Heir Apparent: “A person who is most likely to succeed in the place of another.”
Jerod Mayo was Bill Belichick’s “heir apparent” as New England Patriots head coach. And so it came to pass. But Mayo’s reign was short-lived—less than a year.
Some heirs are determined by birth. Pats owner Bob Kraft’s heir apparent is his oldest son, Jonathan. Can you say “primogeniture?”
Sometimes, a coach’s heir apparent is his kid. Hall of Fame basketball Ray Meyer coached at DePaul University for 42 years. After retiring in 1984, he was replaced by his oldest son Joey. Basketball royalty, you know? Kind of like King Charles’ heir apparent is Prince William—not Prince Harry. Primogeniture. Which may explain Harry’s bad attitude about being a “spare.”
We don’t have royalty in America, although, oddly, many presidents were succeeded by relatives. Adams. Harrison. Roosevelt. Bush.
Once upon a time, our presidential runner-up became Vice President. That was changed after Vice President Aaron Burr murdered Alexander Hamilton. Can you imagine Kamala as Donald Trump’s vice?
So now let’s segue from sports to civics and our New Hampshire governor succession arrangements. Sometimes, gubernatorial offspring also become Granite State governors, as in John/Chris Sununu or Hugh/Judd Gregg. But if (Heaven forbid) something happens to a sitting governor, who takes over?
Okay. I’ll tell you. The President of the Senate. (Currently Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry.)
And that creates a huge “Separation of Powers” problem, for those who care about such things.
How can we have the leader of a legislative branch simultaneously be the leader of the executive branch? Only in New Hampshire. And it’s happened more than once, but usually for very brief periods, like when a sitting governor resigns early to become a U.S. Senator, which has occurred several times. We’ve been lucky.
But what if a governor dies in office? That happened in 1982, but Hugh Gallen had already lost his re-election bid, and Senate President Vesta Roy filled out his term. John Sununu was inaugurated less than a month later. They were each from different parties, incidentally.
Had (Heaven forbid) something happened to Republican Governor Chris Sununu in 2019, Democratic Senate President Donna Soucy would have replaced him. Had (Heaven forbid) something happened to Democrat Governor John Lynch in 2011, Republican Senate President Peter Bragdon would have replaced him.
It’s nutty, and it’s extraconstitutional, but it’s the N.H. way.
Other states avoid this travesty by having lieutenant governors.
There’s a NH remedy in the works. CACR1 is a legislative proposal to create a lieutenant governor position for NH Forty-three states have Lt. Govs and sensible succession plans—unlike NH. But just because everyone else is doing something doesn’t mean we should. I’m with those who are justifiably wary of growing government. So CACR1 calls for a LtGov to run on a ticket with a gubernatorial candidate but be paid the same as the current designated successor—the Senate President, who makes $125 a year. A citizen-lieutenant governor in the spirit of our citizen legislators. I even offered to personally put up the $125 so that if CACR1 moves forward we would get two governors for the price of one. That would resolve the current succession fiasco and would double the person-power in the chief executive office, for free.
The Gov. could make the Lt. Gov a “Housing Czar” or whatever. The Lt. Gov could be sent on trade missions that would benefit NH The Gov’s office could then respond to twice as many of the countless requests that office gets for meetings, speeches, ribbon cuttings or school visits.
All for $125. Actually, for zero extra dollars, as I said I’d put up the $125.
But naysayers look askance at this proposal.
“We’ve never done that before.”
Kind of like the football coaches who scoffed at the forward pass over a century ago.
“We’ve never done that before.”
CACR1 involves a heavy lift to move forward, but supporters will give it a try.
“Heir Apparents” are important. Even Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has one—his bodyguard, Alexei Dyumin.
It’s too soon to know who the next heir apparent will be to coach the Patriots coach, but as a sports wag once pointed out, “Every coach is an interim coach.”
Ditto for governors. And even kings.
Hang in there, Prince Harry!
