DETROIT – Two weeks ago, Michigan Republicans were suddenly excited and ecstatic for the first time in years.
They’d taken it on the chin in the last two statewide elections, losing two seats in Congress and every top state office in 2018. Last year, President Joe Biden won the state and Republican John James failed, for the second time in two years, to capture a U.S. Senate seat.
To add to their frustration, the GOP had been unable to find a major candidate to oppose Gov. Gretchen Whitmer next year. There has been bad blood and major clashes between the governor and the Republican-controlled legislature since the day she took office.
Republicans have bitterly criticized everything from her spending priorities to what they see as her too-restrictive restraints on business since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
But finding someone credible to oppose her, someone who could raise the tens of millions needed, didn’t prove easy. Former congresswoman and Michigan secretary of state Candice Miller wasn’t interested. Some wanted to run James, but he is already a two-time statewide loser. Ronna Romney McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, has never held public office.
But then, something unexpected happened. Detroit Police Chief James Craig announced he was retiring, said he was a Republican, and sent signals that he was interested in running for governor.
That sent a wave of excitement though the GOP. Think of it: A black candidate with impeccable tough-on-crime credentials! The 65-year-old Craig is a familiar face and name, and avoided any major scandals during the eight years he ran Detroit’s police.
What if he could cut across party, racial and ideological lines and lure formerly Democratic voters – i.e., African-Americans – to support his candidacy? If so, he could sweep to victory.
But not so fast.
Some may not remember that this has been tried before.
Flash back to 1986, when Craig was a patrolman in Los Angeles and Michigan had another first-term Democratic governor, Jim Blanchard, who was popular statewide, but very unpopular with Republicans because of a huge temporary tax increase that Blanchard had successfully pushed for to eliminate a massive deficit.
Republicans turned to another African-American who had a strong background in law enforcement and considerably more experience in government than Craig has had: Bill Lucas.
Lucas had been a New York City police officer, earned a law degree, and then joined the FBI, which sent him to Detroit. Later, he became the first-ever black sheriff, and then the elected executive of Wayne County, the state’s largest, with 77 percent of the vote.
He had been elected as a Democrat, but in 1985, became a Republican, saying things that almost eerily mirror what James Craig is saying today, such as: “leaders of the Democratic Party are out of touch with the community.” Lucas denounced quotas, pointed with pride to cost-cutting measures he had adopted, including privatizing a county hospital. Republicans swooned with excitement.
“The Republican Party is rolling out the red carpet for him. Bill Lucas has three million constituents,” State Senate Majority Leader John Engler told the New York Times. “Great for Michigan to have the first black governor in modern times and especially great if he is a Republican,” said Guy Vander Jagt, then a senior member of the state’s congressional delegation.
Lucas, indeed, won the Republican nomination for governor, in part thanks to a leading white candidate having been caught in an unemployment compensation scandal.
But then the campaign began, and for the Republicans, it was an epic disaster. Coleman A. Young, the city’s feisty black mayor, campaigned savagely against Lucas, sending the message that he may have been black on the outside, but couldn’t care less about their needs. White Republican voters, on the other hand, found it hard to warm up to a black politician from Detroit.
In the end, the result was the worst defeat any Republican candidate for governor has suffered in history. Lucas got only 31 percent of the vote, and lost every county except one.
That was, of course, a long time ago. Politically, things have changed in some ways; a black Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate came within two percentage points of beating an incumbent Democrat last fall. Michigan twice voted for President Obama.
But there are also some uncanny similarities. Gretchen Whitmer, like Blanchard, is seen as a likeable moderate who has a history of winning independent and some Republican votes.
Though her popularity has dipped lately, polls still show her with a positive approval rating. She is also a highly skilled politician who has been winning elections for many years.
Craig has never run for anything, and already has made some eyebrow-raising statements, including a claim that Black Lives Matter protesters were being funded by “communist outsiders” and promoting a “Marxist ideology.”
He has also said “I align with both conservatives and liberals, depending on the issues.” That may not play well with Trump-era Republicans, who have been in no mood to compromise.
Finally, there is one way in which his campaign, if he in fact does run, will resemble that of Lucas. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who has strongly praised James Craig’s performance as police chief, has no desire to see him elected governor.
Asked about this at the press conference announcing Chief Craig’s retirement, Duggan said that from his perspective, it was very simple. “I think Gretchen Whitmer has been the best partner the city of Detroit has had in the governor’s office in decades.
“I will be supporting her.”
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-30- (Editor’s Note: A version of this column also appeared in the Toledo Blade
