Word on the street – quite literally, in fact – is that District 37 Republican candidate Bill Dwyer will be making a big announcement this week.
You hear something once, you say “wait and see”. You hear it several times, from people who travel in different circles, and you’ve got a pretty good idea what’s going to happen: Dwyer’s probably pulling out of the race.
Who’ll replace him? Probably not Andrew Raczkowski. He’s set his sights on bigger fish, again.
Consider that in the same week this rumor hit the mill, Farmington Hills resident and Republican Party activist Paul Welday showed up at the Walter E. Sundquist Pavilion in Downtown Farmington with Michigan Republican Party Chair Saul Anuzis, to talk about the big tax state Democrats pushed onto taxpayers and businesses. (I guess they missed the part about the vote being bi-partisan. And perhaps they don’t want to talk about why the tax increase was necessary in the first year of a Democratic majority, after months of partisan wrangling by both parties and more than a decade of the Republican majority’s failure to enact budget reforms.)
Welday has worked behind the scenes politically, but he’s also a former Oakland County Republican Party chair and listed among the PAC leadership working for Mitt Romney on Saul’s blog with “a half dozen Bush mega-donors, a member of the U.S. House, dozens of state representatives, major county chairs and some of the most influential grassroots activists in the state.” In other words, he spends plenty of time in the company of movers and shakers.
Oakland County Commissioner Mike Rogers’ name has also been kicked around by a select few who believe he has developed the political chops to take a step up (or down, depending on how a person views state and local government). Rogers has parted with the county board’s Republican majority on occasion and has been an advocate of developing more quality mass transit in southeastern Michigan.
One thing’s for sure: Losing a big name candidate at this point wouldn’t do the local Republican Party much good.
–Joni Hubred-Golden
Michigan Woman Blogger
