Former Governors to Share Insights Into the Challenges of Public Office
Michael Dukakis
Former Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle and former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis will discuss their time in office, the challenges of contemporary governance and the importance of public service during a special presentation on Tuesday, Feb. 4, at California State University, Northridge.
The event is scheduled to take place at 7 p.m. in the Grand Salon of the University Student Union, located on the east side of the campus off Zelzah Avenue.
“Both Gov. Lingle and Gov. Dukakis served multiple terms,. and they are both from states that have some interesting things in common,” said Lawrence Becker, chair of CSUN’s Department of Political Science, which is organizing the event. “While Dukakis is a Democrat and was governor of a solidly Democratic state, a lot of its people are conservative Democrats. Lingle is a Republican and she had to work with a legislature that was dominated by Democrats. While governor, they both had to build bridges across the divide.
Linda Lingle
“They are both governors who are very focused on public policy, public service and on the idea of serving in public office to try to make peoples’ lives better,” Becker said. “Their presentation is going to be a wide-ranging discussion on politics, policy and what it is like to govern in this era of polarizing ideological politics.”
Michael Dukakis was governor of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979, and again from 1983 to 1991. In 1988, he was the Democratic nominee for president of the United States. Since leaving office in 1991, he has been a distinguished professor of political science at Northeastern University and a visiting professor in the School of Public Affairs at UCLA.
Lingle, who earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from CSUN in 1975, served as governor of Hawaii from 2002 to 2010. Lingle was the sixth elected governor of Hawaii and the first woman to hold that position. She received the university’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2004. She is teaching a senior seminar course on public policy in CSUN’s Department of Political Science this semester.
The presentation is free and open to the public. Parking on the CSUN campus is $6. For more information about the event, call the Department of Political Science at (818) 677-3488.
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