This is one smart cookie.
One of the candidates for governor may be poised to take a giant
step to reduce
the anxiety surrounding his candidacy.
The word in town on Rick Snyder, in some corners is: "He's not
one of us. He doesn't have the foggiest notion on how to "work"
Lansing. He will be like a fish out of water.
Snyder could argue that none of that stuff is true, but instead
he's poised to eliminate the chatter by surrounding himself with
assistants who can find the bathrooms in the capitol.
"You can say it is looking this way," a source gives the green
light to do this story.
Long before you go to the polls in November, the GOP nominee for
governor could reveal some of his key appointments. That would likely
include, for example, a Chief of Staff, a budget director, maybe a jobs
development honcho and who knows what else?
Snyder is coy and won't confirm any of this but he said on FOX2
the other morning "I wouldn't promise because that's a work in
progress." In fact it's been in the playbook from the get go as part
of his reinvent Michigan blueprint.
Voters are picking more than a governor when they vote. He or she
brings along a host of subordinates who often are the "hands-on"
"go-to" guys to move the levers of government on behalf of the
governor. Think Bob Bowman who did that for Gov. Jim Blanchard and
Jerry Miller who was "deputy governor" to the real one Bill Milliken.
But as with everything in politics there is a potential downside
to stepping out front like this. It could hurt his image as the
"outsider" which many voters bought. The reasoning goes, he convinced
the voters that he was not part of the Lansing cabal and the first
thing he does is go to the roster of Lansing insiders to help him run
the ship of state.
Can you say mixed message?
But the savvy Snyder brain trust has apparently done the calculus
on this and it looks like he will go there.
If he does it will turn this town on its ear, cause no one has
ever had the guts to do this before.