Web site serves as guide for Michigan gubernatorial race

More than 400 years of combined government experience was channeled into a Web site to start a statewide discussion on issues facing Michigan’s next governor.

Michigan’s Next Governor Project is “a bipartisan group of people long around Lansing politics and government (that) is laying out Issue Competency 101 for Michigan’s next governor,” according to Amy Lane, capitol correspondent for Crain’s Detroit Business, on the project’s Web site.

The project developed a 21-page document of questions and topics relating to the state to outline and generate public conversation on more than 200 policy issues, including higher education, the economy, health care, taxes and transportation.

“This isn’t a quiz,” said Rick Cole, a project member and Michigan State University advertising, public relations and retailing department chairman. “It’s to give direction for people on these issues.”

The questions were generated from 10 people with prior government experience.

“They are off the top of heads of people who are knowledgeable about the state,” said Richard McLellan, a Lansing-based attorney and project member.

CMU President involved

Interim University President Kathy Wilbur was part of the process of generating questions for the Web site.

Wilbur was a cabinet officer for eight years for former Gov. John Engler and said it was a large reason why she was asked to be involved.

“They reached out to me for two reasons,” she said. “My background in state government, and I also had the higher education perspective.”

Wilbur said the group of people who created the questions started with very little.

“There was a bare-bones document, and we added to that,” she said.

McLellan said he hopes the candidates use the Web site to their advantage.

“There has already been a big impact,” he said. “Some of the candidates have found it very valuable.”

The Web site, the first of its kind in the state, has seen more than 400,000 unique views since its Nov. 2 launch.

The Michigan governor election will be in 2010, and the elected will take office Jan. 1, 2011. McLellan said the next governor will take over a state with a wide range of issues.

“Michigan state government is very complicated, and there is a lot of issues to deal with,” he said.

Wilbur believes the Web site is an extremely valuable tool for generating a response from the general public.

“There’s an opportunity for the public to answer, and we hope that they take advantage of that,” she said. “We hope for meaningful impact.”