by Tim Skubick
September 18, 2009

If he runs for governor, Andy Dillon will not run as an independent candidate because his “heart” is with the Democrats.

While Dillon’s heart may be with the Ds, the state’s top labor leader protests that Dillon’s head is with the Rs.

State AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney is not a big fan of the Democratic House speaker.

For example, when Democrat Dillon rounded up some heavy-hitter Republicans to work on tax reform, Gaffney was at the head of the line griping about being at the back of the line.

Gaffney wondered why John Engler protégée Doug Rothwell was at the top of the invite list while organized labor had to grovel to get in the room.

Then came the now infamous Dillon health care salvation plan, and once more Gaffney and his union brothers and sisters were left at the gate. Dillon, without labor’s permission or input, forged ahead with a proposal that has drawn rave reviews from a host of Republicans, including Engler and Rothwell.

As with tax reform, Dillon, after the fact, brought in labor and asked for their suggestions. But Gaffney was not appeased, and when given a chance to smudge Dillon’s Democratic pedigree, Gaffney did.

Appropriately, at a Labor Day eve news conference Gaffney broadly suggested that if Dillon were a true-blue Democrat he would not be going after worker health care benefits with his state-run public employee insurance scheme.

Dillon flatly rejected that argument, and a week later the aforementioned Mr. Engler applauded the speaker for his “common sense” approach to saving state tax dollars.

Nothing makes Gaffney’s blood boil more than hearing any chirping from Big John.

Gaffney is convinced that Dillon is running for governor.

“That’s what good politicians do,” Gaffney explains as he sizes up Dillon’s alleged attempt to “use” public employees to advance his bid for higher office. The labor leader knows Dillon is sucking up all of the free media he can get on this issue, which boosts his name identification without spending a dime of campaign money to get it.

Four months ago the typical Joe out there didn’t know Andy Dillon from Marshal Dillon. But now with all the hubbub about health care, Dillon’s still not a household word but is on his way.

“I’m focused on resolving the budget deficit,” Dillon says to deflect all this governor chatter. Yeah, but lots of other folks are focused on getting Dillon into the contest against Lt. Governor John Cherry, who has tons of labor backing.

Dillon professes that changing the health care system is more important than who the next governor is. And he argues he is not using the issue to launch a bid for chief executive. In fact, he reveals his kitchen cabinet advisors urged him not to get into this fracas because it would alienate labor, which Dillon would need if he ran.

He told the insiders to back off; he was doing this despite any political risks.

And it’s just that kind of independence that would give Dillon cache with the voters if he ran.

You can hear his announcement statement now: I’m running for governor and I’m not afraid to take on the special interest groups that may disagree with my vision, even if they’re from my own party. Unlike my opponent (Cherry), I’m not beholden to anyone except my desire for change and a new Michigan.

And Gaffney’s blood boils over that, too.

Tim Skubick is Michigan’s senior Capitol correspondent and has anchored the weekly public TV series “Off the Record” since 1972. He also covers the Capitol and politics for WLNS-TV6 in Lansing.

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Odd Woman Out
The governor took some hits last weekend for trotting off to Japan while the so-called budget crisis was burning in Lansing. Some opined it was wrong for her to split. Frankly, it was meaningless. She was back on Monday.

Besides, there was no reason to worry as her two male legislative “partners,” as she refers to them, were in charge. House Speaker Andy Dillon and his sidekick, GOP Senate Leader Mike Bishop, have forged a pretty solid working relationship complete with a modicum of mutual respect, which doesn’t appear to be the case when it comes to them working with her.

To underscore this point, the two guys settled on budget targets — and she was not in the room when they did it.

Nonetheless, before she scooted over to the Far East in hopes of bringing back a job or two, Democrat Dillon briefed the governor on the plan he was sharing with Bishop. She said she didn’t like it.

In a nutshell, Dillon wants to find $1.2 billion in cuts that his party can live with. That’s what Bishop wants, and in return Bishop is supposed to pop some votes for Democratic revenue-raising bills.

All of this is now in play, but as Dillon puts it: “There is no deal.” Bishop chimed in on WWJ NewsRadio 950, saying “all the elements” are in place for a deal to occur.

Bishop says he has not seen the House Democratic revenue package and won’t comment until he does.

Two years ago, Bishop was on the hot seat, being tugged and pulled to allow a vote on an income tax increase. Bishop succumbed, but he’s not making those noises now. If there is a vote on new revenue, he thinks the GOP caucus will vote on it “just to kill it.”

From the sidelines the governor is apparently content to let the two guys have at it, and if a real deal comes out of it, hallelujah.

If not, they can always pass an emergency budget creating more time to avert a government shutdown.

Everyone who is getting sick of this story, raise your hand.

Do as I Say, Not as …
Business types have been invading the state Capitol lately, railing on lawmakers and the governor to “reform government now.” That is code for fire more state workers, get those who are left to pay 25 percent of their health care benefits, get rid of the state police road patrols and on and on and on.

CEOs and business lobbyists believe they are entitled to make these demands because the private sector has been scaling back for eons, and now, they argue, it is time for government to do the same.

It’s very tempting to apply the business model to government. After all, GM had to lay off 70,000 of its workers, so why shouldn’t state government fall in line?

Unfortunately, as much as business guys want government to be run like a business, the reality is that government is not a business.

When the profit margin at the Detroit Three falls, they reduce services. But when things are at their worst, that is not the time for government to do the same. In fact, it is just the opposite.

Recall last winter when the unemployed could not get into the state system to file for benefits? If you applied the “business model,” the governor should have laid off more state workers who handled the phones.

Of course, she did not and she ended up hiring more, thus adding to state costs.

A new business group the other day called for a 10-percent slice in the state government workforce.

The employee unions note that 11,000 have already been cut and, as one of them put it, “We are past the bone and we are cutting off limbs.”

Are there other areas to cut in state spending? Yes, and those will be coming, but at what point does Michigan become Mississippi and, with all due respect to Mississippi, who would want to move here for that?

So business will continue to harp about reforming government, but when asked the other day how many of the business lobbyists had taken a 25 percent cut in their health care benefits, none of the hands went up.

Tom Dangerfield for Governor
Poor ole Tom George. He is the Rodney Dangerfield of the GOP contest for governor. He gets no R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Sometimes reporters leave his name off the list of the five candidates running for the nomination.

And this past week there was the ultimate insult. He was unceremoniously dumped from a debate because the sponsor wanted more time for the other four contenders.

The Michigan Taxpayers Alliance, run by former GOP right-winger Leon Drolet, was picked by the state Republican Party to organize a debate for the party’s leadership confab later this month. After first being invited, George was notified that because there was only an hour allotted for the exchange, he was being asked to drop out.

George rightfully came unglued and two of his opponents came to his defense. Congressman Peter Hoekstra and Ann Arbor business guy Rick Snyder complained to the GOP chairman.

What kind of democracy is this, they wondered?

To his credit, chairman Ron Weiser came to his senses. And when the dust settled, George, the Kalamazoo state senator, was back on the stage with everyone else.

The reason George is having a tough time is that he’s virtually unknown, has no real base of support on which to build a campaign, and he’s not likely to raise millions of dollars to lend credibility to his effort. But this is not to say he’s not a good candidate, because he is. He has a firm grasp of the issues, has a solid record in the Michigan Senate and is not a conservative nut case. In other words, he deserves respect even though his chances of winning are right down there with the Lions.

But all is not lost. Assuming he does not pull off a miracle and gain the GOP nomination, he is effectively auditioning for the second spot on the ticket, which ain’t all bad for a guy who is being treated like Rodney D.