Somewhere between spurring Michigan's economic recovery and protecting its environment there is a better future for this very troubled state, leader in joblessness.
Ann Arbor businessman Rick Snyder, who has had leadership roles on both fronts, is ratcheting up the case that he knows the balanced path to that future and can get Michigan there as its next governor.
Snyder, who last week touted environmental protection in the sixth of his "Top 10 Guiding Principles to Reinventing Michigan," has been campaigning in relative obscurity for the GOP nomination. His position papers, thoughtful as they are, have been getting limited media, and scant public, attention.
In all polls to date, the venture capitalist and former boss at Gateway computers far trails better-known contenders: Attorney General Mike Cox, high-profile chaser of evil-doers; Congressman Pete Hoekstra of Holland who as top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee is a regular on TV networks; and Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, a former state senator and 2006 challenger of Sen. Debbie Stabenow.
But Snyder hopes to pull off a Scott Brown-- come back from way down in polls in the primary as Republican Brown did last week in the Massachusetts special election to win the seat held for nearly a half-century by the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy. "The Fall of the House of Kennedy," headlined the Wall Street Journal.
The dynamics are entirely different in Michigan. But Snyder is using some of the same strategists (most notably former John McCain adviser John Weaver) used by Brown, and, Snyder said Friday, "the same technology" that Brown used, including GPS-enabled tracking of voter locations.
Snyder, who has raised $3.2 million for his campaign (including at least $340,000 of his own money as of what was revealed in October), plans early in February to launch a TV ad campaign that will give visibility to his plans.
Last week, Snyder, a former chairman of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and until recently a member of the board of trustees of the Michigan Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, said in his latest position paper: "The state must become a conservation leader again because Michigan's citizens value the natural environment over Lansing's worn-out political environment." Snyder said, "Politicians are jeopardizing our resources and compromising our reputation as a leader in environmental stewardship. ...Public and private partnerships provide a sustainable funding model to stem the tide."
Snyder's paper is sparse on specifics, but one proposal worthy of note is his call for a "Rapid Response Mechanism -- the state needs to use resources and create partnerships that can serve as Michigan's quick reaction force to inhibit and eventually eradicate environmental threats before they create irreversible damage."
Too often, Michigan has lacked rapid response to environmental threats. An environmental Swat Team might have helped prevent the current mess at Bay Harbor near Petoskey, where acidic leachate from cement processing is migrating into Lake Michigan.
Traverse City environmental attorney Jim Olson, point man on many natural resource legal issues, correctly says:
"Public and private partnerships are fine, but this should not be a substitute for a strong regulatory backdrop to encourage such partnerships; if he's talking about partnerships to protect and preserve areas like our state parks, rivers, lakes, natural areas under the new 'Department of Natural Resources and Environment,' then this is necessary in these economic times. But this should not be a substitute for broad oversight and enforcement." I also sought reaction to Snyder's paper from Dave Dempsey, formerly with the Michigan Environment Council; environmental adviser to ex-Gov. Jim Blanchard; transition adviser to Gov. Jennifer Granholm, and author of /Great Lakes for Sale/ from University of Michigan Press on commercialization of water of the lakes.
He notes Snyder's "good values" in some areas but said he lacks specifics in many.
Dempsey said that considering how the two latest governors "failed to follow their very lengthy conservation platforms, I don't give these things much weight anymore." Good point.
But it's still good to see at least one current candidate for governor issue a lengthy white paper on green issues.
Among questions I had last week of Snyder:
-- Does he agree with U.S. Rep Bart Stupak, D-Menominee (as well as Olson and Dempsey) that the Great Lakes Compact needs to be to be revised, or that Congress should reject "commoditization" of water -- not treating Great Lakes water as a product?
-- What's his view on slant, or directional, drilling into the Great Lakes?
Snyder spokesman Jake Suski responded: "Rick wants to evaluate the science behind both topics more closely to make sure that the relationship between the risk and the benefit are acceptable. He believes that there have been significant improvements in directional drilling in the last decade."
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.
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