Cherry the Alternative

by Gongwer News Service
November 13, 2009

Right now there are at least 11 people running for, or thinking about running for, governor in 2010, and in the last two weeks the one who has done the most interesting stuff in the still-nascent race is the one who already has a governor tag to his name: Lieutenant Governor John Cherry Jr.

Before reflecting on some of those developments, note how much more publicly intense already the election has become now that there is at least a temporary resolution to the 2009-10 budget and that the 2009 election is done.

On the Republican side alone a potential controversy involving Attorney General Mike Cox and the fallout from the investigation into an alleged wild party at the Manoogian Mansion in Detroit is brewing (and one lobbyist is already taking bets the issue will force Mr. Cox to drop out of the race early), Oakland Sheriff Mike Bouchard is starting to rack up endorsements, and Rick Snyder, a favorite candidate of top business people in the state, is becoming more aggressive in pushing his economic proposals.

Among the Democrats, House Speaker Andy Dillon (D-Redford Twp.) has said he will make a decision on running soon. The speculation on whether he will, in fact, get into the race has led Democratic discussions for some time. He has met with former political officials for President Barack Obama (leading to speculation the White House is worried about Mr. Cherry, something Mr. Cherry’s campaign calls useless rumors). There is no word about whether the White House has met Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith (D-Salem Twp.), former Rep. John Freeman and former Michigan State University football coach George Perles.

But while Mr. Dillon is speculating, Mr. Cherry has taken some significant moves to assert himself more forcefully as a candidate.

He says he will not formally announce his candidacy until early 2010. These days, however, a formal announcement of candidacy is essentially boilerplate to the fact that he is running and making himself a more difficult candidate to catch.

Early on, Mr. Cherry took aim at Mr. Dillon with a completely unsubtle attack on the speaker’s agreement with Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester) on the 2009-10 budget. In an email message and web post, Mr. Cherry raised the question of what do Democrats stand for if not for funding education and social services.

Then, practically at the same time Mr. Dillon said he would make a decision soon on running, all four of the last Democratic speakers of the House — Bobby Crim, Gary Owen, Lew Dodak and Curtis Hertel — came together in a press conference to endorse Mr. Cherry. Intentional or not (and why would anyone think it was anything but intentional?), the move was a slap at their successor speaker. It was especially so, given the primary stated reason the four backed Mr. Cherry: experience. He has the experience to understand issues, they said, the ability to work with people, understand their needs and concerns, and work out needed agreements.

In other words, Mr. Cherry has what Mr. Dillon does not.

Mr. Cherry made headlines of his own, with a speech before the Lapeer Economic Club calling for a business profits tax. Should such a tax be enacted it would be one of the most significant changes in state tax policy since the state dropped a profits tax in favor of the value-added Single Business Tax (which was replaced by a similarly complicated Michigan Business Tax).

Okay, it’s fair to say business will always opt for no tax at all if it could get that option, but would they like a profits tax? After all the ahemming and hawing and timid comments about definitions of profits and rates imposed and credits allowed and devils and details and all that, the answer is damn tootin’.

So Mr. Cherry has held out an olive branch to business, and in so doing pointed out another difference between himself and Mr. Dillon. After all, it was Mr. Dillon who in the depths of winter called for the state to change its tax structure, and with another winter approaching what has happened with that call? Mr. Cherry has, at least, tossed out a possible tax alternative.

One last highlight from that Lapeer speech: Mr. Cherry said the current Michigan Business Tax could have been designed by “paranoid schizophrenics.” Now that does include Governor Jennifer Granholm, Treasurer Bob Klein and all the folks in the administration, but it also definitely includes Mr. Dillon.

And Mr. Cherry went further when he told reporters that he doubted the legislature could enact major tax changes, that it had become more risk averse than it was in 2007, and that a solution may come from the public that would go on the ballot. Again, while not specifically directed at Mr. Dillon, it was a criticism that gathered Mr. Dillon into its net.

One of the great ironies with these positions and actions is that Mr. Cherry is helping position himself as the alternative as well as the traditional Democrat. Remember, the knock on Mr. Cherry winning the nomination was that he would be too tied to labor and traditional Democratic interests. Mr. Dillon was the alternative Democrat, willing to challenge labor with his proposed health insurance reform for all public workers.

Mr. Cherry is approaching the alternative label in an alternative way, not by distancing himself from labor but by reaching out to business.

All in all, should Mr. Dillon get into the race, it will make for a lot more fun leading up to the August primary. Should it help Mr. Cherry win the nomination it should also help relieve Republicans who, after all, have spent all this time preparing for a campaign in 2010 against the lieutenant governor. No one wants to waste a lot of good campaign rhetoric in these days when everyone is preaching frugality.

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