Dillon’s Dual Role Put to Test

by Tim Skubick
January 15, 2010

Mike speaks: “I know you want to increase revenue, Andy, but if I let you do that, it will help you win the Democratic nomination for governor, and my party wants no part of that. So, will I compromise with you on this package? Sorry old pal, but the answer is ‘No.’”

Sure it’s a fictitious conversation (not really) between Senate GOP Leader Mike Bishop and his amigo, Democratic House Speaker Andy Dillon, but it underscores a point made by Rep. Fred Miller — if Dillon is running for governor, he should not be running the Michigan House.

Dillonites protest, but Mr. Miller is making a point that will add a certain intrigue when the boys and girls in the House start working on what promises to be a blockbuster 2010 session.

The unanswered question: will there be an effort to oust Dillon from his speakership gig and, if they make a run at him, will House Republicans join in?

Told ya this was going to be fun.

Macomb County Democrat Miller, with strong ties to the labor movement, floated his idea the other day, noting that Dillon’s “ability to speak [on issues] will be compromised” and any position Dillon takes on behalf of the remaining Democrats will be “overly politicized.” Miller figures that would needlessly complicate government at a juncture where there are complications enough.

Dillon can argue that nobody else running for governor ever resigned his leadership post, including Big John Engler and his sidekick Dick Posthumus, who both ran for governor and continued to run the Senate at the same time. Never mind that Dickie missed 70 percent of the Senate votes while he was stumping for his own.

Some will argue that if Dillon is running as a statesman, which one of his kitchen cabinet advisors noted the other day he would do, the statesmanly thing to do would be to step down as speaker.

However, and here’s the tricky part, if Dillon relinquishes his leadership mantle, he gives up a powerful tool to enhance his run for governor. He’ll lose a lot of free media coverage; he becomes one of 109 House members groveling to convince the new speaker to move the old speaker’s agenda. And who knows what impact stepping down might have on his fundraising prowess.

However, it appears, subject to change, that the support for ousting Dillon is about a mile long and two or three legislators deep. A pretty good source within the Democratic caucus says to open up this can of worms now would “create a whirlwind of a mess,” as the focus would shift from doing the people’s business to battling it out for a new speaker.

But at least 10 or 11 other Democrats have “serious concerns” about the dual role and want some direct answers from Dillon before they decide to embrace an ouster effort.

Seeking the nomination, trying to pass critical legislation and riding herd on his less-than-unified caucus will be a real test of Dillon’s leadership skills. If he gets something done on reforms and taxes, he’ll look like a governor in waiting. But if this dual role blows up in his mug, how can he make the case that he can lead the state when he can’t lead his own caucus? Answer: he can’t.

Hence as the legislative show reopens, it is as Arty Johnson used to say with his German accent on TV’s Laugh-In: it will be “veeery interesting.”

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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Cherry Pickin’
Put yourself in his shoes. You have stood by your boss for eight long and hard years. You’ve been waiting that long and even longer to have your chance at being in charge, and then the bottom falls out. How would you feel?

You’d’ be in quite a funk.

Frankly, it was unclear what mood John Cherry would be in as he granted his first state Capitol interview in the wake of last week’s monster story that he was not running for governor.

Turns out, any trepidation was unwarranted.

Cherry acted as if nothing had happened. Oh sure, he and his wife, Pam, were disappointed. But sad?

Nope.

Any regrets or second guessing?

Naw.

“The handwriting was on the wall,” he suggests, so there was no sense in “prolonging” the obvious. With not enough moola to run, why bother?

But there were loose strings to tie up.

What about the White House shopping the story that he couldn’t win?

Didn’t happen, the former candidate observes.

So where did that story come from?

Cherry sort of fingers two former opponents, namely Speaker Andy Dillon and Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero. Cherry says they tried to sell the story that the White House was worried. (It was true, by the way.)

So did the duo try to sabotage his campaign with that stuff?

“They may have,” he retorts.

“Nobody on my staff did that,” Mr. Dillon explains.

But what about his supporters who did peddle the story when they could?

Dillon professes no knowledge of that and, when asked if it was wrong to do that to Cherry, Dillon noted, “everyone is entitled to their opinion.”

The sanguine Mr. Cherry has turned the page, still rejecting the notion that he had to toss Gov. Granholm under the bus in order to win.

“I’d have no credibility” if I had done that. “My job was not to diss the governor.”

Loyal to the bitter and losing end.

Ilitch Checking off Boxes
Ilitch for governor. She wants to do it; she is not sure she will.

That, in a nutshell, is where Denise Ilitch finds herself as she methodically goes about the business of checking off boxes as she ponders a possible bid to become the second female governor in state history.

Democrat Ilitch ran statewide and won a seat on the U of M Board of Regents, but that statewide campaign does not compare to the heavy lifting she would have to do to get elected governor.

Does she have the “skills and tools” to actually be governor?

How deep is the commitment from those who have “urged her to run” to help her run with money and elbow grease?

Does her family support a bid?

Reportedly, the family box has been checked off in the affirmative. She has three children, but they are all adults. In other words, she is not a mom with a two- and five-year-old demanding her attention at home.

The other boxes are unchecked, and until she figures that out she will continue her self-imposed policy of not talking to the media.

Boo-hiss.

The arms-length strategy is understandable, but boo-hiss anyway.

She meets Governor Granholm’s criteria of not having any connections to Lansing or the incumbent governor, other than the fact that they are both women and Democrats.

Ilitch could self-fund, but she has not decided how much of her personal wealth she is willing to bring to the table.

She has been successful in the business world, helping two companies to turn around, and she has good name ID — who has not heard of the Ilitch moniker?

Unclear is whether daddy and mom, supposed Republicans, will help her.

But more importantly, does she really want to do it?

That box has been checked off big time.

A source familiar with her thinking confides, “She wants to run for governor. She has the fire, red-hot lava, in the belly to do it. Whether she runs is another question.”

The answer to that will come by the end of March.