If you follow Michigan politics, you likely know that Lt. Gov. Brian Calley is trying hard to win If the GOP nomination for governor in the August 7 primary election. You also might logically think that those who serve as second-in-command would be well-positioned to succeed their boss and become the next governor.
But you would be very wrong.
That might be the case in business or industry, but not in politics. Michigan has been a state since 1837. In all that time, how many lieutenant governors do you think have served out their time, run for the job on their own and successfully succeed their boss?
One.
That’s right. Democrat John Swainson, a double amputee and World War II, accomplished that feat in1960. But he was the only one.
Two others inherited the job: Bill Milliken, our state’s longest-serving governor, got the top prize when George Romney quit to join Richard Nixon’s cabinet in 1969. Thirty years later, the quirky Luren Dickinson became governor when Frank Fitzgerald died in office.
Apart from that, political history is littered with the carcasses of lieutenant governors who tried and failed. Jim Brickley lost the GOP primary in 1982. Twenty years later, Dick Posthumus won the Republican nomination, but lost to Jennifer Granholm. Her L.G., John Cherry, decided to not even try.
Calley, however, seems to think he can buck the odds. But he’d have to buck the polls too. Currently, he is trailing Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette by more than two to one.
