Cotter Welcomes Back Engler

June 25, 2010

So who was that masked man standing on the backyard porch of Dan and Gail Boge at Lake Isabella several days ago?

None other than the former governor of the Great State of Michigan, John Engler.

Engler back in his home county on a Thursday night? Isn’t he supposed to be minding the farm back in Washington for some business group?

Apparently not, as Mr. Engler was the honored guest at a fundraiser for one of the GOP guys running for his old legislative House seat in the Mt. Pleasant neck of the woods. And Engler remains a pretty good draw, as about 140 of the party faithful showed up to fatten the campaign coffers for Kevin Cotter.

The hesitant Mr. Cotter did not want to disclose the price tag on the tickets for fear that, in some convoluted way, it might help his opponents. Turns out it was $125 to get in and $250 if you wanted a pic with the gov.

But back to the question. Why Engler for Cotter when the candidate is not exactly an old drinking buddy of the former gov? In fact, Cotter, at the tender age of 32, was not even a twinkle in his daddy’s eye when Mr. Engler first won that mid-Michigan seat almost 40 years ago.

The theories abound for those who want to speculate:

1. He had nothing better to do on a Thursday night.
2. After buying a new mini-mansion just miles away from his old executive residence in Lansing, this was another crafty move from the even craftier governor to lay the groundwork for a bid for higher office in 2012.
3. Mr. Engler was doing a favor to his brother Jim, who still resides in the area and supports Cotter for the Engler House seat.
4. Or it was a chance for the Englers to get even with one of the other Republicans in the race.

Getting even? My, my, that doesn’t sound like the Engler everyone knows and loves. Or does it?

Well, turns out that in 2008 cousin Frank Engler ran in the GOP primary for local drain commissioner and lost to a guy named Russ Alwood. Englers don’t like to lose, and they have a long memory to boot.

So when it turned out that Christine Alwood decided to run as a Republican for the House seat that Cotter wants, how could the Englers pass up a chance to undercut the wife of the guy who defeated poor ole cousin Frank?

Mind you, there is no proof of any conspiracy to even the score, but if you know Big Dawg John, you can’t absolutely rule it out. And if you are silly enough to ask anybody in the Engler camp about all this, your chances of getting a straight answer are pretty remote. After all, they are the same Engler cronies who denied that the ex-gov was house hunting in this state.

For her part, Ms. Alwood will not be drawn into a crossfire with the former governator. “It’s a blip,” she confides while boasting her own endorsements from Congressman Dave Camp, attorney general candidate Bill Schuette and the blessing of Sandy and Bill Caul, who’ve had the seat in their family for a long time.

As for speculation about any Engler retribution, she wonders out loud, “Are they that petty and vindictive?”

One can only ask.

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)

Marines vs. Kwame
The Marines have landed…smack dab in the middle of the GOP race for governor.

GOP contender Mike Cox has never been bashful about revealing he served in the Marines. Now it is front and center on a TV screen near you.

The timing is interesting in that the TV spot follows by one week the launch of an anti-Cox radio commercial. It seeks to smudge the Cox image by suggesting some alleged wrongdoing involving the story that refuses to go away.

“You’ve heard about the party at the Manoogian Mansion. The one that Attorney General Mike Cox says never happened?” And then the radio spot launches into a statement from the police dispatcher who claims she sent scout cars to the party, and the next day the records were gone. She has had trouble, however, remembering the dates and took seven years to come forward.

When reporters showed up for a briefing on the latest Cox ad, they half expected to see a Cox defense of the “party” story. Instead they got the Marines.

Campaign manager Stu Sandler refused to acknowledge the existence of a “party” rebuttal, which many felt was going to be unleashed last week but then was scrubbed.

“We are happy with the Marine ad,” Sandler said, putting on a smiley face while fending off Kwame Kilpatrick questions from the gaggle of reporters.

Remember that even Mr. Cox has observed that this issue is like “gum on my shoe,” but a GOP consultant is not so sure the Marines can kill the gum.

“I think at the end of the day, this ‘gum on the shoe’ is going to continue to stick, and he’s going to have to deal with it head on…You gotta unstick that gum at some point,” Bill Rustum argues.

But the unsticking may have to wait for another day.

So far, Cox is coming back in the polls and even eked out a two-point lead over former frontrunner Pete Hoekstra. So if there is a “Kwame” factor it is not sending the Cox numbers into the dumper.

“We’ve had a couple of good weeks,” reflects Mr. Sandler, because he and his boss are hoping that sending in the Marines will stretch that out even more.

Ten-hut!

Term Limit Re-Do
Many of the players in this town, from the governor on down, regret the day they did it. They supported the nation’s most restrictive term-limits law and now they see the miscalculation they made.

“Worse mistake I ever made,” the governor confesses — and she’s got plenty of company.

The Democratic chair of the House Judiciary Committee, which is considering a plan to extend term limits, used the same line. But this mea culpa is not confined to Democrats. It is bipartisan.

Take GOP Rep. Rick Jones, who is about as conservative as it gets. “Term limits are too short. Six years is simply too short,” he observes with six years of experience under his belt in the Michigan House.

Rep. Eileen Kowal and other GOP conservatives from Oakland County also see the errors of their ways. “Experience and knowledge are valuable,” the first termer concludes.

And on the list goes.

It includes Rep. Joe Haveman, yet another Republican right-winger, from Holland. Yes, he was a yes vote in 1992, but now says the term-limits law is a “mistake and in its present form has not served the public well.”

Tell that to the public, where the majority of folks figure terms limits are working just grand, thank you very much.

“I know they [feel that way],” confesses third-termer Rep. Pam Byrnes (D-Chelsea). But “I don’t think they really understand the implication of constantly changing who is running their government.”

She is spot on, but term-limits backers dismiss such sentiment as self-serving and to be expected from career politicians, who are about as popular these days as the guy who offered Tom Izzo 30-million smackers to leave MSU! And therein lies the challenge. Even though there are the votes on the committee to send the term-limits revision to the House floor, is there the political will…no, make it political guts…to take on the majority of voters and tell them they are wrong?

In an election year, the chances of that are slim and none, and slim just left town.

Term limits are here to stay. Too bad all the folks who have changed their minds didn’t think of that when they voted in the first place.