Boca raton, florida, newlyelected governors discussed their campaigns and their political agendas. The panel is made up of governorselect from arizona, massachusetts, maryland, texas and arkansas. Theyre joined by new jersey governor and rga chair Chris Christie and former mississippi Governor Haley barbour. This is an hour. Ms. We started this year, we had a daunting task ahead of us. We had a pretty difficult map. We were defending 32 of the 36 22 of the 36 races including 19 incumbents in nine states that president obama had won twice. We were able to successfully defend 17 of our 19 incumbents, we won the biggest states in illinois, michigan, wisconsin and florida. And we picked up four states that were previously held by democrats. You see a number of those all of them a number of them represented here today; illinois, maryland, massachusetts and arkansas. Arkansas. I was thinking about states that obama had won twice. And today despite 300 million spent by Public Sector unions, tom story and the environmental stire and the environmental lobby, 300 million they put into these races, today we have the largest number of republican governors in nearly two decades. And come january 200 million americans, twothirds of this country, will be represented by republican governors. [applause] and since 2009 and im not taking credit for this, this is because of our governors and many, many great people who came before us but since 2009 i believe this has been the most, if you just look at the facts, the rga has been the most impactful, successful Political Committee in the country. Weve gone from 22 to now 31 republican governors in the country just over the last five years. And if you look at what, you look at what those 31 republican governors are doing, they represent both the political and policy backbone and future of not only our party, but our country. In a very real and fundamental way. And so it is my distinct honor to introduce someone who really has a great deal to do with that. He was generous enough to take a chance on me five years ago and hire me at the rga. He has been really somebody that governor christie and i attempted to emulate this year, throughout this year, this very big year with 36 races. Hes been a good friend, he was a great governor, hes a great leader for our party and our country. Please give a warm welcome to Governor Haley barbour. [applause] thank yall. Thank yall. Be careful about that applause, you know what they say about politicians. When you applaud, it only encourages them. [laughter] we dont need we need time for these guys. Chris christie, congratulations. You going to Say Something to get us started or to get us closed . Why dont you start it well end up with you. Yeah. Its great to have these new governors up here who have won big races and have got big futures in front of them. And what i want to try to make this session about is a little bit about the election, about how they won, but more about how the election sets them up for their administration. Or their agenda. What are the, what does the public who elected you expect you to do, what are the problems theyre most concerned about, you know . And since none of yall have anything to do about it, im not going to ask any questions about immigration. [laughter] [applause] im not on msnbcs payroll. [laughter] so let me just start off with youve met all these guys i think during the session, but governor ducey of arizona, doug, tell us about your campaign and about where you think you are starting out and where youre headed. Well, thanks, governor, and i want to thank the rga for everything that happened in our campaign. We ran and started with a broad coalition. So we started out trying to line up the right people and communicate to send a message about what our campaign was going to be about. I really learned a lot last year at this conference. It was in phoenix, and i went to candidates training, and governor christie came in the room and talked about his victory in new jersey not only in 2013, but in 2009. And going into rooms where you were somewhat uncomfortable, where it wasnt the typical republican road to victory and talking about the economy and talking about education. And that just resonated as very true for me and arizona given the current circumstances. So we talked about being governor of all the people from the day we kicked off the campaign. We ran on an opportunity for all agenda, and along the way upon winning the primary we actually had sitting state senators, democrat katherine miranda, democrat o olivia hernandez, democrat carlyle [inaudible] from the navajo reservation signing onto our campaign because they werent happy with what was happening in the any economy in their districts, and they werent happy with what was happening in their Childrens School rooms. So we just thought that was a winning message, and im going to govern as i campaigned. I want to wake up every day to the best of my ability and focus on the economy and focus on education. You know, having done this, this it is a great, great advantage that you have an agenda during the campaign, because then when youre governor, you know where youre going to start. You dont have to go now what are we going to do . Asa . We were able to run the kind of campaign i always wanted to run, and that was because the rga had my back. The rga was able to come in at a critical moment when the Democratic Governors Association spent a Million Dollars in attack ads against me right after the primary, the rga was there with a response ad that was just perfect, covered me, and it allowed me to continue with what i wanted to do for arkansas. And so we were able to run a positive, agendaoriented campaign. Made all of the difference in the world. And so we started out with telling them what i wanted to do for arkansas which was the asa campaign or the asa plan for arkansas, that they could go to the web site, and they could download the six points of what i