Serving Two Masters

July 16, 2010

Mike Bouchard was going on and on about how he could indeed be sheriff of Oakland County and a statewide candidate for governor at the same time, and taxpayers had no reason to be upset with his dual assignment.

And to underscore his point, as he concluded the political TV interview, he added: “If you get robbed right now, I’ll take care of it.”

It was a funny line, but is there anything funny about our elected office holders running for another office while supposedly performing the duties they were elected to do?

“I’m sheriff on the public dime,” Bouchard said as he went into a defensive mode. “And I’m always available, accessible 24-7.” He added that if he were in a political event, he would immediately stop being candidate Bouchard and, presto-change-o, revert to being sheriff if he needed to be.

That’s fine for Oakland County, but what if he were in the Upper Peninsula? We assume he has no cape and can’t fly like a speeding bullet to get back instantly to his home base.

Bouchard has lots of company.

Take Congressman Pete Hoekstra. He gets a nifty salary from his West Michigan constituents to cast votes in Washington, D.C., where he has reportedly missed, since last April, about 84 percent of all the votes. The data come from an anti-Hoekstra source.

“Right now, the people of Michigan, they want to see me,” he asserts.

But what about his constituents who think he should be voting, not campaigning?

“My people in my district are thrilled with the race I’m running for governor…It’s not a problem for me” or for them because they “fully recognize the balancing act I’m going through, and they think I’m doing a pretty good job of balancing it.”

Team Hoekstra also counters that most of the votes he missed were insignificant issues, so no big deal.

State Attorney General Mike Cox, House Speaker Andy Dillon, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero and State Senator Tom George are all in the same boat. They have day jobs but on any given day they could be working to land a new job.

Try that in the private sector.

“Hey, boss. I’m applying for a job with a better salary. Would you mind paying for my plane fare and giving me time off with pay to go out and interview for it?”

You’d be fired on the spot. Yet politicians seem to be immune and nobody seems to give a hoot.

This phenomenon is not limited to candidates for governor. In fact, it is pervasive. Michigan House and Senate candidates, either running for re-election or for higher office, supersized their July 4th vacation by s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g it out to a whopping 13 days so they could campaign.

Oh sure, they can always revert back to being lawmakers while at home, but ultimately the voters have to ask, can they serve two masters at the same time: us and them?

The solution, of course, is for the elected officials to reimburse the state for the time they are campaigning. Congressman Hoekstra served on a reform committee years ago that actually considered docking members’ paychecks for each day they did not vote.

Surprise. Surprise. That died on the vine.

In their defense, these politicians have competent assistants minding the office when they are away, and with modern communications they are only a text away from getting back in the loop.

But when 2002 GOP candidate for governor Dick Posthumus missed 70 percent of the votes he was paid to cast in the state Senate, his buddy Gov. John Engler came to his defense.

“That’s just the way it is,” Big John said.

Well that settles that.

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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Don’t Look Now, Gov Race is On
If you listen intently, you can hear the faint sounds of what appears to be a race for governor going on out there somewhere.

To be sure, that story cannot compete with the likes of the Tigers doing pretty darn good at the All Star break or the LeBron what’s-his-name story that has sucked most of the air out of the news hole in the daily newscasts and papers. Yet, the signs are there.

Take the recent flood of endorsements. Most of the smart guys in the race have waited until after the 4th of July to uncork the bevy of blessings.

Democrat Andy Dillon can boast about former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer adding his name to the growing endorsement list. Apparently there is no loyalty bond between mayors and former mayors, as Archer wants nothing to do with Virg Bernero, who challenges Dillon while running the City of Lansing.

But Bernero is racking up his own list. His former opponent, Alma Wheeler Smith, who flirted with sitting out the Democratic primary because she really didn’t like either Dillon or Bernero, has come off the fence in what might be viewed as more of an anti-Dillon vote than pro-Bernero — but an endorsement is an endorsement.

And over the weekend, the Virg decided to skip the spectator-rich Cherry Festival parade up in T.C. The other six candidates did show up, but Bernero was in Motown standing next to Congressman John Conyers and Congresswoman Carolyn Kilpatrick, who got on board with him.

The decision to skip the Traverse City event may have been calculated, in that Bernero won’t win the Democratic primary with those folks up north. He’s got a better shot by rubbing elbows with Conyers and Kilpatrick, although that is a bit dicey since the two do have some political baggage they are lugging around.

Then there is Rick Snyder, the business guy who has zero business endorsements. What do his pals know that we don’t know? Regardless, another former GOP candidate for governor — turned independent — Joe Schwarz, is signing up.

West Michigan Congressman Pete Hoekstra could not contain his joy when he fell into the lap of Dr. James Dobson, who has some pull with the religious right. Never mind that Dobson mispronounced Hoekstra’s name in the one-minute radio endorsement spot. Hoekstra will take it.

So there is lots of stuff going on, and this is just the beginning of the end. So please get your head out of the box scores and pay attention to a pennant race of another kind…at least until primary day, August 3.

Virg on Verge of $2 Mil?
It may not have been a wake up call per se, but it was darn close and must have gotten the attention of all those Virg Bernero for Governor disciples out there.

It came from Mark Gaffney, president of the 400,000-member state AFL-CIO. He was blunt.

“If he can’t put together $2 million, we’ll be in trouble by election day,” he opined on the Off the Record broadcast airing this weekend.

The take on Bernero for months has been that he has the passion to run but not the money to win.

Setting the bar at $2 million still leaves the Lansing mayor about one million behind the other Democrat in the hunt, House Speaker Andy Dillon, according to Mr. G.

So, can the Virg make it?

Gaffney reveals: “He’s about halfway there and I expect him to make it.”

But if he doesn’t, and the election were held today, the union boss concedes that Mr. Dillon wins.

And if that happens, don’t be shocked to see Gaffney vote for a Republican in November, although he would never confirm that. But listen to his dodge when asked if he would support Dillon.

“I don’t know the answer to that,” he deadpanned. The reporters around the table didn’t have to read between the lines.

Bernero is certainly not giving in, as he has internal polling data that suggest lots of Democrats share Gaffney’s disdain for the House Speaker.

In fact, the pollster, who does work for a guy named Obama, confides that once a bio of Mr. Dillon was read to respondents, he has never seen voters flip so fast.

While that is encouraging, Bernero can’t win on that without the TV ads to boost his name ID.

“He is well known in Lansing,” Gaffney observes.

But that’s one county down and only 82 more to go with the August 3 finish line getting closer by the day.

(You can watch the Gaffney performance at WKAR.org.)