Bredesen Begins Transition Work

Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen says he has no intention of taking it easy during his last six months in office.

The legislative session is over, and there are no more bills to sign. The next budget proposal will come from his successor, so Bredesen doesn’t have that to craft. Even so, he says there’s still plenty of work to be done running the state until the moment the next governor is inaugurated.

“I’m going to be governor until 11:59 in the morning on the 13th of January. We’re not doing anything different; if there’s an opportunity that comes along we’re going to grab it. We’re going to keep pushing forward on things.”

The next governor will likely choose new commissioners for most, if not all, of the state’s 20 departments, and they’ll probably choose new people for all the positions that answer directly to them. That adds up to a lot of bosses simultaneously feeling their way around new jobs.

Bredesen says he’s instructing his commissioners to craft memos for their successors: not too long, he says, just the most important points that the next guy ought to know.

As for his own replacement, Bredesen says he’s told each of the gubernatorial candidates that he’d like to take the winner on a trip or two after the election.

“Let me take you up to Washington and we’ll meet with the Nissan people and the Volkswagen people and let’s do some of these other kinds of things where you need to get those personal relationships established as well.”

Bredesen hasn’t given any solid indication for what his own plans are after his time in office is over.