wanted to do as governor of arkansas. Including tax reduction, making arkansas more competitive and our income tax rates compared to surrounding states. We have a 7 rate with all of the republican governors and others around us having lower rates. We had to be competitive. Secondly, we needed to concentrate on career education. We needed to talk about Computer Science at every high school in arkansas and teaching that. We wanted to be able to reduce regulations in health care with choice. These are things that i campaigned on and our sixpoint plan. And the advantage of it is that it was not an easy race, but we won by a great margin. In fact, whenever we won the governors race, we actually won every federal race, and we won every Constitutional Office in arkansas. [applause] so as we say in the south, the First Time Since reconstruction that weve had a republican governor, republican legislature, republican Constitutional Officers and a republican federal delegation. And so that was, i think, some of the fruits of it. But the advantage of going in to the next legislative session is that i campaigned on an agenda that allows us to accomplish that agenda and say weve got a mandate for change. Because we campaigned on it, they supported it. A quick thing on the computer coding. I think i was the only candidate in the nation that used the word computer coding in a campaign ad. [laughter] and it was, it gave me an opportunity to Say Something very specific that no one else was talking about, and i illustrated it that we have 30,000 High School Graduates in arkansas every year. If only 20 of our students take Computer Science or computer coding, that means well be producing 6,000 aggravated grado the economy every year that know how to program computers. It has an opportunity to change the dynamic of the economy of this state. Thats the kind of message i was able to present, campaign on and now govern with because of what the rga was able to do in making sure that we were protected and to supplement the campaign. We had a 2 Million Financing deficit. They made all the difference. So thanks to the rga and everyone that was able to support that. [applause] thank you, asa. Im going to skip over governor christie, but before i call on you, greg, i do want to make this point. Even though were not letting him talk until last, governor christie ran a campaign for reelection last year where he never said anything bad about his opponent. He ran on his record. And these guys are setting themselves up so they can come back in four years and run on your record, you know . The other side cant run on their record. Can you imagine Barack Obamas campaign saying its morning again in america like Ronald Reagan was able to say . But youre going to see from the incumbents as well as these people who got elected new governors, most of our people were able to run on what theyve done. And to talk about policy. And to put real problems on the table and Real Solutions beside em. Because most of them had already succeeded in doing that. Thats the point i think we need to make as a party. The democrats cant run on their record. All they can run on is whats wrong with the republicans, whats wrong with this or that, and were trying here at rga to encourage our governors and candidates for governor to let them learn that theres nothing more powerful than giving somebody something to vote for. And so, greg, with that tell us how you did that in texas, mr. Attorney general . Well, haley, one thing about texans, and that is they expect results. And one way in which texas has achieved results in a way that exceeds any other state, if i may humbly say so, over the past decade is texas has been number one in the nation for creating jobs. You know, the day after the election i received what i think was a playful phone call from scott walker saying that wisconsin was coming after texas. For job creationment and ive creation. And ive heard hints and suggestions from some other governors from some other states. But ive got some bad news for my fellow governors. I am taking what rick perry built in the state of texas, and we are going to elevate it higher and better than before to insure that texas remains number one in the nation for creating jobs. Part of that will come out in some details that we will be announcing in the coming months. Part of it relates to reducing regulations even more. Part of it includes expediting permits. Part of it includes the fact that texas has an actual surplus of about 10 billion. Part of what we will do with that 10 billion is we are going to be looking at ways for which we can cut taxes in texas. Even though we already have a low tax structure. One area that constituents in texas want to see reduced is property taxes. Theres another, and that is a business Franchise Tax that we are looking to reduce. Were going to find some way that works out. Mathematically the best to reduce the tax burden in even lower. Another thing that we will be doing with the surplus is that we are going to be adding about 4 billion more more year in building out the road infrastructure in the state. Part of that comes from the oil and gas tax that is added on whenever there is extraction of oil and gas. Part of it will come from some other ways in which we will make the money add up. But we are going to be able to build out the infrastructure to know that texans and businesses that want to do business in the state are going to be able to move faster, more productively than ever before. Asa, kind of like what you were talking about, the third thing that we focused on is education. We want to start at the very beginning to build a Strong Foundation for education at the prek4 level. That will be one of the goals that we seek to attain. Last thing i will mention, haley, i know you did want to talk about immigration and im not going to talk about immigration. However, it was a key part of my platform and pretty much every candidate that ran in the