I wouldn’t have voted for him again anyway, but Gov. Matt Blunt’s announcement last week that he would not seek re-election came as a surprise.

His decision not to run for a second term was successfully kept a secret, which is the way the boy governor from Greene County obviously would have preferred to conduct all state business. I can’t blame him for that considering all the heat he has taken recently from the news media. Damn media, always nosing into the public’s business.

In announcing his decision, Gov. Blunt said he had accomplished everything he wanted to do in his first term so there was no need to spend another four years under the merciless and unfair scrutiny of the state’s news establishment. He actually didn’t make any reference to the news media, but you almost could tell he was thinking about something else.

Perhaps it was about how unfairly the news media treated him when he successfully slashed health care for 100,000 needy Missourians (mission accomplished); or when he dismantled the state’s student loan program (mission accomplished). Or maybe it was when he fired a lawyer who tried to explain to the governor and the governor’s staff that purging E-mails about state business from computers was in violation of the state’s Open Records and Meetings Law and then, when the fired lawyer went public, pulling a junior high school attempt to besmirch the whistle blower’s reputation (mission not accomplished).

Matt Blunt was elected governor by the people, but he was never of the people. He gave the appearance of aloofness with just a little hint of arrogance to boot. He never seemed comfortable talking with people. I twice had lunch with the governor at his mostly unused Jefferson City mansion, courtesy of the Missouri Press Association and Associated Press annual Newspaper Day at the Capitol. Oh yeah, I’ve had lunch in the mansion with several governors, me and a 100 or so other newspaper publishers and editors.

If Blunt seemed uncomfortable talking to people, he definitely was ill at ease in a room full of nosy, muckraking newspaper people.

I had high expectations of Matt Blunt as governor of Missouri. He was young, smart, well educated (at the U.S. Naval Academy no less) and a veteran. He would get the state back on the right track, I thought. But disillusionment set in early during the boy governor’s first term, and progressed to full disenchantment. When it appeared that the 2008 race for governor would be between the first-term Republican incumbent and Democrat Attorney General Jay Nixon, I made up my mind to vote for Nixon.

Now before the Republican Central Committee starts heating up the tar bucket and begins plucking feathers from a bunch of chickens for my unceremonious ride out of Gasconade County on a rail, Blunt’s announcement changes the picture considerably. There will, no doubt, be a host of qualified Republicans eager to file for the governor’s office this year.

State Treasurer Sarah Steelman, who used to be our state senator, already has declared. Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, if he hasn’t by the time you read this, likely also will announce his candidacy. Other prominent Republicans also are expected to give the run for Missouri governor serious consideration.

Exiting the gubernatorial spotlight, Gov. Blunt is keeping his future political plans and ambitions close to the vest, no big surprise there. He says he wants to spend more time with his wife and son and I hope he means that.

In the meantime, governor, what’s your hurry? Here’s your hat.