(Source: MIRS.news, Published 10/16/2023) Remember longshot recall attempts against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer that went absolutely nowhere during her first term?
Whitmer does because she believes the money she raised as a result of the recalls helped the Democrats win control of the Legislature. Speaking with former Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and students during a talk at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, the Governor articulated a truism that has been stated by political observers at the time.
"It was not fun. I do not recommend it," she said of the recalls. "But if there was a silver lining, that was during that period of time I could raise resources in excess of what I ordinarily would under the campaign finance law in Michigan."
She said she was able to use all the extra money she was able to raise to her advantage, and was able to pass off her success to the Michigan Democratic Party because she couldn't keep the money in her campaign account.
That money was used to build a top-down apparatus for the Democrats in the state that she said helped solidify their win in the state.
"I do think it can be replicated," she said.
Brown asked Whitmer about the difficulties of being able to move progressive policy, but still being able to maintain the razor-thin majority in the state Legislature. She said the same issues of personal freedom that resonate with a national audience would be the key to keeping that majority.
"My message to the Legislature after the election was, 'I don't want to hear anyone talk about a mandate.' No one should get full of themselves. We worked hard and this is the legitimacy of the substance on which we ran and now we have to deliver," Whitmer said.
She pointed to all the sections of the Elliott-Larsen Act reforms that had been made in the last year, the abortion law repeals after the passage of Proposal 3, the gun legislation, and the earned income tax credit expansion.
"We've been living our values, but we've also done a lot of really smart things around our economy," Whitmer said.
She pointed to the debt paydowns and rainy-day fund renewals, which she said resulted in a credit rating upgrade for the state.
Brown asked about the "progressive playbook" and what would be a winning strategy for Democrats across the nation, and the first thing that Whitmer pointed out was the abortion issue along with gerrymandering reform.
She said she believes the state House and Senate could still flip, but because of the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, it would be closer to a 50-50 shot.
"I don't think we'll see supermajorities again, because we won't be gerrymandered the way we have been for the last 40 years," she said.
She said she remembered "getting her teeth kicked in" during those first years when she was first serving in the state House and Senate.
Before she got into politics, she wanted to be a sports broadcaster, but ended up in law when she was approached about running.
"I surveyed the field and thought, 'I can do as good of a job as any of these yahoos that are running,'" she said.
Whitmer told the student crowd a story about where her slogan "Fix the Damn Roads" came from while running for her first term. She said while visiting a woman at the children's hospital in Detroit that was driving from Flint every day, she asked what would make her life easier.
"She thought for a second and said, 'I just need you to fix the damn roads,'" she said.
She said while driving to Detroit she had hit a pothole that took her car off the road for a day and cost her an unexpected $1,000 to fix.
"For me, it crystallized for me, when the fundamentals are falling apart, it's people who are on the margins who are paying the worst price," Whitmer said.
She then pointed to problems with lead service lines and how those with money just buy bottled water, or if there is a problem with schools, the people with money just hire a tutor.
"But if you are on the margins, you're stuck," she said.
She also pointed, again, to the issue of abortion and the overturn of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court.
However, she said the death threats she received made her and her family different people.
"Any time the former president even mentioned Michigan on Twitter, I got a death threat. Come to Michigan, I get more death threats. Call me 'That woman from Michigan,' and 'Lock her up,' I get more death threats," she said.
She said the threats leveled at her started to bleed over onto her family.
"My husband, who is just a geeky dentist, had planned to practice dentistry for about eight more years, had to retire because the threats against me started spilling over to his office," she said.
She said it caused him to retire early. And that her kids were also receiving threats against them.
"I think that experience is something that I never could have contemplated when I ran for governor," she said.
She said she wasn't fearful that she wouldn't make it out of being governor alive, but there are some things that have changed.
"I'm a different person today because of it. I love people and I would love to walk in anywhere across the state and I just don't feel comfortable doing it anymore," she said.
