TAWAS CITY – Lee Ann Johnson never had any intention of running for office, ever, before this year. Her passion was better care for Michigan’s elderly population. She served as communications director for a gerontology institute at Wayne State University in Detroit, and then was a caregiver in northeast Michigan.
But then she noted flaws in the system, and was invited to testify before the legislature last year. She drove the 165 miles to the state capitol and got a room, all at her own expense.
“I sat there for a whole day, and was never called to testify,” she said. She wasn’t happy about that, and let people know. She was even unhappier that the law seemed to be taking away family rights and turning a deaf ear to real-world eldercare situations.
Then one day she was startled to get a call from Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist. If she wanted to change things, she should run for the legislature, he told her. “I wasn’t so sure I should have run,” he said but he did, losing a close race in Detroit before being elected lieutenant governor.
The 54-year-old Johnson thought about it. She knew the odds were against her; she would be running against a Republican incumbent, State Rep. Sue Allor, in a district expertly gerrymandered to be safely Republican, no matter what. She also wasn’t rich by any means, and didn’t have any access to vast – or maybe any — campaign funds.
“But then I decided, now that I know and understand what’s going on, I feel I have to do it,” she said. So, she paid the $100 filing fee, and will be the Democratic candidate in Michigan’s 106th state house district, which covers five sparsely populated counties along Lake Huron just south of the Mackinac Bridge.
Lee Ann Johnson is not an exception. In past years, there were times when a number of Michigan’s 110 state house districts were so hopeless for one party they went uncontested in November.
State senators, who serve four-year terms, aren’t on the ballot until 2022. But house terms are only two years, and this time, Democrats are running candidates in every single district.
Republicans are in every district except one — Detroit’s 7th — where their candidate two years ago got exactly 2.4 percent of the vote in a two-party race. Most of these districts will be effectively decided in the Aug. 4 primary. In the 7th district, for example, there are six Democrats running in what will, in effect, be the real election.
The reverse – lots of Republicans and few Democrats – is often true in solid GOP district primaries. That, frankly, is why nobody except this political newcomer was interested in running.
But she vows to make a race of it. “It isn’t just elder care that needs reforming,” she said. “We need to do a lot more to deal with PFAS,” the chemicals that were used for years to make things like non-stick cookware and which are now a persistent environmental pollutant. “I also want Line 5 shut down,” she added, meaning the aged twin pipelines that carry vast quantities of oil under the Straits of Mackinac, and which many fear could rupture.
But though there are signs that President Trump may be in trouble in Michigan this fall, beating – or even coming close – to Sue Allor may be a daunting task. The incumbent, a 65-year-old nurse from Cheboygan, got 61 percent in each of her previous terms.
According to the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, which tracks political spending, Allor has thrown more than $62,000 of her own money into her previous campaigns.
The DeVos family, which includes U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, has contributed $14,000, and other Republican sources have coughed up almost $100,000. Lee Ann Johnson has, well, some promises of funds, and has hired a treasurer. For a while, she thought she’d have to wage only an online campaign, but now, with social distancing rules relaxed, is rarin’ to campaign in person and hopefully debate her opponent — “as often as I can.”
Lightning can strike, and occasionally little-known and underfunded challengers have knocked off prominent incumbents.
Though the legislative boundaries have been jiggered for decades to favor Republicans, Democrats, now outnumbered 58-52, gained nine seats and solid control of the Michigan House when President Obama swept the state in 2008.
And this time, taking on an opponent in a race that may seem hopeless may make more sense than ever before. Gerrymandering is about to end in Michigan; a non-partisan citizens commission will draw up new boundaries before the next election.
The goal is to make nearly all districts much more competitive. If Lee Ann Johnson loses this year but makes a good showing, she may be well positioned to try again in 2022. Michigan lawmakers make $71,685 a year for what is essentially part-time work.
Something else may be going for her then too: There will be no incumbent. Thanks to term limits, Sue Allor is in her third and final term, and can never run for reelection again. Told that there was an old saying, “you run once to get known and once to get elected,” Johnson laughed and said, “I’d be open to it.”
My guess is that among this year’s crop of new Michigan candidates, she is far from alone.
