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"Governors that seem to do best are the governors that come in steeped in legislative backgrounds" and have held leadership positions, he said. "The traditional route is to be in politics before running for governor."

Coming from politics

Perdue has thinner management credentials than Moore or Smith, but she has the long political resume that includes eight years as lieutenant governor and 14 years in the legislature.

She points to her efforts developing proposals on school nutrition, using a commission she leads, as evidence of her ability to use resources she has to change policies.

"I never have believed that leadership or results should be defined by the office," she said. "It's defined by the person who holds it."

Republican Bob Orr, a former state Supreme Court justice, discounts the notion that governors need to have experience as managers.

Governors need to pick good managers, he said, not run everything themselves.

"You have to rely on good people, and you set the overall policies and overall operation for state government," Orr said.

Successful candidates for governor rarely come out of nowhere, said Kettl, the political scientist in Pennsylvania.

"Being governor is not a starting job for anybody," he said. "You have to have done something to establish enough name recognition and enough confidence on the part of voters that you can do what it takes to run the state."

Republican Bill Graham is trying to be the rare example of the first-time candidate who wins a governor's race. Graham is using his successful citizens campaign to cap the gas tax as a launching pad to the Capitol. He says that as governor he can use those grassroots techniques and the ability to rally support to help get initiatives through the legislature.

His job as managing partner at a law firm that employs about 90 people will help him understand the less glamorous parts of the job, he said. Graham said he can bring the concept of "zero-based budgeting" -- justifying spending on programs every year -- from the law firm to state government.

Nationally, some well-known mayors have used their local reputations to gain statewide office. Pat McCrory, as Charlotte mayor, has power uncommon to most big-city mayors in North Carolina because he can veto council actions.

He hasn't always had his way. The council approved a tax increase in 2006 despite his veto. But he points to times he was able to turn the tide as evidence of his ability to sway politicians of both parties to his way of thinking.

"My vetoes have been sustained by forming a coalition of both Republicans and Democrats," said McCrory, who says he can do the same in state government.

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