Holden: Blunt 'misinterpreted' comments in speech

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- For four years, Matt Blunt has used his gubernatorial predecessor, Bob Holden, as a foil -- a human contrast to his own policies and philosophies.

So it's no surprise that Blunt would continue to do so, even as he announced his exit from the 2008 governor's race.

While declaring he had accomplished virtually everything he wanted to do as governor, Blunt explained that he no longer had that "same sense of mission" to run for a second term. He wasn't going to run just for the sake of doing so.

To make his point, Blunt quoted an unnamed predecessor.

"Once when asked if he were running for re-election another governor responded, 'Yes, I like being governor,'" Blunt said in his videotaped statement released last week. "When I read that, I thought at the time that I never wanted to run for any office just to hold it. I did not run for governor to have a title, but to bring change to state government."

That other governor was Holden.

'I like being governor'

In a November 2002 interview with The Associated Press, Holden was asked whether he would seek re-election in 2004. He didn't hesitate.

"Yes!" Holden replied. "I have not made an official announcement. That's down the road. But I will run. I like being governor."

Holden did run, and he became the first Missouri governor to get ousted in a primary when he was defeated by Democratic State Auditor Claire McCaskill. A few months later, Blunt defeated McCaskill to win the 2004 gubernatorial election.

From Blunt's perspective, there was no sense in running this year if he no longer had anything he really wanted to accomplish.

But Holden, who still lives in the capital city, contends Blunt "misinterpreted" his comments.

When he ran for re-election, "there were things I was trying to protect and do," Holden said. "It wasn't just about winning an office or holding onto a position or even just having power."

'I love being governor'

Yes, Holden acknowledges, he liked being governor.

For that matter, so does Blunt. Several times at a Capitol news conference last week, the Republican governor declared, "I love being governor."

As Holden explains: "The reason I liked being governor is because of the opportunity it gave you to do some things. It wasn't because of the prestige of it or the trappings of it. I thoroughly enjoyed the public policy aspects of it."

Two of Holden's most precious policy areas were education and health care.

Interestingly, those are two of the same policy priorities embraced by Blunt.

But as Blunt likes to point out, Holden withheld money from K-12 schools to balance the budget whereas Blunt never did.

To that, Holden could accurately retort, Blunt eliminated or reduced Medicaid health care benefits to hundreds of thousands of Missourians to balance the budget. Although Holden also proposed Medicaid cuts, they were nowhere near as deep as Blunt's.

Not for a moment did Holden ever consider dropping out of the 2004 governor's race, he said.

After being forced out by voters, Holden has started a new career as an instructor at Webster University in St. Louis, focusing on politics, government, communication and corporate responsibility. He hosts a public policy forum that brings politicians and campaign staffers in to speak. He also works as a business development consultant, traveling occasionally to China.

Has he ever thought of running for office again?

"No," Holden said. "Not at this stage."

No recovery for Holden

Because he ran and lost fairly decisively, political scientist Dave Robertson doubts Holden could recover politically.

"I don't think he can easily claim that he can get re-elected to any office in this state anymore," Robertson said, though he added that's not necessarily because of Holden himself.

The national economy had been poor, Holden had made some unpopular budget cuts, and Democrats generally fared worse than Republicans in 2004.

In that sense, Blunt may have been in a similar position as Holden had he sought re-election this year. Not running may actually prove a wiser move, if Blunt ever wants to resurrect his political career, Robertson said.

For now, Blunt has expressed no future political ambitions. He says he hasn't even really thought about what he will do when his term ends in January 2009. At age 38 when he leaves office, it would be way too soon to simply do nothing.

"My wife would tell you I'm a pretty hardworking guy. She doesn't have any aspirations that I'm going into retirement," Blunt said.