Politics & Power Quote by Roy Romer

Romer’s line reads like a compliment to “the people who’ve done the work,” but it’s really a credentialing argument with a velvet glove. By praising “significant experience at state level” and “hands-on” grassroots involvement, he’s drawing a boundary around who gets to be taken seriously in politics: not the parachuted-in celebrity, not the Washington résumé-builder, not the theorist with a white paper, but the operator who has had to win in messy, local reality.

The repetition is the tell. “Experience” appears in multiple costumes - “state level,” “run campaigns,” “deeply involved,” “grass roots,” “actual hands-on” - piling up like a prosecutorial brief. That accumulation does two things at once: it frames political competence as practical and earned, and it quietly suggests that someone in the conversation lacks those scars. Romer isn’t just describing an ideal; he’s creating a yardstick.

The phrase “something to be said” is classic political understatement, a way to signal preference without sounding exclusionary. It also hints at internal party debate: moments when leadership is choosing between insurgent energy and establishment governability, between national messaging and local coalition-building. Romer, a Democratic governor shaped by statehouse pragmatism, is making the case that governing isn’t a vibe. It’s a discipline learned in county fairs, field offices, and state budgets - the unglamorous arenas where slogans meet vetoes, and where you find out whether your coalition is real.