Some gubernatorial hopefuls are aiming to pick up extra votes over Labor Day weekend, but candidate Gary Peters will be busy digging for bones in England.
Peters, a Democratic state senator from Bloomfield Township, will be participating in an archeological dig overseas, while his political competitors are out on the campaign trail meeting with voters, spokesman Ross Yednock said.
The candidates are trying to gain support for the 2002 gubernatorial election, which is still 14 months away.
“I’m out all the time,” said former Gov. James Blanchard, the Democratic front-runner for the party’s nomination.
Blanchard said he plans to attend an elementary school picnic in Flint on Saturday before visiting black churches in Detroit on Sunday. Monday he will march in the Hamtramck Labor Day parade, and he’ll join other candidates in Detroit’s Labor Day parade.
Republican front-runner Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus will be in attendance for the Monday festivities in Detroit, but he won’t be campaigning this weekend because spokeswoman Kristyn Sorensen Schabel says he isn’t a candidate - for now.
“He’ll spend time with his family at their cottage,” she said. “On Monday he’s looking forward to the walk over the Mackinac Bridge. And then he’ll head to Detroit to welcome President Bush into town.”
President Bush will meet with members of the Michigan Teamsters Union in Detroit on Monday.
Attorney General Jennifer Granholm will also be in Detroit for the Labor Day parade. She will march with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which has endorsed her campaign.
“She’s in a venue that she loves,” said Maureen Brosnan, a spokeswoman for Granholm’s campaign. “She’ll be out there meeting with people one-on-one.”
Brosnan said Granholm is the candidate to beat, but Ed Sarpolus, vice president of EPIC/MRA, a Lansing-based polling firm, said she needs to keep working to cut Blanchard’s lead in early polls.
“Granholm and Blanchard are going to keep doing what they are doing,” he said. “Blanchard doesn’t want to lose any ground in Detroit.”
U.S. Rep. David Bonior, D-Mount Clemens, will be all across the state for the weekend, said Bonior’s press secretary, Mark Fisk.
“We’re going to be doing events and parades in Grand Rapids, Romeo, Flint, Hamtramck, Pontiac and Detroit,” Fisk said. “We are also expecting to have between 100 and 200 volunteers at the Detroit Labor Day parade passing out literature, getting the message out about David Bonior’s campaign for governor.”
He said Bonior’s recent endorsement by the AFL-CIO makes this holiday very important to him.
“Labor Day is an opportunity to celebrate the hard work and the contributions and the social activism of working people,” Fisk said.
On the Republican end, Sarpolus says Posthumus is well ahead, and state Sen. John Schwartz, R-Battle Creek, needs to increase name awareness to have an impact.
Schwartz doesn’t plan on making the trip to Detroit on Monday, but he plans on meeting with some small groups to make people more aware of his campaign.
“I’ll be at the University of Michigan football game on Saturday going tailgate to tailgate,” said Schwartz, who will also attend private events on Saturday and Sunday. “Campaigning, by and large, is fun. You meet a lot of people, hear a lot of opinions, and you learn a lot about what people are thinking.”
Gubernatorial candidate and state Sen. Alma Wheeler Smith, D-Salem Township, plans to march in the Detroit parade with the Michigan Federation of Teachers, which is yet to support a candidate.
“Anytime I can reach a voter, it will be helpful to the campaign,” she said.
Steve Eder can be reached at ederstev@msu.edu.
