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When I finished my term, I thought about running for governor then but decided not to because, frankly, I didn't think I was ready. I wasn't comfortable that I was prepared to do the job.

Every governor's got tough choices to make.

My nomination to be Governor was not to gratify ambition.

That's a large part of the job as governor: to create and maintain the optimal balance.

I was the governor that drew a tough, tough straw. I was governor during the worst recession since the 1930s, and I had to cut $5 billion from the state budget.

It's my job as governor to set a vision.

The governor's not allowed to drive. That's part of the life you accept.

It's hard running as an independent. I wouldn't have won the Senate election if I hadn't been governor. I had credibility. The hard part is getting voters to the point where they think it's thinkable and not a waste of time.

Running to do a job as important as the governor's shouldn't be easy; it should take a lot of work, and I'm out there giving my best every day.

When I was elected Governor, we had an audacious agenda that naysayers said couldn't be enacted with a Democrat majority in the state legislature. However, we worked across party lines and enacted historic reforms. Working together, we cut taxes by more than $600 million.