd term as did Kerner.

[Lisa Simpson]

Rhode Island - one died, one left to the Senate
South Carolina - Five resignations
South Dakota - one left for an ambassadorship and one died
Tennessee - one died in office
Texas - impeachment, one died, one left for the Senate, and one left for the POTUS
Utah - no one left before one term was up
Vermont - no one left before one term
Virgina - no one left before one term
Washington - two died in office
West Virginia - no one left before one term
Wisconsin - no one left before one term
Wyoming - three died in office, one resigned for a Senate seat.

There we have it. Not BS.

[Ladewig]

Um, burden on you, your claim, your proof, nonetheless we are doing your work.


I see all the work has been completed, but I have a question about your position. If person A makes a claim and person B "calls BS," isn't that simply a colloquial way of saying "please provide a citation" rather than saying "I am making the opposite claim"?

[drkitten]

I see all the work has been completed, but I have a question about your position. If person A makes a claim and person B "calls BS," isn't that simply a colloquial way of saying "please provide a citation" rather than saying "I am making the opposite claim"?

Citation was provided in the OP.

So in this case, no. It's a denial of the underlying data, which is akin to making the opposite claim.

[Dancing David]

I see all the work has been completed, but I have a question about your position. If person A makes a claim and person B "calls BS," isn't that simply a colloquial way of saying "please provide a citation" rather than saying "I am making the opposite claim"?


If that had been what you said, that would be different. Colloquial being idiomatic.

:)

Usually the call is

"Data, evidence?"

:D

[Brainster]

Okay, so looking at the compilation I notice these:

South Carolina - Five resignations
Connecticut - one resigned due to ovarian cancer
Louisiana - resigned due to fraud scandal
New Hampshire - one became ill and resigned
Arkansas - one left because of a nervous breakdown,

All of which may fit the criteria; although Lisa did not specify if these were first term resignations.

[Cleon]

Okay, so looking at the compilation I notice these:



All of which may fit the criteria; although Lisa did not specify if these were first term resignations.

Would it substantially change the point if they weren't?

[Brainster]

Would it substantially change the point if they weren't?

Yes. The criteria established in the post the OP cited is first term resignations, where the governor did not: a) die, b) take a higher office, or c) go to jail. I see that the ovarian cancer case in Connecticut has been determined to be a second-term resignation.

[hgc]

And, arguably, without resignation Spitzer and Jimmy McG might have been on the prison path -- or, at least, that their individual scandals were so large as to make it impossible for them to govern.


What, huh? McGreevy was never accused of any crime. Who was going to prosecute Spitzer for anything? No one, anymore than he's being prosecuted as an ex-governor.

As for their effectiveness, I don't think these scandals would have impacted much. Spitzer was already having problems due to various missteps, but the ins and outs of governing are impacted by more practical issues than sex scandals.

Not saying that either of them should have stuck it out, but just saying that I don't think either one was necessarily incapacitated by these scandals.

[linusrichard]

Would it substantially change the point if they weren't?

"Point"? What is this "point" of which you speak? This thread is a trivia thread. The question is "How many state governors between 1900 and 2004 resigned without moving to national office?" There is no point.

[Bindamel]

Okay, so looking at the compilation I notice these:

South Carolina - Five resignations
Connecticut - one resigned due to ovarian cancer
Louisiana - resigned due to fraud scandal
New Hampshire - one became ill and resigned
Arkansas - one left because of a nervous breakdown,


All of which may fit the criteria; although Lisa did not specify if these were first term resignations.


