Michigan Politics
Quickie Book Re-caps Governor's Race
By George Weeks

Behind-the-scenes glimpses of the campaign between newly reelected Governor Jennifer Granholm and Republican challenger Dick DeVos that cost a record $50 million-plus are contained in a sprightly book that sets its own publishing record for postelection speed.

"See Dick and Jen Run" by political correspondent-commentator/ media personality Tim Skubick is due off the presses November 30 from the University of Michigan Press and Petoskey Publishing of Traverse City.

This entertaining book - at least to political junkies - could be subtitled: "See Mark and Saul Spin," for how veteran political pit bulls Democratic State Chairman Mark Brewer and Republican State Chairman Saul Anuzis each touted virtues of his candidate, and dire accounts of how the other was costing Michigan jobs and fibbing on the way to November 7.

Or "See Chris and John Moan," for the way seasoned communication directors Chris DeWitt of Granholm's campaign and John Truscott of DeVos' were quick to knock down what they didn't like from the press and pollsters.

(DeWitt goes back to days as mouthpiece for Attorney General Frank Kelley; Truscott for Governor John Engler.)

Possibly the best sub-title would be "See Tim Seeing Them Run," because the book is replete with campaign encounters "the longest-serving member of the state Capitol press corps" had in roles so varied that the book's copyright belongs to a wholly owned subsidiary of Skubick Enterprises.

His roles - apart from crafting the book every week as events unfolded - include anchor of the Public TV "Off the Record" series and other productions of Michigan State University's WKAR-TV; correspondent for a Lansing area TV station and, during the campaign, a Detroit TV station; columnist for the MIRS newsletter and for 22 Michigan newspapers; contributor to the 60-station Michigan Radio Network; and moderator of gubernatorial and other public TV debates since the first campaign of Governor Bill Milliken in 1970.

A large portion of the 342-page book details negotiations leading to the widely viewed WKAR-produced first debate that clearly was lost by DeVos, who did much better in subsequent encounters.

The book reveals that DeVos insisted Skubick not be the only one asking questions in the norules debate. Both campaigns subsequently agreed to the addition of Charlie Cain of the Detroit News Lansing Bureau, member of a widely respected family in Michigan journalism.

After another debate, writes Skubick, the only journalist to observe DeVos leave the studio, "I see the candidate walking toward the door, and as the door opens, he slams his fist against it as it closes. Bam. This was no love tap. It was a right-hand punch that I thought might have injured his hand."

Skubick said he asked DeVos: "What did I just see?" He said DeVos responded: "You saw what you saw," adding later, "The continuing misrepresentations...get frustrating."

It's interesting that multi-media man Skubick is critical of media coverage of politics: "All sizzle and no context."

In discussing one gubernatorial campaign issue, he cracked that public awareness of it could go up "to the degree that anybody still reads the newspapers." Many do, especially those who take their votes seriously and seek the details that print provides on comparisons of candidate positions on specific issues.

As for television, an analysis in Great Lakes states released last week said paid political advertising occupied more than 2.5 times as much of a typical 30-minute local newscast as did election news coverage in the month before Election Day.

Detroit and Lansing were the only Michigan markets included in the survey released by the University of Wisconsin-Madison NewsLab as part of its Midwest News Index project funded by the Chicago-based Joyce Foundation.

But Rich Robinson of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, a partner in the project, said that based on the network's surveys of spending in northern Michigan stations, he believed the ratios there would be "fairly consistent" with those in Detroit and Lansing.

Robinson said, "Beyond the volume of campaign coverage, we should be concerned about the nature of the coverage. There were three times as many stories about the 'horserace' - polling, fundraising, and strategy - as there were about issues."

That's not unique with television. It's part of the "sizzle."

George Weeks retired this year after 22 years as political columnist for The Detroit News. His weekly Michigan Politics column is syndicated by Superior Features.