BOTTOM LINING

N.H. adjusts to Benson's CEO ways (Sarah Schweitzer, 7/7/2003, Boston Globe)

New Hampshire Governor Craig Benson entered office pledging to shake things up, CEO-style. Government was going to run like a business - specifically his own, Cabletron Systems, the now-defunct computer networking company.

Six months into his tenure, a corporate imprint is unmistakable in Concord, N.H. The state's office of Citizen Affairs is now dubbed the Customer Service Team. Efficiency is a favorite watchword, with weekly department head meetings closed to latecomers, doors locked at 8 a.m. It is not Governor, but ''Craig,'' to his aides and other office-holders, a nod to his days steeped in high-tech's culture of informality.

Benson has also exercised what some describe as heavy-handed executive preogative. He requires his department heads to regularly e-mail him their whereabouts, and with great pomp and ceremony last month he used an oversized veto stamp to reject lawmakers' many-months-in-the-making budget, forcing a showdown in the Republican-dominated Legislature and prompting some lawmakers to complain that he refused to engage in the back and forth that typically accompanies the spending plan's drafting. [...]

Politically, many observers say, Benson has been shrewd. He has delivered to his conservative base - signing the abortion bill into law and fending off tax increases, a move that particularly resonates in famously antitax New Hampshire. A University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll released last week found that 53 percent of residents approve of his performance.

''It's clear he's had some missteps, but on the big things he's managed to have successes,'' said Dante Scala, professor of politics at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H.

It's been interesting to watch because the NH governorship is notoriously a weak office but he's trying to govern as if he's in charge. His win on the budget veto may have swung power towards him, but it may have alienated his own party sufficiently that they won't help him much from here on in. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 7, 2003 8:29 AM