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In and outs of the political campaigns, focusing on Michigan and Lansing, Tim Skubick will report regularly throughout the primary and then general election campaigns.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Two Peas: Schwarz-Fieger

Geoffrey Fieger and Joe Schwarz are about as far apart on the
political spectrum as you can be but they share one thing in common:
Each has thought about running for governor and dangled the possibility
in front of the media more than any other two guys in state history.
For the umpteenth time, barrister Fieger removed his name from this
year's list of potential candidates. No shocker there. And his buddy
and former State Senator and Congressman Joe Schwarz waited a little
longer, but ended up doing the same thing. Ditto on the shocker stuff.
Schwarz, for months, had been weighting a possible bid as an
independent party contender. Knowing that he was just a tad too
moderate for his former political home, the state GOP, Schwarz went
through all the motions as the political media waited breathlessly for
his final decision.
He convened his inner circle of advisors made up of lobbyists,
former staffers and others who felt he'd be a good gov.
He returned to the sidelines to reflect on the possibilities; could
he raise the money; did he have the fire in the gut to traipse around
the state doing every Kiwanis's club between Monroe and Marquette; and
could he beat whomever the GOP and democrats selected for their
nominees?
Much like Fieger, who was good at talking about it, Schwarz has the
same DNA in his system although Fieger did actually run once and so did
Schwarz. Both btw lost.
In the end it came down to money Mr. Schwarz concluded. He just
didn't have the personal wealth to do it ala Dick DeVos or the Nerd.
Nor did he have the commitment from others to raise $4 million. Also
in the end, even though he never said it, Schwarz did not want to
influence the course of Michigan history by being the Ralph Nader in
this race.
That is Schwarz had no chance to win but he could have siphoned off
enough votes from the other two candidates to, in effect, make them
governor by default much like Nader did to Al Gore running for
president.
Maybe Schwarz and Fieger could have made more history by running as
a ticket together.
You would have paid money to see that, right?

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