MI-Gov: Statewide Recruitment Thread

Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm of Michigan is term-limited out of the governor’s mansion in 2010. Who should run in her place? And who will step forward for the GOP?

65 thoughts on “MI-Gov: Statewide Recruitment Thread”

  1. That GOP Rep. Candace Miller might run. Has there been any evidence that she’ll actually do it. And if so, who do we have ready to run to fill Gov. Granholm’s shoes? Bart Stupak? Sander Levin? Someone holding statewide office?

    After all the gains we’ve made here, it’d suck to give any of ’em back.

  2. For the Dems, Lt. Gov. Cherry is running. Fmr. Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer already announced that he is not. That sucks, as Archer would have been a good candidate. There are a few other options, Bart Stupak among them. He’d be a decent choice, I think. Our bench is actually fairly weak, but we do have a strong Majority in the State House, and with the ridiculous term limits, it’s possible we could pull a strong candidate from there. House Speaker Andy Dillon could run, but I’d rather he run for Congress in the Eleventh.

    The Republicans have a decent bench, but I am hopeful that ambition will lead to a bloody primary and the nominee will come out weakened. Secratary of State Terry Lynn Land may run. AG Mike Cox (a real tool) is probably going to throw his hat in the ring. Rep. Candice Miller has been mentioned, but I think she’s an uninspiring choice. And, of course, there’s always the hope that Amway Guy will run. He’s the best case scenario (losing big against an unpopular incumbent while spending $35+ million. That’s the kind of guy you want to run against!)

    I also think that Michigan could be ripe for a Huey Long style Governor. Could be a Democrat or a Republican, really. Just someone who runs on a platform of “Michigan vs. The World,” and is able to convince Michiganders that his radical agenda is the only solution to our economic woes. So watch out for that, as this state’s economy is so poor, it’ll be very easy to get people to sign on to a radical change they’d ordinarily denounce as extremism.

  3. Looks like the Republicans will go with the AG, but is Michigan really going to give them a chance after handing Obama a pretty sizable win?

    Off-topic, it looks like zombie Ed Case is going to run for something, anything, in Hawaii in 2010.  He doesn’t know yet.  Might be governor or he might primary one of the representatives.

    God will he just disappear already?

  4. could be attractive in 2010 for a progressive politician.  Michigan’s economy has been suffering for many years, and if the Dems can settle on a progressive candidate, they could turn that state around.

    That being said, I don’t know who the Dems could tout as the best candidate.

  5. The mayor of Flint Dick Williamson is listed on Politics1 as running already but I can’t see him winning.

    There’s just something about LG John Cherry that says “also ran” to me, but if Dennis Archer isn’t running (which I hadn’t seen) he’s probably the favorite.

    Another candidate that I’m hearing talk about, though I can’t understand why, is State Representative Kate Elbi (who was a business executive prior to politics, currently represents the Monroe County area).  Elbi has proven to be a strong fundraiser for a state representative but I can’t see her winning statewide (and I thought her predessor, Herb Kehrl was looking to be a better State Rep than she is now prior to him falling ill).  

    Andy Dillon, statehouse speaker, would be a bad bet statewide, as he’s gotten a lot of the crap for some of the more idiotic elements of the MBT law that passed on his watch.  Though he did get re-elected with something resembling 2/3 of the vote (I didn’t compute the percentages but 28,000 approx. compared to 14,000 should work out to roughly 67%).

    Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackell (D) recently announced he was looking at running for Governor also.  He is a political dynasty (father was previously sheriff of the county, which is Michigan’s 3rd largest) but, while popular in Macomb County, I’m not sure how he’d play statewide.

  6. that I haven’t seen mentioned is long-time Rep. Peter Hoekstra from MI-02 (conservative part of western Michigan), who’s not committed but looking into the governor’s race. Strikes me as odd, since he’s always presented himself as more of a foreign affairs guy, but maybe he’s sick of being in the minority.

  7. I don’t know much about Michigan state politics. Is John Cherry a good politician or are we going to be the underdog here in 2010?

