July 4, 2006
McCain-Romney Michigan Showdown
Weekly Standard: Nomination Rides On Heated Primary Race
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Two frontrunners in the race for the Republican nomination for president, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, left, and Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts. (CBS/AP)
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Both candidates realize how important Michigan is, and they're acting accordingly. Romney's national campaign headquarters is currently under construction in Oakland County. McCain is also active on the ground; his PAC recently announced it was giving over $120,000 to county and local parties in Michigan.
And that's all well and good. Michigan's importance to the selection of the Republican candidate is not to be underestimated. However, political observers are pulling out the lawn chairs and popcorn for two additional reasons: One is that the Republican primary may be decided by an arcane rules battle in the next year that may determine the outcome of the election before the first vote is cast. The second reason is that a backroom brawl at the 1998 state party convention produced a schism so big that even eight years later the Michigan GOP is a hellbroth of shattered allegiances and personal rivalries involving nearly every major player in the party over the last twenty years — including the Romney family.
This schism has produced two factions warring for the heart and soul of the Michigan GOP. The 2008 presidential primary may well determine which faction wins — as well as which candidate moves closer to the national party's nomination.
The Yobs vs. the Sterling Corporation
In March, the New Republic reported that the senator from Arizona was already charging hard to secure support in Michigan for the primaries: "Local conservative poo-bahs who backed Bush in early primary states, such as Chuck Yob in Michigan, are now saying sweet things about McCain."
Chuck Yob, the longtime Republican national committeeman from Michigan and arguably the biggest political kingmaker in the state, is doing more than "saying sweet things" about McCain. He's been at McCain's side escorting him all over the state. McCain has even hired Chuck's son, John, to run his Michigan campaign. John Yob talks constantly with McCain and his team.
Naturally, Romney is active, too, in his home state. He has a formidable organization behind him; his Michigan campaign is being run by the Sterling Corporation, a political consulting firm in Lansing and the Yobs' chief competition as political consultants.
The Sterling Corporation is almost indistinguishable from the Republican party itself — the state party chair, Saul Anuzis, used to be a partner in the firm. Not surprisingly, the lion's share of business from the state GOP now goes to the Sterling Corporation.
It's no mystery how the two campaigns feel about each other. "Chuck Yob? Yeah, I don't know how to spell horse's patoot, but you could probably write that down," says Fred Wszolek, a partner at the Sterling Corporation.
While he is beloved by the state party's grassroots, this is not an uncommon reaction to the mention of Chuck Yob.
Why is Yob so controversial? To really get Michigan's political landscape, you have to go back eight years, to the 1998 race for Michigan attorney general. In one fell swoop Yob defeated Governor John Engler in a major political battle, screwed Mitt Romney's brother Scott out of an easy election to state office, and came to be blamed for costing Republicans the next governor's election.
Smietanka vs. Romney
In 1998, Michigan was a Republican success story. Though it's a swing state, the GOP controlled the legislature and John Engler was riding high as one of the most popular governors in America.
That year, Republicans held every statewide office save one. Frank "The Eternal General" Kelley, a Democrat, had been Michigan's attorney general for 37 years — so long he still holds the record as both the youngest and oldest attorney general in state history.
In 1994, Kelley had been opposed for reelection by John "The Tank" Smietanka, a former U.S. attorney and GOP party loyalist who'd gladly accepted his role as a sacrificial lamb against Kelley.
So when the indomitable Kelley's next election came around four years later, the Republicans were happy for Smietanka to take him on again — they weren't going to win anyway. Chuck Yob began talking to Gov. Engler about working with representatives of various districts to secure The Tank's eventual nomination for attorney general at the state party convention.
As it happens, working the state convention is Yob's particular area of expertise. According to Ginster, the Engler aide, "He is like a god with a small-g there. You have to come in and kiss the ring if you want to be nominated. They have a machine when it comes to these conventions."
The convention itself is a throwback to the politics of yore. "A convention has a couple of thousand delegates. They're all party regulars, party faithful — it's literally the old smoke-filled room," says Bill Ballenger, editor of the newsletter Inside Michigan Politics.
