Reform Road to the White House?

This morning’s Observer featured an article comparing “reform governors” Eliot Spitzer and our neighboring executive, New Jersey Senator-turned-Governor Jon Corzine. Writer Steve Kornacki wastes no time in calling out the possible higher aspirations of both men:

There is an expression—proven throughout American history—that the road to the White House runs not through Congress but through the State House.

That certainly helps explain why Jon Corzine, five years after purchasing a U.S. Senate seat for at least $63 million, happily walked away from the world’s most exclusive club—with a year remaining on his term—to take up residence in Trenton. Or why Eliot Spitzer, the fabled “Sheriff of Wall Street,” has worked to leverage his phenomenally high-profile tenure as New York State Attorney General into a stint as Governor.

Tellingly, neither man has moved to discourage rumors that they may one day run for President. And each sees reforming the culture of state government—in some of the most dysfunctional and hack-ridden circumstances in the country—as his ticket to the national stage.

We find it fascinating that "reform" of dysfunctional state government has become such a high-profile issue that commentators see accomplishments in this area as a potential ticket to the White House.