Public affairs professionals should keep a sharp eye on the nation's gubernatorial races if they hope to influence government policy in coming years, former Gov. Tom Ridge's chief of staff told those attending the Public Affairs Council's "State and Local Government Relations" seminar.

"This year, regardless of what happens in Washington, I think what you're going to see are dramatic changes, tough changes, coming from our nation's new governors," said Mark A. Holman, a partner with Ridge Policy Group LLC who served under President George W. Bush and under Ridge when he was Homeland Security Secretary.

Holman, who spoke at the opening session of the two-day seminar in Alexandria, Va., has worked 30 years in government, including as Ridge's chief of staff when Ridge was a congressman and later when he was Pennsylvania's governor. He pointed to several major policies that started in the offices of the nation's governors, including welfare-to-work programs, cleaning and reusing brownfields and merging the computer databases of different public safety agencies. And because it is governors who witness how federal policies affect people in their states, it's often these executives who press for change in Washington.

For instance, after multiple tornadoes raged through Pennsylvania and killed 65 people, then-Gov. Ridge grew "furious" when FEMA officials visited destroyed homes and asked families to produce private insurance documents. Ridge spent the next six years pushing Congress to change FEMA's mission so it requires "assistance first, questions later," Holman recalled.

Because it is possible as many as 30 newcomers may be elected governors after Election Day, Holman said those in public affairs should take steps now to get to know the candidates and their staffs.

"If you try to represent your interests to someone that you've taken no interest in, why should they consider you a priority?" asked Holman, who suggested giving campaign donations in person, giving them early in the election season and bypassing cocktail fundraisers for breakfast events where thinner crowds allow one to talk more intimately with candidates and their staffs.

Finally, Holman suggested that because the first couple months of a new governor's term are marked by confidence and motivation, those months are "absolutely your best time to come in with a big idea."