Tag: Inside Pitch

"I'm very excited about my campaign for Secretary of State, and I look forward to a spirited and vigorous race," McManus said. "Michigan needs bold leaders who are willing to stand up for what they believe in, and that's why I am especially proud to be the first candidate to file my affidavit and signatures to officially become a candidate."

Becoming a convention candidate isn't as easy as signing a slip of paper, lest the Democrats or any other stick-in-the-mud wreak havoc with the process by flooding the nominating convention with trouble makers.  Michigan Republican Party convention rules require candidates for Secretary of State, Attorney General, Supreme Court and each of the various higher ed boards to demonstrate a certain modicum of support from local Party leaders from across the state.

With those rules in place, a candidate's official filing takes on additional significance.  It demonstrates, especially this early, a well organized campaign and a good bit of popular support among the activist set.  

In McManus's case, she filed her affidavit and submitted the official high-signs of five Congressional District Chairs.

A Republican from Lake Leelanau, McManus has run thus far on issues like election reform and promoting fiscal conservatism. She sponsored legislation putting a 'shot clock' on the Secretary of State to require timely resolution of campaign finance violations (like, say, the investigation into massive Mark Schauer-led violations that seemed to drag on forever) and she has taken the lead on consolidating the departments of natural resources and environmental quality.

In the field of potential Secretary of State candidates, Cameron Brown, Judy Emmons and Anne Norlander remain "on the clock."

Facing pressure from current Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land and current Attorney General Mike Cox (both candidates for Governor in 2010), Chairman Ron Weiser has shelved the idea and will not be supporting it at tomorrow's regular meeting of the Michigan Republican State Committee.

Seems the issue that scuttled the whole thing was existing statute that necessitates nominations be made at the "fall" convention.  

While the proposed language in the two-fer convention rules sought to ease those concerns by stating selections in the spring only made candidates "eligible" for nomination in the fall, the ultimate conclusion seems to be that it was walking a little too dangerous a legal line.

I liked the "two-fer" idea myself... but this was probably the right call.

I’m not a lawyer and won’t pretend to know the ins and outs of how something like this would be perceived and handled by the courts should a challenge arise and should they even bother to hear it (though I have serious doubts that any court would disenfranchise voters across the state by eliminating a major Party candidate from the ballot when that candidate’s nomination was done according to the letter of the law).

Hugely important potential statewide candidate selection schedule change being discussed this week inside the Michigan Republican State Committee.  

When the MRSC meets this weekend for their regular, quarterly get-together, they're being asked to approve rules for next year's Republican Nominating Convention.  Remember, here in Michigan we hold regular primary elections for gubernatorial candidates but the Republican and Democrat Parties nominate their standard bearers in the Attorney General and Secretary of State races (among others) via closed Party conventions in August.

That means that intra-Party squabbles (and, at times, more than squabbles) often keep Party members tied up in their own internal affairs, launching salvoes at one another until two months before the general election while allowing the Big Labor coronated Dem candidates to take pot shots from a safe distance.

Not anymore.  Maybe.  

According to a well placed, high ranking Party official, members of the MRSC are being presented with an alternative when they convene this Saturday. They could do things the way they've always done them, or, they could approve what members are calling the "two convention option."  

Under this new option the Party would convene a regular convention at the end of March 2010, four full months ahead of the traditional schedule, specifically to nominate the Party's candidates for Attorney General and Secretary of State.  The results of the statewide gubernatorial primary would then be ratified, as usual, in a second convention in the middle of August.

The more time the good guys can spend concentrating on general election voters, uniting, moving past the unavoidable primary campaign rivalries and taking aim at the bad guys the better.  And that's only scratching the surface of the benefits of a proposal like this.

By freeing up donors months earlier and allowing them to rally behind the Party's standard bearer, Party officials estimate each general election candidate could raise an additional $1 million.  Money, boys and girls, is one of those things you need a lot of to win these days.  Wish it weren't so, but what can you do?

