| Chapter 1: | Governors and the National Governors Association (NGA) |
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commonly former governors—notably, five of the last seven presidents were former governors.
It must be recognized that reliance upon this approach has its own inherent weaknesses. Most notably, it is possible to make the case that the governors, organized under the banner of the NGA, are simply an interest group that is part of the overall interest group ecology that operates in the nation’s capital. Indeed (as noted in the next chapter), working through the NGA, governors behave much like other more traditional interest groups in their attempts to influence policy at the federal level. Working as an organization, the governors testify, write letters, and communicate closely with federal policy makers with the ultimate goal of obtaining preferable policy outcomes. However, there is an important distinction in that governors occupy a unique niche in the interest group ecology because of their preferred status in the perceptions of those they lobby (Cammisa 1995). Governors are statewide office holders who represent many of the same constituents as those legislators they lobby and have extensive knowledge of the policies that affect the viability of the states. Together, these two factors give the governors and their coordinating organization somewhat of an advantage in their lobbying activities, setting them apart from more typical interest groups.
The Contemporary Activities of the NGA
Now that the case for studying the NGA has been made, it might be useful to discuss the contemporary activities of the NGA. The NGA is designed to serve as a central resource for the nation’s governors and their attempts to manage the states and to devise effective policy at both the state and national level. Today, though the organization is formally divided