January, 2023
Lincoln — Before the books are closed on the performance of Pete Ricketts as Nebraska's governor, a few entries should be re-assessed and fact-checked.
The governor left office riding unexpectedly high, making the most of an adulatory article about his handling of the Covid pandemic, published by Politico in April, 2022. The article, based on Politico's own constructed index, concluded that Nebraska's Covid record was "surprisingly" best in the nation. It gave much credit to a previously obscure "Center for Operational Excellence" established by Ricketts in the Nebraska Department of Administrative Services.
I worked in Nebraska state government for several years, when it was less partisan, and continue to be in touch with many who keep close tabs on it. Before the article appeared, Ricketts got low marks for management, as might be expected of someone who had no previous experience in government or the military. The departments under his control ("code" departments) lurched from one crisis to another — foster care collapse, prison riots, contracting errors, stolen drug evidence, attempted grants to political contributors, a major environmental disaster, and significant accounting lapses. Not the stuff of "operational excellence," by any definition.
The glaring discrepancy has two good explanations: (1) Politico's index is poorly conceived; (2) Nebraska's Covid outcomes are in spite of the governor, not because of him.
• Politico's index curiously weighs factors such as Nebraska's low unemployment rate, which is largely unrelated to its Covid policies. A more credible Covid ranking, created by The Commonwealth Fund in June, 2022, ranks Nebraska a less surprising 14th, behind other midwestern states Minnesota and Illinois but ahead of Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and South Dakota.
• Politico's article, to its credit, explores how Nebraska's ranking may be due to leadership from sources other than the governor, namely the University of Nebraska Medical Center and public health directors in Douglas and Lancaster counties. These leaders often disagreed with Ricketts' decisions and pushed for tougher anti-Covid measures, saving lives. They did not mince words or send mixed signals about the value of vaccinations, for example, as did the governor. Rural areas, Ricketts' political base, have had the worst Covid outcomes in the state.
As Ricketts left office, he also repeated his mantra that government should be "run like a business." But his record suggests the slogan, as he interprets it, means something other than close attention to departmental management. Ricketts seldom deigned to get directly involved in code departments' crises, but distanced himself from them. Witness the AltEn environmental calamity at Mead. Ricketts was not a buck-stops-here kind of administrator.
Where our former governor ran government most like a business was in financing and maneuvering candidates in state legislative elections, to put people obligated to him on his oversight body, as would any successful business baron with the wherewithal to choose his own board of directors. Unfortunately, this way of doing business has seriously weakened Nebraska's constitutional checks and balances.
Before the conclusions of the Politico article and Ricketts' superficially repaired reputation are etched in stone, their underlying premises need to be more carefully examined, lest the incoming governor thinks he has inherited a formula for success in governing. What he actually has are many worsening problems that can only be resolved with a stronger hand at the administrative helm of state government.
