Meet Michigan's New CEO

Michigan has a new Republican governor: successful businessman Rick Snyder. But can Snyder's expertise running business translate into running government?

Michigan will soon have a Republican governor once again.  Rick Snyder, the Republican who won in a landslide in 2010 is a successful businessman who has never held elective office.  In 2006, Republicans ran Dick DeVos, who was defeated in a landslide.  DeVos was also a successful businessman who had never held elective office.  So, what was the difference between the GOP’s Michigan gubernatorial bids in 2006 and 2010?

I count at least five differences between the two candidates and their campaigns:

• Rick Snyder was not socially conservative, but Dick DeVos was;
• Rick Snyder tried to campaign as being non-partisan while Dick DeVos was certainly very partisan;
• Rick Snyder was not running against an incumbent;
• The poor economy could not be attributed to any Republicans currently in office in 2010 while it was possible to divide blame for Michigan’s poor economy between both Democrats and Republicans in office in 2006; and
• 2010 was a much better year for Republicans than 2006.

My best guess is the last three factors were more important than the first two, but that really doesn’t matter right now.  What matters for Michigan is how Rick Snyder performs as governor.  Running for office as both an outsider and a businessman may have been the perfect message for this year’s campaign.

At first glance, being a CEO seems like good preparation for being a governor.  After all, the governor is the state’s chief executive.  But upon closer examination, running a business is not very much like being governor.  With few exceptions, a governor can’t fire incompetent employees.  Nor can the governor easily downsize or outsource an unproductive part of the state government.  Perhaps most importantly, making significant changes to how the government works usually requires getting legislation passed, and, in Michigan, legislation generally does not even take effect until long after it is signed into law.

So, Rick Snyder certainly has his work cut out for him and a lot to learn.  He seems to know this, and his first steps as governor elect include “hiring” people who have significant experience in government to run his transition team.  I hope, for Michigan, that he is up to his new job.