James Blanchard - Governor of Michigan

Governor of Michigan

He was not a candidate for reelection to Congress in 1982 but was elected Governor of Michigan, defeating Republican Richard Headlee, a Farmington Hills insurance company executive. Blanchard served two terms as governor (1983–1991) until his defeat by Republican state senator John Engler in 1990. Blanchard was the first Democratic governor to serve in 20 years since John Swainson who left office in 1963.

Early in his term, Blanchard became embroiled in a dispute over an appointment to the Michigan Supreme Court. On December 9, 1982, outgoing Republican Governor William Milliken appointed Dorothy Comstock Riley to the Michigan Supreme Court to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Justice Blair Moody on November 26. Moody had just defeated Dorothy Comstock Riley in the November election, winning his second 8-year term.

Since Moody’s original term expired on December 31, Blanchard argued that Riley could only serve out the unexpired term of Moody’s but not the new term which began on January 1, 1983. Blanchard appointed U.S. District Court Judge Patricia Boyle to the Supreme Court. The other Supreme Court justices upheld Blanchard’s authority 4-2. Boyle went on to win re-election to the Court. Later Riley won election to the Court in 1984 and Boyle and Riley served together.

Governor Blanchard's eight years as Michigan's chief executive were notable for his success in turning around Michigan's finances, working with the private sector to attract business investment and trade from around the world. He won national acclaim for his innovative approaches to economic development, education, crime fighting, environmental protection and helping children and families.

On January 1, 1983, he took over what was described as "the toughest governor's job in America." His state faced a $1.7 billion deficit, the threat of bankruptcy, record high unemployment of more than 17 percent and the worst credit rating in America. Working with leaders of business, labor, education and local government, the governor put together a strategy for Michigan's future and made the tough decisions necessary to keep it on track. Jim Blanchard completed his work as Michigan's 45th governor having balanced eight consecutive state budgets, boosted the state's credit rating to AA, established a $422 million "rainy-day fund" and produced a solvency dividend of more than $1 billion in savings from reduced borrowing costs. His aggressive small business and economic development efforts helped create more than 650,000 net new jobs, improve the business climate, increase companies' global competitiveness and make Michigan's economy 35 percent more diversified than it had been a decade earlier. Most noteworthy, Blanchard initiated Michigan's first Office of the Great Lakes and created the Michigan Education Trust (MET), the nation's first tuition guarantee program. He was reelected 1986 by the largest margin of any governor in Michigan history.

Newsweek credited Governor Blanchard with leading "one of the most dramatic economic turnabouts in the recent history of state government," and national publications such as U.S. News & World Report listed him among the best governors in America, one of the innovators and energizers who made things work in an era of declining federal aid.