Cherry seeks to distance himself from Granholm

The Michigan gubernatorial race is getting national attention — not surprisingly since Michigan is viewed as a key battleground state between Republicans and Democrats and the midterm elections could have an effect on who wins the 2012 presidential elections. The National Journal has an article about it, out of which one statement by Lt. Governor and the long-presumed Democratic candidate John Cherry sticks out:

In an interview 12/2 at the DGA’s annual DC gathering, Cherry acknowledged that the landscape he faces is a challenging one. But he said he’s confident that his background and ideas will ensure that voters will view him independently from his boss, term-limited Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D), and that ultimately, he is the candidate best equipped to put MI on a path toward diversifying its economy.

Running as a member of an incumbent admin. “is an issue,” Cherry acknowledged, “because there is some fatigue — as there would be, in the case of an economy that’s in trouble.”

But he said that while there’s a tendency now for voters to view him as part of Granholm’s admin., it’s “natural, as the campaign goes forward,” that he’ll develop his own profile.

“In the end, it’s making it as simple as this: Do I look like Jennifer Granholm?” Cherry said. “I come from a different background than her. I look different. I talk different. I have different interests. I have my own history. And part of it’s telling my own story.”

That strikes me as a bit of wishful thinking. It isn’t as simple as saying “I don’t look like Jennifer Granholm and I’m different from her” and Cherry surely knows that. There is a reason why the polls have consistently shown nearly 2/3 of even Democratic voters in the state have are still undecided on the election and it’s because they’re not terribly happy with choosing Cherry, and at least part of the reason is almost certainly because he has been in Granholm’s shadow for the past seven years.

The last couple of years have been unusual in the sense that almost everyone has just presumed that Cherry was going to the candidate. Unlike the Republicans in the state, there has been very little jockeying for position among potential Democratic candidates. It’s as though everyone in a position to be a potentially serious candidate just agreed that it was Cherry’s turn to run.

It’s also remarkable, given that reality, that so little has been done by the Democrats to boost Cherry’s visibility and give him a platform to distinguish himself from Granholm. During the recent budget battles, the perfect opportunity for Cherry to take the lead in fighting for more education funding and other things that the public strongly supports, he was virtually invisible.

All of this is beginning to change, of course. Now it looks as though Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero is going to jump into the race, sensing weakness on the part of Cherry amid reports that the White House political team is concerned that having Cherry at the head of the Democratic ticket in 2010 will weaken the state for the party. Don’t be surprised if Bernero is not the only possible candidate to have woken from the slumber brought on by presumptions of succession on the part of Cherry.