Running for president while governor, as a handful of Republicans are considering, can come with a dense list of perks.
There’s a stately mansion, a platform from which to propose and push for policy changes, and opportunities to meet donors and travel.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who will leave office next month at the end of his second term, has invited policy experts and journalists to his governor’s mansion this month while he still has use of it.
But serving as governor while running for president can present immense challenges, including those that an unruly or adversarial state legislature can pose.
Like the relationship between the president and Congress, a governor and his state legislature are often at odds, particularly in states where government is divided between the two parties.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie knows the dynamic well.
Christie has worked to develop a national brand as a Republican governor who can thrive in a Democratic state, but he and the Democrat-controlled New Jersey state legislature have butted heads often. The legislature has led a well-publicized investigation into Christie’s role in the Bridgegate scandal, the first phase of which concluded this month.
New Jersey Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg and state Assembly Deputy Speaker John Wisniewski, who have led the investigation, confirmed in an interim report that no link has been found between Christie and the unauthorized lane closures that jammed traffic in Fort Lee, N.J. But they also insisted that they are just getting started.
“Our work is not finished,” Weinberg and Wisniewski said in a joint statement.
In states with likeminded legislatures, the dynamic between governor and state lawmakers can help rather than hurt. In Wisconsin, a Republican-controlled legislature likely wouldn’t do anything to derail Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s potential plan to run for president. And some legislatures meet for full sessions only every other year. In Louisiana, for example, Gov. Bobby Jindal won’t have to worry about a full legislative session in 2015.
But a Republican-controlled legislature is not always a friend to a Republican governor running for president. In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich might go to the mat with state Republican lawmakers early next year to continue Medicaid expansion in the state, which Kasich supports and many GOP lawmakers oppose. The issue, seen by some Republicans nationally as a litmus test for potential candidates on Obamacare, is already a potential liability for Kasich should he run for president. A state legislative fight over the issue could elevate it further.
No matter which party controls a state legislature, a legislative session also can present an issue of timing for a governor considering a presidential bid.
In 2011, Perry decided in June that he would run for president, but he could not make a public announcement to kick off his campaign until August, when the state legislature had concluded its business.
Once a governor announces a presidential bid, even a formerly friendly legislature can become unpredictable.
“If your political adversaries in the legislature think they can gain an upper hand on a policy or political issue because you’re running for president, that will make the legislative session much more complicated,” said Ray Sullivan, an adviser to Perry’s 2012 presidential campaign.