    One thing that surprises me is that Jennifer Granholm has not been mentioned during the tranisition period for a position in the Obama administration. Isn’t she involved in the transition at some level? I seem to remember seeing her standing on stage behind Obama and Biden at one of the press conferences.

    It would be great to get her in there somewhere to give Cherry a two year head start (a la soon-to-be Gov. Diane Denish in New Mexico).

  8. that I like John Cherry, and I hope he will be the next governor, but he’s not well known at all statewide.  So what I am really hoping for//half-expecting is that Jennifer Granholm will be appointed secretary of Labor.  The Washington post or something recently listed her as the number one most likely candidate for that appointment.  This is the best case scenario for keeping a Dem in the governors mansion through 2012.  

    Cherry will become governor and have two years of incumbency and built up name recognition, and it will likely scare off any Democratic primary challengers (not that we have anyone good anyway.)  And he gets the fundraising advantages of being an imcumbent and it could scare away some strong Republicans.  

    If this doesn’t happen and Cherry doesn’t run for some reason, although he’s already hinted that he intends to, I guess we’ve got Bart Stupak, and I love him as my congressman, but that damnable accent that half the people up here in da U.P. seem to have could hurt him downstate (if you’ve ever heard him speak, you know what I’m talking about)  Other than that we’ve got about no one, as Dennis Archer has declared that he won’t run.  Andy Dillon could work, although he was targeted by a recall lately (although, in his defense, it was by crazy anti-tax conservatives) and he isn’t well known statewide.  My state senator Mike Prusi, who is also the senate minority leader, will be term limited, although I’ve always thought of him as a replacement for Stupak when he retires.  There are a handfull of other State Senators who could be viable candidates if no one else steps up, but I think that that is unlikely.

    I’ve commented many times before on the importance of retaking the state senate, so I’m not going to get into that now except to say that Mark Schauer will be vacating his seat in the senate to go to Washington soon, and there will be a special election for his district.  Obama won the district, but it was historically republican.  Republicans recruited an excellent candidate in retiring state rep. Mike Nofs, who is a moderate who formerly represented Battle Creek.  Democrats have also scored a decent recruit in state Rep. Mike Griffin of Jackson, but this district could be tough to hold, and if we lose, that sets us back in our attempts to regain the senate in 2010.

  10. John Cherry’s a great man, who does an excellent job of connecting with people and has a history of caring most about the issues that really matter to people in Michigan, like protecting the Great Lakes, manufacturing jobs, and higher education. He was chair of the international Great Lakes Commission, and was elected by his fellow Lt. Governors to chair the National Lt. Governor’s Association – clearly, his colleagues know how sharp he is. While his name recognition isn’t that high across the state yet, John Cherry will be formidable candidate in 2010, and right now is by far the man to beat.

  11. Just a quick question regarding NY-Sen… I just saw at HuffPo that Caroline Kennedy is being considered as possible replacement for Hillary…

    Where did that even come from!?  I mean if anything, I’d think RFK Jr. would be the Kennedy whose name we’re hearing.  The last one I’d expect would be Caroline.

  12. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI-02) is running. It’s pretty much the worst-kept secret on earth. Mike Cox and Secretary of Stateobably in, too. It’ll be fun to watch them rip each other apart. The eventual winner is probably Terri Land, if she runs.

    • Mike Cox has ethics issues. For starters, we’ll hang his contributions around his neck.
    • Same thing with Terri Land. If she runs, she has a good shot, though. She has a squeaky-clean image even if there’s a seedy underbelly. The upside to a Land or Cox governorship is that MDP has figured out how to win the lesser statewide races (the ones no one really pays attention to until they’re in the voting booth–we won a Supreme Court race this year by 10 points), so a Cox or Land vacancy probably means a Dem pickup at that level.
    • Candice Miller’s daughter was just popped for drunk driving and Miller’s statement made it sound like it was an ongoing thing. I’m not at all saying that this is a campaign issue that should be used against her, but she may choose not to run.
    • Pete Hoekstra. Pete’s my rep, and I’ll make it my personal mission to sandbag him.

