On this week's Talking Michigan Politics podcast, Grand Rapids Press editors Jeff Cranson and Ed Golder discuss:
1. Candidate filing day suggests there will be blood in the race for governor. Among the topics in the governor's race:
• Republican Attorney General Mike Cox's TV ads attacking U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra and the timing with Americans for Job Security ads, which also go after Hoekstra.
• And what of a supporter of GOP candidate Rick Snyder demanding that Cox remove his image from the ad?
• Hoekstra, and Democratic House Speaker Andy Dillon, come up as most winnable in surveys of Lansing insiders.
• Is Snyder's decision not to fill out any interest group's surveys an example of principle turning into strategy?
2. Other filings. Two important races for Congress in West Michigan with a broad field in both the Grand Rapids-based 3rd district, being vacated by Vern Ehlers and a similarly large field in Hoekstra's 2nd district, which stretches along Lake Michigan from Allegan County to Benzie County.
3. Teacher retirement bill. Is there any hope of a compromise that will move forward an early-out proposal for many of the state's secondary school teachers? Is the Senate plan best, as a Press editorial posits?
Conversation starters:
• Ed on the Catholic Church, in light of the Pope's most recent -- and finally, somewhat on-key -- statement about the sexual abuse crisis.
• Jeff on Grand Rapids' being touted as a success story in Fortune Magazine.
