Tim_Skubick's Blog

Don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind is made-up.
       
Fact: Before you vote for anybody you should know something about who they are and what they stand for.
       
Fact: At the very least you should know their name.
       
Fact: The vast majority of Michigan voters don’t have the foggiest notion as to who the nominees are for the state’s top education posts.
       
Fact: Therefore the system for selecting these candidates is broken and needs a long overdue fix.
       
But despite those facts the two political parties have their “minds” made up and the elective system of allowing you to pick these office holders will not change.
       
In less than two weeks everyone will head to the polls and after you vote on the high profile races, you’ll wade down the ballot and find candidates for the State Board of Education, and the three governing boards at MSU, the U of M and Wayne State.
       
If you listen closely, you’ll hear this in the polling booths across the state, “Who the heck are these guys?”
       
These mostly unknown folks are running because they have good connections to the state Democratic and Republican parties.  This does not imply they are incompetent or party hacks, but without the connections they’d not be on the ballot.
       
Occasionally a recognizable name shows up. An absolute expert on the gridiron but somewhat of a novice at the game of politics former MSU coach George Perles parlayed his statewide name recognition into a seat on the MSU board.
       
For years die-hard reformers have wanted more accountability by allowing the governor to appoint these folks.
       
Ah, but the aforementioned political parties don’t have the word “accountability” in their playbooks.  They want the power to reward party workers with these plumb jobs and then, if need be, parties can exert influence over the nominees once they get elected.
       
Years ago the former President of the State AFL-CIO, Gus Scholl, went to the democratic members of the MSU Board and told them he wanted former Gov. Soapy Williams for university president.  The gruff union boss reminded the D’s on the board that he put them there and he could remove them if they did not cough up the votes for Soapy.
       
Long story short, one of the board members refused to cough and while Don Stevens never got a medal for his courage, he was fired from his AFL-CIO job for not toeing the line, but Soapy did not get the job.
       
If you like that system, continue to be ignorant about the candidates and let the big shots run the game. If you don’t, tell the two party chairs, Mark Brewer and Saul Anuzis, to get out of the game.

Correction:  In a recent column it was incorrectly reported that the Tommy Dorsey band was dead.  He is.  The band is not.