Virg for Governor?

by Tim Skubick
December 4, 2009

If the political press corps were given a secret vote to install the mayor of Lansing as a Democratic candidate for governor, betya the vote would be an overwhelming yes. That’s not necessarily because Virg Bernero would make the best governor, but he’d certainly be the most fun to cover.

Bernero is known for his short fuse, his hot and sometime vitriolic rhetoric and a shoot-from-the-lip mouth. He’s sort of Geoffrey Fieger without all the money.

“I have to be interested,” Bernero confided the other day as he launched a trial balloon that will draw pot shots from all corners, including labor leaders, John Cherry backers and a list as long as your arm of folks he has offended during his years in the political trenches.

His announcement comes as no shock. For months he’s been asked to embrace the candidacy of Lt. Governor John Cherry, and for months good Democrat Bernero has said nice things … but refused to deliver the goods.

Actually, this whole Bernero boomlet took root at a time when the domestic auto industry was taking one brickbat after another on the talking-head cable networks 10 months ago.

Bernero took up the cause and found himself on national TV more than the president as he ratcheted up his anger, rhetoric and blasts of the naysayers for attacking the industry. He was tagged “Angriest Mayor in America” and loved every minute of it.

In the midst of this, Bernero conveniently revealed that he was fielding calls from undisclosed sources urging him to run for governor.

But when pressed about doing it, he offered, “No. Absolutely not. I have no plans.”

So much for that.

During his re-election bid last fall, he was asked during a radio debate about serving out his four-year term. He said he would.

Now, safely re-elected with no fear of losing votes for office climbing, Bernero can safely explore a bid for governor while his opponents claim he was thinking about running all along.

Bernero was asked to categorically deny that and he offered, “Pretty much, yeah.”

“Pretty much” is not a categorical denial and he knew it, so he conceded that every politician thinks about running for governor, but “I never gave it serious consideration.”

A quick check revealed that his nose was not growing…at least not at that precise moment.

Last weekend in the Detroit Free Press he described a run as “very unlikely.”

But something happened between “very unlikely” and the decorating of the Bernero family Christmas tree that same weekend, as Bernero emerged ready to give “serious consideration” to seeking the nomination.

Bernero “became convinced” to take a look at it because he, along with others, has concluded Cherry can’t win — and the early polling data suggest that is a Cherry problem.

Now Cherry’s got another one: Bernero, who is going around saying, “many people have that feeling” that Cherry is toast. But Bernero refuses to join in the chorus directly by lamely suggesting, “I don’t know.” Regardless, he is doing the dirty work for Republicans, who can use Bernero’s words against Cherry should Cherry get the nomination.

Some will be tempted to just pass this off as another Virg-being-Virg gambit.

At first blush, he can’t be counted out. But bet on this: he will milk this thing for all it is worth, and in the end he’ll join the Cherry team — where he may be politely asked to stuff it.

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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This Will Get Their Attention
School administrators across the state are in a deep holiday funk. Instead of decorating the schools, they are dismantling them.

With a hefty $292-per-pupil cut staring them in the face, they are forced to do one of two things: dip into their rainy day fund to restore the cuts, or start slashing here and there to balance the books.

It’s the “here and there” that is getting all the attention, and here’s a sure fire way to balance the books: eliminate school buses and athletics.

That giant clunk you just heard was from administrators falling off their chairs.

Eliminating transportation and high school sports would get the parents to lobby Lansing for more money, but it’s a risky strategy due to schools of choice.

Schools of Choice was invented years ago on the Gov. John Engler watch and gave parents all over the state the power to move their kids to another district. If they were stuck in lousy district B, they were free to move their kids to district C if there was room.

Thus was born “competition in the school marketplace,” which is impacting the decisions that superintendents are making right now regarding budget cuts.

As one insider lamented the other day, “if I cut sports, all my parents will move their kids to some school that doesn’t.”

It’s a valid point. That would only plummet the district deeper into debt, as about $7,000 walks out the door with every kid who skedaddles somewhere else.

At a recent education conference, the keynote speaker suggested if the assembled administrators had any guts, they would cut out sports — and the hoots and hollers were deafening.

“Friday night football is a social event in our town.”

“Sports are the reason some kids stay in school.”

“I’d like to keep my job…and life.”

The laments were serious, but if we are serious about reducing the cost of education, which is more important: preserving what goes on in the classroom or on the gridiron?

Yeah, in Michigan, unfortunately, we know the answer to that.

Ah, Sweet Vindication
It was November 2001, one year before the Democratic primary for governor involving five hopefuls. In the hunt: a former governor named Blanchard, a former congressman named Bonior, two lawmakers named Peters and Smith, and the state’s first female attorney general named Granholm.

The quintet had agreed to do their first televised debate on Michigan Public TV, and it was not long into the broadcast that the subject of “experience” was raised by the anchor.

Of the five sitting there, Jennifer Granholm had the least. It was only four years earlier that she decided to take a shot at elective office for the first time, and now here she was trying to become the state’s first female governor.

She felt she had enough experience to be governor, but the woman sitting next to her came to a different conclusion.

State Sen. Alma Wheeler Smith had a ton of legislative experience, but when first asked if she felt Ms. Granholm had enough to be governor, Smith demurred. Unfortunately for Smith, the moderator had quotes from an earlier interview during which Smith did reject Granholm’s experience as insufficient.

Reluctantly, Smith confirmed that was what she said and, with Granholm looking at her, Smith in effect argued Granholm was not up to the task.

Suffice it to say, Granholm was not happy with the remark.

Fast forward to last week.

Gov. Granholm during a one-on-one interview conceded that one of her major “flaws and liabilities” in becoming governor was her lack of legislative experience.

Color Ms. Smith, now a candidate for governor again, vindicated.