Seeing Through the Ceremony in the States of the States

There has been plenty of pomp and circumstance, and even more long-windedness, as governors from coast to coast stepped to rostrums this month to deliver their annual State of the State addresses.

But amid the stock lines and the self-congratulations and the partisan digs were some noteworthy morsels.

From year to year and state to state, these addresses often sound the same. This time around, governors often opened with a lofty line about their state’s splendor — “Idaho is prosperous, positive and poised for even better times ahead” or Alabama’s “future is as bright as the sun over the Gulf” — or by noting dignitaries whom they were just so deeply honored to have in attendance.

There were somber moments, often to recognize a slain police officer or to mourn a deceased lawmaker. There were heartwarming anecdotes about a local college student or a military veteran or a disabled teen who had fallen on hard times but found brighter days thanks to the governor’s policies. And there were pledges of cooperation across party lines, even in places where that rarely happens.

As in most State of the State seasons, surprising moments were rare, but here were a few of them, hidden beneath the routine fare:

Gov. Phil Bryant, a Republican, was hardly alone in devoting part of his speech to the opioid crisis. His counterparts in Arizona, Alaska, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey and South Dakota, to name a few, also covered the topic.

But Bryant’s speech detoured to praise a local journalist’s coverage of the epidemic, saying she “has done an outstanding job informing us all of the horrific events resulting from opioid and illegal drug-related criminal activity.”

“We should all thank Therese Apel of The Clarion-Ledger for shining a light on the horrible consequences of this behavior,” Bryant said. “Therese, you stand as an example of a journalist who has made a difference.”

Such public praise for a reporter might be rare in a governor’s annual address at any time, but seemed especially notable in a political climate in which President Donald Trump and some Republicans have sought to label the mainstream press as “fake news.”

Days later, Bryant and his allies critiqued coverage of Bryant’s speech, with the governor retweeting a Mississippi Republican Party assertion that a news organization “would have 5 reporters fact check the governor and not one fact check the Democrats.”

Gov. David Ige, a Democrat, apologized earlier this month when a state worker sent an erroneous alert to cellphones that falsely warned of an imminent missile attack.

A few days later, Ige delivered his State of the State speech, in which he lauded Hawaii as “the most beautiful place on Earth” and pledged to counter the “hateful and hurtful policies of the Trump White House.”

Noticeably absent from Ige’s speech was any mention of the botched missile warning, which sent residents into a panic and prompted criticism. The omission was noted in a headline from The Honolulu Star-Advertiser: “Ige highlights accomplishments, skirts false-alert fiasco.”

Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, gave his State of the State address just hours before he admitted having an extramarital affair.

The speech itself was mostly standard fare, or at least it seemed that way in the moment: Greitens paused to praise his wife and boasted that he had been elected to work “for those who have felt counted out and forgotten.”

“We promised the people of Missouri we would do different,” Greitens said. “We have, and we will.”

But on that night’s newscast, a St. Louis television station publicized Greitens’ affair and reported accusations that he had blackmailed the woman. In the days that followed, a local prosecutor announced an investigation and some lawmakers, including fellow Republicans, urged him to resign.

Greitens says he did nothing illegal and has resisted calls to quit.

Most governors use their State of the State addresses to talk about taxes, crime, education or other issue facing the state in the year ahead. Gov. Jerry Brown of California did all of that. But he also used his speech Thursday to warn about the end of the world.

“Our world, our way of life, our system of governance — all are at immediate and genuine risk,” said Brown, a Democrat. “Endless new weapons systems, growing antagonism among nations, the poison in our politics, climate change.”

The governor, who is 79 and beginning his last year in public office, explained the reason for his concern.

“Just this morning, the pre-eminent science and security board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock 30 seconds closer to catastrophe,” he said. “It is now 2 minutes to midnight, as close as it was at the height of the Cold War in 1953.”

These are hardly new themes for Brown who, over the course of 45 years in public life, has frequently spoken out on global issues, and in particular, global warming. Still, it was a little jarring to hear such alarming words in the midst of a more standard address about education funding and the state’s health care system.

Gov. Bill Walker, a political independent, labeled Alaska “a ground zero for climate change” and called for action to address the challenge.

“Retreating sea ice and glaciers and thawing permafrost are not partisan issues — they are social, environmental and economic ones,” Walker said, highlighting an issue that also figured prominently in addresses by the Democratic governors of Washington and Hawaii.

But Walker’s call to combat climate change included a twist unlikely to hearten environmentalists: a goal of expanding energy production in his resource-rich state.

“We make nothing on oil discovered but left in the ground,” Walker said. “Access and production are key.”

Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, told legislators that Colorado students sometimes graduated without the skills desired by employers.

Hickenlooper was one of several governors who pointed in their speeches to job training as a major issue, and he called for an expansion of computer coding classes in middle schools and high schools.

He also offered an unorthodox idea on how to categorize those courses.

“Why not give those schools with a foreign language requirement the choice to offer coding as an alternative language?” Hickenlooper said.

Few expected Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican known for fiscal conservatism, to be around for another State of the State address after Trump nominated him for an ambassadorship last summer.

But amid a long and awkward wait for a confirmation vote, Brownback returned to the Capitol for a final address. The governor, known best for a sweeping philosophy of tax cuts, stunned lawmakers by calling for a $600 million increase in public school funding over five years — in what looked like an about-face from what he had been advocating in years past.

“This multiyear approach will provide the time necessary for school districts to plan and spend this additional money more effectively,” Brownback said. “My proposal does not include a tax increase.”

Many of Brownback’s fellow Republicans were openly unimpressed. One of them, Rep. Tom Cox, told The Wichita Eagle that the proposal seemed like “a final ‘screw you’ to the Legislature,” without laying out a real plan for how to pay for such a plan.

Alas, he will soon be leaving Topeka. He was confirmed as an ambassador Wednesday.