Who does Rick Snyder think he is? The political reincarnation of
Gov. Bill Milliken?
You could make a case for that based on the so-called "Detroit"
issue.
If you have watched any Michigan politics over the decades, you
know that anybody who wants to be elected does not cuddle up to Motown,
unless of course you live inside Eight Mile Road..
State senators don't do it. State representatives don't and
you sure as heck stay away from that if you are running for governor.
Not Mr. Snyder.
There he was the other day standing in front of one of the most
conservative down home on the farm bunch of guys you'd ever want to
meet…members of the Michigan Farm Bureau.
The Ann Arbor business guy was giving his stump speech for the
umpteenth time, you know the one about the Ten-Point Plan, etc. etc.
etc.
As he often does he inserted a line about wanting to help
Detroit.
Say what?
The silence in the room got even more silencier, if that is a
word.
Snyder says Detroit is key to Michigan's economic growth. He
didn't use the line that former Gov. Milliken used, i.e. "as Detroit
goes, so goes the state," but it was close enough.
His tact is in direct contrast to other Republicans who score
points with the voters in out state Michigan by running against
Detroit. In fact in some campaigns the pictures of former Mayors
Kilpatrick and Young in TV commercials were so pervasive, you thought
they lived up there.
Republicans on the West side of the state got so fed-up with
their tax dollars going to Detroit cultural services under a deal
hammered out by Milliken and Young years ago, that they swiped the
money and shifted to their neck of the woods.
Yet Snyder will not back off. He even made the same remarks at
the state GOP convention recently.
It's a risky move that could cost him votes, but then he has not
attached any tax dollars to his comments. So maybe the anti-Detroit
crowd won't go nuts until he does and that's not likely to happen
during the campaign.