By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
CASSOPOLIS - If Michigan wants to run like a business and lead the nation in something besides unemployment, it ought to hire an experienced businessman as chief executive, Dick DeVos suggested in Cass County Thursday.
DeVos, accompanied by county Republican Chairman Bill LaBre of Edwardsburg, visited the 1899 courthouse, toured the 2-year-old Law and Courts Building, spoke to all three judges among other officials, then returned downtown for the Board of Commissioners budget discussion.
Democrats, from Gov. Granholm down to grassroots members of the new Dowagiac-based Democracy Club, seized on the issue that DeVos outsourced Michigan jobs to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in China while president of Alticor Inc., the Ada-based parent of direct sales giant Amway Corp, the billion-dollar empire that began in his parents' basement.
Alticor invested more than $200 million in China, primarily for a manufacturing facility. DeVos said the Chinese government required that any products sold there must be made there.
Rather than outsource American jobs, China made Alticor a major new market where products made in its facilities are sold in China.
Democrats claim Amway has 1,400 fewer Michigan workers today than in 1998.
DeVos dropped in to greet Clerk-Register Barb Wilson and struck up a conversation with a developer.
DeVos is considered the likely GOP nominee to oppose Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm in November 2006, which helps explain how the race has heated up more than a year before voters head to the polls.
The other GOP hopefuls at this point are state Sen. Nancy Cassis of Novi and state Rep. Jack Hoogendyk of Kalamazoo.
DeVos said, "We've got a great tradition in the automotive industry that we should continue to do everything we can to support it and to be a friendly home to the existing companies that are in Michigan and potentially even others. The auto industry is not doing badly - it's just not doing it in Michigan. The new domestics are in Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi. They're not here. Today, more cars are being built in Ontario (Canada) than they are in Michigan. That's a real loss for Michigan."
Traveling the campaign trail from the UP to this corner of the state tells DeVos that "the issue of the economy and the fact that Michigan is stuck at the bottom right now, with no clear plan to go forward, is on everybody's mind.
Education has been an issue with which DeVos has been closely associated. "My teachers wouldn't have called me passionate about education," he said, "but since I was elected to the State Board and served for a few years, I have a continuing passion for education and for giving every child the best opportunity we can provide to them to succeed, no matter where they come from, no matter their ethnic or economic background. Part of the American dream is a quality education, so every child can get ahold of the ladder of success and let their energy and their ability carry them just as far as they can go."
DeVos advocates giving parents "as many options and choices as possible for their children. In Michigan, that means we need every public school district to be the best it can be. Parents should be able to choose between school districts. In Michigan we also have charter schools that provide an additional option for parents to choose a potentially different educational style. This creates a dynamic within which I believe we've seen, and some Harvard studies have demonstrated, that when there are more options available for parents, the education level continues to increase.