Bernero shocks Economic Club by Blasting Banks over Foreclosures

The Detroit Free Press

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Virg Bernero stunned the Detroit Economic Club today with his forceful challenge to banks to halt home foreclosures in Michigan, and his call for the attorney general to investigate illegal foreclosures.

Bernero followed the more conciliatory Republican candidate Rick Snyder in answering questions in a forum three days before their first — and probably only — televised debate.

“If you are part of the Wall Street breed that runs over people for ever-growing profits and growing bonuses, you will have a problem, because I’ve had it,” Bernero said in his opening statement to a stony business crowd. “We’re up to here with it. Enough is enough.”

Bernero said news that some banks around the U.S. have erroneously foreclosed on homes or unwisely issued mortgage loans in the first place should prod Michigan to follow other states and block foreclosure proceedings or give homeowners a stronger hand to negotiate with banks.

Bernero said a priority as governor would be to withdraw $1 billion in state money from J.P. Morgan and Chase banks for their refusal to ease up on foreclosures and invest the money in Michigan-based banks and credit unions.

Bernero’s aggressive challenge wasn’t well received.

“Snyder talked about optimism and bringing people together, Bernero came out throwing blame,” said David Smith, a vice president of investments for Stifel Nicolaus. “He said the words Wall Street five times and ‘big banks’ 12 times,” Smith said.

“He starts making it a situation where you’re either working with me or you're not. That’s bully terminology,” said Bryant Goodreau, of First Independent Insurance.

Told of the “bully” complaint, Bernero appeared surprised.

“I didn’t think there was anything bullying about my comments,” he said. “I’ll tell you who feels bullied, it’s people that have been thrown out of their homes, especially by mistake, fraudulently. It’s 600 a day in Michigan, that’s who’s being bullied and that’s got to be stopped immediately, now.”

Mani Khavajian, 29, of West Bloomfield normally votes a straight Democratic ticket, but he's not so sure this year. He voted for Snyder in the Republican primary.

But he wanted to hear more from Bernero and Snyder on things like concrete plans for helping revive Detroit and immigration policy.

"But they both spoke very broadly. I didn't hear any solutions or plans on how to fix Michigan," Khavajian said. "This is the one time in my life where I've really had to stop and think about who I'm going to vote for."

He said he'll watch the candidates' only debate on Sunday to see if that vote will change on Nov. 2.

UAW President Finds Perfect Candidate in Virg Bernero

MLive

Behind most high-level political candidates are kingmakers — people you might not know very well but who shape agendas and wield a great deal of influence in election campaigns.

In Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero’s improbable quest to become Michigan’s next governor, new United Auto Workers President Bob King is deftly playing the role of political power broker.

Behind in the polls just days before the Aug. 3 primary, Bernero captured the Democratic nomination for governor by portraying himself as the champion of the blue-collar worker who was mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.

And stoking Bernero’s “angry mayor” persona was King, who, by some accounts, is now calling many of the shots in the campaign.

Some say this could be the last stand of organized labor, which has seen its membership,  cash and political clout dwindle over the past decade.

“Organized labor has an awful lot to lose in this election,” said Craig Ruff, senior policy fellow at Public Sector Consultants in Lansing.

Installed as the UAW’s president in June, King is vowing to revitalize the labor movement, which took a serious hit in the Great Recession.

King’s first public act as president was to lead a march in downtown Detroit, protesting Wall Street greed that he blamed for triggering a financial meltdown that pushed General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC into bankruptcy.

King may have found the perfect candidate in Bernero, who has made Wall Street the bogeyman in his quest for the governor’s seat.

“I will never stand for working people being thrown under the bus while Wall Street makes out like bandits,” Bernero said in his primary election victory speech.

Bernero also railed against government for its enactment of trade policies he said have resulted in the outsourcing of hundreds of thousands of middle-class jobs.

But his main target was “The Man,” greedy corporate interests that have profited mightily from the fruits of working-class labor.

It shouldn’t come as a big surprise that his message resonated with voters and catapulted him into a November match-up against Republican Rick “The Nerd” Snyder.

Michigan lost nearly 1 million jobs during the Great Recession, about one of every four jobs in the state.

Multiply the losses by the number of folks hurt by those lost jobs — spouses, children and extended family — and you have millions of disaffected people in this state.

Bernero’s challenge will be in continuing to capitalize on the frustration of those who lost jobs while showing he can promote the interests of the Michigan employers who shed those jobs.

King faces a similar balancing act.

