Items21The creator’s order
  1. 1Robert M. La FolletteRobert M. La FolletteBorn 14 Jun 1855As Wisconsin governor from 1901 to 1906, La Follette built the 'Wisconsin Idea': direct primary elections replacing party conventions, a railroad commission to regulate rates, heavier taxation of railroads and policy drafted with University of Wisconsin experts. Other states copied the primary and…0i
  2. 2Theodore RooseveltTheodore RooseveltBorn 27 Oct 1858Roosevelt's two years as New York governor from 1899 were short but substantive: a tax on public utility franchises, a strengthened civil service and tighter regulation of tenement sweatshops, enough to alarm the state's Republican boss Thomas Platt. Platt helped push him into the vice-presidency…0i
  3. 3Woodrow WilsonWoodrow WilsonBorn 28 Dec 1856Elected New Jersey governor in 1910 by party bosses who expected a compliant academic, the former Princeton president turned on them within months, pushing through direct primaries, a corrupt practices act, a public utilities commission and workers' compensation in a single legislative session in…0i
  4. 4Al SmithAl SmithBorn 30 Dec 1873A Tammany-trained New Yorker who left school young, Smith served four terms as governor in the 1920s and modernised the state: an executive budget, consolidation of over 180 agencies into about 20 departments, factory safety laws following the Triangle fire inquiry, and public parks and housing. He…0i
  5. 5Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. RooseveltBorn 30 Jan 1882As New York governor from 1929, Roosevelt responded to the Depression before Washington did: the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration of 1931, run by Harry Hopkins, was the first state agency to give large-scale unemployment relief, and he pressed for old-age pensions and unemployment…0i
  6. 6Huey LongHuey LongBorn 30 Aug 1893Long's Louisiana governorship from 1928 built thousands of miles of paved roads and bridges, gave free textbooks to schoolchildren and expanded Louisiana State University and Charity Hospital, transforming a poor state's infrastructure. He did it by dominating the legislature, courts and state jobs…0i
  7. 7Earl WarrenEarl WarrenBorn 19 Mar 1891California's only governor elected three times, Warren ran a popular, largely nonpartisan administration from 1943 to 1953: highway building funded by a petrol tax increase, expansion of the university system and a failed attempt at state health insurance. As attorney general he had pushed for the…0i
  8. 8Nelson RockefellerNelson RockefellerBorn 8 Jul 1908Rockefeller governed New York from 1959 to 1973 on a scale few states have matched: the State University of New York grew into the largest public university system in the country, he built the Albany Empire State Plaza and expanded Medicaid early. The bills came later in high taxes and debt. His…0i
  9. 9George WallaceGeorge WallaceBorn 25 Aug 1919Wallace became a national figure through defiance rather than administration: 'segregation forever' in his 1963 inaugural and his stand in the schoolhouse door against integrating the University of Alabama. His four terms did expand Alabama's community and technical colleges. His 1968 third-party…0i
  10. 10Ronald ReaganRonald ReaganBorn 6 Feb 1911Reagan's California governorship from 1967 to 1975 is more complicated than his later image. He campaigned against big government but signed the largest state tax increase in history at the time, a liberal abortion law in 1967 he later regretted, and a 1971 welfare reform negotiated with Democratic…0i