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American Morning
John Dingell Wins Michigan Primary, Despite Redistricting
Aired August 07, 2002 - 08:18 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The longest serving member now in the House has survived to fight on another day. Michigan Congressman John Dingell, first elected in 1955, beat his primary opponent after a hard fought campaign in his suburban Detroit district.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOHN DINGELL (D), MICHIGAN: I'm grateful to all of you. And I'm grateful to the people of the 15th District for asking me to continue to serve them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Dingell's victory is only part of the news coming out of the Democratic primary in Michigan, one of the party's toughest battlegrounds this election season.
Joining us for a closer look, our own Jeff Greenfield, our senior analyst, who I like talking to because I've got to say, whether you're interested in politics or not -- and you would think only kind of hard core political people would be interested this early -- there's some great story lines in the races that concluded yesterday.
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The thing about politics that I always love is the human drama, apart from the serious substance. And here you have a guy who's been in the House, as you said, 40, almost 47 years...
KAGAN: Yes, how does he get in trouble? This guy should be a slam dunk.
GREENFIELD: Well, he gets in trouble because Michigan lost population. There was a redistricting and he was put in the same district as a much younger and a, you know, congresswoman, Lynn Rivers. Ding -- and it's a classic -- it's not just generational. Dingell is an old-fashioned kind of Democrat, union, Dearborn, Michigan, UAW. He's one of -- he's the most pro-gun Democrat, probably, in the House of Representatives outside the South. Not so keen on the environment when it comes to protecting worker's jobs.
KAGAN: Abortion rights, too, they differed on.
GREENFIELD: Right. Lynn Rivers, from Ann Arbor, the University of Michigan, a cause oriented kind of Democratic Party, environmental, women's choice on abortion, gun control. And they were put together in a district and she, instead of finding another district, said I'm taking on the king of the Hill. And it made for a really fascinating race.
He won, actually, with margin to spare. Tipper Gore came in on his behalf.
KAGAN: Really?
GREENFIELD: Well, because Dingell is, you know, if Al Gore wants the union vote and wants to identify himself with the kind of working class Democratic Party that some people thought he didn't too well in on cultural grounds, and Dingell actually outspent her two to one and took that race.
KAGAN: All right, so Lynn Rivers didn't win. But there are some other women that did win yesterday.
GREENFIELD: Oh, yes.
KAGAN: Some fascinating stories. Let's look at the Democratic run for governor in Michigan.
GREENFIELD: Yes, I mean this is one of those things where you know life has changed when it doesn't seem even that remarkable. Jennifer Granholm, the attorney general of Michigan, won thumpingly in the Democratic race for governor, for the nomination. And she beat not only the former governor of Michigan, Mr. Blanchard, she beat David Bonior, the number two Democrat in the House. He was the whip under Dick Gephardt, who gave up his seat to run for governor.
And she is considered a very -- she's considered right now the favorite over a lieutenant governor who's named Dick Posthumous, an interesting name if you think about it.
KAGAN: Yes. It's not a good political name.
GREENFIELD: But Michigan's been in, the governorship has been in Republican hands for 12 years under Engler and the Democrats seem to have a real chance at that.
KAGAN: So she would be, if she wins, she would be the first woman governor of Michigan. But the idea of a woman governor in this country is not that newsworthy anymore.
GREENFIELD: Well, that's the thing that I think is the most encouraging. On the same date you have Kathleen Sebelius -- not the composer's daughter -- who won the Democratic nomination in Kansas. Now, Kansas hasn't elected a Democratic governor since 1960. So that's an uphill battle. Jean Carnahan, not governor, she's the sitting senator from Missouri. She won that --
KAGAN: A fascinating story on her. A widow who never wanted a life in politics, had a life in politics through her husband, Mel Carnahan.
GREENFIELD: Her husband was governor running against John Ashcroft, killed in a plane crash. On election day, he got more votes than Afghanistan and the Democratic governor appointed her. She's in a very tough fight.
But you also have women governing now in Arizona. Every statewide office in Arizona is held by a woman.
KAGAN: Yes, Arizona is a great story, right.
GREENFIELD: Delaware, Massachusetts, Montana. Women are going to, may get the nomination in Wisconsin. They may get another nomination in Massachusetts. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend's running in Maryland.
So what you've got basically is instead of a gee whiz story, this is like Sherlock Holmes' dog that didn't bark in the night. The really remarkable thing is we don't think it's that big a deal if a woman is governor anymore, which is probably the healthiest way to look at it.
KAGAN: No. But as a member of that female tribe, I will say until we're 50-50 will we have caught up.
GREENFIELD: OK.
KAGAN: OK?
GREENFIELD: Maybe. I mean you might say that it might not 50-50 because women do step out of the workplace to have children, so maybe 60-40, but you're getting there.
KAGAN: We are getting there. Making some progress there.
GREENFIELD: You're getting there.
KAGAN: And I know you had a little story -- we're out of time.
GREENFIELD: That's right.
KAGAN: But save it.
GREENFIELD: It's too good.
KAGAN: It's too good. It's too good to rush through.
Jeff Greenfield, thanks for stopping by.
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