And The Winner Is... 2And The Winner Is... 2

College bowl games aren't the only place you'll find fierce state rivalries. State CIOs battle for bragging rights, too. Illinois and Kansas tied for the top spot in the 2001 Digital State Survey, conducted by the Center for Digital Government, a research institute that tracks government IT initiatives. They ended Washington state's three-year winning streak in the survey, which gauges states' use of IT to deliver services to citizens. Categories include E-commerce, social services, law enforcement, and education.

"When I met Washington's [former] CIO [Steve Kolodney] last year, I told him we were going to beat them," says Mary Reynolds, Illinois' chief technology officer. The co-winners were followed by Washington, Maryland, and Arizona.