HOLDEN: QUIET MAN IN CLAMOROUS JOB

KENNETT, Mo. -- Missouri's 53rd governor was inaugurated the other day in what was a relatively quiet ceremony, financed primarily by donations from his friends and supporters. The inauguration marked the beginning of the gubernatorial tenure of Bob Holden, who like his late predecessor, Mel Carnahan, has connections to Birch Tree, a small south-central Missouri community.

In numerous ways, Holden is a carbon copy of his predecessor, both beginning their public careers in the General Assembly, where each concentrated on programs to improve public education and improvement of government operations. Both compiled records sufficient to assure election to the office of state treasurer, and eventually Holden followed Carnahan into the most difficult job in state government.

Both were far from the usual caricatures of hail and hearty back-room politicians anxious to cut a deal, a sub-species that happily is becoming less and less prominent in Jefferson City.

It is safe to say that if any Missourian deserves the $119,000 he earns each year, it is the governor of our state, whose duties are so far-ranging that they are, quite literally, innumerable.

By tradition and practice, governors are the leaders of their political party, becoming responsible for both their achievements and their failures. Nothing dooms a promising political career faster than a partisan scandal that produces an image of chicanery or downright dishonesty. Learning to guide an entire political organization through such treacherous waters is much more difficult than it might seem. A failed political leader is a failed political leader forever.

Much more importantly, however, is the care and attention a governor directs toward the problems viewed most in need of correction by his total constituency.

It is almost safe to say that voters are more likely to reject candidates on the basis of their neglect of societal ills than their failed attempt to resolve dilemmas. This kind of uncharted course holds a special threat to beginning chief executives since first impressions are difficult to correct halfway into a four-year term. The opportunity of resolving failed, extended public policies is one of those once-in-a-lifetime challenges that precludes reclamation years or even months later. A new governor either attempts remedies within his first 12 months in the executive office or he inevitably becomes identified as being a part of the problem rather than a key to its solution.

As the state's new leader, Holden faces challenges not unlike many of his predecessors:

1. Voters are expecting a new series of answers to problems disturbing them more than many in state government realize.

2. Missouri's ability to fund adequately serious governmental shortcomings is limited, with little prospect on the horizon for easy corrections.

From each occupant of the governor's office, many citizens expect both vigorous and enlightened remedies for whatever it is that ails Missouri's public educational systems, a network that has expanded over the years and which now extends from preschooling to higher education, with special emphasis on K-12 instruction. If priorities established by our state's Constitution are to be believed, this is the most important function of Jefferson City. It is even the function designated as deserving one-third of all state-generated revenue.

From Holden's standpoint, this is a critical issue that does not lend itself to easy, there-that-does-it answers, since problem-solvers are faced not with a few solutions but with a myriad of them, each advanced by sufficient numbers with sufficient volume to warrant consideration and each demanding final approval of their agenda. As might be expected from such a challenging assignment, governors can hardy count on legislative resolution, since the 197 members of this branch have almost as many "answers."

Some past governors have signed off early on this problem by referring it to the directors and advisers of the two education departments in the capital city, offering the excuse that experts are better qualified to boost fourth-grade math test deficiencies than anyone else. Missouri has even tried, although not voluntarily, installing federal district court judges as de facto educational czars of public K-12 schools. This has at least provided the public with proof that spending extra billions of dollars searching for quality is not an acceptable, rational answer for classroom excellence.

This problem might be better resolved if it were the only dilemma facing the state at this moment and untold amounts of time, study, research, funds and, yes, luck, could be devoted to solutions, but sadly there are countless others that are almost as demanding and require their own resources from the executive office. Without regard to prioritizing, Missourians also face a worsening deterioration of their highway system, if not their entire transportation substructure. Building better roads, transit systems, bus lines, airports and other components is not a question of engineering but of cold, hard cash. There is certainly not enough money to handle adequately any of these needs without further sacrifice from citizens in the form of higher tax bills, and governors would prefer daily visits to a dentist's office than meet this challenge headlong.

Missouri has the nation's fifth highest mortality rate, it is a leading member of the nation's Rust Belt economy, its farmers are in financial trouble, it lacks an adequate health-care program for thousands of its citizens, its largest cities are dying or already dead, and ad infinitum.

The reason little mention was made of these tough challenges earlier is I wanted to make sure our new governor showed up for work the day after his inauguration.

~Jack Stapleton is the editor of Missouri News and Editorial Service.