Marlinga Says Senate Run Makes Him Happy
Initial story reported by Gongwer News Service on 1/29/2010
Former Macomb County Prosecutor Carl Marlinga said Friday his decision to run for the Senate has left him "unremittingly happy" by allowing him to reconnect with the idealism of his youth and to push for issues to help restore the state.
Once considered one of the state's top Democratic contenders, and survivor of political corruption charges that left federal prosecutors with egg on their faces, Mr. Marlinga said his run for the 10th Senate District seat will allow him to practice politics that is not based simply on sound bites and vindictive attacks.
Indeed, his comments that his decision to run had made him happy, and a relaxed optimistic demeanor during an interview, is at variance with the often grim, stern, sometimes militaristic, sometimes judgmental, intently focused attitude that so many candidates show when announcing for and running for office.
Mr. Marlinga said that if one starts from the premise that all persons running, conservative or liberal, Democrat or Republican, do so from a belief they can help people then it is easier to debate and easier to reach agreement on programs that could help people.
"I want to show the world that you don't have to degenerate into name calling" in politics, he said.
Long Macomb County's prosecutor, Mr. Marlinga was frequently mentioned as a top possible Democrat to run for a variety of state and federal offices, but he never took the bait.
But in 2002 he did run for Congress in the 10th U.S. House District against then-Secretary of State Candice Miller, but turned out what most people saw as a lackluster campaign, and he lost to Ms. Miller by a significant margin.
It was also out of that election, however, the federal charges were brought against both him and Sen. James Barcia (D-Bay City) and a realtor, Robin Roberts. The charges against Mr. Marlinga claimed that he had solicited campaign donations by offering to change his stance on criminal cases.
But the federal case never stood up. Eventually, all charges were dropped against Mr. Barcia and Mr. Roberts, and a federal jury found Mr. Marlinga not guilty of all charges.
After his trial, Mr. Marlinga went into private law practice and said he could have done that for the rest of his life. He assumed the trial meant that elective politics was barred to him forever.
"But I kept running into good people who urged me to get back into politics," he said. So last year he commissioned a poll to see how he might fare, and the poll showed him running far ahead of any other candidate for the seat.
The seat is now held by term-limited Sen. Michael Switalski (D-Roseville). Former Rep. Paul Gieleghem, now the chair of the Macomb County Board of Commissioners, is also considering running for the Democrats and Rep. Tory Rocca (R-Sterling Heights) is also planning to run.
While the economy will be the overwhelming issue in the race, Mr. Marlinga said, he is running on a program of the economy, engineering and education.
He said the state has to have the best schools to help attract people and while there might be savings available through administrative consolidations at the intermediate district level, it is wrong to cut per pupil spending.
Mr. Marlinga is promoting engineering as a way for the state to help kick start new manufacturing that can both lead the state to a greener economy and restart a manufacturing renaissance to the state.
For Michigan or any economy to be strong, he said, "we have to have an industrial base. We have to draw raw materials out of the ground, and we have to have a commitment to manufacture them into products."
While he has been criticized in the past for not seeming committed to a campaign, he said he always believed he was 100 percent committed to winning, and "how I feel about this race" will "make up for the races I tried to run."
"I love talking about these issues," he said. "I am totally committed to this race and it's not only for the fun of politics" but for the chance to make a difference.