Mid-Michigan readers can hear Rick Cole every Wednesday at approximately 6:35 a.m. on Lansing radio station WILS 1320’s “am Lansing” program hosted by Walt Sorg.

Memo to Next Governor

by Richard Cole
January 16, 2010

To: Anyone Considering Running for Governor
From: Richard Cole
Subject: The Winning Strategy

Considering running for governor? You should be asking yourself if you need your head examined. No sober adult should hope for this job without great trepidation.

More than 30 years ago, American psychologist Martin Seligman (Helplessness, 1975) informed us that much of mental illness, especially depression, can be explained by “learned helplessness.” Humans are eventually overwhelmed, sometimes to the point of paralysis, when we view life’s circumstances as beyond our ability to control them.

Former Michigan Governor George Romney and I talked about this concept when, in his twilight years, we collaborated on a bipartisan volunteerism coalition in Detroit. George saw opportunities where other people would see despair. Get people making differences in other people’s lives and they will “unlearn” the helplessness that restricts their own development.

That’s the secret benefit of volunteerism, we would say. By helping someone take even one small step that makes a difference in another person’s life, you show him/her that he/she is not as helpless as the circumstances might otherwise suggest. Here is why that might matter to you.

You are going to have to be a miracle worker to be successful as Michigan’s next governor. To begin with, you’ll have to be a shameless Michauvinist — not afraid to say what makes Michigan special. That’s table stakes.

Cheerleading is important for any leader, but it’s going to take more than cheerleading to restart this state. Many of us already live in despair. We see the challenges as overwhelming. And we will greet anyone with a positive message with cynicism that could kill off the enthusiasm of even the most inspired leader. You have to stand up to that.

The election will be here in the blink of an eye. The key to your success hinges on your ability to design a strategy that flows seamlessly from the campaign into your four-year term. Cutting to the chase, you need a strategy that harnesses the energy of the state’s leading special interest groups. Political consultants and partisans will tell you this strategy won’t work. They’ll tell you that the electorate needs controversy to get interested in you. They’ll say: “Get elected first. After that you can decide how you want to manage.”

Consultants run campaigns pitting one interest against another, after all. But there’s no percentage in a politics-as-usual approach here. You need everybody rowing in the same direction. If you can get the state’s special interests behind a common vision for rebuilding Michigan, you have half a chance to be successful.

Get out there and provide the surge of energy to get the state on track to a new future. You can’t do that by pandering to the special interests. Give them more credit than that. Your shot at success requires telling them that you’ll have to take some actions that they perceive to be in conflict with their political interests. We can’t afford to write off any special interest groups. We’ll need them all.

But their support has to be on terms that make sense. And no matter how much you need political money, you can’t afford to finance your campaign in trade for promises of political protection. Remember, winning the election without preserving the freedom that will allow you to lead the state through a four-year rebuilding process would be the worst thing you could do.

Your success — and Michigan’s — must begin with the recognition that these special interest groups have two characteristics that make them extremely valuable. They are well organized, and they aren’t going anywhere. Phase one in this strategy requires that you stand up to them, appeal to them for help, talk to them about what they will do to help you turn the state around, and give them real roles they can play right now to help you get ready to put the state on a new track. But don’t back down.

Don’t worry about building an election campaign. You need to spend the next 60 days building a campaign to awaken Michigan’s network of established special interest groups to the reality that the only way their interests survive here is if the public interest is served first. You have to get them on a higher road, now.

Don’t count on the legislature to be of much help in this regard. The limitation we imposed on the length of their terms of office created a condition under which it is unfair for us to expect the legislature to have either sufficient historical perspective or vision to do anything other than get in your way. Show them the respect they deserve, and give them the benefit of the doubt, but don’t expect them to put the state’s interest ahead of partisan politics.

To have any hope of making this governor’s job worth taking, you should spend your energy on building a diverse coalition of state interest group leaders who are committed to excellence in a few key arenas like:

• Building an education system that looks toward the future;
• Modernizing the state’s transportation and technology infrastructure;
• Making the state equally hospitable for job seekers and job producers; and
• Providing a sufficiently stable and robust tax base needed to reverse the state’s downward spiral.

That’s right — taxes.

To have any chance for success, you are going to have to use this brief campaign period to negotiate a wide-scale agreement among the 75 to 100 key special interest groups in Michigan. Get them to agree to set aside, for the next four years, those wedge issues that divide the center. And get them to agree to avoid raising the incendiary issues that incite the lunatic fringes.

These special interests will need convincing that there is a possibility of success. Listen to how they talk to themselves. They preach business models in which “anything is possible,” and then they act as if the downfall of the state is inevitable. You need to slap them in the face, tell them to get a grip, and get them cutting some firewood to use to build the platform.

Don’t be surprised if these interest groups express the helplessness-induced paralysis Seligman identified as the source of psychological depression. Think about George Romney. Show them how to overcome their paralysis by taking control of the state’s destiny. If you can’t convince them that the state is worth recreating, and convince them fast, you might still win the election but you won’t have a chance of governing.

Use the upcoming campaign to build a purple coalition — the best blend of our red and blue, ticket-splitting state — and make it a permanent coalition to create a future for our state and its children. This should be the first and, arguably, your most significant function as the next governor.

And you need to make it clear that without this kind of bipartisan support, you don’t consider the governor’s job to be a job worth taking.

In addition to serving as professor and chairperson of the Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Retailing at Michigan State University, Richard Cole is co-founder of Michigan’s Next Governor Project (see August Dome feature).The opinions expressed reflect his individual viewpoint and not that of the university.