Making the Lieutenant Governorship Work
The Maryland Model
Earlier this week I took a look at the role of the Lieutenant Governor, sort of the VP at the state level. The role varies from utterly powerless and inconsequential to (in Texas) more powerful than the governor! Today, I’m staying closer to home and looking at the standard model of Lt. Governor.
My home state of Maryland has a particularly light model of Lieutenant Governor, who doesn’t even have ceremonial responsibilities over the state Senate. But as my readers know, the real job the Lt. Governor is to be Down the Hall.
The American people got a good look at Maryland Governor Wes Moore a few months ago when he spoke about the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Quite a lot of them (if my aunt in Massachusetts is a bellwether) liked what they saw. Moore charms like the rest of us breathe. But governor is his very first political job.
A few years ago, when I was heading to the University of Maryland to teach my class my son (then a student) told me that parking would be tough because Governor-elect Moore was at the School of Public Policy. As I drove in, I amused myself thinking about what I’d say if I met him. Here goes:
Governor-elect, congratulations! I study Vice Presidents; they matter because we keep electing DC outsiders who find that their DC-insider VPs can be useful advisors about how to get things done. This is your first elected office and while you are super-capable, you picked a good Lt. Governor who can really help you get things done.
He was gone when I arrived, but I learned that he was announcing his transition team, and it was chaired by his Lt. Governor-elect Aruna Miller–who had served two terms in the House of Delegates and worked in local government. So he didn’t need my advice at all.
Miller is a civil engineer who worked in local government transportation departments. Maryland suffered a tragic accident when a truck killed six highway workers. Miller was a sensible figure to lead the task force, which has produced recommendations that resulted in legislation. Since the bridge collapse, Miller is leading the task force to deliver economic aid to those effected. There is nothing public on this, but given Miller’s background, it would be unsurprising if she wasn’t also liaising with the Army Corp of Engineers and the Coast Guard about efforts to clear the waterway.
This is solid, practical work, of the sort that VPs do on the national level, helping the chief executive and showing high-level political attention to critical issues. Is she a top advisor to the governor—tough to say. In an interview, she says they speak every day when they aren’t traveling and text all the time. Sounds adorable, but what else would she say?
Miller is an interesting figure in her own right. She was born in India and is the first immigrant and first woman of color to be Maryland’s lieutenant governor. In that interview she said that in 2022, Maryland became the first state to elect a governor and lieutenant governor of color.
Interesting note, Dawn Moore, the First Lady of Maryland, worked for two Lt. Governors (Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Anthony Brown.) First spouse and the VP/Lt. Governor are the two people the chief executive cannot fire. That relationship is probably also worthy of study – not just in Maryland. But hopefully, First Lady Moore is facilitating a good working relationship between my state’s top two executives.
What Makes the Maryland Model Work?
The rise of the vice presidency was, in great part, predicated on the President obtaining the power to select their running mate. Before that, when the party chose the VP, the president had little reason to trust them and there was often little personal chemistry. For a hint of how this can play out, keep an eye on Indiana, where the party convention over-ruled the gubernatorial nominee’s preference and selected a running mate who might be a bit out of the mainstream.
Many states elect their governors and lieutenant governors separately. Even if they are from the same party, they are potential rivals, but the separate elections create a strong likelihood of the two being from different parties.
Institutional reforms are expensive and difficult to undertake. But the world is becoming more complex and political leadership is getting harder. U.S. states are being pummeled by natural disasters, buffeted by the global economy, and forced to face increasingly intractable social and infrastructure problems. Just as a good VP can be a junior partner and valuable across-the-board advisor to the president, a lieutenant governor can be a force multiplier for a governor—and the governors need help.