Gov. Leavitt's legacy

Traveling a highway in rural Cache County, Gov. Mike Leavitt once boasted he could talk to Holstein cows. Not Angus cows or Herefords, just Holsteins.

As the teasing died down, Lt. Gov. Olene Walker suggested it was time to put up or shut up. So, Leavitt ordered the car to the side of the road, climbed to a nearby fence and began mooing to a herd of cows in the distance. The Holsteins promptly ambled up to the governor.

When it came to calling Holsteins, Leavitt did exactly what he said he would do.

After more than a decade in office, calling cows may turn out to be a whole lot easier than steering the ship of state. And doing everything he promised he would do has remained a work in progress.

"We planted a lot of seeds in the first and second terms, and we have to make sure we are ready to harvest them before the end of the third term," Leavitt said, who at 52 is 18 months away from 12 years in office. "And we've planted a few that could use a fourth term. There would still be plenty to do."

Whether or not Leavitt runs for an unprecedented fourth term in 2004, his legacy is already being written.

Leavitt, a second-generation GOP officeholder, will certainly be remembered as the governor with big ideas. Perhaps never before has a governor tried to tackle so many major issues in so many different political arenas.

"It is ingrained in his nature to tackle a lot of different things," said Walker, who has watched the governor through 2 1/2 terms as he "tackled one thing and then he's off and running to another."

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