Staff and the race for Governor

I was interviewed for today's edition of Gongwer, a subscription-only daily newsletter covering politics and government in Michigan.

It was a good idea for an article, taking an inside look at the importance of campaign staff and who candidates for governor have chosen to surround themselves with.  Here's a sampling:

STAFF AN UNHERALDED, BUT CRITICAL, PIECE IN GOV. RACE

Their names may not be on the ballot, but when voters make their choice for governor this year, their choice in many ways is a referendum on the work done by the staff for each of the eight major candidates for governor.

With the deadline to file their signatures a week away, the campaigns have assembled their teams, which will manage the organizations charged with getting the candidates to victory in the August 3 primary, and then, the November general election. And this year, with the first open seat race for governor since 2002, there are many more opportunities to work on a gubernatorial campaign.

And,

Matt Resch of Resch Strategies and a veteran of Republican campaigns for more than a decade in Michigan, said a good staff should be able to take the distractions of a campaign away from the candidate, who can focus on getting out his or her message.

"(Candidates) have to watch every word and be prepared," he said. "And not have to worry about whether petition signatures are being gathered or whether a press release got out on time or making sure that donations are collected and recorded correctly."

Mr. Resch said there is no formula in assembling a good staff in terms of trusted longtime hands, new blood or hired guns. "It comes down to what formula allows the candidate to perform best," he said.

Don't see this everyday

Much has been made about the decline of newspapers.  And it's true that fewer people are reading the paper version of their local paper, while online readership of local news is on the rise.  Be all this as it may, Detroit has a new newspaper.

Detroit's now a three-newspaper town.

A third daily covering the region, the Detroit Daily Press, made its single-copy debut Monday. Based in Royal Oak in offices formerly occupied by The Daily Tribune, the Daily Press published its first edition, containing 20 pages split between two sections.

I'm fascinated to see how this goes.

Update on Tuesday, December 1, 2009 at 12:19PM by Matthew Resch

Well, I guess that was that.

All in favor?

I could be wrong, but I don't remember a lot of polling in the past on whether the public agrees with a potential Supreme Court nominee's judicial opinions. But here we have it.

Poll: Public would reverse Sotomayor ruling

As President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, continues meeting senators who will be voting on her confirmation, a new Quinnipiac Poll shows a wide majority of Americans dissenting from one of her most talked-about decisions by a 3-1 margin.

I have seen polling on the popularity of Supreme Court justices and it regularly shows that Americans hold members of the high court in very high regard.  Stories like this might help that.  In depth polling on the ins and outs of what issues the Court is actually deciding, however, might actually hurt that popularity.

Rrrrroar!

Nothing to add but the laughing.

Warren police shock cougar — a toy one — with Taser

WARREN, Mich. — Police responding to a 911 caller reporting a cougar on the prowl in a suburban Detroit park saw what looked like the big cat hiding in a discarded section of cement drain pipe.

So Warren police on Monday shot a Taser electroshock weapon — hitting what turned out to be a large toy cougar right in the stuffing.

The Detroit Free Press reports the toy apparently was placed in the pipe as a hoax. About 10 officers responded to Bates Park following the call.

Warren Police Commissioner William Dwyer says the department is "out there to keep the community safe."

This week's incident took place about a month since a 16-year-old from Detroit died after a Taser was used by Warren police to subdue him. Robert Mitchell's family has filed a federal lawsuit.

A job well done!

Congratulations to the Detroit Free Press and reporters Jim Schaefer and M.L. Elrick, specifically, for taking home a Pulitzer for their coverage of the scandalous end to Kwame Kilpatrick's career as mayor of Detroit.

Of all the bad in that saga, some good for the folks who worked so hard to investigate and tell the story.

Nice work!