Bernero to enter Mich. governor's race
Mon, Feb 8, 2010 
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BY KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN
AP Political Writer
LANSING — Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero is joining the Democratic race for governor, The Associated Press has learned.
Bernero has not said publicly yet if he will seek the nomination, but he scheduled three Monday news conferences to announce his decision.
A person close to the campaign confirmed Bernero's intentions to the AP on Sunday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because Bernero has not yet made an official announcement.
State Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith is the only Democrat officially running so far. Lt. Gov. John Cherry was seen as the front-runner but withdrew from the race last month, saying he wasn't raising the kind of money he needed to mount a winning campaign.
Bernero could face competition from other Democrats, including House Speaker Andy Dillon, who has set up an exploratory committee but not yet said if he's in. University of Michigan Regent Denise Ilitch, former state Treasurer Robert Bowman and former Genesee County Treasurer Dan Kildee also are considering a run.
Bernero's campaign said Friday that he'll make an announcement Monday morning in Detroit. He has a Grand Rapids stop planned for midafternoon and an evening stop planned in Lansing.
Although he served from 2001-06 as a state representative and state senator and was sworn in last month to his second term as Lansing mayor, Bernero is virtually unknown outside of mid-Michigan. In a statewide poll of likely voters conducted Jan. 24-26 by Lansing-based EPIC-MRA, 82 percent of those asked didn't recognize Bernero's name, and he drew only single digits in a matchup with other potential Democratic candidates.
But most of the Democrats considering joining the race face the same handicaps. Only Ilitch, whose father owns the Detroit Red Wings and Tigers professional sports teams, reached double digits in the poll, and 51 percent of likely Democratic voters said they were undecided about a favorite in the race.
The poll had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
The wide-open race presents an opportunity to Bernero, who gained a reputation as a fierce advocate for autoworkers in national television interviews as General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Group LLC struggled to stay afloat in late 2008 and get through bankruptcy last year. The son of a former GM worker, Bernero formed a national alliance of mayors of auto towns to press Congress and the White House to support manufacturing and assist in Michigan's economic recovery.
"People are hurting," he says on his Virg Bernero for Governor Web site, striking a populist tone. "The clueless leadership at the State Capitol doesn't get it. The so-called leaders in the Washington bubble don't get it either. And the Wall Street wizards who helped put us here definitely don't get it. We need a governor who will get up every day ready to fight for Michigan workers and families."
Bernero filed the paperwork for an exploratory committee for governor weeks before Cherry dropped out. He said then the lieutenant governor couldn't win because he was too closely linked to unpopular Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who can't run again because of term limits.
Five Republicans hoping to capitalize on Granholm's low job approval ratings have been running since last year. At this point, they have a decided advantage over their Democratic counterparts in name recognition and fundraising.
Republican Rick Snyder, a wealthy Ann Arbor businessman, planned to run his first campaign ads Sunday during the Super Bowl. Attorney General Mike Cox held a large Southfield rally on Saturday with supporters, and other Republicans in the race — Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra and state Sen. Tom George — have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for their campaigns.
If Democratic activists can throw their money and support behind one candidate, the GOP advantage may quickly diminish. It's still unclear who that candidate will be, although time is running out for fence-sitters to get into the race.
Bernero filed a campaign finance report last Monday that showed he didn't raise any money in 2009. He hasn't had to file a report on how much he has raised so far this year.
