andy_dillon

Andy Dillon

Michigan Liberal passes on speculation from Two Joes that House Speaker Andy Dillon is going to announce his candidacy soon for the 2010 Democratic nomination to be Michigan’s governor. Color me skeptical.

I know Lt. Gov. John Cherry is not exactly anyone’s dream candidate in the Democratic Party. As Tim Skubick said on my radio show a few months ago, Cherry is the “anti-charisma candidate.” But the last few months have seen Dillon’s stock among Democrats drop like a stone.

It’s difficult to imagine him as a viable candidate in a primary, especially after spending the last few months infuriating traditional Democratic constituencies. His health care reform plan was far more popular with Republicans than it was with Democrats, especially with the unions, who absolutely hated the idea.

And his bungling of the budget negotiations, during which he seemed to operate more as Tattoo to Mike Bishop’s Mr. Rourke than as a Democratic leader, made things even worse. I’ve even had one political insider suggest to me that Dillon was going to make a run at the Republican nomination instead, but I’m even more skeptical of that.

Still, stranger things have happened in the world of Michigan politics. And with the election now only one year away, the silly season has officially begun.