opinion

'We just need to roll with it': Dem women say efforts to replace Whitmer should end | Kaffer

If I were Bill Schuette, I'd be planning the attack ad right now: "Hey, Detroit, your mayor doesn't think Gretchen Whitmer should be governor."

Schuette, Michigan's attorney general, is the leading Republican candidate for governor; Whitmer is the Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner some top Democrats can't seem to accept.

Less than eight months out from the August party primaries, efforts to recruit another candidate by Dems concerned Whitmer can't win a statewide election are reportedly ongoing. And a detailed report by Bridge Magazine suggests that Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and his supporters in UAW are leading the effort (although Duggan appears reluctant to run himself).

And that's starting to tick some people off.

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“It feels like every day there’s a new white guy who wants to take her on," a Lansing insider told me.

That Lansing insider is one of dozen women active in Democratic politics who told me it may be too late for anyone to successfully challenge Whitmer's claim to the Democratic nomination.

And unless their party closes ranks behind her soon, those women told me, it risks handing the gubernatorial race to Republicans this November.

The conspicuous campaign to recruit a male alternative to Whitmer, one Democratic elected official said, "is not healthy."

The women I surveyed hold a range of opinions about Whitmer herself. Some are staunch supporters who see Whitmer as an intelligent, capable and experienced leader, who knows how to work with the state Legislature.

But many are lukewarm, unsure that Whitmer can deliver a statewide win. They're concerned that the campaign she's running isn't strong enough, that she has no real connection to the city of Detroit, and that she has yet to articulate a positive message that connects with voters. nuBut even some of those skeptics say she should push back, harder, against the efforts to replace her in the race.

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All of the women I spoke to, even those who said they'd have preferred another candidate, say they plan to support Whitmer if continues to lead the Democratic field. None of them wanted to speak on the record, wary of running afoul of either a prospective governor or Detroit's powerful mayor.

"There's nothing that gets me on her side more than what's happening to her," one staunch Oakland County Democrat said.

"Democrats are at a tipping point," added another Democratic insider. "Someone significant needs to step up, or they need to get on board."

There are other Democrats in the race — former Detroit Health Department Director Abdul El-Sayed; retired businessmen Shri Thanedar of Ann Arbor; and Bill Cobbs of Farmington Hills — but in polls, Whitmer easily leads Democratic field.

She has locked down endorsements from key labor groups, including the Michigan Education Association, raised $3 million, and is polling neck-and-neck with Schuette, an aggressively visible career politician who's held statewide elected office since 2011.

And yet this month, according to Bridge, Duggan was part of a high-powered effort to get U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Twp., into the race. The magazine says other Democratic operatives approached U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint. Both men have been widely discussed as possible candidates, as has Duggan himself; all three have repeatedly declined to run.

And there's the rub, Democratic women told me.

Whitmer announced her candidacy back in January 2017, to the surprise of no one who pays any attention to Michigan politics. When she left the state Legislature in 2015 — after concluding full hitches in both chambers as the state Senate's Democratic Minority Leader — there was no mystery about her intentions.

There's been ample time for other candidates to emerge, for any of the men reportedly involved in those backroom recruitment efforts to enter the race.

They haven't.

The effort to recruit an 11th-hour entry is widely perceived to be aimed at Whitmer, but also it's a clear dismissal by some Democrats of other Democratic candidates.

"Here’s the good news," El-Sayed said. "However many they are, that’s as many votes as they count for. At the end of the day, the people in Michigan who are going to the polls in August are going to make a decision about who can advocate for their values and issues."

Some women told me that the party was showing a failure to learn from the lessons of 2016 — that undermining your own is a gift to your opponents.

“It’s too late," one longtime Detroit Democrat said. "She’s our candidate, and we just need to roll with it.”

For her part, Whitmer says she's focused on the campaign — and that she's ready to work with anyone.

"I’m staying focused on running a campaign that can win, so we can get Michigan back to being a state our kids will stay in when they graduate ... growing good paying jobs here and making sure we have the skills to do them ... I'm not going to get distracted," she said.

And she's not holding grudges: "I’m eager to build the coalition, I think we’ve done unprecedented work on that since jumping in ... when they’re ready to jump in and win this race, I'm eager to work with anyone who wants to solve problems."

Contact Nancy Kaffer: nkaffer@freepress.com.