Todd Spangler and Kathleen Gray

Detroit Free Press

CLEVELAND – Four years ago at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, it was oysters and champagne for Gov. Rick Snyder. This year in Cleveland, it was “build your own paella.”

Snyder — one of several Republican governors unwilling to endorse Republican nominee Donald Trump and consumed with his own issues at home, ranging from Detroit Public Schools funding to the Flint water crisis — put in his sole appearance in Cleveland during this week’s convention on Thursday, hosting a reception at the Cleveland Public Library.

But unlike 2012, when Snyder was pondering re-election and riding high as a get-it-done governor with a bright political trajectory, this year’s reception seemed to underscore his changes in fortunes: Once considered a potential vice presidential, if not presidential, candidate, or Cabinet appointee, no such talk follows him now. Many seem to believe that after his term ends in 2019, he’ll return to private life.

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“He’s got to wrap up the last 2 1/2 years of his term, and he has a full plate,” said state Rep. Gary Howell, R-North Branch, sitting in a quiet study room on the second floor of the Cleveland Public Library with his wife, Cheryl, a cover band outside playing, “Stand By Me.” “I have no idea what he plans beyond that.”

“We lucked out in Tampa,” Cheryl Howell, who had been a delegate for Mitt Romney in 2012 and fondly remembered Snyder’s reception at the Florida Aquarium, said wistfully. “We were spoiled on that trip.”

And it’s true: With Romney, a Michigan native, the nominee, the state delegation was housed next to the convention hall — not 40 minutes away, as is the case this year. Snyder and Romney’s brother Scott stood on the convention hall floor together and announced Michigan’s votes during the roll call.

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But this year, Mitt Romney is staying away, refusing to endorse Trump and calling him unsuited to be president. And Snyder — who saw his political fortunes reversed after his Department of Environmental Quality failed to require corrosion control in Flint’s water, leading to skyrocketing lead levels, sores and rashes and possible links to an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, along with calls from Democrats that he resign — has been all but absent.

“Every year is different,” Snyder told the Free Press, as he milled around the reception, casually shaking hands with delegates.

But if this year’s reception lacked members of the nominee’s family talking to delegates, as well as the stingray tanks, the free-flowing drinks and the long line for a professional photo shoot with the governor that 2012’s party at the Florida Aquarium had, it was a difference clearly lost on Snyder.

Getting the band on the second floor space to take a break, he talked to the delegates — as he does with anyone who will listen — about Michigan’s turnaround and an unemployment rate of 4.6%, a full 10 points under the high point of the rate during the recession in 2009.

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Ask just about any Republican delegate from Michigan about Snyder’s political problems and they’ll remind you, sternly in some cases, of the successes: a politically fraught bankruptcy that may have saved Detroit, for instance, and steady job growth across the state. They’ll talk at length about “a lost decade” that preceded his coming into office.

“His legacy will be what it is. I don’t think he got into it for accolades,” said Jeff Sakwa, cochair of the state Republican Party. “I don’t know that I would call him a politician.”

“I would stay more focused on the general successful trajectory of the state,” added Dr. Rob Steele, an incoming Republican national committeeman. “The positive trajectory of the state (during Snyder’s term) has been fantastic.”

As delegates come off the elevators to the reception, they drift over to a table with “Celebrate Michigan” T-shirts, the labels being printed, cut and impressed on the shirts by the library’s tech center staff, there in the room. People crowd around a 3D printer to see how it works. The Mike Petrone Band plays a few instrumental numbers before settling into “Drift Away” and “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay.”

About 45 minutes pass before Snyder, who has been in a back room, comes out and begins to start greeting people.

And a funny thing happens: Delegates start handing their phones to friends and relatives to take a photo of them with the governor. A line — shorter, but still reminiscent of the one back in Tampa — forms. State Attorney General Bill Schuette, whose office is investigating what happened in Flint, comes up to greet Snyder and the two embrace briefly.

“I respect him and his responsibilities, and he respects mine and my responsibilities,” Schuette says.

Snyder, now grinning, begins to shake hands enthusiastically, introducing people to his daughter Kelsey, who has come along. He moves around the room, actively looking for people to talk to, to inquire how they are, to shake their hands — reporters included.

“He knows these are people who love him, who support him,” said Linda Lee Tarver, a delegate from Lansing, who beamed as she stood for a photo with Snyder. She said it was wrong to look at whether Snyder’s political fortunes were up or down, because, to her mind, he’s never been interested in that. To her mind, he’s always been the businessman, the former computer company executive, more interested in whether he’s fixing a problem or not.

“It’s not about legacy,” she said.

And what did she tell him when she spoke to him?

“I told him we’re praying for you,” she said, “and we’re here to help fix it.”

Contact Todd Spangler: 703-854-8947 or at tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @tsspangler.