    On our side, paging any good candidates…any good candidates, please pick up the white courtesy phone. John Cherry’s probably in, but he’s not exactly a compelling candidate (he’s also a good friend of organized labor, so his candidacy probably depends on the outcome of Bailoutpalooza). Anybody from Detroit can pretty much fugghedaboudit after Kwame, and Dennis Archer’s not running anyway.  

  13. I’d like to second the opinion offered earlier on the importance of winning the Michigan State Senate in 2010.  The State Senate has historically been a hard chamber for the Democrats to win.  Since the 1964 redistricting after Baker v. Carr (that required the state to follow the Supreme Court’s one person-one vote formulation), the Democrats have controlled the upper chamber for only 12 of the past 44 years, and have been in the minority since the great tax revolt and recall in 1984.  Hence, the GOP has controlled this chamber for almost 25 years through excellent redistricting and solid candidate recruitment.  

    2010 is possibly the best chance for the Dems to pick up some state senate seats.  Of the 38 seats in the chamber 30 seats are open, providing for the opposing party a better party to pick up an open seat.  Of the 13 seats that are swing seats or leaning Democratic/Republicans districts, the Republicans currently control 8.  Three Republicans seats on the west-side of the state (the 29th in Grand Rapids, the 20th in Kalamazoo County, and the 34th in Muskegon) are very decent pickup possibilities, as is the 7th District (western Wayne County), the 17th (Monroe and Washtenaw Counties), and the 32nd (eastern Genesee County).  If the Democrats can pick up four of these seats they could control the chamber by a 21 to 17 seat margin.

    This depends on whether they can hold Mark Schurer’s district (19th District).  As noted by another poster, the GOP has put up a great candidate, and the Dems have as well.  I would give this district a slight Democratic lean, just because the state GOP is in deep disarray, and that the Democratic candidate has a decent financial edge over Mike Nofs.  We’ll wait and see on this race.

    For the Governor’s race, expect a GOP bloodbath over the next few years.  There are four legitimate GOP candidates (Cox, Hoekstra, Miller, and Land), and the geographic and ideological differences between these folks are serious.  It will be an interesting primary.  On the Democratic side, I think that Cherry will be a strong candidate, but he really needs some incumbency and a strong geographic balance for the rest of the Dem ticket (a Democrat from the west side for AG or SOS, and a Detroit Dem for the other position) to ensure a solid effort.  We’ll see how the situation evolves over the next 18 months.  

  14. She said she wanted Joe Knollenbergs seat on Appropriations. like the day after he lost, kinda cruel… Shes going to stay in Washington.

    -Dick Devos (R) is out

    -Dennis Archer (D) is out

    Robert Ficano Wayne County Executive (D) is talking about it, especially if hes credided with saving the Auto industry. (20% of the state population is in wayne county)

    Mark Hackel Macomb County Sheriff (D) Very Popular in Macomb. (8% of the state population is in macomb)

    Mike Cox Attorney General (R) is running hard and going for broke.

    John Cherry LT Gov. (D) is in,Nice guy, he will be the absolute favorite if Granholm gets a spot in the Obama Administration

    Don WIlliamson Mayor of Flint (D) I would never vote for him, He’s a millionaire and a convicted Felon time for him to retire! but he’s running.

    Dan Kildee Genesee County Treasurer (D) Is talking about running, Nephew of Congress Dale Kildee from Flint. Great Guy, but he had said he won’t run is John CHerry is running because they are Genesee County buds. (There might be a congressman Dan Kildee Some day though!)

    These are the for sures who are and who are not running, there are still a lot of maybe’s!

  15. John Cherry has by far the greatest resume of any of the dems that might run for governor. He may not have the name recognition at this point, but that will come once people see all that he has done for Michigan. He is the kind of guy that will run and people will be saying “why haven’t I heard of this guy before?”

    His qualifications are exceptional, his reputation impeccable. He has earned the respect of his peers, while at the same time I can’t remember reading a bad thing about him (so the press must think he is pretty good).

    Others will run, but I can’t see any other outcome than Cherry winning it. It’s just the smartest choice.

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