Historic Repeat?

 

      Congressman Jim Blanchard walked up the sidewalk to the TV studio on the MSU campus where the Breslin Center now stands and his trusted aide Ron Thayer advised him, "Now when they ask you about running for governor, leave the door open."

      Blanchard did and well, as they say, the rest is history.

      Now comes Bob Bowman, former state treasurer in that
Blanchard administration, who will walk into a different studio at a different MSU location on Friday and will face the same question.  He'll leave the door open, too.

      Bowman will tell the Off the Record panel he indeed is interested in running for governor in 2010.

      Of course expressing interest is one thing, actually running is quite another.

      Former EPIC-MRA pollster Ed Sarpolus calls Bowman a "sharp" guy with lots of ideas but he warns, "He doesn't want to become the next Carl Marlinga (who was known for flirting with running for this office and that but never ran.)"  Sarpolus argues if Bowman does not "stick with it, his political future in Michigan is dead."

      Sarpolus calls a potential Bowman candidacy a "long shot. Does he have as much money as Dick DeVos? No.  Does he have access to money?  Yes."

      In addition the first major hurdle is "Who in the hell is he?" Sarpolus asks.  Voters don't know Bowman from Adam.  He does note that Bowman would have a "better ability to go after business folks" than any other democrat who might run, but by the same token he lacks any "traditional democratic group behind him" such as organized labor.

      Bowman, who now runs the IT arm of Major League Baseball, is in town for a golf tournament and is working on the All Star Game set for next week in New York.

      But he'll find time in his busy schedule to go where Blanchard went to put his own name into play for the 2010 contest.  As to whether he hits a home run ala  Blanchard, who knows?

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