The Republican Governors Association (RGA) elected Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal as chairman and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker as vice chairman yesterday.
Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, who served just over one term as chairman of the RGA (becoming chairman when Gov. Rick Perry stepped down for his presidential run), completed his time of service. The chairman typically only serves one term, according to Mike Schrimpf, spokesperson for the RGA.
Under McDonnell’s watch, the number of Republican governors continued to grow. 30 of the 50 governors are now from the GOP, which has been a silver-lining in an otherwise cloudy election year for the US conservative party. This is the most governors from one party in 12 years.
McDonnell will continue to serve on the Executive Committee of the RGA as he begins the last year in office for his first term. Virginia governors are limited to non-sequential re-elections. The earliest McDonnell could run again for governor is 2017. He continues to enjoy one of the highest approval ratings for governors [1] in the country.
The rest of the Executive Committee of the RGA includes:
• Florida Governor Rick Scott
• New Jersey Governor Chris Christie
• New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez
• Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett
• South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley
“The American people want their political leaders to tackle the toughest issues, reform entitlements and balance budgets while holding the line on taxes. That’s exactly what Republican governors are doing,” said Governor Scott Walker in a press release from RGA.
Read more about the RGA meetings and the coming resistance of the president’s policies, particularly over Obamacare and energy [2], from Byron York of the Washington Examiner.
“…the real story to emerge from the conference is the coming conflict between the GOP governors and the Obama administration. It could be one of the major stories of the president’s second term.”