Governors Push for State Health Programs (AP)

By ROBERT TANNER, AP National Writer

NEW YORK - A national campaign by the states' governors is using everything from bike rides with the South Carolina governor to anti-smoking statutes to try and get Americans to eat and smoke less and exercise more.

"Across 50 states, you have innovations taking place that are changing the discussion," Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, this year's chairman of the National Governors Association, said Monday. "The health issue is beginning to eclipse the health care issue."

Huckabee, who has explored the possibility of a presidential run in 2008, is visiting with a national advertising group in New York this week to talk about ways to get the message out. Later, he'll travel to Tennessee, where he and Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen will take part in a televised discussion about health with students.

Huckabee has been a driving force behind the governors' effort to target obesity and unhealthy behavior, a campaign that's been funded in part by companies including Kraft Foods, PepsiCo and Wal-Mart.

The effort has varied from state-to-state. A new Arkansas law bans smoking in nearly every workplace, and in any car where a child under 6 is traveling.

"It's a matter of helping a lifestyle, a mindset, begin to develop," said Huckabee, a Republican who can make a personal argument for changing behavior. After being diagnosed with diabetes, he changed his diet, began to exercise and lost 110 pounds.

He and more than two dozen other governors have dubbed the first week of May "Healthy America Week."

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National Governors Association: http://www.nga.org