The Skill Set the Governor’s Job Should Require

Many political careers focus on messaging, coalition building, and navigating procedure. Those are important skills. But they are not the same skills required to evaluate complex, high-cost, long-term decisions under uncertainty — decisions that demand rigorous due diligence, scenario testing, and accountability before commitments are made.

We are talking billions lost through false starts, bad assumptions, and faulty analysis.

For nearly two decades, I worked in business brokerage — a field where due diligence is not optional. Every transaction required deep financial analysis, risk assessment, scenario modeling, and an honest evaluation of human behavior and incentives.

In business brokerage, there is no hiding behind process or intention. A deal either works or it doesn’t. And when it fails, the cost is immediate and personal.

That kind of environment trains you to ask hard questions before money, time, and trust are irreversibly committed:

·       What assumptions could break?

·       What happens if demand changes?

·       Where are incentives misaligned?

·       What does failure look like — and how do we limit the damage?

I’m not claiming to have all the answers.I’m claiming to have spent my career learning how to ask the right questions before committing resources that affect other people’s lives and cost the taxpayers billions of dollars.

That distinction matters.

— Wes Brown

Candidate for Governor