DETROIT – Three years ago was the best year Michigan Democrats have had in a long time – and the best ever for women running for office. Democrats nominated women for the three top statewide jobs, governor, attorney general and secretary of state.
Each of them won, while another Democrat, U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow was reelected that year, and Bridget McCormack soon became chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court.
Women have never before held so many top positions in the state, and it marked the first time since 1991 that Democrats held all Michigan’s top statewide positions. The only two men holding statewide office are also Democrats – U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, reelected last year, and Lieutenant Gov. Garlin Gilchrist.
Next year, however, the three women in charge of state government, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and Attorney General Dana Nessel all are up for reelection.
To say that Republicans haven’t been happy with the women running the state is putting it mildly. They were especially livid over Whitmer’s state lockdown over the pandemic, and often speak of her as being a tyrant in the mode of King George III – or worse.
What really matters, however, is what the voters will do on Nov. 8, 2022. I’ve been watching Michigan politics for half a century, and here, in a quick snapshot, is my analysis of how things stand today:
Governor Gretchen Whitmer gets, by far, the most attention from the press. Three years ago, she turned what was expected to be a close race with then-Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette to a one-sided victory by more than 400,000 votes.
Her main campaign pledge was to “just fix the damn roads,” and she pledged not to sign a budget that didn’t do that. But in the end, she gave in. While some more money was found for the roads, her call to raise the gas tax was never seriously considered.
When the pandemic hit, Whitmer issued a stay-at-home order in March, 2020, and repeatedly extended it. Republicans accused her of being a dictator who was threatening to ruin business in the state. But polls showed solid majorities of between 57 and 69 percent of voters supported her handling of the crisis.
Whitmer, who turns 50 this year, also won public sympathy last fall when the FBI arrested a group of far-right militia members who allegedly were planning to kidnap her, put her on trial and possibly execute her.
The governor made two admitted missteps this year. She ousted state health department director Robert Gordon and agreed to pay him $155,506 in severance under terms she attempted to keep confidential. After heavy criticism, she waived the confidentiality deal “in the interest of transparency.”
She also was criticized for making a secret trip to Florida to visit her ailing father, and for using a jet owned by private businessmen. Eventually, her campaign fund paid the $27,521 cost of the entire trip.
Despite those missteps, most polls show she is still popular, and would defeat the most likely GOP nominee, former Detroit Police Chief James Craig. It may also be worth noting that no Michigan governor has been denied a second four-year term since the State Constitution was ratified in 1963.
Attorney General Dana Nessel: Michigan’s attorney general is openly proud of being the state’s first gay statewide elected official; her wife, Alanna Maguire, is her most enthusiastic supporter. That led some people to think she could never win the Democratic nomination or general election in 2018, but she did both.
However, her general election margin – 115,000 — was far smaller than that of either Whitmer or Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and that led some to think she might be politically weak.
But Nessel has been probably the most intensely busy, activist AG since the early days of Frank Kelley, who made the job a proactive, not a reactive one in the early 1960s and stayed 37 years.
Nessel, now 52, has modeled herself partly on Kelley, who died earlier this year. She has gone after everyone from predatory priests to utilities who she thinks want consumer-gouging rate increases. She has fought to free unjustly convicted inmates, and regularly warns consumers about possible internet or telephone scams.
Polling is scarce, but there is a general feeling that if anything, she may be stronger than when elected. One looming controversy: She recently ruled that a state law requiring people to have surgery before changing their sex on their birth certificate is unconstitutional.
Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson: Benson, now 43, was hailed as perhaps the most qualified secretary of state in Michigan history when she was elected three years ago against almost token opposition. Her resume included becoming, at 35, the youngest woman dean of a major law school (Wayne State University) and having written a well-received book on secretaries of state.
But she has had the rockiest time of any of the state’s top three officials. A campaign promise that consumers could get service at any of the secretary of state’s branch offices within half an hour proved impossible to fulfill even before the pandemic.
Later, she decided to permanently end walk-in service and require everyone needing motor vehicle services to make an appointment on line. That set off a furious reaction from citizens who complained there were often no appointments available for months. Others are still uncomfortable using the Internet. Benson, some said, was more interested in the elections part of her job (where she has generally received high marks) than the one that directly affects nearly everyone, the motor vehicle licensing division.
She was then politically embarrassed when a majority of Democrats in the state House of Representatives joined Republicans to overrule her and require the branch offices to offer walk-in service.
It is far too early to say she is in political trouble; candidates for Michigan’s secretary of state and attorney general are chosen by party leaders, not by voters in a primary. And it is also too soon to know if the GOP will give either a major reelection battle.
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