Michigan Politics
'Recycle City' - 37 of 38 Senators in Lansing Are Ex-Reps
By George Weeks

Coming to the state Capitol in January is yet another game of musical chairs, played to the tune of term limits.

Lansing is Recycle City, where lawmakers move between chambers and, on occasion, some of their aides and family members get elected to their vacated seats.

Of the seven incoming freshmen senators elected November 7, all are current or former House members. No surprise there.

Of the current 38 senators, only one - former Kentwood Mayor Bill Hardiman - is not an ex-state representative.

Under the term-limits constitutional amendment approved by voters in 1992 - overwhelmingly, but in my view, mistakenly - House members are limited to a mere six years, while senators and the top statewide executive branch officials get eight years.

All four of northern Michigan's senators were just easily re-elected to their second four-year terms.

Senators Michelle Mc- Manus (R-Lake Leelanau) and Mike Prusi (D-Ishpeming) had previously served the three two-year terms allowed in the House. Senators Jason Allen (R-Traverse City) and Tony Stamas (R-Midland) each served two House terms before easily winning open Senate seats in 2002.

As an example of how complexion of the Legislature has changed since term limits, consider makeup of the Senate in 1990, two years before voters approved term limits: Twenty-two of the 38 senators were former House members, five were farmers (none today), and there were considerably more lawmakers from the business world than now.

These days, more and more candidates ride the local governmental escalator to Lansing - probably a good thing at a time when the Legislature tends to mandate expenses sans revenue.

Thirteen of the 32 incoming House freshmen in the newest class have held local government offices, including several county commissioners and ex-mayors of Kalamazoo, Jackson, East Lansing, and DeWitt.

Representative-to-be Mike Lahti (D-Hancock) was chairman of the Houghton County Board of Commissioners. He replaces term-limited Representative Rich Brown (DBessemer), former Gogebic County clerk and former president of the Michigan Association of County Clerks.

Representative Gary Mc- Dowell (D-Rudyard) is a former Chippewa County commissioner. Representative Kevin Elsenheimer (R-Bellaire) in his earlier life was a school board member, municipal attorney, and assistant prosecutor.

As for a level of government that is as close as it gets to the people, Representative Joel Sheltrown (D-West Branch) was Ogemaw Township supervisor before his 2004 election to the House.

I cite these examples because, as much as term limits have spun off too many legislative leaders and committee chairs just as they are getting their feet wet, especially in the House, the added infusion of lawmakers with local experience is a plus.

The Legislature abounds with lawmakers who once were aides to lawmakers, including Representative David Palsrok (R-Manistee). Senator McManus, apart from being in a family long connected with public service, had the experience of northern office representative for then- Governor John Engler.

Incoming Representative Steve Lindberg (D-Marquette), a teacher, has been a district aide for term-limited Representative Stephen Adamini (D-Marquette).

So it is in Congress. U.S. Representative Dave Camp (R-Midland), for example, was elected in 1990 to replace his boss, Representative Bill Schuette (R-Midland), when Schuette ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate.

Schuette, who subsequently joined the Engler Administration as agriculture director and now is an elected Michigan Court of Appeals judge representing all of the Upper Peninsula and a huge swath below the bridge, is mentioned as a possible 2010 gubernatorial contender by Capitol correspondents who can't resist speculating on such far away matters.

Lansing, even in the age of term limits, is indeed Recycle City.

In recent years, several former term-limited senators have successfully run for the House, including retiring House Democratic Leader Dianne Byrum of Onondaga. Her newly elected replacement: daughter Barb Byrum, 29.

And talk about chips off the old block appearing under the Capitol Dome:

Coleman A. Young (DDetroit), son of the late exsenator and former Detroit mayor of the same name, is among the 32 incoming House freshmen.

Family ties in the Legislature go back not only decades, but centuries.

In 1897, Republican James W. Milliken of Traverse City was elected to fill a Senate vacancy, and then won a full term. Son James T. Milliken later served there five terms; grandson William G. Milliken for two terms.

Bill Milliken then became lieutenant governor and Michigan's longest-serving

governor (1969-82). During that reign, the northern Republican became an oddcouple ally of the late Democratic Detroit Mayor Coleman A. Young, whose 24- year-old son of the same name was just elected to the state House.

Their paths have not passed, and may never. But Milliken, borne of two Republican senators, and Young, son of a Democratic senator, would have much to reflect upon.

George Weeks retired this year after 22 years as political columnist for The Detroit News. His weekly Michigan Politics column is syndicated by Superior Features.