Everything was going according to plan when the unthinkable happened. Two months before the state convention, the elderly Frank Kelley, facing the prospect of bypass surgery, dropped out of the race. All of a sudden the Republicans had a legitimate shot at winning the attorney general's office for the first time in four decades.
This cast Smietanka's nomination in a whole new light. As a loyal apparatchik, he was a fine standard-bearer for the party when he had no chance of winning. But if what was needed was a viable contender for the post of attorney general, "Tank" was more of a verb than a noun.
"The Tank is a good guy, he just had a difficult time as a candidate. He had a hard time on the stump, as well as raising funds," says Ginster, who may be being charitable. The story is often told about the time The Tank, campaigning against Kelley, hitched a ride across the state on a bus-stop tour with Engler. The Tax Cut Express had stopped at the Flapjack Shack somewhere in northwest Michigan for a tightly scheduled 15-minute breakfast meet-and-greet with the locals. Smietanka mistakenly thought it was his time to eat, so he sat down and ordered food. He ended up leaving behind an untouched double stack of pancakes. A dazed Smietanka, with a napkin still tucked into his shirt, was rushed to the parking lot as the bus was leaving--all while being filmed by a local TV crew.
As far as Engler was concerned, now that the race was winnable, nominating Smietanka would be political suicide. Governor Engler sprang into action and pulled a rabbit out of a hat. He convinced Scott Romney--successful lawyer and businessman, brother of Mitt and bearer of the Golden Political Name--to run for attorney general.
Engler had to scramble to put together an organization to support Romney on short notice. "It was The West Wing, season six," says Jordan Gehrke, a D.C.-based political consultant from Michigan who was at the '98 convention. Still, Engler managed to recruit Ginster and a number of key personnel to get Scott Romney's nomination off the ground.
Yob vs. Engler
Now, all of this maneuvering would have been entirely unnecessary if Chuck Yob had been on board with Romney's nomination; however, he had already publicly endorsed Smietanka, and Yob is nothing if not loyal.
The showdown between Yob and Engler at the '98 state convention is now the stuff of legend. Gehrke sums up the situation heading in:
The story that's told today is that Smietanka's running early and there's nobody in the race and Chuck Yob says to Engler, "Governor, I'm going to run Smietanka unless you tell me different," and the Governor says, "No, go ahead." About three weeks or a month later Engler calls him and says, "Hey, you gotta dump Smietanka; we're going to go with Scott Romney. He's the guy, you gotta endorse him." Chuck says, "Governor, I can't do that; I just went out publicly with John Smietanka." Engler supposedly started screaming on the other end and effectively says, "You're going to do what I tell you." Yob basically told him, "Screw you, we're going to beat you," and it was on.
One day before the district caucuses at the convention, some suspiciously timed information emerged. Some years back, Smietanka had not paid his child support for a few months. In his defense, he was no deadbeat--he'd lost his job when President Clinton had unexpectedly fired U.S. attorneys en masse. He'd long since repaid his debt from being out of work. Unfortunately, Smietanka would be facing an attractive woman in the general; he couldn't have soccer moms thinking he was a loser dad.
Engler's men and Yob's machine worked the convention furiously for their respective candidates trying to secure the necessary votes. Engler operatives called in every favor and twisted every arm for Romney that they could. It was so stressful when it was announced that Smietanka had the votes, according to eyewitnesses, that Chuck Yob stood straight up out of his seat and crossed both his arms, clutching his chest as if he was having a heart attack. Then he tore across the room to rub it in to one of Romney's supporters.
"Yob took on a sitting governor and beat him in the convention. It made Yob a living legend," says Gehrke.
Smietanka vs. Granholm
Of course, Smietanka's victory at the convention is only half the story. Part of the reason Republicans were chomping at the bit to get back the attorney general's office was that the Democrats were fielding an unknown and beatable candidate from Wayne County. Some hot blonde named Jennifer Granholm.
But the child support allegations cast a pall over Smietanka for the rest of the race. Aside from his lackluster campaign skills, Smietanka grew increasingly embattled as the campaign progressed; he even refused to shake Granholm's hand during their only debate. Granholm won a tight race.
By Mark Hemmingway
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