by Neil Munro
February 1, 2009

The notion that 70-year-old Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson may run for governor in 2010 may strike some people as far-fetched.

It shouldn’t.

After all, Ronald Reagan, at 70-plus during two terms in the White House, long since demonstrated that isn’t too old even for the nation’s toughest government job. And, as Reagan didn’t, Patterson in person surely doesn’t strike many people as a doddering old man.

Of course, it also is true that the Oakland executive has made no final decision to run, has been working hard for a long time and would be entitled to act on second thoughts when it comes to tackling the mess in Lansing; a phrase that’s no cliché.

But Patterson himself has talked publicly more than once of the possibility of seeking the governorship. That in turn raises hopes that we could at long last have an executive capable of pulling Michigan government back from the brink of fiscal disaster.

Oakland County government stands as an example of what Patterson can do. When he first ran for the county executive job more than 16 years ago, there was no doubt that he would be up to it — but little expectation that he would be even remotely as forceful and capable as he’s been.

Even now, most Michigan voters outside the greater Detroit area probably remain unaware that, despite the huge and longstanding economic undertow, Oakland County government remains more than solvent.

Oakland’s budget is in the black because Patterson’s administration was quick to spot trouble and politically brave enough to reorganize operations and reduce payrolls to make ends meet — and without increasing taxes.

What is equally important is that Patterson is not a one-man band. When he first took the executive post and named his top aides, they were the cream of the crop, from both the public and private sectors.

It wasn’t that those of his predecessor Daniel Murphy were incapable. In fact, several were retained by Patterson. His choices overall, combining old and new, were widely seen as not only more than capable but as chosen on that basis, not because of political connections.

One of his top aides hired then is budget expert Robert Daddow, who has written for this magazine and has been featured in this column. He and Patterson know the state budget is out of balance by at least $140 billion. You’ll recall reading here that both the state employee and school employee retirement funds are decades in arrears.

That wouldn’t be the case if the county executive and his team had been in charge in Lansing. Their county budget has a AAA rating on Wall St.

In fact, it’s the first county in the United States to fully fund its retiree health care. And county employee pay raises have been scaled back during these difficult economic times. By contrast, neighboring Macomb County has a $20-million deficit and Wayne County is forced to cut spending by 20 percent.

Meanwhile, thanks to Patterson’s insistent leadership, Detroit’s Cobo Hall has a chance of being expanded, based on a sound, not pie-in-the-sky, funding plan.

His latest proposal to ensure that Oakland County’s relative prosperity continues is to work to make it a “medical destination” in the way the Mayo and Cleveland Clinic communities are.

The obvious question remaining is whether he could be elected governor. There’s no doubt Patterson is strong at the polls in Oakland County. In the most recent balloting he defeated his Democratic challenger, Southfield Mayor Brenda Lawrence, by a 60-40 margin. That obviously was in the face of a state and national Democratic landslide.

Many other GOP candidates in the county, once a party stronghold, barely managed to survive at the polls. And a Democrat won a countywide job — prosecutor — for the first time since Patterson himself took it from that party in 1972.

The national economy under Democratic leadership presumably will be better in 2010 than it is now, and that could make it even harder for a Republican to win the governorship.

Still, it’s far-fetched at this point to imagine any better-qualified candidate than Patterson, in either party.

Neither Democrat now touted for that party’s nomination for governor, Lt. Gov. John Cherry or Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, can match Patterson’s record of prudent progress.

And let’s give the voters — statewide — credit for some sense. When they get a look at what Patterson’s leadership has accomplished, they’ll be impressed. In fact, his positive impact already is felt beyond the county and throughout Southeast Michigan via the Patterson-inspired non-profit Automation Alley organization that lures high-tech jobs.

He’s not just the guy who makes the best wisecracks at the annual Mackinac Island Michigan Chamber of Commerce political blowout and gets his name in the Detroit newspapers for saying “no” to that city’s wilder schemes.

Neil Munro is the retired editor of the Oakland Press in Pontiac.