Thursday, November 18, 2010

The New Governor's Commute

Exterior front view of the official residence of the Michigan governor, photographed in Lansing, Wednesday, June 8, 2005. (REGINA H. BOONE/Detroit Free Press)

The Michigan Free Press report today that Michigan's Governor-Elect Snyder has chosen to commute from Ann Arbor to Lansing instead of residing at the recently renovated governor's residence in Lansing.  See article here http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101118/NEWS06/11180479/1001/rss01&template=fullarticle

As I was reading this article, I was finding myself conflicted from the point of view as a working mother and environmentally conscious individual.  Please note, this blog post has nothing to do with political views - it's my opinion about life's choices.

His reasons for staying in Ann Arbor is to keep his teenage daughter in the same school instead of uprooting her.  OK, I can relate to that, transitioning to the 9th grade is difficult.  On the other hand - it's a 70 minute commute each way in good conditions along the US-23 corridor. 

After some consideration, I've chosen to disagree with his decision. 

He's a millionaire in his own right and he choose to run for the Governorship position, presumably to do good things for the voting public of Michigan. He's not recovering from a recent job layoff and relocating to a new job, trying to make things work for his family.  His situation is a little different than most of us.

I don't see how his spending 2.5 hours on the road everyday makes sense for an elected official serving in a high capacity position. Let's assume it's roughly 70 miles from Ann Arbor to the Governor's office in Lansing or 150 miles round trip every day for 200 days a year, plus Michigan State Police escort.  That is a lot of gas and expense.

If Gov.-elect Snyder cared that much about maintaining his daughter's current education, he should not have run for the elected office.   President Obama brought his 2 daughters to the White House from Chicago and his girls started at a new school.

It remains to be seen how Gov-elect Snyder will balance his job and family life but right now it seems we've elected a part time governor.

Astrid

2 comments:

  1. With cell phones, wireless high speed Internet, laptop computers, personal assistants, and money enough to hire someone else to drive, I suspect that the Governor will be hard at work during his daily commute.

    Keep in mind that our state representatives and state senators make the same commute....

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  2. Reply to Designated Conservative - you're absolutely right! He won't be twiddling his thumbs while he commutes. And I hadn't considered the rest of our elected government. Doesn't anybody with the Michigan government live in Lansing? I personall like to live where I work, if I can help it. Thanks for reading and thoughtful feedback.

    Astrid

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