He struck a conciliatory tone in a recent speech, saying “there is no group of people more committed to the success of the auto industry than the union and our members.”

It will be interesting to see whether Bernero likewise softens his high-decibel rhetoric in the fall campaign. If he does, you can likely attribute it to King’s influence.

Gubernatorial Candidates Crank up the Attack Ads

Detroit Free Press

The race to replace Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, officially under way at today’s 4 p.m. filing deadline, looks like it will be a shooting war from here on out.

Republican Attorney General Mike Cox marked the deadline by launching a televised attack ad on U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, accusing him of profligate spending during his years in Congress. Supporting fire came from a national conservative business association.

Hoekstra was ready to go on the air to defend himself, but held off today to make some last minutes changes in ad copy, a spokesman said. Meanwhile, another national conservative group, the Family Research Council, announced its endorsement of Hoekstra and the launch of a radio ad campaign on his behalf.

Although Cox and Hoekstra were tangling at the starting gate, the rough stuff is likely to spread.

Tom Shields, a Lansing-based political consultant with Republican roots, said he expects Cox to move on to a third Republican in the race, Ann Arbor businessman Rick Snyder, in fairly short order.

Cox, Hoekstra and Snyder, the only candidate with a significant television advertising campaign before today,
have led almost all of the public polls on the Republican side of the primary. Also running are Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard and state Sen. Tom George of Kalamazoo.

On the less-populated Democratic side, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero and House Speaker Andy Dillon have limited their epithet hurling to the non-broadcast variety.

Cox’s opening ad, airing everywhere in Michigan except the Detroit television market, takes Hoekstra to task for voting to support pork barrel projects, including Alaska’s infamous “Bridge to Nowhere.” The supporting ad from a group called Americans for Job Security, airing only in Grand Rapids, also mentions the bridge.

A Hoekstra campaign spokesman said the attacks are motivated more by the congressman’s standing in the polls (he’s ahead in most) than by his record on spending.

“Pete’s a solid conservative and the people of west Michigan know that,” said spokesman John Truscott, a message he said will be reflected in a Hoekstra ad that could begin as early as Wednesday.

Shields said a brutal primary runs the risk of leaving Republicans with a tattered nominee for the general election in a
year in which the party should be well-positioned to retake the governor’s office.

But if the attacks are factual and limited to issues that voters care about, there’s no reason to avoid them now in hopes Democrats and their allies will refrain, Shields said.

Cox campaign manager Stu Sandler said Tuesday the new Cox ad, which also touts the attorney general’s record and
calls him “tough enough to lead,” is “not an attack ad.”

“People across the country are fed up with the spending,” he said. “People don’t know Hoekstra’s record.”

Like almost every legislator who has cast thousands of votes over a period of years, Hoekstra’s record on spending and just about everything else is mixed.

He has earned solidly conservative ratings from national conservative groups, including those who rank taxes and spending as their highest priorities. But he also has supported spending that, at least in hindsight, was controversial. Like the $400-million Alaskan bridge that would connect the mainland to an island populated by 50 residents.

In “RePork Cards” issued by the anti-spending Club for Growth, Hoekstra scored a 97% for his voting record in 2009, voting against pork projects almost every time.

But in 2007, on 50 pork project votes rated by the group, Hoekstra’s 20% mark was easily the lowest grade among Michigan’s Republican congressional delegation that year. U.S. Rep. Fred Upton of Kalamazoo was next at 41%, and three members of the delegation were over 80%.

Denise Ilitch Passes on Governor Contest

AP

Detroit businesswoman Denise Ilitch opted out of the governor's race Wednesday and former state Treasurer Bob Bowman took a step toward jumping into a Democratic contest rife with uncertainty.

After four weeks of taking a serious look at running for governor, Ilitch bailed out of the contest, saying she didn't have enough time to prepare for a strong bid. But she left open the possibility of joining the Democratic ticket as a candidate for another statewide office.

Meanwhile, Bowman was preparing to file papers to form an exploratory committee to run for governor, according to a spokesman.

"Bob Bowman has received very positive and encouraging feedback the last couple of weeks and is preparing to make an official announcement soon," said Bob Kolt, an Okemos-based public relations consultant.

Bowman was treasurer under former Gov. James Blanchard from 1983-90. He heads up Major League Baseball's interactive media division and lives in Connecticut, but has a house in Harbor Springs.

