Public Policy

1 Public Policy Paper In my campaign, I focused on key issues that concern Texans, which I believe separated me from the rest of the aspirants. One of the issues was controlling immigration from Mexico, which resonates well with Texans. The locals believe that the uncontrolled influx of immigrants in Texas limits their access to jobs and contributes to crime. Therefore, a promise to control immigrants from Mexico should have impressed the majority of the voters, especially those who are likely to compete for jobs with immigrants and are vulnerable to crime.

The second issue, controlling spending on social programs, is linked to increased taxation and slashing budgets for other sectors. As a result, society is more concerned about spending much on welfare, food stamps, Medicaid at the expense of development. The majority of Texans are affluent and can afford to meet their basic needs without the government's help; hence they dislike the idea of setting aside much to spend on social programs. In this respect, I think the promise to control expenditures on social programs attracted more support for my candidature.

The third issue, making sure the death penalty is applied fairly, took into account fears of Texas's unfair death penalty. The promise to do something to improve the administering of the death penalty should have appealed to the liberals, human rights groups, and any other person who feels that the death penalty is applied without observing fairness.

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The last issue that I touched on in my campaign was the promise to improve k-12 education, which affects all Texan parents with school-going children. Concerns about the quality of education in elementary school, middle school, and high school have been raised for more than five years now. By promising to improve K-12 education, I may have invoked parents' hopes of better education for their children. Consequently, they may have voted for me with the hope that I will improve the education system.

The Formal and Informal Powers of the Governor Texas As a governor, I can explore the formal and powers to pursue my agenda for Texans. My success relies on how best I can use my powers to impact society positively. The formal powers include the powers to appoint office holders for as long as the people elect me; remove persons I appointed from office; veto budgets that I do not agree with; supervise the implementation of government policies; veto legislation that I believe is not good; set legislative agenda, and judicious powers that include appointing and overseeing the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. On the other hand, informal powers include the powers of being a symbol of the party that elected me to office, popularity, the power to represent the state at the national level, power of staff, political positions, personal positions, and power of setting the agenda of the state.

The Use of Formal Powers to Get Each Policy Passed By the Legislature In addressing the unfair application of the death penalty, I would use my tenure authority to pursue the legislature to pass policies that will help improve rules and regulations that affect the execution of a death penalty. As a governor who is elected to serve for a four-year term and can be reelected as many times as I can win, I can appeal to the lawmaker to support my policies that seek to enhance justice and fairness for all who are subjected to the death penalty. I may use

3 chances of being reelected to create a network of loyal support among the legislators, especially those who wish to align with the people. The unfair application of the death penalty is a problem to a substantial chunk of Texans, who feel a need for changes to ensure fairness. Subsequently, as a governor who has a protected tenure and will be seeking reelection, I can influence lawmakers on my part to support my agenda as part of securing their political life.

I would explore the supervising powers to walk the lawmakers into a review of the K-12 education to highlight areas that need changes of further support. As a supervisor of the government functions, especially the executive, I can let the legislature know and appreciate the weaknesses in the state's education system. I may use this authority to appeal to the lawmakers to support my desire to improve areas of weaknesses in the k-12 education system. Furthermore, on improving K-12 education, I can explore my powers on the budget process to influence the lawmakers into passing policies that will support reforming our education system. Opposition to my policy would be met by a threat to veto the budget. I believe the lawmakers will be compelled to pass laws that support my government's policy on education if they realize that I may veto bills of parliament if they fail to support the agenda. I can use veto power as a last resort to influence the lawmakers to agree with my position on reforming the K-12 education to meet the desired quality. In so doing, I would remind the legislature about my dedication to serving Texans' best interest, those who elected me to be the governor.

Moreover, I would explore my legislative power to ensure that the legislature legislates policies that will control immigration from Mexico. As the governor, I can veto any legislation that does not agree with my policy-position. I would effectively threaten to use the veto on security bills that do not embrace strengthening controls on the USA-Mexico border that affect

4 Texas. In this respect, I will persuade the legislators to pass policies that take into account my interests in retracting the inflow of immigrants from Mexico.

To manage the issue of controlling spending on welfare programs, I would use the governor's two constitutionally mandated speeches to informally set the agenda of the legislature in as far as the passing of critical law to support my policies is concerned. I would invite the lawmaker to the need to either slash or impose more restrictions on spending on welfare programs. The action would include doing away with some of the existing welfare programs such as food stamps and replacing them with less expensive alternatives.

Use of Informal Power to Get Policies Passed As the representative of the state at the national level, I would leverage my position to rally the legislature behind my policy on regulating the influx of Mexican immigrants in Texas. I would highlight the importance of controlling the number of Mexican immigrants in the state with a view of protecting the welfare of those who elected us from crime and unemployment. In addressing issues of national concern, such as the problem of illegal immigrants in the US, I would appeal for the Federal government support and the state legislature to come up with legislations that support tightening controls on the USA-Mexico border. The policies would include increasing the number of border patrols.

I would use my agenda-setting authority to make sure policies on ensuring the fair application of the death penalty is passed in the legislature. I would address the state on the need to review how the death penalty is applied with a view of eradicating biases in how it is executed. Agenda setting can be achieved through the informal speeches I make in public or even letters to the leadership of the legislature.

5 I would use the power of popularity to increase funding for K-12 education passed by the legislature. I can leverage the power of popularity to get the support of the lawmakers. As a popular governor, whose campaign manifesto attracted much backup, I wield more political power than any other leader in Texas.

I would power of staff to create alliances with critical voting blocks in the ligature to get the policy to regulate spending on welfare programs. I will ensure that political positions are filled with people who can network well with the lawmakers and cannot create trouble for my office. As for mouthpieces, the staff ought to be political and professionally correct.