by Richard Cole and Richard McLellan
August 16, 2009

Download the
Michigan’s Next
Governor Project
document | PDF

We have removed our academic and lawyer hats, and taped over our partisan badges, to report on a project in which we became involved this spring and that has resulted in the document that we are sharing, initially, through DomeMagazine.com. Here’s the story:

A variety of factors converged this spring to cause us to become engaged as a small group of folks — some longtime friends, others political acquaintances — with a common objective. We have a common interest in and love for the State of Michigan.

Now, if you ask us how we define that love, or how it should be best defined in terms of advancing state policy, you will get a variety of different answers. But that’s OK as far as our group is concerned, because what we can say, without any reservation, is that all of us are committed to the advancement of Michigan, and we are equally committed to this principle: facts, when combined with a strong ethic of civil discourse, are a necessary, if not sufficient, condition for giving the state and its residents a better future.

Anyway, our small group decided to begin to circulate what began as an outline that could eventually capture the historical, subject and issue areas of which any candidate for governor should have a good working knowledge.

As our group expanded, it became increasingly obvious that none of us has all the answers or knows every “nook and cranny” of state government. But that’s not the point. The point is we all seemed to be in agreement that democracy works best if we act on a belief that the better the information, the better the decisions. We decided to write down a list of the areas that would help advance a public conversation toward creative solutions to the state’s problems. And we figured that in the process we might just help Michigan residents gain a greater understanding of the role government plays — for better or worse — in virtually all aspects of living in Michigan.

Here is the central thought: over the next year and a few months, Michigan residents will be engaged in an intense political campaign to elect a new governor, attorney general, secretary of state and legislature. These campaigns and the policy choices offered will define, in part, the future direction of the state.

The unfortunate reality is that, if past campaigns are the best predictors of the future, very little time will be spent understanding the mechanisms of government and the tools the next governor will need to implement his or her vision and policies. The candidates, their staffs and many others will be focused on the voters and convincing them of the wisdom of their position or the lunacy of their opponent’s position, and the voters will largely be at the mercy of the politicians not only to define the solutions, but also to frame the entire conversation.

So, operating on Margaret Mead’s principle that the only way things change is through efforts that begin with a small group of people, we decided to focus on the tools of government, not the specific policy objectives or the ideology behind those objectives. We decided to call our effort the Michigan’s Next Governor Project. The project, which has not cost a dime thus far, is designed to, first, create an initial document — a dynamic document that can assemble and grow categories of information and tools that will help our next governor and his or her administration. Whoever that person is, and from whatever political party, we all want him or her to be better able to deal with the challenges facing state government.

Again, we want to stress that this project is not partisan activity (even though it has been developed and shaped by people with strong partisan beliefs and backgrounds). Michigan’s Next Governor Project is not designed to affect or involve the political campaigns, except insofar as it might inject a more information-based discussion, and in that sense make an important contribution to our future.

One thing we want to stress is that however Michigan’s Next Governor Project expands from the attached document, the end result will be available to all campaigns and interested citizens, and any knowledge gained will be offered freely to the winner — whoever he or she is.

Our goals for Michigan’s Next Governor Project are quite simple:

1. To involve and engage volunteers with knowledge based on our experience, and others’, in state government processes;
2. To research, compile, and prepare information and tools provided in an open forum to assist Michigan’s next governor and his or her staff during the campaign and, once elected, to the extent that they want this assistance.
3. To engage and involve an increasingly wider group of citizens and leaders to understand and support the decisions Michigan’s next governor will need to make.

Our initial document covers a number of special interest areas. Some of these areas may seem very narrow, but are areas that are important to someone. Some areas may seem “loaded” in the sense that any position on any issue is bound to appear to be goring someone’s ox. That’s the nature of public policy, and to overlook this reality would require overlooking important policy issues.

The document is generally divided between what we considered to be “issue” areas and policy and process “knowledge.” We think all of the issues focus, in some important way, on policy and political questions with which the next governor will be required to deal.

The bottom line is that the document is not intended to be an exhaustive or definitive list, but rather it is designed to begin to capture and reflect the wide range of issues facing the state and Michigan’s next governor.

We thought that the audience of DomeMagazine.com is a great place to start a more public conversation, and we hope to find some volunteers who will be willing to move the conversation into the larger public sphere, therefore allowing us to continue to identify the issues that will make Michigan’s next governor America’s most successful governor by making Michigan America’s greatest comeback story of the 21st Century.

Here’s a statement taken pretty much verbatim from the document we are providing that talks about our initial group:

“Michigan’s Next Governor” is a compilation of suggestions from a number of individuals with experience in state government and public policy. The document is not intended to be complete, but is intended as a discussion document to focus on the breadth of issues facing Michigan’s next governor. Among the participants (in its initial development) are the following individuals (listed alphabetically by last name) who have authorized the use of their names:

Joe Baumann
Lance Boldrey
Richard Cole
Ed Dore
Jean Doss
Gary Gordon
James Haveman
Kelly Rossman-McKinney
Richard McLellan
Doug Roberts
Kathy Wilbur

A Michigan’s Next Governor blog is being set up to encourage others to participate.