Rough Start for Republicans

September 3, 2010

Rick Snyder pulled an Andy Dillon the other day. Recall that Democrat Dillon’s maiden news conference for governor was just a sandwich short of a bust.

Well, it was not quite that bad, but Mr. Snyder’s cracker-jack team looked slightly inept when the party faithful showed up at the Breslin Center for the GOP convention. Some “mistakes” were made, party chair Ron Weiser sheepishly professed.

The credentialing of delegates sort of broke down, not to mention that the ushering of folks into the Bres was not a work of art. Some waited in line from two to three hours to get in. If the Snyder folks had a business plan for getting them in, it failed.

But give them the benefit of the doubt on logistics, since more persons showed up than expected. Mr. Weiser contends that proves how GOP folks are geeked about this election cycle. But on the other hand, a good business guy would have anticipated a worst-case scenario.

That notwithstanding, the scrum the Snyder guys had with the Tea Party bunch was a little more serious and problematic.

The night before the convention, about 500 TPers assembled in a Baptist church. After the minister blessed everyone, they got down to business, which was to influence the outcome of the GOP convention the next day.

Gene Clem, the sort of self-anointed “leader,” had visions of molding a coalition to pick the winners and losers, even if Mr. Snyder disagreed.

Half way into the mini convention, another strategy emerged. The guy at the back of the church was handing out a yellow sheet. It made for some interesting reading, as the rhetoric proceeded to pick Brain Calley apart.

The Portland lawmaker was, of course, Mr. Snyder’s choice for lieutenant governor.

“Brian Calley is not a conservative,” the literature asserted. “Rick Snyder cannot win in November with the same number of votes he received in August. He needs to ensure that disenfranchised West Michigan voters…and true conservatives do not stay home on November 2nd.”

Oh my.

One woman who backed the ABC movement (Anybody But Calley), remarked that she was in no mood to have this nomination shoved down her throat by Snyder or anybody else from the GOP establishment.

“This is our decision, not Mr. Snyder’s,” she argued. Well, the Tea Party contingency finished their convention and proceeded the next day to make headlines by disrupting the Snyder-Calley coronation.

It was good theater, but bad politics. The number one objective of a convention is to foster a unity message.

So much for that story line. But it could have been worse.

When the party “regulars” got wind of what was coming down, they went to Mr. Snyder the night before and suggested he swiftly move to put the kibosh on this mini revolt in the making.

Snyder said no. Had he said yes, the mini revolt among these fiercely independent delegates would have exploded into something more dangerous.

This is what democracy is all about, Mr. Snyder advised.

And when the dust settled, Calley got elected. But the damage was done.

“If he can’t run a Republican convention, how can he run the state?” Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer intoned to any reporter who would listen.

The only thing missing from the attack was a picture of Mr. Snyder sleeping.

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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Conventions: Two Faces
With apologies to rock and roller Lou Christie, who sang “Two Faces Have I,” there are two faces to every political convention.

The first is the one the political operatives orchestrate for the best possible message about the candidate for governor. They call it image making. And there was plenty of that in Detroit last weekend as state Democrats launched their 2010 ticket.

Candidate Virg Bernero entered the arena to the strains of “Gonna Fly Now” from the motion picture Rocky. If you got the connection that the Virg was a fighter, the image makers would be smiling.

But there’s face number two that the handlers are not so anxious to promote, because it removes some of the sheen from their image polishing. In Detroit that can be summed up in one word: anxiety.

Be certain here, nobody has tossed in the towel on Rocky…err…Mr. Bernero, but there is an undercurrent. Some fear he might not do well, which could adversely impact the rest of the ticket.

Several folks would talk about that angle, but if you reached for the microphone or TV camera, they tightened up like a New England clam. One Democrat was especially good at dancing around the elephant — or should one say, donkey — in the room.

Rep. Woodrow Stanley (D-Flint) wants to be speaker of the House, and as such he is closely monitoring all of his colleagues who are running for re-election. To be blunt, if Bernero tanks, those House Ds could be in trouble, especially those in districts where the Republicans have a shot at winning.

Stanley, to his credit, conceded the point but quickly added that he does not expect that to happen. And others were in the same boat.

But then there was Rep. Bert Johnson (D-Detroit). He did not waffle. He said Mr. Bernero has 30 days to prove he can cut into the lead of Republican Rick Snyder. If that does not happen, it’s every man for himself.

State Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer disagrees with Mr. Johnson. Naturally.

See why they want to keep a mask on that face?

DJ on High Court
When’s the last time a disc jockey got a seat on the Michigan Supreme Court? Don’t bother scrambling for the history books, the answer is “never.”

Say hello to Alton Thomas Davis, the former appeals court judge from Up North. Last week in a stunner of an announcement, former Justice Betty Weaver finally resigned from the high court and worked her magic with Governor Granholm to get Davis the job.

But here’s a chance to impress your family and friends. In a moment you will know his unusual air name when he played records (you remember records, don’t you?) on an FM station in Petoskey years ago.

Tom Davis was attending college and doing a bang-up job on the debate team. A wealthy business man had just purchased a 50,000-watt FM station and was scurrying around for a disc jockey. He called the college and asked for somebody who could talk on the radio. Davis filled the bill and found himself in front of a microphone for the first time.

Back then, being on an FM station was not what it is today. Most folks did not have the FM band on their radios, and AM ruled the world. Davis figured that out as he often wondered, “Is anybody out there listening?”

Nonetheless, he did so well that the boss promoted him, if you can call it a promotion. He got to anchor what they affectionately refer to as the graveyard shift from midnight to 6 a.m.

What kind of music did you play? he was asked.

“Anything I liked, [and] early in the morning I played music for the farmers and the cows,” he said with a hearty laugh.

Being the top jock in that time slot finally gave way to his desire to practice law, and thus ended his show biz career.

But the “Red Baron” will go down in history as the first radio announcer to find his way to the state’s highest court.

And now, as Paul Harvey would say, you know the rest of the story.