Alan Rosenthal, the leading expert on legislatures, called it “the best job in politics” in the title of his final book (Rosenthal 2013) as he turned to the American governor following a long career studying legislatures where he brought his expertise to bear on how to improve both their internal operations and democratic responsiveness. In making this late switch, Rosenthal came up with important new insights for our understanding of how governors work, how they get things done and, in particular, the strategies they use to get their way. As Rosenthal (2013) writes, “We may know about individual governors in our own states, but we know relatively little about the species.” Putting aside for the moment whether we (or voters) really do know much about individual governors, it is the bigger question of what we know about the species that also is the genesis of this book.