Bill Rustem, president of the Lansing-based Public Sector Consultants Inc. public policy think tank, said Ilitch's announcement makes it more likely that a candidate such as Bowman, House Speaker Andy Dillon or someone whose name hasn't yet surfaced will climb into the race.

"There's no runaway leader in this race," he said.

Ilitch was the leading Democratic candidate in recent polling, based mainly on name identification, according to pollsters.

"This takes away the ad hoc front-runner," said Bill Ballenger, editor of Inside Michigan Politics newsletter. "Right now we have two what I think most people believe are second-tier candidates in the field and waiting for Godot."

Ilitch's decision leaves state Rep. Alma Smith of Salem Township and Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero as the only announced Democrats in the race. Dillon also has formed an exploratory committee and is expected to announce his candidacy soon. Former Genesee County Treasurer Dan Kildee also is considering a bid.

Five Republicans are running for governor: Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, Attorney General Mike Cox, state Sen. Tom George of Kalamazoo, U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Holland and Ann Arbor businessman Rick Snyder.

Waiting game

National Democrats also are playing a waiting game in the wake of Ilitch's exit.

The White House and the Democratic Governors Association has interviewed potential Michigan Democratic gubernatorial candidates but haven't backed one, and both appear to be waiting for a strong candidate to emerge before deciding how to help.

Ilitch said in a teleconference call with the media she needed six or eight months "at least for planning prior to hitting the ground running" and setting up a grassroots campaign. She had only a month to prepare, after presumptive frontrunner Lt. Gov. John Cherry decided not to run. She said the compressed time frame likely will be a challenge for other Democratic candidates. The primary election is less than six months away, on Aug. 3.

"Being an outsider, I felt I started from scratch," Ilitch said.

Pollster Bernie Porn, whose survey earlier this month had Ilitch as the only Democrat with double-digit support among voters at 23 percent, questioned whether Ilitch had the credentials to run for governor.

"She's familiar with education issues as a regent at the University of Michigan," Porn said. "But does she have much experience that would lend itself to managing state government?"

Ilitch, 54, is an attorney, a jewelry designer and magazine publisher. She's former president of her family's pizza and entertainment empire.

She said she hasn't been asked by party officials to run for another office such as lieutenant governor or attorney general, but said, "I will always keep any opportunities for helping Michiganders open."

She did not announce an endorsement of any other candidate, saying only she'll support the eventual Democratic nominee.

'Not a layup for either party'

Asked whether the Democratic candidate needs to be able to self-fund a campaign, Ilitch said anyone who runs needs to rely mainly on citizens and vested interests for funding. Bowman, who took with him $35 million in stock options when he left his job as chief of ITT Corp. according to published reports, is seen as a candidate who could at least jump-start a gubernatorial bid with his own money.

The conventional wisdom that says 2010 likely will be a bad year for Democrats did not weigh into Ilitch's decision, she said.

"The research and homework I've done ... doesn't support that conclusion. This is a Democratic state," she said, adding the race "is not a layup for either party."

John Tramontana, spokesman for the Michigan Democratic Party, said about Ilitch: "We feel she would have been a great candidate for the Democratic Party and for Michigan. Unfortunately, voters will not get to learn more about her and her campaign. But we respect her decision."

Ilitch said "it was very humbling and exciting" when President Barack Obama stopped by a meeting she had with White House officials last month. She said she and Obama "talked about Michigan's future."

In a prepared statement released Wednesday, Ilitch said: "Through a methodical planning process, I saw that the message, resources and many key endorsements would be there, but concluded that the compressed election year calendar would not allow me to run the kind of campaign for governor I believe Michigan needs at this time. And that stubborn fact is the one and only reason why I am not running for governor today.

"Though I will not run for this office now, I will keep the door open to other opportunities, as I believe that public service is the highest calling."

3 Point to Experience in Michigan Governor Race

AP

Detroit -- Several candidates running -- or considering a run for -- state office met Friday in a forum designed to introduce them to educators.

Sponsored by the Michigan Education Association, more than 250 people gathered at the Detroit Marriott Hotel to listen to Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra [pictured: right] and state Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith answer a brief question-and-answer session. Topics ranged from Gov. Jennifer Granholm's recent comments that she'd like to encourage 39,000 teachers to retire to whether Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb should have financial and academic control of Detroit Public Schools.

All three politicians said experience is one of their main qualifications for the governor's seat.

Bernero, a former state lawmaker expected to officially announce his candidacy for governor Monday, said bipartisan efforts will be needed to improve the state's economic situation.

"I believe in attacking the problem, not attacking each other," he said.

