Mike Duggan’s bid to become Michigan’s first independent governor was always an audacious ambition, particularly for someone who had lived his political life as a blue-blooded Democrat.
That so many people who should have known better were willing to ignore the seeming impossibilities of his quest, including entrenched partisanship in the political process and the difficulties of raising massive amounts of money with no party structure behind him, shows how desperate Michigan is to break the political duopoly that is destroying this state.
Include me in that group. Duggan’s campaign for me was about possibility — the possibility of ending Michigan’s relentless slide to the bottom in terms of economic and educational performance in the only way that will work: by ending the policy ping-ponging that occurs with each change of administration in Lansing and committing together to a long-term recovery course.
Now that his campaign has ended, we return to the same old story in Michigan: A Democrat or a Republican will prevail in November — and nothing will change, at least not for the better.
Duggan’s appeal was never just about his success in turning around Detroit in 12 years as its mayor and the hope he could do the same for Michigan.
His promise to end the incessant partisan battling and focus the state’s entire leadership on doing what is necessary to save Michigan was what excited so many, particularly those in the business community who had planned to make next week’s Mackinac Policy Conference all about elevating Duggan.
I was reporting out a column on why business leaders were putting so much stock in Duggan when his campaign called to tell me he was pulling out.
To a person, they mentioned Duggan’s ability to get things done.
There’s a weariness in the state, and the nation, with the rancor that has taken over our political discourse. Duggan represented the hope we could move beyond bickering and into finding solutions.
Whether an independent governor could have built a consensus in a state Capitol where everyone else is either a Republican or a Democrat was never certain. But if anyone could have done it, Duggan could.
He’s that forceful, that determined and that skilled a politician.
Real, radical change can’t come out of a two-party system in which the participants are more dedicated to gaining and maintaining power than bettering the lives of the people.
I’m afraid Duggan’s departure is going to cast a pall over the Detroit Regional Chamber’s conference, which was supposed to be focused on finding common ground.
That’s what Duggan represented. He’s out, but the need still remains.
Michigan ranks 37th nationally for its economic performance. Its families earn $9,000 less per year than the national average. And its schools rank in the bottom 10 in the country.
Blame all that on poisonous partisanship. It’s killing Michigan.
The focus now must be to force the remaining candidates to take a unity pledge. Withhold votes and donations unless they agree to work across the aisle to stop this rolling disaster.
What’s been going on in Michigan over the past few years is a disgrace. Jobs are leaving. People are leaving. Our children are leaving.
If this election doesn’t produce leaders who are willing to do whatever it takes — together — to turn the state around, Michigan will become a backwater.
Cultivating that sort of leadership is the new challenge and perhaps the perfect new role for Duggan.
Nolan Finley is editorial page editor of the Detroit News. Reach him at nfinley@detroitnews.com and follow him on X @NolanFinleyDN.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Nolan Finley: Duggan’s out, along with hope of uniting Michigan
Reporting by Nolan Finley, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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