LANSING -- “This is a very unusual primary all the way around,” said veteran political reporter and Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau Chief Chris Christoff. He is covering his seventh gubernatorial election and said the field is wide open.
“It’s been a very very low key campaign I think on both sides,” he added. Christoff joined NBC25 for a look inside the governor’s race; a two part series highlighting the candidates in both parties.
In this first report, we look at the Democrats.
The candidates are Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero and state House Speaker Andy Dillon. Christoff said Dillon is considered the more business-friendly candidate of the two, with a mixture of private and public sector experience.
Dillon worked for several years as an attorney in a private practice. He spent time as an executive for GE Capital, a firm that specializes in helping financially troubled companies. He has endorsements from the Michigan Building Trades union, along with Detroit Mayor and businessman Dave Bing. Former Motown Mayor Dennis Archer is also supporting the speaker.
“I’ve got twenty years in the private sector,” Dillon said two weeks ago in an interview with NBC25. “I’m ready to hit the ground running.”
Mayor Bernero has the backing of most major unions in the state, including the AFL-CIO, Michigan Education Association, and the United Auto Workers. He is also a former state representative and state senator.
“I’m for working people. That’s what I’ve been about,” Bernero said while campaigning in Saginaw County last Thursday. “We need a governor that’s ready to fight. We don’t need the same old, same old.”
Christoff said Bernero gained the reputation of being “America’s Angry Mayor” in the last two years with his many appearances on national television shows defending auto manufacturing jobs.
In contrast, he said Dillon comes of as a softer-spoken, bi-partisan and “cerebral.” For more on the two candidates, click on the video link. Also, you can hear from the major candidates in a variety of races in the Candidate Connection portion of our site.
