Give the old warrior credit.  He masterfully squeezed a whole lot of free advertising out the news media last week which undoubtedly juiced up the ticket sales to his 70^th birthday bash last Saturday night.

    And when lots of revelers appeared hoping to hear Brooks Patterson announce his candidacy for governor all they got was I'll let you know later on.

    Pass the birthday cake.

    Hope those folks enjoyed the cake because the chances of the Oakland County executive running for gov again are down there with the Lions going to the Super Bowl.

    He addressed the issue with Free Press reporter Kathy Grey saying if he does not run it will be for personal/family reasons as he may want to spend more time with his eight grand kids.

    That may be true, but the reasons for not running go way beyond that.

    Based on comments from someone familiar with his current private thinking Patterson is described as having "misgivings" about making a bid.  There would be a ton of media scrutiny into all aspects of his public and private life.

    In addition there is all the travel.  This is a huge state and Patterson is not well known north of M-59.  Heck when he ran in 1982, the sign in front of the Traverse City Holiday Inn read:  Welcome L. Brick Petterson.  You get the point.

    If you devoured all the news speculation in last week's feeding frenzy over a possible Patterson candidacy, you came away with the feeling that he was in a go-mode and just

toying with everyone for the fun of it.

    Turns out it is "pretty remote" that he'll take the plunge with the chances between 25% and 50%.

     Now a personal friend is all but convinced Patterson will run based on private remarks and lots of the birthday bash folks hope it will happen.

     But remember in the political game there are always two faces politicians have:  The one they want you to see and the private one you just read about here. So stash those Patterson for Gov bumper stickers.

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