I need your help. Which states can be governed by a simple majority? If the current US Senate rules are so great, you'd expect them to be replicated in lots of States right? And if any state does dare entrust its governance to the tyranny of the bi-cameral legislature, with their penchant for spending less on redistribution, well we should expect those states to be doing very poorly right, what with all the crazy laws and socialism they will have.
It turns out this is surprisingly hard to answer. The National Conference of State Legislatures produces items like this and this which highlight the complexity of this topic. I started out reading various State senate rules but states like California, with its two-thirds budget requirement mean that majority rule isn't as simple as the absence of a filibuster.
Inside I will try and lay out an approach to answer this.
In part I, we examined the initial cabinets of a couple administrations that took office from the other party, and whether or not sitting Senators and Governors were apparently willing to give up those posts to become Secretaries. As late as 1980, it was rare for sitting high office holders to surrender their independent power base posts for the task of serving under someone else. Under Bush 43 and now Obama, this has clearly changed as Senators and Governors line up for posts.
Inside, let's examine what might be behind this shift. The short version is simply that the Presidency has become so much more powerful, that being a Governor or Senator is to be in general less powerful than being Vice-President or in Cabinet.
Obviously mileage will vary. States vary considerably in size, so giving up the Governor's mansion in Vermont is hardly the same as doing so for Florida. Senators vary in power according to their role in the caucus and committee seating. Cabinet roles vary considerably too, from the heavy hitters of Defense and State to much lower profile and lower budget portfolios. So it shouldn't surprise us that the Senators who took spots in Obama's cabinet got powerful roles but were junior in the Senate, and the Governors who have joined were from medium states. Not sure what to make of Blagojevich's interest in a cabinet post, because Illinois is huge, but perhaps that was just the particular circumstances he was facing.
Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security: Matt seems excited about Napolitano, but I'm not. For one thing, and this may seem petty but it really isn't, a Republican will become Governor of Arizona
It turns out this is significant, and not really anything to do with Obama particularly. It is yet another sign of the Presidentialist, dominant federal government. The Executive now dominates the Legislative, and the Federal government now by far dominates the States.
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