The Mudflats blog did a little number crunching by examining all the first term quitters since 1900 and the results are rather telling:
On a hunch, I reviewed online lists of all the men and women who’ve been elected governor of their state since the year 1900. Pored over them for a few hours. Over 1200 politicians have taken that first-term oath of office. Some soon died in office. Many resigned to accept other positions in government, including Spiro Agnew who was “tapped” by Nixon after being the Governor of Maryland for about five minutes. On a handful of occasions, a first-termer was dragged off to the slammer or impeached. One was incapacitated by a nervous breakdown and one left just as impeachment came knocking on his door. So—how many out of over 1200 just up and quit before the end of their term?
Three: Jim McGreevy, Eliot Spitzer and Sarah Palin.
HT to Andrew Sullivan for the link.
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2 comments:
Out of those 3 who was forced to step down due to their own misdeeds and who stepped down to save their state unwarranted legal expenses. Sounds like I would trust the latter.
Well if we had an election where those three were the only candidates, you might have a case Anonymous but that's not the case. It just shows that it in 109 years of history, her actions land her in the company of Spitzer and McGreevy. There is no history of anyone climbing to higher office after resigning in the way those three did. Of course, Sarah Palin is mavericky so you might have some hope.
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