SECOND COMING? MAYBE NOT

Eight candidates have now filed campaign committees with the state in the Republican race to be party standard bearer against Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2022. But 16 months ahead of the November general election, we are not seeing anyone with the combination of both star power and fundraising ability to really stand out from the pack. There’s ex-Detroit top cop James Craig who has yet to formally announce but has been busy assembling a campaign organization and is expected by the GOP to be a given. Although he was touted months ago as the hope for the party, the allure is fading in some factions of the state GOP. And then there is the late July poll of Detroit residents by, among others, the Detroit Free Press, in which Craig received poor marks (43 percent) on the issue of police department performance. A measly one-third rated the department as good. About 46 percent said they were less likely to support him. Some observers say the party has yet to truly coalesce around him, but that has not stopped some of the GOP elders, like former Michigan  Gov. John Engler, from forming a PAC to back the former Detroit police chief.