by Eric Freedman
August 16, 2008

HAL Director William Anderson
Photo by David Trumpie

Ask Civil War historian William Anderson which Civil War-era figure would provide the strongest leadership as Michigan governor in today’s climate of political divisiveness and economic travails, and there’s no hesitation: Abraham Lincoln. After all, Lincoln was “the greatest leader we’ve had as a president,” Anderson says, bemoaning the current “partisan divide” in the state.

Ask Detroit-born baseball historian William Anderson which Tigers figure, past or present, would provide the strongest leadership as Michigan governor in today’s climate of political divisiveness and economic travails, and there’s a pause …

General Manager Dave Dombrowski “would be pretty good,” Anderson muses in his temporary, tiny windowless office at the Michigan Historical Center, with an inscribed photo of Gov. Jennifer Granholm and a picture of the Ludington North Pier Lighthouse among its scant decorations. Perhaps Alan Trammell — a “great human being and inspiring, except he may not be tough enough.” He admires Lance Parrish, “but I never saw him in a major leadership role, except as a catcher.” Sparky Anderson was “fabulous in managing egos” — an essential trait for a successful governor — “but I’d hate to have him give the State of the State. We’d all be laughing instead of taking him seriously.”

A day later while driving from Lansing to his home in Pere Marquette Township near Ludington, Anderson — the longest-serving member of Granholm’s cabinet and previously president of West Shore Community College in Scottville, not far from the Mason County farm where he grew up — proffers a few more prospects from the past to be the hypothetical governor of the present. He proposes Civil War Gens. John Logan of Illinois — who already has a major downtown Lansing street named for him — and Joshua Chamberlain — who did become governor of Maine — as well as Oliver Wendell Holmes, “a bright guy, a man of letters” who rose only to lieutenant colonel in that war but ended up on the Supreme Court.

Non-politician politician
Long-term perspectives are a natural fit for Anderson. Beyond his training as an historian, he’s a political long-termer, a survival credited in large part to an ability to bridge the partisan divide he so bemoans — one who insists, “I’m not a very political person.” In fact, his wife, Anna, thought him an unlikely contender for the cabinet post. As a then-retired community college professor and administrator, Anderson was working as a strategic planning consultant when he heard Mayor David Hollister of Lansing speak at a tourism conference. Hollister mentioned then-Gov. John Engler’s plan to create a Department of History, Arts and Libraries (HAL) “and my antenna went up.” When he got home, he told his wife he wanted the job. “You won’t get it, Bill, because you’re not political enough,” she replied. Her prediction proved wrong.

What Anderson envisioned as a maximum 16-month gig as director of a new department has stretched to seven years and counting, and he’s the last Engler appointee to remain in the cabinet. True, HAL’s portfolio is one of the least partisan in the administration, but the job involves plenty of politics — although not necessary partisan politics.

Politics? There’s the legislature to deal with, a task he’s facilitated by developing relationships with senators and representatives. That includes attending their receptions so he can “jawbone” when he doesn’t have an agenda to push. “I have more and more contacts with legislators, some of it a product of a really tough economic situation. Some because the department has demonstrated its endurance.”

Among individual legislators he’s especially enjoyed working with, he singles out Sen. Tom George, the Kalamazoo Republican who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee handling the department’s budget, and ex-Sen. Bob Emerson, a Flint Democrat who now serves as state budget director. “They tell you exactly how they feel, although it may not be the best position for them to take from a political standpoint.” For example, he describes how George may disagree with someone in a “very controlled, not argumentative” way and may say, “I don’t think you’ve got the facts right, and here’s why.” Also on the list is Bill Schuette, a Midland Republican, who was a senator when Anderson was a newbie cabinet member and later became a colleague as Agriculture director and eventually a Court of Appeals judge.

Politics? There are fellow department directors to deal with. In comparison with Engler, Granholm runs more structured, twice-a-month cabinet meetings, including a printed agenda, and they’ve helped bring cabinet members a lot closer together. After each year’s State of the State address, a cabinet action plan is developed to articulate the administration’s goals, how they’ll be accomplished and what each department’s role will be. That action plan becomes a primary agenda item at most subsequent meetings, including a discussion of milestones, outcomes and holdups. “She tries to build a team around the cabinet action plan,” he says. “The governor leads us on that dialogue.”

In addition, Anderson uses the time immediately before and following those sessions as an opportunity to talk informally with his colleagues. “You can coordinate things, run something up the pole,” he says of the practice, citing a recent meeting where he grabbed Emerson for 10 minutes after adjournment. His establishment of a Cabinet Tourism Council encompassing more than a half-dozen agencies, including the Agriculture Department, Michigan Economic Development Corporation and the Department of Natural Resources, provides another venue for collaboration and cooperation.

