The fellows must ask themselves why they’re running, how they will launch cam- paigns, contact voters, raise money and keep track of every task. They’re plotting media Partisan buys and filling in campaign calendars. One group barely breaks concentration even as guests enter the room. The group is searching for a “hot topic” that will touch the voters in an exercise they hope to take with them into real-life, hands-on cam- BusterThe Michigan Political Leadership Program makes it easier for paigns they likely will face outside this state lawmakers to have good relationships with venue. Later this night, Fellows designated as others across the aisle. hosts will welcome colleagues to a flood of snacks and after-hours debate that will spill with them into nearby bars and restaurants By Cynthia Kyle well into the night. Early Saturday, after bacon, scrambled eggs, cereal and sweet rolls, they’ll board a trolley to tour Grand Rapids, and witness eer’s in the bathtub. Soft drinks are chill- and present elected community leaders. housing, health care and entertainment B ing. Homemade brownies, chocolate Among them are school board members, 10 development rising in the city’s downtown. chip cookies from a bakery, Cheetos and members of state government and now a Later, they’ll be challenged by a “Budget potato chips tumble over the hotel suite’s speaker of the House of Representatives. Busters” exercise that will divide them into dining table. This Friday night, like Fridays once a assigned political parties and ask them to The sofa’s packed with people, knee to month from February through October, the bring the state’s budget in balance against a knee and nose to nose in the heady conver- 2005 MPLP Fellows are coming together to vortex of declining revenue. sations of school board budgeting, bipartisan dine, debate and learn more about them- coalitions and the nitty-gritty of campaign selves and each other. A SELECT GROUP fundraising. Political affiliations along with conserva- Each year since 1992, coincidentally when A newly elected African American school tive-liberal labels will be shed in common Michigan voters passed the most restrictive board member is bumping elbows with a tales of winning and losing elections, their term limits in the nation, 24 political junkies suburban city clerk intent on learning more hopes and dreams for a better world, and the and legislative hopefuls have been selected about voter diversity. good food they’ve brought to share. from across the state to take part—at no Mid-floor in this tiny campus hotel room, “I truly love that program,” says John charge to themselves—in this unique multi- a political consultant is holding court along- Helmholdt, a political fundraiser with roots partisan learning environment. So far, some side a reporter who periodically exclaims in the Republican Party and a 2004 MPLP 300 people have gone through the program “that’s incredible” to an explanation of why graduate. He’s organized two political action and 100 typically apply each year for the slots. all public colleges should be private. committees of up-and-comers in Grand For each of the 10 monthly weekends, the These are members of the 2004 class of the Rapids, his hometown. “They’re starting to MPLP fellows move from community to Michigan Political Leadership Program get in line to become part of this program.” community throughout the state, meeting (MPLP), a training program launched in Just after dinner tonight, members of the consultants, reporters, business leaders and 1992 to combat strictly partisan politics in a Class of 2005 are huddled in small groups in fundraising specialists they hope to call on term-limited state. a Marriott Courtyard conference room in when they need help as candidates, newly “One of my proudest moments in life was Grand Rapids. elected officers or citizen activists. creating MPLP,” says Bob Mitchell, a legisla- The fellows are intent on tonight’s assign- “This is in-depth training,” says 2005 Fel- tive staffer, Democratic congressional candi- ment: They are to envision themselves as an low Janice McCraner, a Republican and date, consultant and now founder of Trans- incumbent member of the Michigan Legisla- county commissioner. She typically drives Elect New Transmission Development Co. ture, running in a district that is entirely four hours to MPLP weekends. “I haven’t based in Reston, Va. He and a small group in new territory. missed a session. After my first one, I was so Lansing, Mich., wrote a business plan and The district is buffeted by the global econ- enthralled. I’m amazed at the experts they raised $750,000 to give life to MPLP. omy, and voters are restless, the printed can bring in.” From MPLP’s ranks have emerged 100 past assignment cautions. “Recent polling shows Among 2005 fellows are a township plan- that 65 percent of all registered voters think ning commissioner who works in distance Cindy Kyle is a freelance writer from Michigan who spe- the state is on the wrong track. How do you learning at the University of Michigan, a for- cializes in business and public affairs. get re-elected despite these challenges?” mer state Senate aide who is with an associa-

