Non-Career Career Politicians

May 7, 2010

When is a career politician not a career politician?

Answer: When the career politician says so.

Say hello to Mike Bouchard and Mike Bishop.

Mr. Bouchard, who is a GOP guy running for governor, says: “I’m not a career politician…I’m a police officer.”

Mr. Bishop, who wants to be the GOP attorney general nominee, is running radio ads suggesting he believes “we are better represented by citizens in government and not career politicians.”

Paaleeze.

In 2010 it is unwise to be a career politician whether you have an R or D after your name. Candidate for governor Rick Snyder makes a big deal out of the fact he has no political experience and dismisses his four Republican opponents as “career politicians,” as if that is some mutated form of the plague to be avoided at the ballot box at all cost.

Apparently Bouchard thinks Snyder is on to something and wants to inoculate himself from the anti-politician frenzy.

But what is a career politician?

Is it someone who spent eight years in the Michigan Senate, ran for the U.S. Senate, served four years on a village council (including a year as president), and was elected three times as sheriff?

That’s Bouchard’s resume, and yet he contends: “I’m not a career politician.”

It seems he wants it both ways.

On his website he boasts about his experience of “22 years of law enforcement and 22 years as an elected official…” And on a recent statewide Public TV broadcast and on the stump he has promoted his bid for governor based on his experience. Yet he says, “I’m not a career politician.”

The Snyder boys counter that only a “professional politician could run” on such twisted logic.

Give some credit to fellow GOP candidate Mike Cox, who appeared to have had enough of Snyder’s anti-career politician stuff during a debate the other night.

He lashed out, saying when he was a Marine, nobody called him a career politician and nobody said that when he was a local prosecutor.

Let’s just say it will not deter Snyder from continuing his attack on the politicians in the field.

Then there is Mr. Bishop, with eight years in the state Senate and four years in the Michigan House under his belt. Yet he is blasting, by inference, his opponent in the GOP contest without mentioning the name Bill Schuette.

By any definition Schuette fits the career politician mantle, having been just about everything except dogcatcher. But in his radio spot, Bishop wants you to think Senate Majority Leader Bishop is a citizen, thereby ignoring his own political resume. But then, when has full transparency been the goal of political commercials?

The Democrats are not immune from this either.

Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero has blasted House Speaker Andy Dillon for being a career politician, too. Dillon pleads not guilty as he points to only four years in the Michigan House.

Let the record show that between the two, Bernero, who grew up wanting to be in politics, is more the career pol than Dillon — but that probably won’t show up in any Bernero ads either.

Fact is, we are going to have a healthy debate this year on experience vs. non-experience and career vs. non-career politician office seekers.

But that debate should first contain some truthful disclosures by those who contend they are not career politicians.

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.

Tim Skubick Extra Extra… (A weekly bonus only for Dome readers)

She’s Gotta Point
Alma Wheeler Smith has a beef with the political press that covers her second bid for governor on the Democratic side. She thinks the popular wisdom that she can’t win is not true.

“You guys need to stop saying she can’t win and just say we’ve got three competent people here who are equally unknown in the state of Michigan,” she says as she attempts to rewrite the story line that “she can’t win.”

She may have a point, but the polling has consistently placed her in third place. She argues that when voters find out who she is and what she has done, she jumps 7 percent and moves closer to Speaker Andy Dillon and Mayor Virg Bernero, who also contend for the D nomination this August.

Most agree she could be governor, but she lacks the name ID and sufficient money to really advance her cause. Is that the media’s fault or hers? She would argue the former.

But the media can counter that when she ran in 2002 for governor, she dropped out of the hunt unable to compete with the likes of Jim Blanchard, David Bonior and Jennifer Granholm.

It seems pretty clear that Ms. Smith, for whatever reason, has been unable to fully connect with the electorate again.

She remains confident, however, that she will file enough petition signatures to stay in this race. And, clearly, she feels the media treatment is off the mark.

“Something here smells rotten in Denmark. I think you all have kinda made a decision that that’s what your story is,” the frustrated candidate observes.

If the Democratic primary were held today, the winner would not be Smith, Dillon or Bernero. It would be undecided — and with half of the vote up for grabs, Smith cannot be ruled out.

That’s about as fair as you can make it.

Bouchard Covers the Waterfront
With all due respect to the well-intentioned folks at the state Republican Party, the Byzantine debate format they developed to showcase the five GOP candidates for governor was a flop. You don’t need 20 pages of rules unless, of course, you want to minimize the dialogue between candidates.

In one hour we did not learn much about where they stand on the issues. Contrast that to the rapid-fire grilling that Mike Bouchard recently underwent on Michigan Public TV’s Off the Record. (Personal bias noted.)

In 20 minutes, Michigan voters learned that Bouchard:
(1) opposes the public smoking ban
(2) opposes slot machines at race tracks
(3) opposes a constitutional convention
(4) would not enforce parts of the new federal health care law
(5) favors an emergency manager to run the Detroit schools.

On top of that, the Oakland County sheriff would not endorse a second bridge between Detroit and Windsor owned and operated by the U.S. and Canadian governments, even with a hefty contribution of $550 million from the folks across the Detroit River.

Nope. Bouchard was foursquare on the side of the guy who owns the Ambassador Bridge, whose supporters have kicked in some $20,000 to the Bouchard for Governor effort, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Bouchard dissed former Governors John Engler and Jim Blanchard as well as Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, who all favor the public span.

“They’re wrong,” he told the OTR panel. And he took a swipe at the current governor for being “disingenuous” for fighting the private option.

Bouchard took the quick questions with ease and noted that he favors a format where there are no rules.

Are you listening state GOP bigwigs?

He’s Like Her
Tom George is the Republican version of Alma Wheeler Smith, mentioned above concerning her alleged inability to win the Democratic nomination for governor.

Unfortunately for the Kalamazoo GOP senator turned candidate for governor, Mr. George is in the same boat. He’s got low name identification, an even lower bank account and even lower chances of winning.

Nonetheless, he gave a stand-up performance the other day in front of a bunch of engineers, most of whom would love a gas tax hike to engineer and build more roads.

Yet George pulled no punches when asked his stance on same. “Ultimately, it doesn’t fix the problem. I’m a no vote.”

He took a chance by not waffling, spinning or ducking for cover. He got points for that, but probably not much support.

He was also direct on the smoking ban. He favors it while one of his opponents, Mike Bouchard, does not. “He’s wrong,” George told the crowd.

And issue by issue, George was clear and had a firm grasp of the issues:
(1) The Fair Tax. He “likes” it for its simplicity.
(2) The sales tax on services. “The door is open.”
(3) A public bridge between Windsor and Detroit. Nope.
(4) Gov. Granholm? She was indecisive. By inference he will not be.
(5) The need for bipartisan cooperation. Count him in.

Despite the “can’t win” tag, George assures everyone he has the 15,000 petition signatures to gain a spot on the August GOP primary ballot and he’s fixin’ to take on the non-politician in the field, Rick Snyder.

“I don’t have a bus,” candidate George asserts in a not so subtle, yet gentlemanly swipe at the rich Nerd who does. George has a bike, and don’t be surprised if you see a campaign picture of his bike next to you-know-who’s lavish Snyder-mobile somewhere down the road.

The George performance was solid, just like Ms. Wheeler-Smith, who is also well versed on the issues and not afraid to tell voters where she stands. And he is like her in that they both forge ahead trying to prove to the punditry class they are not DOA in this contest.