Politics? There’s the governor to deal with. Granholm has more contact with her department directors than Engler did, and her e-mails, phone conversations and other contacts are more frequent and deal with more significant matters than was the case of her predecessor. At the same time, Granholm has proven more accessible. Beyond leadership style, one major dynamic in that difference was that the state “was riding the wave of a very strong economy” during most of the Engler administration, but “all of the time so far that Granholm has been governor, it’s been the opposite. That means a different concentration on what has to be focused on.” Neither governor has been a micromanager, and both delegated a great deal of authority to their directors, so the late-night and weekend phone calls Anderson had anticipated when he took the job never occurred. Yet when Anderson e-mails her early in the morning, she quickly responds. And all directors have her cell phone number, although she doesn’t want even them to ring her up all the time. But “if I had a crisis or were looking down the gun barrel, I wouldn’t hesitate to call on the cell phone.”

Politics? There’s HAL’s astute constituency, its major stakeholders — nonprofit and public arts and cultural institutions and libraries wrestling with budgetary pressures amidst the state’s diminished largesse. “At the local level, people are generous in supporting culture organizations” despite the tough economy, he says, offering a rapid-fire list of some recent fundraising success: the renovated Detroit Institute of Arts, the new Grand Rapids Art Museum, the planned Eli & Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University. Even “our little” city of Ludington has garnered philanthropic donations to launch a multimillion-dollar cultural center, a new children’s wing at the public library, a maritime museum and other projects.

Arts, culture and dollars
Cultural organizations confront a shrinking pot of state aid. On a national level, cultural institutions earn about half their income, with the rest coming from government and charitable donations. If the state has been the primary source of that second 50 percent and “you lose half of that, it’s a major loss to backfill,” Anderson says. For Michigan, what once was $26 million a year in state support for arts and cultural grants has plummeted to $7 million. Per capita aid for public libraries has dropped as well, although many communities have won voter approval for millages to construct new buildings.

Kurt Dewhurst, director of the MSU Museum and former chair of the state Council for the Arts, says, “He’s been resourceful and endlessly optimistic in challenging times. He’s worked hard to break down some of the barriers between departments and forged new relationships with other departments in state government. He’s found creative ways to connect arts and culture with economic development.”

For example, Dewhurst cites HAL’s collaboration with the Michigan Council for the Arts and MSU Museum on CraftWORKS! That program works with community organizations and artistic folks, especially those in traditional arts, to develop cultural heritage tours where visitors can meet traditional artists and learn about regional and ethnic traditions.

HAL is a key player in the Granholm administration’s strategy to improve the economy through cultural tourism and community cultural economic development. That includes figuring out how to strategically market cultural attractions to lure more visitors. Anderson describes how Historic Mill Creek State Park — recently renamed Historic Mill Creek Discovery Park — in Cheboygan reversed its decline in attendance and revenue by adding such attractions as an “adventure tour” with a zip line through the forest canopy and a nature trail climbing wall.

“We haven’t gone away, and neither governor has decided we couldn’t afford it,” Anderson says of HAL.

The Cabinet Tourism Council is part of the endeavor, as are Cool City grants, to promote cultural projects likely to help revitalize downtowns. For example, a 2006 grant went to Benton Harbor’s Citizens for Progressive Change to create “Heart of the City” artist studios, including the rehabilitation of the historic McClellan Building, murals, “Welcome to the Downtown Benton Harbor Arts District” signs, fine art galleries and an artist-in-resident apartment.

Looking at leadership
Anderson, author of five books and numerous articles, still manages to pursue his own research and writing. His latest Civil War project deals with religion and faith among soldiers in both the Union and Confederate armies. The fourth edition of his history of the Detroit Tigers (Wayne State University Press) appeared earlier this year. And he’s co-authoring a biography of Tigers Hall of Famer Rick Ferrell and a history of Carl Sandburg College in Illinois, where he was president before taking the top post at West Shore Community College.

“I make time,” he says. “I didn’t write a lick under Governor Engler. When Governor Granholm me a chance to stay on, I found a way to do it.” He does have some advantages. During the week he lives in an apartment in Lansing, so there are no lawns to mow or bushes to trim, and he’s a self-confessed “terrible cook,” so microwaving doesn’t take much effort. That gives him time to write for an hour before arriving at work at 7 a.m. and an hour or more at night. “It’s a discipline,” he says of writing, not waiting for “great inspiration.”

Meanwhile, leadership is much on his mind: “You have to start with the quality of the human being,” he insists. “Many of the other great leadership traits people can learn. The core is what you are as a human being.” He helped secure a $50,000 grant from the Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo to explore how Lincoln’s style of leadership could benefit the legislature and to organize a series of roundtable programs for lawmakers, intended to reduce polarization and encourage bipartisanship.

He blames term limits for much of the recent Capitol conflict, saying elected officials who face only a short tenure in any one office have become less willing to share credit for accomplishments and make members of the opposing party look good.

Dewhurst says, “He brought a real nonpartisan approach to his world. He’s always loyal to those he works with, the kind of person who is highly ethical, and people trust his judgment and the way he treats people he works with.”

Back to Lincoln, whose birthday bicentennial will be celebrated next year, Anderson says: “Both sides of the aisle can claim him.” And if Lincoln could indeed be today’s governor of Michigan? “I’m on his staff.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Eric Freedman is an associate professor of Journalism at Michigan State University. His most recent book is African Americans in Congress: A Documentary History (Congressional Quarterly Press).