senate. That were going to fund a program that secures our border. You all saw all the news about the people who are coming across the border, sometimes a thousand people a day. The reality is the federal government has failed in its fundamental responsibility to secure the border. Texans are not going to stand idly by while the federal government fails and refuses to do its job. And one thing texans want to the money spent on is to secure our border. Weve got a plan that will ensure that were able to achieve that regardless of what the federal government does. All those things combined will ensure a stronger, or productive, wealthier texas than ever before. The last comment i will make is one that demonstrates texas commitment to reaching out to ensure prosperity for everyone from every sector of the state regardless of their background. One way in which we ran our campaign was on heavy outreach to the Hispanic Community. We achieved remarkable recordsetting results in that regard. I did have a secret weapon in helping me achieve that. And that is that when i got elected, my wife became the first hispanic first lady in the history of the state of texas. [applause] thats something we are building upon and it demonstrates this is more than just a talking point. This is a genuine part of who we are as texans. And so as my first appointment in texas, secretary of state is not a position that is elected. Instead its a position that is appointed by the governor. I appointed the chief Administrative Officer from the county on the Rio Grande Valley in the southernmost part of the state of texas, carlos cost goes, a man who was born in mexico but became it is states citizen as my secretary of state to demonstrate that this outreach to the Hispanic Community is not something that ends on election day but will continue for generations to come, ensuring that we unite to constituencies that junior we agree on most of the issues and that is the Republican Party constituency and the Hispanic Community. Once we marry those two communities the same way that ive been married to my wife for 33 years, we will have lasting republican majority, not just among governors across the United States of america for decades to come. [applause] thanks. Thanks, gregg. I thought i would ask you all about it. It did mean you all wouldnt talk about it. Sunlight. I would like not only worked for bill wells, Big Health Insurance companies. We went a long way four years ago in 2010. Tell us how you changed it and where youre headed. First of all i just want to thank the rg for your support of both elections. It made a huge difference in our campaign at our ability to compete in a state where 11 of the population, of the elected are republicans. We start with a bit of a hill to climb and a bit of the case to make. But actually as i listened to the other speakers, some of the themes are fairly consistent. That may be true across the country in terms of what it takes to win. We made a decision when we got into the race we are going to case 100 of the vote. We were pretty sure we were not going to give 100 but we made a commitment to ourselves and to the camping were going to Campaign Across the commonwealth and were going to campaign in a lot of places where republicans historically about campaigned. We spent a lot of time and a lot of rooms in front of a lot of audiences where you could not find a republican with a geithner counter. But, you know, what . When youre talking jobs and competitiveness and economic development, when youre talking about the achievement gap in education and even though we have some terrific schools and great School Districts we have an achievement gap in that district. When youre talking about a State Government that that say0 and is hardworking and this has created and reform oriented as the people of the commonwealth, thats a conversation you can have with pretty much anybody. It cuts across geography, partisanship, gender, race, ideology, the works. That was really fundamentally will be campaigned on. We campaigned on the fact that massachusetts, despite all the wonderful things were going on there, and we do have a ton of great things going on, it really hasnt grown its job a story much in the past 14 years. We campaigned on the fact that even the with the institutions and great people and tons of innovators and all kinds of small businesses, we are a very expensive, complicated and difficult place to start a business, grow a business and live. We also campaigned on the fact that while theres a booming economy that exists in greater boston, the rest of massachusetts not so much. We made a commitment were going to focus on strategies and tactics that would be designed to bounce our economy up from one at the commonwealth to the other. We wrote down what our proposals would be and how we would approach this and we were very specific about it. We made that in many respects the platform of the conversation we had with a lot of the people were talking to. If somebody wanted to talk of workforce development, we had a plan. If somebody wanted to talk about what we could do to expand and improve on what ha has been happening in career and vocational and technical schools, we had a plan. Is somebody want to talk about strategies to bring back some vitality and life to some of our main streets, some of our cities have not done so well over the course of the past decade, we had a plan and we could talk about. In many respects it was that focus on three issues, what we could do to improve our economy, what we could do to close achievement gap and what we could do to bring what i would call sort of fiscal discipline in a professional and aggressive approach to how we manage government. Brought a lot of people of georgia and. I heard other folks talk about the fact they get democrats to force them. We did, too. We got a lot of democrats to endorse us in a state where if youre a democrat you, and adores a republican in a statewide race