Very Early Campaign Stop for Governor Candidate

Voters won’t decide who the next governor will be for more than a year.

But one Republican candidate says Michigan’s current Secretary of State will be his running mate.

Mike Bouchard has chosen Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land to join him on the ticket as lieutenant governor.

They both visited L’Attitudes in Marquette today as one of the stops they’re making around the state to get the word out.

Land earlier said she’d run for governor herself, but she backed out of the race this summer and threw her support to Bouchard.

Bouchard says both he and Land have shown they can cut costs in state government without making layoffs.

Bouchard is a former state lawmaker and the sheriff in downstate Oakland County.

He also ran for Debbie Stabenow’s U.S. Senate seat 3 years ago but went down to defeat that November.

He says if he were governor, he’d have a budget in place well in advance of the October 1st start to each new fiscal year.

Bouchard says if a budget weren’t done ahead of time, he’d make sure that neither he nor the legislature get a paycheck until it *is* done.

He also says he thinks the U.P. is a critical part of the state.

Concerns from U.P. residents on hand to meet him today included education, roads and prisons.