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by Tim Skubick
April 24, 2009

After you have hung around this town for a significant chunk of time, it’s inevitable that folks ask, “Who is your favorite governor?”

Former Attorney General Frank Kelley gets that question a lot, and being the good pol that he is, he deflects it by saying each governor brought his or her own unique style to the job. Truth be known, betting money is he liked GOP moderate Gov. Bill Milliken the most.

The issue, however, is not who you liked the most. Who really cares? For students of this game, a more interesting notion is: what common threads do they share?

At first glance you might think Bill Milliken, Jim Blanchard, John Engler and Jennifer Granholm have little in common. You’d be surprised to learn they have many common traits, if you factor out their political leanings.

First of all, each enjoyed an enduring relationship with the electorate. Michigan voters are not fickle. They don’t change governors every four years. Milliken served 14 years, Blanchard 8, Engler 12 and, when she leaves town next year, Granholm will have 8 years on the job.

Each governor brings a passion to the table. That drives them to spend an inordinate amount of time doing the people’s business. It is a commitment to the assignment that means less time with family, and most common folks would never make the trade. But out of a sense of public service and duty, each governor makes that sacrifice and seldom gets a thank-you from anybody for doing it.

If you asked their families, you would surely hear that they make a contribution to the state as well, at their own expense and with no thanks either.

Each governor possesses a unique sense of humor. Not the backslapping, one-liner-leave-them-rolling-in-the-aisle humor, but rather one that allows them to laugh at the situation or to laugh at themselves. Survival in this game demands that.

Each governor made mistakes. Milliken would tell you that when the Farm Bureau accidentally mixed a fire retardant into cattle feed and 90 percent of the state’s population ingested PBBs, his administration’s response was not his finest hour.

Blanchard did not fashion the bipartisan compromise he wanted on raising the income tax. When it was within his grasp, he pulled the trigger instead and got only one Senate GOP vote. That led to an overthrow of Senate Democratic control and set the stage for the next governor to slowly emerge six years later.

He, of course, was Mr. Engler, who presided over a hardening of the political lines in this town. Either you were with him or against him, and often there was no middle ground. And even though he gets good marks for doing what he said he would do, it was often done in a bitter partisan manner that tore people apart rather than bring them together.

Which brings us to Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who promised not to be another Engler. You are beginning to hear some legacy stuff about her. State Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer notes that in the long run, history will be kind to her. You hear other Democrats whisper that this didn’t go the way they thought it would.

It would be unfair, with 21 months left in her term, to write her legacy at this read. For the moment, suffice it to say she paid off on her pledge not to be John Engler.

Tim Skubick is Michigan’s senior Capitol correspondent and has anchored the weekly public TV series “Off the Record” since 1972.

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Cox Speech No Home Run
You’ve seen a ton of political convention speeches in your day, and the only thing you remember about them is that you can’t remember anything about them.

The orator faces a crowd of delegates who are talking, wandering around and seemingly doing anything they can to ignore the speaker. In that light, very few talkers hit a home run.

Say hello to Attorney General Mike Cox, who got up to bat, fouled off a couple of good pitches but was only able to eek out a single. Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, in the same forum, actually never got to first base.

Normally, you would pretty much forget about the Cox and Land messages at the state GOP convention this past February, but since both are in the race for governor next year, it was worth watching the videotape. (Land’s speech was critiqued here on April 17th.)

Cox tried to ingratiate himself to the partisan crowd by popping the unpopular Gov. Granholm. Talk about your easy pickin’s.

The A.G. confessed that he and his wife felt that maybe Mikey had been a little too harsh on the governor. “Maybe she’s not all that bad,” he deadpanned in a sarcastic tone.

Then he talked about her “left coast ideas” and her “culture of do-nothing-ism and concluded, “We haven’t been half as tough on her as she has been on us.”

That was one of his fouled off pitches, which some in the crowd actually heard.

He then took a swipe at Lt. John Cherry, who wants to replace Granholm.

Like Land, Cox promised better days ahead and finally ripped his single up the middle with a line he wrote himself: “So if you are sick and tired of an over-taxing, under-performing, over-spending, zigzagging, job-killing, do-nothing governor and lt. governor, now is the time to act.”

If everyone had been listening, he could have actually stretched that into a double.

What Do You Think About Term Limits?
It makes for a fun time when the term limits issue arises in public forums. It’s a teaching moment.

Correspondents normally don’t take positions on issues. But if asked, it’s easy to share some insight on term limits. Audiences are told: “They suck!”

After the laughter and shock value die down, you commence a discussion about what’s right and wrong with the concept.

What you quickly discover with each audience is that very few in the group used their brains when deciding the issue in 1992. They voted from the gut and desperately wanted to send a message to Lansing and Washington.

They did not weigh the impact that the lack of experience would have on the legislative process. Voters were angry, they were fed a bill of goods that somehow inexperience would be good for the process, and by God they wanted new blood in the system.

Now, when you ask for a show of hands, a majority of the yes votes say they would change their vote, given the chance to see it in action and to learn that, by God, you do want experience in our legislative halls.

Invariably, there is at least one malcontent in the audience who still believes in the concept. The person is asked to stand and asked what he or she does for a living.

“I’m an accountant.”

“How many years have you been accounting?”

“25.”

“Are you a better accountant today than you were, say, 10 years ago?”

“I’d like to think so.”

“So experience counts?”

“Well, yes…” And now it’s clear where this is going.

“So why doesn’t experience count in the legislature?”

Game, set, match. They get the point.

Do you?