As someone who observed much of Locke's governorship first-hand, I would say that just as he looks better on paper than in practice as a national candidate, so he wasn't nearly as good a governor as he should have been. He was sort of a Naderite parody of a cautious Democrat -- when it came to political capital, his accumulation-to-spending ratio was roughly 100-0, and in particular he was notably ineffectual in responding to the tax reform nitwits trying to emulate California's wonderfully effective fiscal straitjacket.
Having said that, commerce secretary seems like a good job for him; he was a competent enough administrator, this job doesn't require bold agenda-setting, and he certainly won't rock any boats.
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