Dillon-less Democrats: Now what? (The Michigan View.com 11.8.10)

Posted by hpayne on November 8, 2010

As Frank Beckmann first reported on the View Sunday, Rick Snyder named Democratic House Speaker Andy Dillon his state treasurer Monday morning. The move fulfills Snyder’s campaign promise to reach across the aisle for budget solutions. But what does it mean for a reeling state Democratic Party? Is losing its biggest name and most prominent legislator another punch in the gut?

No, agree two prominent Michigan political analysts – but for very different reasons.

Bill Ballenger, editor of Inside Michigan Politics, says that the Dillon’s defection is symptomatic of a self-destructive party that lurched to the Left this election and paid the price. Joe DiSano, a Democratic political consultant with Lansing’s Main Street Strategies, says good riddance. He says Dillon’s inept party politics laid the foundation for the Democratic defeat and his departure will allow the party to focus on its core issues.

“This will have no impact. What Democrats did to Dillon sent a signal. We don’t want you. You have no future here,” Ballenger told The View in reference to moderate Dillon’s resounding defeat in the Democratic Party primary to left-wing union-toadie Virg Bernero.

A proponent of union health benefit reform to tackle that state’s gaping budget deficit, Speaker Dillon’ s ideas found more advocates in Republican than Democrat circles. Bernero exploited that rift — along with Dillon’s pro-life abortion views – buy lining up Big Labor support and running Dillon out of the Democratic primary in a huge upset last summer. Soured by the experience, Dillon refused to endorse Bernero for governor and speculation of a Snyder alliance began – even briefly fueling rumors that he might be the GOP nominee’s running mate.

Ballenger says that the odds were always long for Democrats in 2010, but rather than run to the middle, Big Labor decide “to fly the flag. Bernero ran a class warfare campaign and they got creamed.”

Dillon’s move will give him a fresh platform to espouse his ideas on union benefits reform. But it also removes the Democratic Party’s most obvious choice to lead the party back to the mainstream after a disastrous campaign in which it not only lost the governor’s mansion — but the both houses of the Legislature as well.

DiSano, however, says that Dillon shoulders a great deal of responsibility for the Democratic debacle.

“Losing Dillon is a net plus,” he says. “His claim to fame is two government shutdowns. He is a complete failure.”

The veteran strategist, who co-hosts the blog “TwoGuysNamedJoe.com,” with fellow consultant Joe Munem, says that — far from being a progressive party leader — Dillon’s lack of pragmatism in pushing benefits reforms spit the party and “took a lot of oxygen out of key issues like lobby reform and campaign finance disclosure.” As a result, the House speaker “never gave a sharp contrast to the Republicans” and was a much responsible for the Nov. 2 wipeout as was the head of the ticket.

But DiSano and Ballaneger agree that Dillon’s departure leaves a huge void in the Michigan Democratic Party. Who will fill it?

“They have to look themselves in the mirror and ask: Do we keep doing this?” says Ballenger. “Or do we have to go in a new direction? The choice was never going to be Dillon.”

But if not Dillon, who?

Bernero is damaged goods. Young party phenom, 33-year-old Granholm wannabe Jocelyn Benson, went down in flames to Ruth Johnson in the Secretary of State’s race. DiSano doesn’t see Benson as an immediate prospect. Instead, he points to this week’s election to replace Dillon as House minority leader as the start of the process of finding their Moses to lead them out of the wilderness. Woodrow Stanley and Richard Hammel — both long-serving, Flint-area, Big Labor pols — will likely emerge as the winner of that contest, says DiSano who also likes Senate Democrat Gretchen Whitmer as “a fresh voice.”

Ballenger isn’t impressed. “The Democrats had a bright person in Andy Dillon,” he says. “But they screwed up. Now the Republicans are taking advantage.”

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