By GEORGE WEEKS
Sports can add bounce to springboards into politics.
University of Michigan football center Gerald R. Ford went on to Congress and the White House.
Jim Bunning, a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame who pitched a 1958 no-hitter for the Detroit Tigers, is Kentucky's junior senator.
Now comes Jay Riemersma, of Zeeland, a former Academic All-Big Ten tight end at Michigan who went on to the Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers and announced last week as a 2010 Republican candidate for the seat being vacated by 2nd District Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland, who is running for governor.
It's Michigan's most Republican congressional district, stretching up the eastern shoreline of Lake Michigan from Allegan County to Benzie County.
Riemersma, joined on the campaign trail last week by former U-M football coach Lloyd Carr, said: "Some of our most effective public servants were former professional athletes -- Jack Kemp, Steve Largent, J.C. Watts, to name a few."
Among those former Republican congressmen, New York's Kemp and Oklahoma's Largent were in the National Football League; Oklahoma's Watts was in the Canadian Football League.
Riemersma said "To be successful in the NFL, you've got to learn to work with people with different backgrounds. In the locker room, you have 53 guys with different races, agendas, socio-economic status, world views and, oh, by the way, large egos. And yet, great leaders are able to unite those people and rally them around a common goal. Come to think of it -- it's a lot like Congress."
Riemersma recently left the ultra-conservative Family Research Council as its U.S. northeast director in order to campaign full time for "a Republican renaissance -- a return to our conservative principles of governance."
He said, "Shame on our local elected officials who call themselves conservatives yet voted for the Michigan Business Tax." The reference was to ex-state Rep. Bill Huizenga, of Zeeland, and recent Republican chairman in Hoekstra's 2nd District, who is in the primary mix, and state Sen. Wayne Kuipers, of Holland, who may run. Already announced is businessman Bill Cooper, of Fruitport.
In a phone chat with Riemersma last week, he spoke of balancing economic and environmental interests -- but with a decided tilt to the economic. He's "open-minded" on slant drilling from the Lake Michigan shoreline for oil.
Endorsement derby
-- Ann Arbor businessman Rick Snyder was endorsed for governor in Grand Rapids by former longtime Republican National Committeeman Chuck Yob, who remains influential in the party, and Jerry Zandstra, president of the Pro-Life Federation of Michigan and a one-time U.S. Senate contender.
Yob is no surprise. Son John Yob is a key Snyder strategist (also for Riemersma) and Chuck has been on the stump for John's clients. Conservative activist Zandstra could help with conservatives who suspect, with some justification, that Snyder is a tad too moderate on social issues.
-- Sen. Michelle McManus, R-Lake Leelanau, is assembling an impressive array of endorsements in her bid to be the 2010 GOP nominee for secretary of state -- a nomination that will be determined at next year's state party convention.
One of the presiding officers at the convention will be Republican National Committeewoman Holly Hughes, who endorsed McManus last week.
-- It's not exactly an endorsement, but ex-Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Bill Schuette, whose district included all of northern Michigan, has hired ex-Republican State Chairman Rusty Hills to manage his 2010 campaign for attorney general, a nomination also determined by convention delegates.
Hills just left as communications director for Attorney General Mike Cox, who is running for governor.
Schuette -- former congressman, state agriculture director, state senator and 1990 GOP U.S. Senate nominee -- announces his A.G. bid this week, vowing to "put safety first and do what it takes to protect Michigan families."
Early ticket
In his quest for the 2002 Democratic nomination for governor, Congressman David Bonior tapped state Sen. Alma Wheeler Smith as his running mate even before the gubernatorial primary.
Bonior finished a distant second to now-Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who is term-limited and backs Lt. Gov. John Cherry for the 2010 nomination. (Ex-Gov. Jim Blanchard finished third. Wheeler, now a state representative, seeks the 2010 gubernatorial nomination.)
Last week, 11 months before the primary, Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, a former state senator who seeks the 2010 Republican nomination, selected Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, former Kent County clerk, as his running mate. The east-west ticket then went on a "Fix Lansing, Get Michigan Back to Work" tour that included stops in Traverse City, Marquette and Alpena.
Not surprisingly, Democratic State Chairman Mark Brewer does not share my view that Bouchard made a good move. He said: "The people of Michigan deserve better than these two. Two deficient second-tier candidates do not add up to a ticket that helps Michigan."
Congressional watch
-- Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, applauded President Barack Obama's decision to put tariffs and other protections in place on imports of passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China.
He said, "I am pleased President Obama has recognized the harmful impact this recent surge of dumping cheap tires from China has on manufacturers in communities throughout Michigan and across the country."
Stupak and his colleagues on the executive committee of the Congressional Steel Caucus had sent a letter to Obama urging the action.
-- Its abuses abound, but ACORN has been a tough nut to crack down upon. So it was welcome last week when two northern Michigan Republican congressmen and our two Democratic senators were in the chorus of well-deserved bipartisan criticism of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
Rep. Dave Camp, R-Midland, the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, urged the IRS to "sever all ties" with ACORN. It was exposed by hidden camera videos of conservative activists, first aired by Fox News, that some of its now-fired staffers allegedly committed fraud.
In a letter to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, Camp said that by referring low-income persons to ACORN, the IRS "continues to offer an implicit endorsement of their work. ... It is alarming to think that one the IRS's largest and rapidly growing partners in a tax preparation program allegedly employs individuals who encourage tax fraud."
Camp and Hoekstra were among more than 100 Republicans sending a letter to President Obama urging him to "publicly disclose and terminate" all federal funding to ACORN.
Also last week, Democratic Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow were in the 83-7 majority of the Senate voting to bar ACORN from receiving housing funds in a transportation and housing budget.
That action followed a decision by the U.S. Census Bureau to drop ACORN from community groups enlisted to help conduct the next count.
George Weeks retired in 2006 after 22 years as political columnist for The Detroit News. His weekly Michigan Politics column is syndicated by Superior Features.
