Today’s WSJ has an interesting article discussing how Texas Governor Rick Perry has exercised the prerogatives of his office and increased the power of his position during his eleven years in office. Here’s a taste:
By constitutional design that dates to Reconstruction, Texas has a weak governorship. In addition to the legislature, power is diffused among 270 agencies, boards and commissions. Governors makes appointments, but wield limited power over them because members can’t be fired, said Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. . . .
Mr. Perry’s ability to strengthen his hand is partly due to his longevity. He has served for 11 years, longer than anyone in Texas history and long enough to leave his mark on state commissions. (Texas has no term limits for its governor.) Mr. Perry’s spokesman, Mark Miner, said that to the best of his knowledge, Mr. Perry had appointed every leader and member of the state’s 270 agencies, boards and commissions, which would be unprecedented. . . .
Mr. Perry has also used legislation to consolidate authority. In 2003, he pressed for and won a sweeping overhaul of social services. It streamlined 12 health-and-human-services agencies into five, with power centralized under a commissioner, named by the governor. Agency boards were replaced with advisory councils and stripped of rule-making authority.
Also that year, Mr. Perry moved the economic-development and tourism portfolios from a state agency into the governor’s office to focus efforts on job creation. From there, he created the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Texas Emerging Technology Fund. Allies say the funds helped fuel the state’s jobs growth, while some on both the right and left have called the funds an inappropriate use of taxpayer money.
The article also discusses Gov. Perry’s controversial decision to replace members of the Texas Forensic Science Commission shortly before the panel was set to review evidence suggesting Texas may have executed Cameron Todd Willingham in error. (I covered that controversy here and here.)