In sports, taking the high road in dealing with opponents and adversity is often called sportsmanship. In politics, at least in dealing with opponents, it's civility.

Last week in Comerica Park, the Detroit Tigers and fans took the high road in dealing with the botched call by umpire Jim Joyce that cost pitcher Armando Galarraga the first perfect game in team history.

Last week at Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, during the first allcandidate gubernatorial debate during the annual Policy Conference of the Detroit Regional Chamber, there were brief examples of the low road approach already evident in some early TV ads and other primary campaign sparring.

"Class Acts," The Detroit News headlined on its front page account of how Galarraga, Joyce, and Manager Jim Leyland displayed "sportsmanship, grace in dealing with gaffe that blew perfect game."

"Perfect gentlemen," headlined the Detroit Free Press.

Rare is a political campaign where candidates perform with grace or as perfect gentlemen or ladies.

Democratic National Committeewoman Debbie Dingell, who as wife of Representative John Dingell of Dearborn, has been active in organizing bipartisan gatherings of congressional families and otherwise promoting civility, lamented on Detroit's WDIV-TV after the Mackinac debate that it's far too early for "gutter" campaigning.

Another observer at the debate who is noted for striving for civility in political discourse, former Republican Governor Bill Milliken, said U.S. Representative Pete Hoekstra (R-Holland) and Democratic House Speaker Andy Dillon made "thoughtful" presentations and "stayed above the fray" of intra-party bickering.

Milliken has made no endorsement in the GOP primary but said the debate helped in his narrowing process.

The sharpest intra-party exchange was between Attorney General Mike Cox and Ann Arbor venture capitalist Rick Snyder, both of whom trail Hoekstra by double digits in the latest (May 22-26) EPIC/MRA poll of primary voters. (In the Democratic primary, Dillon has a sixpoint lead over Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, who left the Mackinac conference early for a campaign swing to the Upper Peninsula.)

Cox, who has run TV ads criticizing Hoekstra's votes in Congress, criticized Snyder for jobs that went overseas while Snyder was on the board of computer maker Gateway, Inc. He said, "You plundered the jobs that went overseas."

Snyder denied that, and, in the zinger of the debate, said after another jab from Cox: "He's got enough scandals he's dealing with. Now he's trying to make trouble for other people."

Snyder told Cox, "I'm not going to stand here and be lectured by you about ethics, morality, and family values."

The Free Press said, "Snyder thus made public what has been brewing almost in the shadows -- questions about Cox's investigation into a rumored wild party at the mayoral Manoogian Mansion with then- Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, and Cox's admitted marital infidelity."

Cox, who in 2005 acknowledged an extramarital affair, replied, "My wife is here, and you can talk to her if you want to talk about my ethics and morality."

(After the debate, Snyder’s campaign headquarters proclaimed him “the frontrunner” and said, “Rick’s been a job creator here in Michigan, not a scandal creator.”

Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, appropriately, said of such jousting among fellow Republicans: "Rome is burning and we're talking about things that aren't related to putting out the fire."

As Craig Ruff, a former top aide in the Milliken Executive Office and now senior fellow at the Public Sector Consultants think tank, said in the Detroit News, "The audience was really repelled by the gutterlevel debate. They clearly wanted none of it."

There were many gubernatorial campaign developments last week beyond the Mackinac gathering. Among them:

Bouchard released his "Blueprint for Prosperity," calling it a "comprehensive plan to reform state government, create an environment friendly to business, and reverse the failed policies of the Granholm administration."

Other candidates, most notably Snyder, have released extensive issue papers that have received scant media attention compared to coverage of confrontations such as the Mackinac confab.

Bouchard, who like Cox has been touting the need for more transparency in state government, said he's ready to make "decisions that may be politically unpopular. ...This campaign must be about the next generation, not the next election."

It's no go for Joe. Ex-congressman Joe Schwarz, a former state senator who unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor in 2002, said Friday he has decided not to run for the job this year as an independent.

"I really wanted to run, but I don't know how an under funded independent could win," he told me, noting that it would cost up to $200,000 to get the needed 30,000 signatures to get on the ballot. To be safe, he would have to collect far more signatures. Then, he said, he would have to raise $3.5 million to $5 million “just to be competitive.”

The moderate Republican said he has no immediate plans to endorse any of the current GOP contenders.

Vets for Congress

Michigan has two Iraq war-era vets running for Republican congressional nominations. Andrew "Rocky" Raczkowski, former state House Republican floor leader and the 2002 nominee against Senator Carl Levin, seeks the nomination against Representative Gary Peters (DBloomfield Township). He's an Army reserve officer who had one deployment to the Horn of Africa while a captain and another as a major.

According to The Detroit News, the head of an Iraqi and Afghanistan veterans group plans to steer "sizable" contributions from members to Republican Brian Rooney, a decorated Iraq war vet trying to secure the GOP primary to run against Representative Mark Schauer (D-Battle Creek) -- the seat once held by Joe Schwarz.

Vets for Freedom political action committee named Rooney to its Operation 10 in 10 program: 10 candidates who will get donations and other help.

The group works to elect Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, executive director Pete Hegseth said.

Rooney's main GOP opponent is Tim Walberg of Tipton, who represented the 7th District for one term before losing in 2008 to Schauer. Walberg and Schauer aren't vets.

George Weeks retired in 2006 after 22 years as political columnist for The Detroit News. His weekly Michigan Politics column is syndicated by Superior Features.