The Dexter Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
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Dems debate challenger for chief justice
Tim Skubick
PUBLISHED: June 5, 2008
"It could be another few weeks," advises one of the inside players trying to find just the right challenger that appeases all the special interest groups in the party.
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Some heavyweights have already turned down the offer, including Judge Robert Columbo Jr. from the Wayne County bench. He reportedly at one point was in, but then dropped out.
Former Oakland County jurist Jessica Cooper was eager to take on the incumbent GOP jurist. The theme was to label Taylor a political loser who only got a job when his buddy, Gov. John Engler, finally gave him a seat on the high court.
But when Cooper approached the party, it put her on hold and by the time the party got back, she was running for Oakland County prosecutor.
Upward of a dozen or so would-be contenders participated in a cattle call with no apparent front-runner. Meanwhile, Taylor gets a free ride as he campaigns all over the state without any opposition — other than Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer.
Brewer has made the rounds of the statewide political TV talk shows and accuses Taylor of everything short of starting World War II.
Brewer argues Taylor has a "pattern" of decisions that hurt the common man and woman and look for those rulings to show up in commercials coming to a TV set near you this fall.
Baloney, counters Brewer's counterpart and state GOP Chairman Saul Anuzis, who defends Taylor as "one of the best jurists in the country."
Anuzis admittedly has the tougher sales job because he will have to tediously explain why Taylor made any decisions in question. All Brewer and company have to do is run emotional TV spots on the issues of rape, kids being killed in traffic and who knows what all.
When the two sides are done firing off all these commercials, a whopping $20 million may be spent on a job that pays considerable less.
But much is at stake. If the Dems beat Taylor, they could take control of the high court. If they do that, when it comes time to redraw the voting district lines for Congress and the state Legislature, Democrats could construct the lines to favor their candidates over Republicans. In other words, it is worth the $20 million.
Even though the hunt continues for somebody to line up against Taylor, some betting money is on Marietta Robinson, a private lawyer from Oakland County, who took on Taylor once before and lost.
She has a long list of demands to become a candidate, but as one insider put it, "She would give Cliff heartburn."
The governor's office would be comfortable with Robinson, too.
The best speculation in this hunt surrounded current Justice Betty Weaver, who has been highly critical of the Taylor court. It had her resigning her seat and then running against Taylor.
"I never thought of it," she explains. "It's laughable."
Maybe so, but it would have been one heck of a battle between two jurists who are not, shall we say, the best of friends.
Tim Skubick hosts the TV show "Off the Record" and blogs regularly at www.heritage.com.
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