Holden's term doesn't meet anyone's expectations

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- He came into office with a splash -- a $1 million inaugural party just as the state's economy began to tank. He spoke of unifying the state but ended up in bitter partisan battles with the legislature. He called education his No. 1 priority, then cut school funding to try to balance the budget.

Bob Holden's four years as governor, which end Jan. 10, didn't meet expectations -- not even his own.

But, Holden says, how could anyone have expected the unusual circumstances he faced?

There was a national economic downtown and terrorism upturn coinciding with a shift of Missouri's prevailing political winds toward Republicans instead of Democrats such as himself.

All things considered, Holden thinks he was fairly successful.

"We've been in one crisis after another, but during this time I think we've made good decisions, and I think the state is better for it, I think our future is brighter for it," Holden said.

"I feel like we've gotten a lot achieved in the four years that we can look back on," Holden added, "and in years ahead, hopefully the state of Missouri will say, 'The foundation was laid to make the transition in our economy, we made the right decisions in education and health care, and we improved the lives of thousands of Missourians.'"

That's Holden's hope.

Others contend Holden will hardly be thought of at all.

"It's hard to say, 'Wow! Boy! He did this,"' said political scientist George Connor, of Southwest Missouri State University. "I can't right off the top of my head think of one thing that stands out as his legacy."

It's not for lack of trying. Holden's biggest ideas -- the type of things that could have left a legacy -- failed.

He proposed numerous ways to increase education spending -- higher taxes on tobacco, casinos and wealthy Missourians and the elimination of what he dubbed corporate tax loopholes -- but the Republican legislature repeatedly rejected them.

He supported higher taxes for roads. But that failed first in the Senate and then in a statewide vote.

Perhaps the defining moment of Holden's administration occurred on its first day. He expected his $1 million inaugural celebration -- complete with a theatrical show, heated party tents, fireworks and a neon theme sign -- to encourage and unite Missourians following the plane-crash death of Gov. Mel Carnahan a few months earlier.

Instead, the lavishness drew criticism, the late-night fireworks sparked complaints from neighbors and the debt took months to repay.

Just weeks into office, Holden had to announce the first of many cuts to the budget because of a slumping economy, and Republicans won control of the Senate in a special election. The two events foreshadowed the political and policy struggles Holden would face for the next four years. He had expected neither when he campaigned for office.

"I think he was a governor who would have been best served by having the opportunity to stay the course from the Carnahan administration," said political scientist Dave Robertson, of the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Instead, "he found that the political ground sort of shifted from underneath during his term as governor."

The big political earthquake occurred when Republicans -- some specifically campaigning against Holden's policies -- won control of the House in 2002.

With their first full legislative majority in a half-century, Republicans picked up some Democratic dissenters to override three Holden vetoes in 2003 -- one on a contentious bill legalizing concealed guns. It was a historic rebuff of a governor, matching in one year what had been the total number of vetoes overridden in Missouri since the Civil War.

That same year, Republicans repeatedly rejected -- and in some cases simply ignored -- Holden's tax and revenue proposals for the budget, even though Holden twice called them into special session. So Holden withheld money from schools, saying lawmakers had forced him to do so by underfunding the budget. But the economy picked up, the budget was fine, and Holden later released the school money.

"His biggest miscalculation was that the people of Missouri were going to rise up and support him in the battle against the legislature," Connor said.

Instead, Democratic State Auditor Claire McCaskill used Holden's school cuts to defeat him in the Aug. 3 gubernatorial primary. McCaskill later lost to Republican Secretary of State Matt Blunt in the Nov. 2 gubernatorial election.

"I don't think people dislike him. I don't think people will be hostile to him," said political scientist David Webber, of the University of Missouri-Columbia. But "he had a lot of challenges and frustrations that I'm sure he wishes played out differently."