Word: lakian
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Dates: during 1982-1982
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...Common sense tells most people that experience in a field is essential for success. In what we like to think of as a meritocratic society, people "work their way to the top" of their field. Not always so in politics. Distrust of career politicians is always latent, especially now: Lakian is playing on it for all he can. "I'm going on 40. [former Governor and current Democratic gubernatorial candidate] Michael Dukakis has been running for office since I was 19," he mentions frequently. He also takes great glee in reminding listeners that it has been well over two decades...
...Lakian argues that life-time politicians ossify; they become too wrapped up in the preservation of the system, requiring a "flushing out" in the process. He favors limiting legislative tenure to 10 years for example. The logical extension of the philosophy that government officials make bad governors is that non-government officials make good governors. In this election year, in which he is the only non-career government official, that is the thrust of Lakian's campaign...
...story Lakian likes to tell is of recent committee hearings investigating the Department of Mental Health. "How many employees do you have?" one legislator asked the department's spokesman. "I don't know," came the response. "Well can you find out?" "It will take a while, we do it by hand." "Can you imagine," Lakian asks. "Wang computers working like that?" Two-thirds of a governor's job, this candidate says, involves efficiently managing these bureaus...
YEARS AS A LEGISLATOR, years as a bureaucrat "have nothing to do with executive ability." Lakian explains, adding that "a good university president has more qualifications than a state representative." The predominant skill necessary for a governor is the ability to manage and operate the state, to plan it as one would a company. That is the tool that requires experience and development. In effect, government is just one of many fields to which the professional "executive" can apply his expertise...
...support, Lakian cites Ronald Reagan. Without endorsing any specific policies. Lakian notes that Reagan ran a state efficiently without any of the government background everyone said was so necessary. But to contradict Lakian's argument, one could begin with the same example. There is now almost completely bipartisan sentiment that Reagan's policies and his politics are flawed. While 67 percent of a governor's time may be allocated to management--duties he could realistically transfer to an experienced executive aide--the other third is the most significant. The imagination required to coordinate a general policy and vision, the necessary...