mi_gov_ENGLER

GOVERNOR JOHN ENGLER

• Born in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, Engler was one of seven children and grew up on his family's farm near Beal City in rural Michigan. He planned on becoming a farmer like his father but was directed to politics when his father ran for the State House in 1968.

• Engler has been in politics for almost his entire adult life. He began his political career as a 22-year old college senior at Michigan State University after working on a candidate's unsuccessful campaign. Engler wrote a term paper outlining an election strategy that he believed would have succeeded. He then executed the plan, and at 22, became the youngest member ever to serve in the Michigan legislature.

• After eight years in the State House, Engler was elected to the State Senate in 1978. In the Senate, he rose to minority leader and, when the GOP took control in 1984, became majority leader.

• In 1986, his wife Colleen, who also served in the state legislature, launched an unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor. She filed for divorce the day after she lost the election. In 1988, when Engler was co-chair of the Bush/Quayle campaign in Michigan, his former wife Colleen also worked on the campaign.

• In 1990, Engler won a surprise victory and ousted incumbent Governor James Blanchard. He had trailed Blanchard in polls heading into October, but his calls for increased education spending and cutting property taxes were popular and low turnouin Detroit (due partly to lack of enthusiasm for Blanchard in the black community) helped him squeak out a victory.

• He remarried in December of 1990. He and his wife Michelle are currently raising triplets who were born soon after election day 1994. Michelle is also a lawyer and a member of the Board of Directors of the America's Promise Alliance for Youth (the group Chaired by Colin Powell) and the Points of Light Foundation.

• Engler easily won re-election in 1994 with 61% of the vote over former Rep. Howard Wolpe.