Kenny Guinn, (R) governor of Nevada from 1999 - 2007, died today, after falling off the roof of his house in Las Vegas. Kenny Guinn was an exceptional governor, an exceptional human being, and represented America at its finest.
Born to migrant farmer parents in Arkansas, he attended at least 30 schools before finishing high school. Ultimately, he went on to earn a PhD in education. Guinn had an incredibly successful and diverse career. He served as the superintendent of the Clark County school district for 10 years (which is currently listed as the largest school district in the US.) He was president of a bank, CEO of Southwest Gas, and even served as president of UNLV for two years.
His run for governor in 1998 was his first effort in politics. He won the election with 52% of the vote, with many expressing concern that he was "anointed" by the casino moguls. (I remember well those conversations.) He was re-elected by a huge margin, with 68% of the popular vote. His terms as governor serve, in my mind, as evidence for why term limits are counterproductive, and over-ride the will of the voters. At the end of his second term, he was still popular (and the state of Nevada was doing very well). Time magazine named him one of the best 5 governors in the country.
His work as governor has many features, and I'll list three here. First, he has been often given credit for establishing "Millenium Scholarships", scholarships given to high school graduates to attend college in state. The scholarships are significant, and were first funded with tobacco settlement funds. (Unfortunately, that fund is nearly empty, now.) Second, Guinn was known as a pragmatic, hands-on governor, one who was intimately familiar with the details of most legislation and all budgetary items. He was his own number one lobbyist, working with legislators of both parties. He was not partisan in any sense. The last item I will mention was the significant effort he invested in establishing a massive tax increase, just before his re-election (if I remember the timing correctly.) This guy was no Sharron Angle! He was able to guide the new taxes through the legislature, while maintaining his own popularity.
Yes, Guinn was a Republican, but that never seemed to matter. He was pragmatic, and always looking after the best interests in the long term of the people of Nevada. When his term was up, he could not bring himself to endorse Jim Gibbons election. From our experiences in the past 3.5 years, I think we can see quite clearly that Kenny anticipated correctly some of the problems with ass-hat Gibbons.
This guy was the governor that every state deserves. Rest in peace, governor.