'Thirsty for Elon': Local politicians across America are copying the DOGE playbook

Here a DOGE, there a DOGE, everywhere a DOGE.

Republican and libertarian leaders in at least 18 states, counties, and towns across America are dreaming up their own versions of the headline-grabbing federal initiative — and more could follow.

The push is happening through executive orders and legislative action as governors, state lawmakers, and business executives promise to root out what they view as waste and fraud within state governments. And they've adopted quirky names, including the GOAT committee in Wisconsin and FLOGE in Florida. One state even has a BullDOGEr on the case.

Assemblyman Alex Sauickie of New Jersey, a Republican who sponsored a DOGE bill in his state, said efficiency in spending was king. "We're going to have to make those decisions and say, 'Hey, we can't be funding minor league ballparks or tennis courts or dominoes clubs with taxpayer money,'" he said. The state auditor would lead the group, alongside 20 members of the public.

Democratic leaders are more circumspect. Those who spoke with Business Insider view the DOGE clones as attempts by the right to appeal to President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who is viewed as DOGE's de facto face. And many expressed fear over the prospect of losing funding at both the federal level and the state level.

Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani of the Florida House of Representatives said: "We are seeing conservative politicians just be thirsty for Elon Musk."

Oklahoma, Iowa, North Carolina, oh my

In Oklahoma, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt announced the launch of DOGE-OK early last month during his State of the State address.

"Once there was this national push for DOGE, the governor wanted to make sure that we've turned over all the rocks that need to be turned over in our state government," Abegail Cave, Stitt's communications director, told BI.

Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa, meanwhile, signed an executive order last month to create a state DOGE. Emily Schmitt, a business executive tapped to lead the effort, didn't offer up many details, since efforts are still in the early days — a common theme among many of the officials who spoke with BI. But she said it planned to prioritize efficient spending and technology like artificial intelligence.

Over 1,000 miles away in North Carolina, Republican Rep. Keith Kidwell of the state's House of Representatives said that his mini-DOGE could examine how to restructure agencies like the Department of Motor Vehicles or modernize computer systems — as long as there's a return on investment for taxpayers. Kidwell has even adopted a nickname to show his support: the BullDOGEr, a wink at his reputation as Bulldog of the House.

"I'm not trying to go on a witch hunt," Kidwell said. "I'm going on a tax hunt."

'Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery'

Experts said that they largely viewed these initiatives as efforts to mimic what's happening in Washington.

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," said Richard Briffault, a law professor at Columbia University who studies state and local governments. He said that many of the states looking to establish mini-DOGEs already have long-serving Republican governors — Reynolds, for instance, has been governor since 2017 — and red legislatures.

"Why can't these issues be addressed through the usual executive oversight?" he said. "It does have a kind of gimmicky feel to it."

Alicia Andrews, the chair of Oklahoma's Democratic Party, pointed to Stitt's six years as governor in a majority-Republican state. "If there's wasteful spending, it happened on his watch," she said. And North Carolina's House Democratic leader, Robert Reives, told BI that residents had been complaining about the DMV for years.

Stitt and Reynolds say their tenures are a selling point. Stitt said he'd "been DOGE-ing in Oklahoma since January of 2019," while Reynolds said her state was "doing DOGE before DOGE was a thing." And when Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida announced the creation of a Florida DOGE task force, he said: "We were DOGE before DOGE was cool."

Still, many officials said that they wouldn't have proposed mini-DOGEs if it weren't for Musk and Trump.

Without a federal DOGE, "there would be no cry from the public to create one in South Carolina," Republican Sen. Larry Grooms of the South Carolina Senate, a cosponsor of his state's DOGE bill, said.

"It's not unusual for states to mimic good ideas at the federal level," Republican Assemblyman Christopher DePhillips, another sponsor of New Jersey's DOGE bill, said. And while he expressed worry that some of the "dysfunctional" elements of the federal DOGE effort might tarnish his bill, others were more than happy with the connection.

Republican Rep. Tiffany Esposito of Florida's House of Representatives, who introduced a separate state DOGE — or FLOGE — said that she'd be thrilled if Musk called her.

"I would like to talk about a lot of things with Elon," she said. He's "arguably the most successful person in our country," she added.

A county and town DOGE

In Wisconsin, Republican state Rep. Amanda Nedweski chairs a DOGE-inspired initiative called the Assembly Committee on Government Operations, Accountability, and Transparency — or GOAT.

Nedweski said that the federal DOGE may inspire even more downstream copycats. "Now even at the school district level, there's a public demand for: 'We need a school district DOGE,'" she said.

Take Weston Wamp, the mayor of Hamilton County, Tennessee, who created a DOGE-inspired task force made up of six people he appointed, including himself. He said they'd meet regularly to discuss and make recommendations around ways to cut costs — cataloging chronically empty job positions, for example, or using property assets better. He described it as "most akin to a spring cleaning."

Mayor Aron Lam of Keenesburg, a libertarian, established a local DOGE advisory committee in his small Colorado town at the suggestion of party leadership. It's made up of three people who applied, with input from the town manager and treasurer, and plans to provide recommendations on how to save taxpayer dollars and make the town more efficient.

In the past few weeks, Lam told BI, almost 60 people from towns nationwide had reached out to him about establishing their own mini-DOGEs.

"The efforts that Elon Musk started, and that President Trump really supported and started to implement that at the federal level," he said, were "certainly inspirational."

A double whammy

Matt Grossmann, a political science professor at Michigan State University, said that the mini-DOGEs' focus on cost cutting could backfire. "No one's for waste, fraud, and abuse," he said. "But obviously, one person's waste is another person's vital program."

Megan Ellyia Green, the president of the Board of Alderman in St. Louis, said that the possibility of losing both federal funding from DOGE and state funding from Missouri's mini-DOGE initiative weighed on her. "We're expecting everything except for, basically, police to be on the chopping block," she said.

For Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman of Missouri's upper chamber, the Republican chair of the state's DOGE group in the Senate, the money that could end up in taxpayers' pockets is worth it.

"When you do this kind of upheaval, you're going to crack a few eggs," she said.

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