Hoekstra, R-Holland, also spoke of politicians working together to enact change.

"If we're going to bring solutions to Michigan we're going to have to bring together Republicans, Democrats and independents to get things done," he said.

Smith, D-Salem Township, said that persistence and a sense of humor are also important.

"God knows you need it as a Michigan legislator," Smith said, regarding persistence. "I think it's important for politicians not to take themselves too seriously."

Candidates Talk Taxes In Initial Gubernatorial Sparring

Story from Crain's Detroit Business

MACKINAC ISLAND -- In an exchange long on civility and sometimes short on specifics, Michigan gubernatorial candidates on Thursday made pitches of tax-cutting, government restructuring and budget fixes to business executives gathered on Mackinac Island.

The candidates, appearing at a fundraiser for the Detroit Regional Chamber’s political action committee, sought to distinguish themselves in an early skirmish for the 2010 governor’s race.

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox said he was focused on “what kind of Michigan will attract and retain jobs.” He said he would cut the Michigan Business Tax in half, roll back Michigan’s 2007 income-tax increase and institute an additional $600 million in MBT reductions – adding up to a $2 billion tax cut that he said he would “do the first thing” when taking office.

Cox said Michigan must look at what it does in the wake of auto industry bankruptcies and restructuring, and said “we have to make ourselves attractive to business.”

Other candidates also hit on taxes; Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land said Michigan needs to address its tax structure, and U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Holland, said Michigan needs to reduce taxes and make the tax system fairer and simpler.

Cox was the only candidate to support a no-tax-increase pledge; others, like state Sen. Tom George, R-Kalamazoo, indicated such a pledge was ill-advised in light of the fact that no one knows what the future holds for Michigan.

Tax incentives got attention, with George saying “total disarmament” against other states would be a mistake, but items like Michigan’s 42 percent film credit need change.

State Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith, D-Salem Township, said “what we need for all the businesses in Michigan is to create a level playing field…not pick winners and losers.” She said Michigan needs to examine its tax exemptions.

Hoekstra said most important is that Michigan has a tax structure that allows all of its industries to thrive. Cox said “tax policy matters” and said that lowering taxes overall would give “everyone the opportunity to prosper.” Land said she would simplify the MBT and “make it better for our state.”

Linking a part-time Legislature to expanded term limits drew various opinions. Smith said a part-time Legislature “would put more power in the governor’s office” and take it away from citizens, but she said she would support a change in term limits.

Hoekstra said he originally supported term limits but has changed his mind, and said he does not support a part-time Legislature. Cox, who said he voted against term limits, said he would also probably vote against a part-time Legislature.

Land said she supports term limits but believes more in “time limits” – setting a specific amount of days in which the Legislature must do its job.

George, a practicing anesthesiologist, said he would favor a part-time Legislature because it “gives people an opportunity to serve and still have their hand in another profession, career.”

In the area of bringing Michigan’s state budget under control, George targeted controlling the state’s health care spending. Cox said savings could come through requiring state employees, whom he said have the some of the richest health care benefits in the country, to pay more of their insurance premium, going from a current 5 percent to a national average of 23 percent of premium.

Smith hit on corrections, although she added that Michigan won’t balance its budget through the corrections department. But several candidates were wary of a plan to release 3,400 inmates by this fall, saying doing so should be done with caution and discretion and should not be driven as a budget decision.

As for replacing Michigan’s 19-cent gas tax with a percentage tax on the wholesale price of gas as a means to raise money for Michigan roads and bridges, candidates were mixed. George said he would not support it, while Smith said she supported the shift in concept. Hoekstra said he would not support it if it increased taxes overall, and Cox said he would instead look at using Michigan’s sales tax for additional road funding.

In closing remarks, Cox said he’s “willing to do the bold things that are needed to change Michigan around.” Land said her time as secretary of state gives her “background and ability to take on this challenge,” while George said “having legislative experience is going to be important in the next governor.”

Smith cited her years of elected experience and service on state appropriations committees as important qualities, while Hoekstra said he would be a governor who puts “everything on the table” to turn the state around, including tackling bureaucracy and taxes.

Ann Arbor business executive Rick Snyder, who was at the chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference but declined to participate in the debate as he has not decided whether to enter the race, said he would “look at state government from the bottom up,” tackling services, regulations, tax structure and other elements.

“We need smaller, faster, cheaper, better government,” said Snyder, who is exploring a Republican run for governor. He is chairman and CEO of venture-capital firm Ardesta L.L.C.