Looks Like Bullish Year for Business Candidates

After last September’s terrorist attacks, this was supposed to be an election year when concern about public safety rewarded candidates with political experience.

But a surprising number of business executives and entrepreneurs are challenging that assumption with strong campaigns for office, especially in governors’ races.

Candidates with backgrounds in business but no elected experience are seeking governorships in nine states--one-quarter of this year’s gubernatorial contests. The latest example occurred Tuesday as former venture capitalist Mitt Romney, who headed the committee that ran the Olympics in Salt Lake City, was effectively handed the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Massachusetts when GOP acting Gov. Jane Swift withdrew rather than face him.

Two other businessmen-turned-candidates--Republican Bill Simon Jr. in California and Democrat Tony Sanchez in Texas--have already won gubernatorial primaries. Several others have established themselves as favorites in their primary contests.

This bull market in business candidates follows a trend that has intensified the last two decades, one fueled partly by a public suspicion of government that allowed wealthy executives to run as populist outsiders. These candidates also touted their skills to fix broken bureaucracies.

The question for this year’s crop of business contenders is whether that advantage will survive an electoral environment reshaped both by Sept. 11 and the Enron Corp. scandal. In both parties, many operatives believe Enron has diminished the high standing business enjoyed during the boom years of the 1990s--while Washington’s response to the terrorist attacks has restored at least some faith in government and elected officials.

Yet even in this tougher climate, most of the business candidates are running well.

“At the end of the day, people respect somebody who is willing to put their money where their mouth is and are doing something because they think it is the right thing to do, not because they want to fulfill a career,” said Brian Sullivan, an entrepreneur seeking the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Minnesota.

The success of these candidates is a testament not only to the continuing political appeal of the business resume--especially in races for executive-branch positions--but the practical advantage for candidates who can fund their campaigns largely by reaching into their own wallets. Business executives--like Sanchez or New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg--have used their money to swamp opponents.

“The rich candidates are not guaranteed a victory, but they have far better odds than any other group of candidates you can pick, including other elected officials,” said University of Virginia political scientist Larry J. Sabato. “Elected experience used to be the best guarantee of victory at the next step. Now the best guarantee is having a ton of your own money.”

For years, the two parties have intermittently recruited candidates from business ranks. As early as 1940, the GOP chose political novice Wendell L. Willkie, a charismatic utility executive, as its presidential nominee against Franklin D. Roosevelt.

By 1992, when businessman Ross Perot made a third-party presidential bid, the parties were routinely courting businesspeople as candidates. Currently, four members of the Senate are former businessmen who had not held previous political office: Democrats Jon Corzine of New Jersey and Herbert Kohl of Wisconsin, and Republicans Charles Hagel of Nebraska and Robert F. Bennett of Utah.

Six sitting governors fit that description: Republicans John Hoeven of North Dakota, Gary Johnson of New Mexico, Mike Leavitt of Utah and Kenny Guinn of Nevada, along with independent Angus King of Maine and Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia. Business executives have also provided a steady stream of mayors, such as Richard Riordan in Los Angeles and Bloomberg.

To be sure, business executives have had mixed success as politicians. Some utterly flopped as candidates--such as Republican Clayton Williams in Texas and Democrat Al Checchi in California, both of whom poured millions into failed gubernatorial bids. Others have proved incapable of adapting the autocratic style of the boardroom to the give-and-take of the political cloakroom.

Yet enough have done well to encourage a steady stream of successors. And state parties often encourage the trend because they see wealthy business nominees as a means of funding advertising and get-out-the-vote campaigns that can benefit all their candidates.

This year, each party has only one serious business candidate bidding for a U.S. Senate seat: Republican Doug Forrester in New Jersey and Democrat Erskine Bowles in North Carolina, a White House chief of staff for President Clinton who comes with as many political as management credentials.

But besides Simon, Sanchez, Sullivan and Romney, three Republicans and two Democrats with business pedigrees are considered serious contenders in gubernatorial races. The GOP candidates are running in Alabama, New Hampshire and Rhode Island; the Democrats in Colorado and Oklahoma.

Even across party lines, these candidates are employing similar themes. Echoing Perot, they have portrayed their lack of government experience as an advantage over opponents they invariably deride as “career politicians.”

“As governor, he’ll use his real-world experience to keep New Hampshire strong,” says an advertisement for Craig Benson, the founder of an Internet equipment company who has emerged as the principal rival to former Sen. Gordon Humphrey for the GOP gubernatorial nomination.

With the economy still sluggish in many states, the business candidates are also stressing their management experience creating jobs in the private sector. “He’s helped create over 70,000 jobs,” declares an ad for Sanchez.

Some of these candidates, in turn, can expect questions about their business ethics. California Gov. Gray Davis has already promised an assault against Simon over the failure of a savings and loan acquired by the Republican’s family.

“Some of the things that one does in business to succeed might draw plaudits from the Harvard Business Review . . . but are pretty hard to explain to the average voters,” said Garry South, Davis’ chief strategist.

More intriguingly, some are questioning whether the lack of political experience is still an asset, post Sept. 11.

Republican Mark Earley sought to make that case against Warner, a venture capitalist, in last fall’s Virginia gubernatorial race. But it didn’t work; Warner won easily.

Some believe a business background looks more questionable in the wake of the Enron bankruptcy, which has tarnished business’ standing with many Americans.

A tight race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Minnesota may be the contest that best crystallizes the contending arguments between candidates from the business world and career politicians. That race pits Sullivan, who made his fortune when he sold a water filter company he founded shortly after college to Procter & Gamble, and Tim Pawlenty, the Republican leader in the state House of Representatives.

The race revolves around the contrast in their resumes. Sullivan’s central message has been that he’s a “can-do” businessman who will apply business tactics to the statehouse. “The approach of the entrepreneur is exactly what is needed to get government to do a better job,” he said.

Pawlenty hasn’t shied away from that fight.

To an unusual degree for a Republican, Pawlenty has gibed Sullivan over his wealth, suggesting that he’ll put off blue-collar voters in a general election. And Pawlenty is challenging Sullivan’s lack of political experience, which Pawlenty argues is less attractive in Minnesota after the tumultuous term of independent Jesse Ventura (who has yet to announce whether he will seek reelection).

“People are looking for experience, especially after Jesse and Sept. 11,” says Tim Commers, Pawlenty’s campaign manager.

But so far, Sullivan’s outsider appeal and his bigger megaphone appear to be trumping Pawlenty’s experience. Boosted by a self-financed advertising and direct-mail blitz that dwarfed Pawlenty’s efforts, Sullivan seized the lead at the start of the process for selecting delegates who will pick the nominee at a convention in June.

If Sullivan sustains his advantage, he will continue what is shaping up as a boom year for candidates crossing from business to politics.