Secret Evidence Foe David Bonior to Step Down as House Whip to Run for Michigan Governor

By Shirl McArthur and Andrew I. Killgore

Rep. David Bonior (D-MI) plans to give up his House seat and run for governor of Michigan in next year’s election. Following the 2000 census, Michigan’s Republican legislature redrew the congressional district lines in a way that would have current Democratic incumbents Bonior and Sander Levin running against each other in the same district. However, Bonior says that that is not the main reason he wants to be the next governor of Michigan.

In an interview with the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Bonior noted that, born and raised in Detroit, he has great love and feelings for both the state and the city, and has become sadly disillusioned by what has happened to both of them. “We haven’t had a governor with an urban agenda in 40 years,” he said, and serious problems have developed in all of Michigan’s cities, not just Detroit. The worst crises, in Bonior’s opinion, are the economy, education, and the environment. The Michigan congressman related a series of horrifying facts and statistics about environmental problems in the state and decaying neighborhoods and deteriorating social and economic infrastructures in Detroit and other Michigan cities. For example, he said, there is not a single major supermarket or bank in the city of Detroit—which means, among other things, that residents are at the mercy of usurious money lenders and check cashers.

One of Bonior’s goals is to empower city residents to rebuild their economic infrastructure by creating central economic entities in each neighborhood. He wants to do this through the credit union movement, pairing each credit union with state and educational institutions. This way, Bonior said, “the people will be using their own money to develop their neighborhoods.”

Bonior acknowledged, however, that Michigan cities cannot be revitalized simply by adding responsive central economic institutions, however important that may be. He said that schools, especially, need to be improved and a whole new, positive social environment established. To achieve this, Bonior proposes to call not only on existing organizations—especially churches and other religious institutions (which he describes as “the centers of hope”)—but also other local resources, such as ethnic groups. Again, therefore, Bonior sees the people of each neighborhood as the driving force behind its revitalization.

Before he can do all he wants to as governor, however, Bonior must first gain the Democratic nomination in next August’s primary election. He is in an uphill race, currently running third in the polls behind former Gov. Jim Blanchard and current state Attorney General Jennifer Granholm, both of whom have much broader recognition statewide. The congressman from a majority WASP district appears confident, however, that, once he begins a statewide media campaign to get his message out to the people of Michigan, he can overcome that deficit. He already has gained the endorsements of the United Auto Workers and the AFL-CIO, the largest labor unions in Michigan.

Bonior does not intend to end his 26-year congressional career until the conclusion of his present term, in December 2002. He does plan to resign as Democratic Whip next January, however, so he can devote more time to campaigning for governor. Bonior has served as Democratic Whip—the number two position in the House Democratic leadership—for the past 10 years. The party whip’s main duty is to persuade other party members to go along with the party’s agenda, but, as the party’s second-ranking House member, the whip also helps set the agenda and often serves as party spokesman. As whip, Bonior has been a strong supporter of environmental, labor and human rights issues, and has always fought for social and economic justice. This led him to author and push for the Secret Evidence Repeal bill (H.R. 2121) in the last session of Congress and a similar bill (H.R. 1266) in the current session.

Bonior does not intend that his campaign for governor should prevent him from pressing for passage of H.R. 1266, which now has 101 co-sponsors in addition to Bonior. (So far virtually all persons against whom secret evidence has been used are Arab Muslims.) He already has met with President George W. Bush to ask him to follow through on his campaign promise to end the use of secret evidence. Bonior said he is aware that there are pressures from security and intelligence agencies to retain the use of secret evidence, at least in some form—pressures which will be even stronger following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks—but he still hopes to get the bill passed.

Bonior’s quest for economic and social justice has led him to champion the rights of minority and ethnic groups, and he recognizes and sympathizes with the plight of the Palestinian people. He was a member of this magazine’s “Hall of Fame” for the 106th Congress and is well on his way to gaining the same honor in the 107th Congress. When asked whether this history of emphasizing ethnic and minority issues might hamper him in a statewide campaign, Bonior emphatically replied that he thinks the reverse is true. The issues of social and economic justice resonate well with Michigan voters, he said, and this helps explain how he has been able to be elected and re-elected in a district that is majority Republican.

Bonior was born in Detroit in 1945 of Polish parents. He was the quarterback of his high school football team, and earned a scholarship to the University of Iowa, where he earned a BA degree in 1967. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1968 to 1972, at the same time taking night classes at Chapman University, where he earned a master’s degree in history in 1972. He was a member of the Michigan House of Representatives from 1973 until his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in November 1976. He and his wife, Judy, have three children, Julie, Andy, and Stephen.

Shirl McArthur is a consultant in the Washington, DC area. Andrew I. Killgore is the publisher of the Washington Report.