Rick Snyder is seeking the Republican nomination for governor. He campaigned at Southwestern Michigan College on Monday. (Daily Star photo/JOHN EBY)

By JOHN EBY

Niles Daily Star

DOWAGIAC — Rick Snyder’s “Reinvent Michigan Tour” bus brought his “bold vision” to Southwestern Michigan College at noon Monday.

Snyder, who previously served as CEO of Gateway Inc., doesn’t ask voters to elect him a week from today, but to “hire” him for the Republican nomination for governor.

“This is not about ‘me,’ it’s about ‘we,’” Snyder said in Dowagiac. “I’m here to provoke you. We let this mess happen” by not demanding accountability from state government, which if it was a business would have been fired long ago.

There are outstanding individual legislators who must be as frustrated as their constituents, Snyder said, and he wants to “make them look good. I don’t want credit.”

He contrasts himself with incumbent Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm as being the first proven manager to run in a long time.

She, as a “litigator,” lacks “that skill set,” Snyder said.

He said it’s always a good idea to talk to someone before firing a gun at them for the transition necessary to get to “succeeding together.”

People are hesitant after being down so long, but “it’s safe to bring up ideas.” He didn’t make every decision at Gateway; he “created a culture for success.”

If he tossed anyone out of his office it was for being unable to answer why instead of relying on that’s the way we’ve always done it.

The Battle Creek native announced his candidacy on July 21, 2009, offering his strong entrepreneurial background to provide hope to beaten-down citizens and tangible solutions to challenges, such as “organic gardening” to grow and nurture jobs from within rather than “hunting.”

He directed the growth of the computer company Gateway for six years in 1991 to 1997 from a private company with less than 1,000 employees to a publicly-traded Fortune 500 corporation employing more than 10,000.

His “framework for success” proven in his professional and personal lives, articulates a vision of being a great state again, identifying steps to move along that path and then acting — not just talking about it.

Michigan has enjoyed two eras, he said.

The first tapped timber. The second was the industrial era of automobiles, furniture, chemicals and cereal that made Michigan the “entrepreneurial capital of the world” and the “catalyst for the American middle class,” but since the 1950s the state has staggered forward complacently, more intent on “protecting what we had” even after the second era ran its course.

Snyder was the first chairman of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. and served as founding chairman of Ann Arbor SPARK, an economic development organization in that eastern Michigan region.

He wants to restore ethics, accountability and transparency to local and state levels with a new approach to governing that is not politically motivated, but solution oriented.

He rejects special interest money to avoid “politically expedient baggage” that would interfere with “being the best governor I can be” for all of the people of Michigan.

He advocated a flat 6-percent corporate tax and said Michigan applies its regulatory mechanisms “backward” because it must work as smoothly as possible for the bulk of taxpayers and police the exceptions.

“It is time for bureaucracy to go away,” Snyder said. “It didn’t come with the wheel and fire.” Replacing it would be “customer service government,” founded on the principle that any dollar of revenue government requests. “We need to show you value for your money, managing government to show tangible outcomes.”

To reinvent Michigan, Snyder says, we must focus marketing strategy to encourage tourism, to attract innovative businesses, to invest in the arts and to build roads and infrastructure to bolster Michigan’s battered image.

Snyder, who has served on the Nature Conservancy, has a plank in his 10-point platform about protecting the environment while growing the economy because Michigan’s “awe-inspiring lakes, landscapes and natural resources are some of its most valuable assets … Michigan needs to be a leader in the innovative movement towards alternative and cleaner energy.”

For more about Rick Snyder’s campaign, visit www.rickformichi gan.com