State Government: Bruce Rauner became Illinois' 42nd governor on Monday, the first Republican since 2003. He inherits a state that's been dubbed "America's Greece," but it's another opportunity to show what a GOP chief executive can do.
A big part of the GOP tsunami in 2014 occurred at the state level, with Republicans expanding their hold on governors' mansions and legislatures with wins in blue states such as Maryland, Massachusetts and President Obama's Illinois.The number of GOP governors has grown to 31 from 21, control of legislatures has expanded to 68 of 98 partisan legislative chambers, and Republicans now have total control of some two dozen states.
There's a reason for this success, and it's the fact that GOP governors tend to promote a free-market economy with lower taxes, less regulation and a generally friendlier business climate that emphasizes wealth creation rather than redistribution.
According to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nine of the 10 fastest-growing state economies last quarter had GOP governors, including North Dakota with its fracking boom and 8.4% growth rate. Six of the 10 worst-performing states were run by Democrats. We'll refrain from another Texas vs. California comparison.
Surrounded by Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin, where GOP governors Rick Snyder, Mike Pence and Scott Walker turned their states around by taking on public-sector unions and enacting right-to-work laws, Illinois has languished as the bluest of blue states, an example of the atrophy that dominance by statist Democrats can impose.















