For some candidates, the issue is how to make e-government more accessible. For others, the problem is about allegations of waste and misplaced priorities. What the voters see in the issue remains to be seen.
In several states, including Vermont and New Hampshire, gubernatorial candidates are vying to bolster e-government as a way to improve the lives of taxpayers and the way government operates.
In New Hampshire, Craig Benson, a businessman who is running against state senator Mark Fernald, is promising to upgrade the state's e-government from "version 1.0 to something that's user-friendly and open 24 x 7," according to press reports.
In Vermont, both candidates for governor are pushing to improve the state's use of technology. With Gov. Howard Dean not running for re-election, two challengers, Lt. Gov. Doug Racine and State Treasurer James Douglass, are campaigning for the state's top political position.
Both candidates are pushing similar economic agendas -- according to campaign coverage from The Burlington Free Press -- both say they want to provide the mountainous state with blanket cell phone coverage; both are advocating for more e-government; and both have promised to upgrade the job of the state's chief information officer.
The most recent e-gov hubbub has erupted in Wisconsin. Incumbent Scott McCallum is running against Attorney General Jim Doyle. On September 30, Doyle attacked McCallum for creating a state Department of Electronic Government, calling it a "colossal mistake," according to a report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The challenger cited a Brown University survey of electronic government that ranked Wisconsin 46th in the country. Doyle has proposed eliminating the department if elected. McCallum's campaign retorted that electronic government hasn't cost Wisconsin's taxpayers anything and has, in fact, saved the state nearly $18 million so far.
Perhaps the nastiest battle involving e-government, is taking place in Arkansas. Incumbent Gov. Mike Huckabee is locked in a race with challenger Jimmie Lou Fisher, the state treasurer. Back in August, Fisher blasted Huckabee for putting too much emphasis on electronic government and not enough on education and other priorities.
"He's chosen to be No. 1 in e-government instead of No. 1 in education," Fisher said in a speech, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.
Actually the focus of Fisher's attack wasn't so much e-government, but ERP. Arkansas was one of the first states to build an Enterprise Resource Planning system that integrates many finance and human resource functions. But the system, the Arkansas Administrative Statewide Information System, has been plagued with problems that have been widely reported by the press in the state.
Fisher noted that the system's cost matches the $56 million shortfall the state was facing this summer.
Fisher has decided to make an issue of the governor's focus on technology at the expense of other state priorities. The state treasurer cited Huckabee's push to become the first state with ERP, along with Arkansas' high electronic-government ranking -- from the same Brown University survey -- while student performance ranks near the bottom nationally.
Huckabee's response has been to say that his challenger -- and the press -- have distorted his record. The Republican governor told the Democrat-Gazette that if he walked on water from North Little Rock to Little Rock, headlines would read: "Governor Can't Swim."