Using Brainster's list, I pulled this out of Wikipedia:

South Carolina:
Coleman Livingston Blease (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleman_Livingston_Blease), 1915, Second Term
Robert Archer Cooper (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Archer_Cooper), 1922, Second Term
Burnett R. Maybank (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnett_R._Maybank), 1941, Moved to Senate
Olin D. Johnston (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olin_D._Johnston), 1945, Moved to Senate
Donald Stuart Russell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_S._Russell), 1961, Moved to Senate

Connecticut:
Ella T. Grasso (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ella_T._Grasso), 1980, Second Term

Louisiana:
Richard W. Leche (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_W._Leche), 1939, First Term, Resigned due to fraud, ended up imprisoned

New Hampshire:
Hugh J. Gallen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_J._Gallen), 1982, Second Term (and technically didn’t resign, yielded power and died in office)

Arkansas:
John Sebastian Little (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sebastian_Little), 1907, First Term, Resigned for health reasons


So Little seems to fit all the criteria for acceptance in this case (first term, didn't die, wasn't imprisoned.)
Doesn't help the Palin argument any, though, as he spent the rest of his life trying to recover and eventually died in 1916 at the Arkansas State Hospital for Nervous Disorders.

[Cleon]

Yes. The criteria established in the post the OP cited is first term resignations, where the governor did not: a) die, b) take a higher office, or c) go to jail. I see that the ovarian cancer case in Connecticut has been determined to be a second-term resignation.

I understand the criteria, but again, I don't see how that substantially changes the point any. The point being that Palin's resignation is unique, and that comparing it to the resignations of other governors (as she did) is an invalid comparison.

It seems to me that by including more resignations in the tally, it offers more chances for there to be someone whose resignation resembled Palin's.

Put another way: if you go through the list and filter out any second-term resignations, does it change the overall picture? I don't think that it does.

[Dancing David]

No, she isn't a quitter, if she was a quitter she would have stayed in office.

[Brainster]

So Little seems to fit all the criteria for acceptance in this case (first term, didn't die, wasn't imprisoned.)
Doesn't help the Palin argument any, though, as he spent the rest of his life trying to recover and eventually died in 1916 at the Arkansas State Hospital for Nervous Disorders.

My point was not to "help the Palin argument", but to point out that statistically it was highly unlikely that there would be three resignations that fit the criteria in the last 110 years with all of them coming in the last five years. I thank Cleon for his point that Palin's resignation is unique; I think the intent of the post referenced in the OP was to somehow tar Palin with McGreevey's and Spitzer's problems. Even one from 1907 changes the statistical likelihood substantially. So I was right to call BS.

ETA: Let the mind-reading begin!

[linusrichard]

Wouldn't you have still called BS if the claim was 3 resignations that fit the criteria in the last 100 years, all of them in the past 5 years? :)

[tomwaits]

It seemed like an almost unbelievable statistic, someone questioned it, research was done, we all learned a little bit more. Isn't this what being a skeptic is all about?

[Dr Adequate]

It seemed like an almost unbelievable statistic, someone questioned it, research was done, we all learned a little bit more. Isn't this what being a skeptic is all about? Well, some of us are only in it for the secret sex orgies.

[headscratcher4]

My point was not to "help the Palin argument", but to point out that statistically it was highly unlikely that there would be three resignations that fit the criteria in the last 110 years with all of them coming in the last five years. I thank Cleon for his point that Palin's resignation is unique; I think the intent of the post referenced in the OP was to somehow tar Palin with McGreevey's and Spitzer's problems. Even one from 1907 changes the statistical likelihood substantially. So I was right to call BS.

ETA: Let the mind-reading begin!

While I was delighted by the assertion that Palin was, with notorious Spitzer and McGrevey, one of the very few governors in any state in the last 100 years to resign in a first term for a reason other than death, higher office or incarceration, it was really the fact that so few governors had resigned in their first term, save for death, imprisonment or higher office.

In short, it was the uniqueness of Ms. Palin that I found intreguing. IMO...she is a quiter. She can argue it all she wants -- not playing politics as usual -- but the bottom line is that governors generally take their jobs very seriously, even when the going gets tough. Arguably, the going isn't anywhere nearly as rough as it would have been had McGrevey or Spitzer tried to stay on.