Push to end one party rule in Livingston County begins

BRIGHTON – The nine-member Livingston County Board of Commissioners has been all Republican since 1996, but that may change in November based on a meeting held Tuesday night at the Livingston County Democratic Party headquarters.

The party wants at least one Democratic candidate in each district, and it plans to focus its resources on one or two races that are winnable. The meeting was part pep talk and part strategy session with advice from a couple of candidate who have won in predominately Republican areas: Oakland County Commissioner Dave Woodward and Rep. Marc Corriveau, D- Northville.

Judy Daubenmier, chair of the Livingston County Democratic Party, said challenging incumbents simply keeps them honest and more accountable to voters.

“Incumbents have to defend their record, and it keeps them from drifting to the extreme right,” she said. “Opposition in elections protects the democratic process.”

The results of the last election indicate the party may have some success in November.

“We know our county is becoming more moderate,” Daubenmier said. “We know (Michigan Supreme Court Justice) Diane Hathaway took Livingston County; as well as stem cell research and medical marijuana.”

The Board of Commissioners has been less than stellar in the last couple of years, with gaffs such as a $16 million slush fund from the delinquent tax fund to pay for pet projects while cutting sheriff road patrols and refusing to support county veterans.
“They refused to levy a tiny, tiny tax for the vets they are required by law to do,” Daubenmier said.

Woodward said raising money to win a commissioner seat is not that difficult, and he should know. He was the chair of the Oakland County Democratic Party for six years. When he took over, Democrats only held a few seats on the 25-member Board of Commissioners, and it now has 12 seats.

The former state Representative said there are plenty of assets available to help Democrats win seats.

“Any campaign is based on three principals; reputation, communication and dollars,” he said. “With all three of those principals you can win in a Republican area.”

Corriveau agreed with that, and he said in his case, doors trumped dollars, and he knocked on thousands of doors.

“(Former House Minority Leader) Dianne Byrum was always saying, dollars and doors,” he said.

Corriveau first ran for the 20th District seat in 2004, but lost badly, 60-40 percent.

“I learned how to run a campaign,” he said. “I learned from my mistakes, and I never made them again.”

He went all out in 2006, personally knocking on thousands of doors. He won by a mere 900 votes out of 42,000 votes cast. Last year he won by 9,000. He is forgoing a third term in the House next year where many say he could be Speaker of the House to run for the open 7th District seat currently held by a Republican, in what some people are saying could be a tough year for Democrats.

“That’s just taking a long view, and people vote for the candidate who relates to them,” he said. “I think the voter is less enamored with the R and the D if you tell them what you will do for them.”

The party plans another meeting for potential candidates at 6:30 p.m. March 16 at party headquarters. 10321 E. Grand River, Suite 600, Brighton.

Daubenmier said any candidate would have the support of the local and state party that includes a speech coach to the Voter Activation Network (VAN) as well as a campaign office open 365 days a year.

“The use of this office is a huge asset,” she said.

Feature story on Dianne Byrum produces flashback to close 2000 Congressional race

Monday’s edition of the Lansing State Journal carried an excellent feature story on state Rep. Dianne Byrum, the leader of the Democrats in the House. Livingston County residents certainly remember her from her spirited run at the 8th U.S. Congressional district seat in 2000 against Mike Rogers. She lost by a mere 111 votes among almost 300,000 votes cast. That’s less than 1 percent. It makes you wonder how much better off we would be now if she had prevailed in the former swing district.

If you wanted to meet Byrum during the campaign it was very easy to do. She was everywhere. The two candidates held something like 10 head-to-head debates all over the 8th District, including one that was televised by a Lansing commercial TV station. It makes you wonder why there were so few opportunities in the last election to hear the two candidates square off. The 8th district produced Sen. Debbie Stabenow, but more importantly it produced some accountability to voters. However, gerrymandering did away with that.

I met Dianne’s mother during the campaign. She was born in Livingston County, but I don’t remember exactly where.

House Minority Leader Dianne Byrum has had plenty of ups and downs in her 16 years as a state lawmaker.
Well, Byrum certainly is leaving on a high note, after leading a remarkable turnaround that puts the Michigan House under Democratic control for the first time since 1998.
And better still for her: She will turn her House seat over to her daughter, Barb, who was elected to the seat in November.
"I always believed we would elect a Democratic speaker. I thought it would take two years longer," Byrum said in an interview last week in her Capitol office. "The goal was always '08, and I set forth to build the caucus brick by brick."
And she etched her place as the savvy and disciplined leader who recruited candidates, raised money and designed the political strategy for House Democrats.

Having gone door-to-door for a successful House candidate in the last election, I can tell you the themes and issues she hammered home in the months leading up to the election really resonated with the voters.

Byrum's political star seemed to be ascending until 2000, when she ran for Congress against fellow state Sen. Mike Rogers, a rising Republican from Brighton.
The Republicans controlled the Senate, and bills sponsored by Rogers sailed through the Legislature while All Things Byrum stopped dead in their tracks.
"They were so nasty to me. I even got oinked at - like a pig - on the floor of the Senate," Byrum said "I felt like I was in a 'Star Wars' movie, and I had these bolts of lightning thrown at me constantly."
When the final votes were counted, and recounted, Byrum lost by 111 votes.

That was the last contested federal race at the time with the recount lasting almost to Christmas, and that was when Bush won the presidency in the U.S. Supreme Court. Targeting someone by refusing to even consider any law, resolution or motion made by the target is still a favorite tactic of Republicans, but thankfully that will go away, at least in the House. They did the same thing to Rep. Kathy Angerer, but voters were smarter than that. Rogers anti-student bill in 1999 that required citizens to vote in the district listed on their drivers' license was the deciding factor in the 2000 race. I’m sure that if Michigan State University students who lived in East Lansing would have been allowed to vote where they lived it would have accounted for well more than 111 votes.

Byrum isn't ready to announce what she'll do when her legislative term expires this month. Besides helping run the hardware stores, she says she expects to work in the private sector while remaining involved in public policy.
"I tell people I'm going to be a community activist and a term-limited legislator acting badly," she said, "because I can say anything I want to and not have to worry about what it's going to look like in print."

I know it’s not the same 8th Congressional District, but I would love to see a Rogers- Byrum rematch in 2008.