26 STATE LEGISLATURES FEBRUARY 2006 tion, the founder of a breast cancer-fighting port—a poignant fundraiser now so large it National Committee Chair Terry McAuliffe foundation, a precinct delegate and a former must be scheduled over two days at two ends will square off March 2, 2006, in a banquet Detroit police officer turned criminal investi- of the state. Graduates compete to sell tick- hall in the state’s southeastern corner. Speak- gator for a state environmental agency. ets, rise for a standing ovation, and laugh ers and sponsors will then trek through the They are led by a man and a woman, one together in the crossfire of national political frosty dark to Grand Rapids for an early a Republican and one a Democrat, who chal- figures of opposing viewpoints. morning breakfast repeat. lenge the 24 to craft campaign strategies, The first year’s reunion speakers were Until then, MPLP fellows spend their debate the finer points of media relations strategists Mary Matlin and James Carville, weekends together—with a different room- and get to know each other as people rather fresh from political combat for opposing mate each session. than as members of the other political party. political parties and just a year married. Fellows say universally that the program, “It has allowed me to be more of a 21st “We picked people from both sides of the now housed in Michigan State University’s century leader, not getting bogged down in aisle,” recalls Aaron Payment, now in his sec- Institute for Public Policy and Social the stereotypes of the past,” says Lindsay ond year as tribal chairman of the Sault Ste. Research (IPPSR), fosters new relationships Huddleston, a legal research analyst for Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and mem- and greater understanding in an era of term Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm. ber of MPLP’s inaugural class in 1992. limits. He took part in the class of 2004. Payment then directed the tribe’s state “I really can’t say enough good things “Here was a program where for one week- and federal policy efforts and drove across about the program,” says Barbara Goushaw, end a month it was OK to say you love poli- half the state to attend the training. “You a political consultant in Berkley outside of tics,” he adds. “It was almost a support need a license to drive a car. You need a Detroit. group.” license to get married. You don’t need a She’s half of the only MPLP marriage to qualification to be a legislator,” he says. date. She and her husband Fred Collins were A BOND FORMS Now Payment serves as an MPLP presen- Fellows in back-to-back years. “Politics Members of each class talk of how sur- ter, introducing new classes of Fellows to his brought us together,” she says. They are also prised, and gratified, they are when fellows tribe and governance. “In many cases, I’m the group’s only Libertarian Party members. contribute money and support to their cam- giving people their first exposure to Native paigns. American people,” he says. TERM LIMITS AS CATALYST Detroit attorney James Heath, a 2005 Fel- Former Republican National Committee MPLP “has been a great icebreaker,” says low, came within 20 votes of unseating an Chair Ed Gillespie and former Democratic Craig DeRoche, a member of MPLP’s inau- incumbent House member, and is consider- gural class and now on its alumni board. He ing a second run. He’ll be armed with was 22 and working as an insurance claims MPLP insights next time, he asserts. adjuster when tapped. And, his classmates predict, he’ll Though he may have have 23 more volunteers—his been a virtual un- MPLP colleagues. known in Lansing, Each term ends with an he built coalitions even larger show of sup- through MPLP

FEBRUARY 2006 STATE LEGISLATURES 27 FINANCED FOR THE FUTURE SENATOR here have been changes in the Michigan Political Leadership Program. National political WAYNE KUIPERS consultants served as presenters in the early days. T MICHIGAN “We decided against doing that,” says Lynn Jondahl, former state House member and MPLP co-director from 1995 to 2002. State-based agency directors, media managers and fundrais- ing consultants were called upon, instead. A series of forums—on broad topics like health care and higher education finance—have opened to the public as well as to fellows recently. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek and Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation of Mid- land in Michigan have contributed grants. REPRESENTATIVE A session on ethics was added. A transportation case study was the fruit of joint work with ED CLEMENTE the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments. An annual dinner was added as a way to help pay for an ongoing program. Governors have MICHIGAN worked the dinner. MPLP fellows join lobbyists, students, nonprofit association leaders and supporters for what is now considered the state’s largest multi-partisan event. “It’s a real fine mix of Michigan politics,” says Jondahl.

ing as a training ground for elective politics, REPRESENTATIVE but its intent is far broader, insists Lynn Jon- DICK BALL dahl, former state House member and MPLP SPEAKER MICHIGAN co-director from 1995 to 2002. “It’s a valu- CRAIG DEROCHE able way for anyone who in the broadest MICHIGAN sense wants to develop skills to work in the political world.” debate. We had to fight. We had to argue. MPLP’s current co-directors have consider- We had to stand up for what we believe,” he able such experience. says. and business connections before his state James Agee is a former public school prin- MPLP directors try for a 12-12 split House term. He climbed from city council to cipal and superintendent who served in the between the two political parties. Interaction House member, and then in the first year of state House and was the Democratic nomi- is encouraged. his second term, to speaker of the House. nee for lieutenant governor in 1998. Ed Clemente, from the class of 1997, was The suburban Detroit Republican moved Anne Mervenne, now a suburban Detroit the first Democrat elected to the state House swiftly. He installed a former policy analyst, lobbyist, worked 12 years in the administra- from MPLP ranks. The House member from rather than a staffer from the GOP caucus, as tion of Republican Governor John Engler, a suburban Detroit community formed a fast chief of staff and mixed business leaders directing the governor’s Detroit office and relationship with MPLP colleague and now with political leaders on his transition team. advising the state’s first lady. She was a leg- fellow legislative rookie Representative Dick DeRoche credits the savvy moves to “kind islative staff member and served as a county Ball, a Republican from the state’s more rural of a blend. My understanding of the political commissioner for four years. mid-section. process, my life experience and MPLP.” Former Fellows have made the most of “It makes it easier up here (in the Legisla- It was term limits that helped bring their training. ture), especially with term limits, to have a DeRoche to Michigan’s capital, but partisan “Pan”—short for Patricia Anne—God- pretty good relationship with someone on politics that inspired MPLP’s creation, chaux was the first MPLP graduate elected to the other side of the aisle,” says Clemente. Mitchell says. the House. She won a GOP seat in suburban Ball, an optometrist, had served on his “I always thought it was a travesty that we Detroit and now co-directs a similar pro- local school board and lost two elections for do so little in our country to prepare people gram, the Institute for Local Government, at state House before he put MPLP training to to serve in public office,” he says. the University of Michigan-Dearborn. work. “What I learned in MPLP really served “There are plenty of campaign schools. “I learned a lot about running a campaign. me well,” he says. The real job is what happens after you get More important, I learned a lot about “There are people who are interested in elected. I saw example after example of peo- statewide issues,” she says. running for office,” says Doug Roberts, IPPSR ple taking positions not based on being the Republican Senator Wayne Kuipers, in director and former state treasurer during a best solutions but being what was good for 2002, was the first Fellow elected to the Sen- Republican administration. “They go politics. Because of term limits, the program ate. He also served in the House from 1999 through the program and, lo and behold, is even more important.” to 2002. “It certainly helped me articulate they end up getting elected, and they can at In recent years, MPLP has gained a follow- what I was believing and feeling. We had to least talk to each other.”

28 STATE LEGISLATURES FEBRUARY 2006