George Weeks: Tribal leader may run

George Weeks

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George Weeks

September 4, 2011

By George Weeks, Syndicated columnist ---- The Record Eagle Wed Mar 14, 2012, 02:07 PM EDT

Over the centuries, Native Americans have been the most underrepresented group in Congress compared to the European-American, African-American, Latino, and Asian-Pacific communities.

Only eight Native Americans have served in Congress — most, if not all, coming from large western tribes — including the only current such member, Republican Rep. Tom Cole, a Chickasaw from Oklahoma.

There have been three Native Americans in the Senate, including Republican Charles Curtis, of Kansas, who was only three-eighths Indian of mixed ancestry and was 1925-29 Senate majority leader as well as 1929-33 vice president under Herbert Hoover.

Latest was the distinctive 1993-2005 Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, of Colorado, a Northern Cheyenne chief who was a Democrat but switched to the Republican Party in 1995. He was captain of the 1964 U.S. Olympic judo team.

Now comes Michigan’s Derek Bailey, chairman of the Leelanau County-headquartered Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (GTB), who is considering a congressional bid when his four-year term as chairman expires in May of 2012.

(Like Campbell, Bailey has a ponytail and rides a motorcycle. Campbell as senator owned eight of them. Bailey rides an all-black Victory Kingpin 8-ball.)

In phone chats last week, Bailey said he is “definitely exploring” running as a Democrat for the seat won last year by Rep. Dan Benishek, R-Crystal Falls, in the sprawling 1st District represented for nine terms by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, who did not seek re-election.

Leelanau County is not currently in the 1st District, but is in the redistricting as crafted by the GOP-ruled Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder to adjust to Michigan’s loss of one of its 15 congressional seats as a result of the 2010 Census.

Also added: Grand Traverse and other counties where Bailey gets frequent media attention.

Michigan, the only state to lose population in the census, saw a decline in white and black populations, but a 6 percent gain in Native Americans, thanks in part to an aggressive effort in the increasingly politically astute Indian Country to get members to declare ancestry. Eight of Michigan’s 12 tribes are in the 1st District.

Bailey, 37, also has been considering a run in the state Senate in the 35th District represented by Sen. Darwin Booher, R-Evart. A congressional bid appears more likely.

In August, Inside Michigan Politics newsletter declared Benishek’s seat as “Lean GOP” and Booher’s a stronger “Likely GOP.”

(Bailey declined to discuss the matter during office hours, opting for a later evening conversation.)

“I would like to be a voice for northern Michigan,” said Bailey, who after four years on the Tribal Council was sworn in Dec. 11, 2008, as the fifth elected chairman of the Grand Traverse Band. He is the youngest chairman in the history of a tribe that was federally recognized in 1980.

Meanwhile, Bailey has leadership roles among other tribes, and has been cited for leadership on Great Lakes and other natural resources issues. He is chairman of Michigan’s 11-tribe Inter-Tribal Council, and of the five-tribe Chippewa/Ottawa Resource Authority.

Last year, President Barak Obama appointed Bailey to the National Advisory Council on Indian Education. At Obama’s invitation, Bailey has had two meetings with the president, including during Obama’s recent visit to Holland.

Bailey, who with his wife, Tonia, has five children, said he will decide this fall whether to run for political office. Before then, he will continue “ongoing discussions” about it with a variety of people.

The thoroughly modern Omega (Leader), Bailey beats on ceremonial drums and joins other traditional events but also reaches out in ways not used by native Omegas of old — email blasts, tweets and a range of social media as part of what he calls electronic “smoke signals.”

Don Coe, managing partner of Black Star Farms Winery in Leelanau County and chairman of the Michigan Commission on Agriculture and Rural Development, is among those touting Bailey.

“What he has been able to accomplish in just a couple of years as tribal chairman is remarkable and his leadership skills in Lansing or Congress would be a valuable asset for us here in Northern Michigan,” Coe said, according to the Northern Express weekly.

Engler resurfaces — for Hoekstra

There was speculation many months ago that former Gov. John Engler, now an influential business advocate in Washington, D.C., who bought a home in the Lansing area, might challenge Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow next year.

He knocked that down and last week stopped just short on radio interviews of an outright endorsement of former U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra for the Senate GOP nomination.

On the statewide Michigan Talk Network, and in similar remarks on Detroit’s WJR, Engler expressed hope that Detroit charter school founder Clark Durant would “stay with education and let Pete be the candidate.

“I think he’d be an excellent United States senator … a strong voice for Michigan,” Engler said of Hoekstra.

As to whether that was an endorsement, the president of the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs, said: “I don’t get involved in the role that I’ve got today.”

Nonetheless, coming after Gov. Rick Snyder’s outright endorsement of Hoekstra, Engler’s comment is a good boost for Hoekstra.

But the GOP establishment is split. While Hoekstra has the support of such figures as former national committeemen Chuck Yob and Pete Secchia, Durant has been endorsed by three former chairs of the Michigan GOP — former U.S Sen. Spencer Abraham, current Republican National Committee Saul Anuzis and Betsy DeVos.