Political notes from a small island

Live stream

Detroit Public Television, a member of the Detroit Journalist Cooperative, is presenting live coverage of the 2015 Mackinac Policy Conference.

Thursday – Part 6

Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson (a U-M alum) just finished comments on race relations, the dysfunction of D.C., and other matters. He was asked: "Why would you raise these issues at Mackinac?"

"The people who run Michigan are here," Robinson answered.

That, in a nutshell, is why people pay handsomely to attend.

Thursday – Part 5

Each conference has a different atmosphere. In even-numbered years, there's a strong political tilt with candidates, party leaders and partisan patrons smothering the place. Debutantes exploring candidacies for governor, U.S. Senate, attorney general and secretary of state test the waters. All those offices next come up in 2018 – and even in the era of eternal campaigning, that's far off.

In a vacuum of election-focused myopia, what matters? In conversation after conversation, people are boring deeply into issues this year. Much to my surprise, road improvement and regional transit (topics that preoccupied folks in years past) hardly register. But repopulating cities is sizzling. Higher education passion has yielded more to K-12, and the four-year schools are having a bit of a challenge warding off the near-singular focus on skilled trades.

I'm much impressed with the quality of conversations on the porch. I just left one on the desperate needs of veterans with post-traumatic stress. Do we see them as individuals? You tell me. There are 240 veteran services agencies in Wayne County alone. I'm hard-pressed to say those folks are more interested in the individual veteran than in their self-survival.

Thursday – Part 4

It's a sunny Thursday morning, but that goes a short ways to explain the 80 percent of conferees wearing sunglasses.

Wednesday nights light up the Island and no few participants. Things start at 5:30 when, out of nowhere, about a half-dozen bars, a martini ice station, and perhaps 10 or more food stations open on the Grand Hotel's porch and in the lobby. Crowds form. In an hour, they thin down a bit. In another hour, fewer folks are around. Still later, just a few remain. They're off to the their rooms, you think -- but aha, no.

By 7 p.m., dozens of bars, restaurants, and hotel lobbies in the downtown are attracting attendees, like (as Woody Allen would say) drawn butter to lobsters. Sponsors rent these places a year in advance. Each place has an open bar and food stations. At them, real work is done: Concepts are hatched and field tested. Soft and hard deals made. Your network of new acquaintances expands explosively. Sometimes on a dance floor.

Only the fire marshal's cap and 2:00 am closing time block the parties from going on all night.

Wednesday - Part 3

Uber should enter the horse-drawn carriage business.

Wednesday - Part 2

Jam-packed session today on public education, in Detroit and across the state. Rarely do you hear condemnations of anything so visceral.

"Bankrupt (financially and in serving kids)”, yada, yada.

Panelists had served on a Detroit group studying the city's schools. Its report "The Choice Is Ours" is a litany of woeful student achievement levels and financial roadblocks.

Not much in the way of new data but the emotional delivery, particularly by panelist, businessman, and big-time Republican John Rakolta, Jr. was riveting. Past failures and difficulties getting the state legislature's attention outrage him. You rarely see such honest rage at the conference.

Sheepishly, I admit to have been Gov. Snyder's education advisor.

Wednesday - Part 1

Hello yoopers and trolls from Mackinaw City en route to the Detroit Regional Chamber's 35th policy conference on Mackinac Island. I missed the first couple and two since.

Cram 1,700 or so pooh-bahs in business, labor, government, philanthropy, etc. onto an island for 3+ days. It combines a crock pot of slow-cooking ideas and a hot pot for spontaneity. Big shots make big deals. Powerful folks make big announcements. The old guard meets the newbies. On Grand Hotel's front porch, longest in the world, you sashay from one old friend to a new one, to a governor or someone who wants to be one (Blanchard, Engler, Granholm and Snyder), to a multi-millionaire sizing up what next, a start-up entrepreneur looking for capital, a leader of a billion-dollar foundation leveraging money for the commonweal, and on and on.

Craig Ruff

 

The conference has shady roots. In the '70s, the Detroit Chamber hosted legislators and tycoons on boat rides on the Detroit River. Women-of-the-night and similar salacious temptations lured policy makers. In a smart move, the Chamber moved the event to Mackinac, ridded the promiscuity, and created the nation's (maybe the world's) foremost group think and act convocation.

What's up this year? Three threads: Michigan's talent, urban revitalization, and racial cohesion. I'll keep an eye on those for you, but please expect lots of other pop-up topics. The conference is a debutantes' ball for politicians seeking higher office. (We'll follow that and them, too.)

I am unabashedly in love with what goes on.