All of that said, this move isn't a slam dunk come meeting time.  There are folks who make a living running convention campaigns and managing floor fights.  This cuts down on their ability to make a buck and could seriously diminish their influence inside the Michigan Republican Party.  

And while I count more than a few of these folks as personal friends, philosophically I've got to admit... of all of the positive consequences this proposal can claim... that might be the most attractive.  We spend way way way way (way) too much time fighting amongst ourselves, harboring grudges and developing new ones.  

My take?  An opportunity to come together, to unite, to raise extra campaign cash and to focus our attention on the Lefty candidates who want to tax, spend and further grow the size of state government is too good to pass up. Alas.  I'm not a member of the MRSC and don't have a vote.

Stay tuned.  We'll let you know how it goes this weekend.

Political campaigns are chock full of committees.  You've got the "kitchen cabinet," you've got the traditional "finance committee" that raises your cash, you've got advisory panels on this and on that.  They're a great way of bringing together disparate personalities and experiences to ensure the formation of sound policy and, more than that, they can often offer some pretty interesting insights into a candidate's appeal across a variety of spectrums.

With a business and finance committee like this, getting an individual to lend his or her good name to your campaign is invaluable.  

Cox scored a couple of coups and his committee is flat out impressive.  I've posted the full list below the break but a few additional notes that pop on first read:

*James Barrett is one of the most respected business voices in the state.  In many ways he is the first person many campaigns would approach and attempt to recruit.  He is a big "get" in the GOP field.

*Republican National Committeeman Keith Butler has apparently joined the Cox team.  His opposite number, Holly Hughes, is yet to publicly lend her name to any campaign.  

*Michael Kojaian was a big-time Bush guy in 2004.  David Trott was a big-time McCain guy in 2008.  Two different portions of the Party coming together in this way is worth noting.

*Peter Karmanos is a wildly successful businessman and philanthropist who is widely respected by both Republicans and Democrats... and has worked with both.  

*Former Rep. Glenn Steil is now a successful west Michigan businessman and works with 2002 gubernatorial candidate Dick Posthumus here in the Grand Rapids area.  

Those last two surprised me the most and are, in their own ways, pretty big deals.  At least as far as any member of a Business and Finance Advisory Committee can be a big deal.  

Full list below the break...

The next few years bring us House races, Senate races, a Gubernatorial race, the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, a couple of Supreme Court seats... the whole kit and caboodle, as it were.  Periodically, as I find interesting bits of information that are maybe a little too "inside baseball" for a general conversation (read: it'll bore some of you to tears but many of the hard-corp politicos might get a real jolt from it) I wanted a vehicle where I could share it without pretense or narrative.  The facts, ma'am.  Just the facts.

OK, the facts and maybe a little bit of my personal perspective, praise, adulation, derision, snark, what have you.  But mostly just the facts.

Enter, the "Inside Pitch."  Catchy, right?

Anyways, that's what THIS is conceptually.  And the specific occasion today...

I've learned that the Cox for Governor team have brought Neil Newhouse of Public Opinion Strategies in-house to handle all of their polling operations throughout the campaign.  

Newhouse is big-time and this is a pretty strong signal that the Attorney General and his campaign crew are taking 2010 seriously and are officially on the ground running.  His previous client list reads like a who's who... Jeb Bush in Florida, Michigan's own Mitt Romney, William Weld, Charlie Crist and Governor Dave Heineman who won Nebraska's gubernatorial primary race over Tom Osborne, easily the iconic sports hero in the history of the state.

That list includes men who legitimately had no business winning.  Romney was a Senate campaign loser before winning as a Republican in the People's Republic of Massachusetts.  Osborne had the name ID and the public good will to swat his opponents away like flies.  Heck, even Jeb Bush has the baggage of that four letter word after his first name.

But the insight and opinion information Newhouse brought their opponents helped them hone their message and deliver it better than the guys they were up against.

In other words, this is probably a pretty good decision by Team Cox.  

(If you've got a tip, a tidbit or a topic you'd like to pass along, anonymous or otherwise, don't be a stranger.  Email me at RightMichigan@gmail.com.)